You’re much too much — and just too ‘very, very’

“Haunted by demons of the past, hounded by demons not yet met, the nevermore and evermore left her little peace.” ~A Tale of Two Women”
― Kimberly Kinrade, Bits of You & Pieces of Me


“Those who do not doubt do not believe. Faith is maintained by resolving doubts, and again resolving those further doubts which are suggested by the resolution of previous doubts... [read more

Public servant, know yourself Opinion: Making a difference starts from the inside 

The monkey tree organisation has a lot of primates running up and down the limbs of the tree.  The monkey at the top of the tree looks down and sees a lot of smiling faces.

The monkey’s climbing up the tree just see a bunch of a********

"We cannot, nor would we, fire Professor Rasmusen for his posts as a private citizen, as vile and stupid as they are, because the First Amendment... forbids us to do so." -- a Provost's statement on a professor  who "for many years, used his private social media accounts to disseminate his racist, sexist, and homophobic views"

Court Affirms Denial of Reliance on Tax Professional Jury Instruction 

First Circuit Affirms Tax Obstruction Convictions

In United States v. Takesian, ___ F.3d ___, 2019 U.S. App. LEXIS 37571 (1st Cir. 2019), here, the Court opens with this:

Greg Takesian is a certified-public-accountant-turned-tax-cheat. Or so a jury essentially concluded in convicting him of four counts of filing false tax returns, see 26 U.S.C. § 7206(1), and one count of attempting to obstruct the internal-revenue laws, see 26 U.S.C. § 7212(a). A district judge at sentencing hit him with concurrent prison terms of 24 months on each count, 12 months of supervised release following the end of his incarceration, a special assessment of $100 on each count, a $10,000 fine, and restitution totaling $286,433. None too happy with these results, Takesian argues here that the judge thrice erred: first, by letting prosecutors impeach him with his 2006 conviction for making a false statement; second, by failing to tell the jury that to convict on the obstruction count, prosecutors had to prove that he obstructed a particular tax-related proceeding that he knew about or could reasonably foresee; and third, by ordering restitution beyond what the jury found the government's tax loss to be. Disagreeing with him, we affirm.


Philosophers Raising Funds for Firefighters in Australia 

Eric D. Chason (William & Mary), Cryptocurrency Hard Forks and Revenue Ruling 2019-24, 39 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2019):

In a recent article appearing in the Virginia Tax Review, I analyzed the income tax issues that arose from hard forks of cryptocurrencies [A Tax on the Clones: The Strange Case of Bitcoin Cash, 39 Va. Tax Rev. ___ (2019) (reviewed by Mirit Eyal-Cohen (Alabama) here)]. That article focused on the August 1, 2017 hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain that resulted in the creation of Bitcoin Cash, a new cryptocurrency. The hard fork resulted in a windfall to owners of Bitcoin, who came to own one unit of Bitcoin Cash for each unit of Bitcoin owned at the time. After considering the difficulties of taxing the new units as income immediately, I argued that the Internal Revenue Service (“IRS”) should tax new units of Bitcoin Cash as “open transactions,” deferring income tax consequences until the owner sells or exchanges the units. As that article went to press, the IRS released Revenue Ruling 2019-24 (the “Ruling”), which describes the taxation of cryptocurrency hard forks. The Ruling seems to embrace an “immediate taxation” approach that my article considered but rejected. This essay evaluates the Ruling in light of my recent article.

Eastern German solidarity tax to be abolished for almost all taxpayers 

This store went through the Great Depression, but business has never been so dire

Fiona Mutton is the fourth generation to stand behind the Len Mutton & Co counter. It is not in the path of the "devastating" Currowan bushfire, but the store has never encountered a situation this dire.

Strip Down? De-Clutter? The False Promise Of Minimalism

The average American household possesses more than 300,000 items. In the UK, one study found that children have on average 238 toys, but only play with 12 of them on a daily basis. We are addicted to accumulation. The minimalist lifestyle seems like a conscientious way of approaching the world now that we have realised that materialism, accelerating since the industrial revolution, is literally destroying the planet. Yet my gut reaction to Kondo and the Minimalists was that it all seemed a little too convenient: just sort through your house or listen to a podcast, and happiness, satisfaction and peace of mind could all be yours. – The Guardian

An analysis of which emoji scissors close finds that most of them won't actually cut anything

How To Vote For An Oscar Script

Actually, no one truly knows how to do it. “It’s also a real evaluative mystery. How do you know good writing that, as a moviegoer, you can’t see and, as Academy voters, you’re not obligated to read?” – The New York Times

Religion’s unseen effects on the elderly ... and everyone else - Deseret News
Science has proven regular religious service adds six years to the average lifespan. Meaningful social connections strongly correlate with improved quality and length of life, and the same goes for engaging in serving others. Feeling connected to ancestors, descendants and to family generally is another silver bullet for improving quality and length of life. No government program can rival the mental and physical benefits that church and family offer all ages in experiencing personal connectedness and meaningful service.

"The best set of principles for judging whether statistics are being communicated in a trustworthy fashion come from the philosopher Onora. (Unclear if related to MO’N) O’Neill" -- Teddy Groves (a philosophy PhD and statistician at Novo Nordisk) on transparency in political polling (via Liam Bright)
The CEO of Kitu Life was feeling uneasy about the bro-culture at his firm, so he hired a philosopher to help -- that philosopher is Reid Blackman, a philosophy prof-turned-"ethical risk" consultant

"The thing that’s really key to me is that my money could do 100 times more good for other people than it did for me" -- an interview with Toby Ord (Oxford), who founded Giving What We Can

"Practical Suggestions for My Cis Colleagues in Philosophy" -- some advice, plus a list of resources, from Ray Briggs (Stanford)

"I sometimes characterise my work as a midwife for philosophy—I don’t do the philosophy, but I help bring it into the world!" -- an interview with Elizabeth Hannon (of The Forum for Philosophy and the British Journal for the Philosophy of Science


The Philosopher Cocoon's excellent series on professional philosophy around the world continues -- with a post by Paloma Atencia & Miguel Ángel Sebastian (UNAM) on being philosophers in Mexico 

The game is never really “over” and neither is his despair" -- The Myth of Super Mario by Albert Camus 

The head of a university Liberal National Club that surrounded and shouted at drag queens reading to children in a Brisbane City Council Library has died.UQ Liberal National Club president Wilson Gavin was one of a group of people who stormed the Drag Queen Storytime event.  ...

The ABC understands he took his own life this morning.