Saturday, 2nd August

Good though slightly technical discussion. I think it's generally acknowledged that it would be better overall to shift taxation from corporations to people, though this gives rise to more problems in assessing how much is owed by investors in profit-making corporations. I tend towards a wealth tax, personally, but then it becomes hard to asses the value of non-traded assets (such as non-public corporations). Any thoughts? Slate

>>><<<

Folks, if there are any white men you care about, don't praise them. They get enough unearned praise as it is, and THIS is what can happen if they start to feel *really* confident in their own opinion-forming faculties. Guardian

>>><<<

I can see the rationale for this, but it seems poorly thought out. The basic problem here is supply-side restrictions on property development (especially in the nice areas that foreigners are likely to want to purchase). This creates a zero-sum dynamic, where every property of land bought by a foreigner is one less that can be owned by a South African. Although we can't create land, we certainly can create *property*, in the sense that we can built upwards and create quality improvements. There's no reason why property can't be as useful an "export" market as conventional agriculture or manufacturing. (though I add the proviso that a large proportion of the total tax take probably should come from land or property taxes). The South African

>>><<<

It's a good start, but I reckon a lot of toilets at UCT could be retrofitted to be gender neutral in short order if they really went for it (often it's simply a matter of changing some signs around). Varsity Paper

>>><<<

Very interesting story. An evangelical Christian doctor who provides abortion services in Southern US states where he's just about the only provider around.

"He said the kind of Christianity that does not radicalize you with regard to human suffering is inauthentic—cheap and easy grace." His "come to Jesus" moment occurred in Hawaii. He was teaching at the university when a fundamentalist administrator began trying to ban abortions in the school clinic, throwing students with an unwanted pregnancy into a panic. One day, he was listening to a sermon by Dr. King on the theme of what made the Good Samaritan good. A member of his own community passed the injured traveler by, King said, because they asked, "What would happen to me if I stopped to help this guy?" The Good Samaritan was good because he reversed the question: "What would happen to this guy if I don't stop to help him?" So Parker looked in his soul and asked himself, "What happens to these women when abortion is not available?" Esquire

>>><<<

"An aggressive response to cuteness, it appears, it “completely normal.”" Sociological Images

>>><<<

"Weird Al seems like a good sort, and he obviously brings a lot of joy into people’s lives. Most people who have heard it seem to love ‘Word Crimes’. On one level it’s a fun, playful tune. But beneath that it’s a disheartening example of just how routine and acceptable language shaming is in mainstream culture." Stan Carey

>>><<<

A pretty thorough take-down of that terrible, extremely one-sided New Yorker piece that was presented as a neutral assessment of the conflict between trans activists and TERFs. 

"Serano’s emails also reveal that Goldberg’s omissions of any discussion of the the harassment and abuse endured by the trans community at the hands of Cathy Brennan and her ilk was not an oversight or due to lack of awareness." Autostraddle

>>><<<

So the Prime Minister of an EU member state has come out against both liberalism and democracy. Dandy. 

""I don't think that our European Union membership precludes us from building an illiberal new state based on national foundations," Orban said, according to the video of his speech on the government's website. He listed Russia, Turkey and China as examples of "successful" nations, "none of which is liberal and some of which aren't even democracies."" Vox

>>><<<

"This is not Rosie the Riveter. Nope, sorry. I know that a lot of people think that this is a RR picture. It isn’t. What it is is an anti-union poster from Westinghouse. If you look closely in the bottom right-ish area, you can see the W. That’s the Westinghouse symbol." What a Witch

>>><<<

“transgender people end up as collateral damage in TSA’s security theater. Any security system that relies on gender and ‘anatomical anomalies’ will always disparately affect transgender and gender non-confirming people.” Autostraddle

>>><<<

"rue or false, data can dictate people’s responses, which can set up a nasty feedback loop in which false data becomes more true. This is one of the biggest sources of big data contamination: It does not work on a closed system. Instead, it puts unproven ideas into the social mediasphere—for example, that certain Google autocomplete results are racist and sexist—and those ideas get bounced around, reiterated, and reflected in the very phenomena big data is measuring...That’s why big data’s greatest trick has been convincing the world that it works." Slate

>>><<<

Some useful background context to the present Gaza crisis and Hamas' ceasefire conditions (though it now looks like Israel intends to end combat operations unilaterally, this STILL failing to implement the ceasefire agreement of 2012).

"During the three months that followed the ceasefire, Shin Bet recorded only a single attack: two mortar shells fired from Gaza in December 2012. Israeli officials were impressed. But they convinced themselves that the quiet on Gaza’s border was primarily the result of Israeli deterrence and Palestinian self-interest. Israel therefore saw little incentive in upholding its end of the deal. In the three months following the ceasefire, its forces made regular incursions into Gaza, strafed Palestinian farmers and those collecting scrap and rubble across the border, and fired at boats, preventing fishermen from accessing the majority of Gaza’s waters.

The end of the closure never came. Crossings were repeatedly shut. So-called buffer zones – agricultural lands that Gazan farmers couldn’t enter without being fired on – were reinstated. Imports declined, exports were blocked, and fewer Gazans were given exit permits to Israel and the West Bank." London Review of Books