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To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (639419)	12/16/2011 8:43:56 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 1579686

Students Suspended for Tebowing ADMINISTRATORS SAY QB IMPERSONATORS WERE CLOGGING THE HALLWAYS By Dustin Lushing, Newser Staff newser.com Posted Dec 16, 2011 3:05 PM CST (NEWSER) – Two students were suspended this week for Tebowing in the hallway of their Long Island high school. The kids were imitating Broncos QB Tim Tebow's touchdown ritual of dropping to one knee in prayer, a pose that has become a nationwide fad. Despite what a few senders of hate mail to the school thought, however, the punishments were not prompted by the religious element, but rather because the students were clogging the hallways, reports ESPN. The Tebowing began on Monday as a harmless joke, but by Wednesday 40 students had joined in, prompting the school administrators to halt the tributes. "It's just high school kids being kids and administrators doing what they do on a daily basis—keeping kids safe," the superintendent remarked, "and with today's world and cell phones and people taking pictures and video, it can be taken out of context."

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (639419)	12/18/2011 1:41:08 AM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1579686

Move Over Tiger Mom, It's 'Wolf Dad' CHINESE FATHER IS MEDIA SENSATION AT HOME FOR HIS TOUGH DISCIPLINE By Mark Russell, Newser Staff newser.com Posted Dec 17, 2011 11:33 AM CST (NEWSER) – "Tiger Mother" Amy Chua may have been strict with her daughters, pushing academics ahead of sleepovers, but she's practically a kitten compared to "Wolf Dad" Xiao Baiyou, who has written a bestselling book in mainland China originally called Beat Them Into Peking University, reports NPR. Xiao boasts of having more than 1,000 rules for his four children—from how to hold chopsticks to how to sleep and use a quilt. "If you don't follow the rules, then I must beat you," Xiao says. He uses a feather duster, however, not a belt. "From 3 to 12, kids are mainly animals," he says. "Their humanity and social nature still aren't complete. So you have to use Pavlovian methods to educate them." His usual punishment technique is to hit his kids with the feather duster on the back of the legs or their palms. All the children must watch, and if a younger sibling gets thwacked, then so does the elder, for being a poor role model. Xiao says it's not child abuse, and proudly points out that three of his four children got into Peking University, the Harvard of China. Not surprisingly, his children are less impressed by dad's tough style. "There may be some distance from the best results," says his 22-year-old son. Adds his wife: "Maybe they didn't need to be beaten quite so often."

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (639419)	12/18/2011 12:37:12 PM
From: bentway	Respond to of 1579686

House GOP on Payroll Tax Deal: No Way REPORTS SAY THAT BOEHNER IS BEHIND IT, BUT OTHERS ARE 'IN FULL REVOLT' By Kate Schwartz, Newser Staff newser.com ( Your (R)'s stand firm for tax cuts for the wealthy, but they don't want working people like YOU to keep this one! ) Posted Dec 18, 2011 8:20 AM CST (NEWSER) – The Senate easily passed the payroll tax cut package yesterday, but "easy" probably isn't a word that will be linked to the deal's fate when it reaches the House tomorrow. Both the Washington Post and Politico report that many House Republicans aren't pleased with the two-month deal. How unhappy are they? Politico uses terms like "in full revolt" and "complained bitterly," while the Post calls the opposition that was voiced in a private conference call yesterday "vigorous." One person on the line apparently said that if the House is made to vote tomorrow, GOP leaders should ready themselves for, in the words of Politico, "a rebellion." What will actually happen tomorrow remains unclear. "Leaders said they held the call to get input from members," explains one GOP aide. "The speaker described three possible options—accept the Senate bill, go to conference, or amend the Senate bill and send it back." One person on the call said Boehner described the deal as a win and said members should "take it and live to fight another day." Many are apparently none too pleased with Boehner's attitude, and Eric Cantor, Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy, and GOP Conference Chair Jeb Hensarling reportedly disagreed with him. "This is all a result of Boehner ceding the House majority to Senate Minority Leader McConnell," says another aide. Among the opposition's biggest complaints: that the 60-day deal doesn't bring enough "stability" to the middle class or to doctors and that it would give Obama ammunition for his State of the Union address, allowing him to "wag his finger" at Congress.

To: Tenchusatsu who wrote (639419)	12/19/2011 1:00:27 PM
From: bentway	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1579686

Don’t Tax the Rich. Tax Inequality Itself. By IAN AYRES and AARON S. EDLIN THE progressive reformer and eminent jurist Louis D. Brandeis once said, “We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we cannot have both.” Brandeis lived at a time when enormous disparities between the rich and the poor led to violent labor unrest and ultimately to a reform movement. Over the last three decades, income inequality has again soared to the sort of levels that alarmed Brandeis. In 1980, the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans made 9.1 percent of our nation’s pre-tax income; by 2006 that share had risen to 18.8 percent — slightly higher than when Brandeis joined the Supreme Court in 1916. Congress might have countered this increased concentration but, instead, tax changes have exacerbated the trend: in after-tax dollars, our wealthiest 1 percent over this same period went from receiving 7.7 percent to 16.3 percent of our nation’s income. What we call the Brandeis Ratio — the ratio of the average income of the nation’s richest 1 percent to the median household income — has skyrocketed since Ronald Reagan took office. In 1980 the average 1-percenter made 12.5 times the median income, but in 2006 (the latest year for which data is available) the average income of our richest 1 percent was a whopping 36 times greater than that of the median household. Brandeis understood that at some point the concentration of economic power could undermine the democratic requisite of dispersed political power. This concern looms large in today’s America, where billionaires are allowed to spend unlimited amounts of money on their own campaigns or expressly advocating the election of others. We believe that we have reached the Brandeis tipping point. It would be bad for our democracy if 1-percenters started making 40 or 50 times as much as the median American. Enough is enough. Congress should reform our tax law to put the brakes on further inequality. Specifically, we propose an automatic extra tax on the income of the top 1 percent of earners — a tax that would limit the after-tax incomes of this club to 36 times the median household income. Importantly, our Brandeis tax does not target excessive income per se; it only caps inequality. Billionaires could double their current income without the tax kicking in — as long as the median income also doubles. The sky is the limit for the rich as long as the “rising tide lifts all boats.” Indeed, the tax gives job creators an extra reason to make sure that corporate wealth does in fact trickle down. Here’s how the tax would work. Once a year, the Internal Revenue Service would calculate the Brandeis ratio of the previous year. If the average 1-percenter made more than 36 times the income of the median American household, then the I.R.S. would create a new tax bracket for the highest 1 percent of income and calculate a marginal income tax rate for that bracket sufficient to reduce the after-tax Brandeis ratio to 36. This new tax, if triggered, would apply only to income in excess of the poorest 1-percenter — currently about $330,000 per year. Our Brandeis tax is conservative in that it doesn’t attempt to reverse the gains of the wealthy in the last 30 years. It is not a “claw back” tax. It merely assures that things don’t get worse. A key aspect of our proposal is the tax’s automatic nature. Congress need only act once to protect our future. Just as our tax brackets automatically adjust with the inflation rate, Congress could specify nondiscretionary conditions under which the Brandeis tax would automatically go into effect. Part of our goal is to change the way politicians speak about income equality. Framing the income of the wealthy in relation to the median income will help us all keep in mind the relative success of the middle class. Our grandparents would be shocked to learn that the average income of the 1-percent club has skyrocketed to more than 30 times the median income — just as we will be shocked if 20 years from now 1-percenters make 80 times the median, which is where we will be if inequality continues to grow at the current rate unabated. The Occupy Wall Street movement is right to decry the increasing power of the 1 percent as a threat to democracy. President Obama is right to characterize the present as a “make-or-break moment” for the middle class. As 1-percenters ourselves, we call on Congress, for the sake of democracy, to end the continued erosion of economic equality in our nation. Ian Ayres, a professor of law at Yale, is the author of “Carrots and Sticks: Unlock the Power of Incentives to Get Things Done.” Aaron S. Edlin, a professor of law and of economics at the University of California, Berkeley, is co-editor of “The Economists’ Voice: Top Economists Take On Today’s Problems.”