Computer games don’t affect kids, I mean if Pac Man affected us as kids, we’d all be running around in darkened rooms, munching pills and listening to repetitive music.
1817 • Opening of the first private mental health hospital in the United States, the Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason (now Friends Hospital) in Philadelphia, PA.
1869 • Woman’s suffrage: in New York, Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton form the National Woman’s Suffrage Association.
1905 • Las Vegas, NV, is founded when 110 acres (0.4 km˛), in what later would become downtown, are auctioned off.
1928 • Mickey Mouse premiered in his first cartoon, Plane Crazy.
1942 • Gasoline rationing began in the U.S. The limit was three gallons a week for nonessential vehicles.
MjL 15 May 2013, 4:33 a.m.
I had my annual trip to the urologist yesterday. It appears my plumbing is good for another year!
Tracey and I went to Ruby Tuesdays for an early supper last evening and scored a bunch of 25% of coupons that are good for a few weeks. If anyone wants one just holler and we can work out a delivery! I plan on dropping some off at Mom’s this coming weekend.
I received a couple links from Michael T. about the growing GQP generated scandal about the IRS doing their job to make sure wingnut groups don’t get 501(c)4 tax exempt status.
The political scandal driven media leaves out a lot of pertinent facts such as this tax exempt status is NOT to be given to purely political groups and so by searching for Tea Party, etc. the IRS was doing its job to keep purely political parties from breaking the law by getting this tax free status when they aren’t entitled to it.
And this is at the bottom of this outrage —— the GQP wants to have donor anonymity AND tax free status and they are breaking the law to get it. But it makes a better headline to make it sound like there was no good reason to “single them out”. The vast majority of these new groups are GQP / Tea Party. When you look for lawbreakers and find them, it shouldn’t matter that they were “singled out”, that is the job of the IRS.
It’s important to review why the Tea Party groups were petitioning the I.R.S. anyway. They were seeking approval to operate under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code. This would require them to be “social welfare,” not political, operations. There are significant advantages to being a 501(c)(4). These groups don’t pay taxes; they don’t have to disclose their donors—unlike traditional political organizations, such as political-action committees. In return for the tax advantage and the secrecy, the 501(c)(4) organizations must refrain from traditional partisan political activity, like endorsing candidates.
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