Up early, 8 am. i can feel the cold seeping in.
Around 9, I called and talked to the polygraph guy. The next one is February 1. It looks like my sister works that day. The polygraph guy hustled me off the phone. Not happy with me. Think he was thinking I wanted to change the day, even though I apologized for sounding rough on our last call. I forgot to ask the time. So, I called back, and he had the voicemail on, and I left a message asking for the time. Along with the phone number, I left my email.
Working through the email.
Showcase December 2022 is out now, and I suggest it strongly to anyone wanting to write. It is flash fiction and poetry, but more importantly - in my opinion - are the interviews with the writers about the story and their work generally. I find it useful to see how others work - where they have problems, how they are like me, and how they are different.
PC Magazine's Gone But Not Forgotten (Yet): The Tech That Died in 2022 got a look and I saw nothing I used or will miss.
The Conversation's US is becoming a ‘developing country’ on global rankings that measure democracy, inequality interested me and it should interest anyone interested in American democracy.
The United States may regard itself as a “leader of the free world,” but an index of development released in July 2022 places the country much farther down the list.
In its global rankings, the United Nations Office of Sustainable Development dropped the U.S. to 41st worldwide, down from its previous ranking of 32nd. Under this methodology – an expansive model of 17 categories, or “goals,” many of them focused on the environment and equity – the U.S. ranks between Cuba and Bulgaria. Both are widely regarded as developing countries.
The U.S. is also now considered a “flawed democracy,” according to The Economist’s democracy index.
As a political historian who studies U.S. institutional development, I recognize these dismal ratings as the inevitable result of two problems. Racism has cheated many Americans out of the health care, education, economic security and environment they deserve. At the same time, as threats to democracy become more serious, a devotion to “American exceptionalism” keeps the country from candid appraisals and course corrections.
Also, from The Conversation is The IRS already has all your income tax data – so why do Americans still have to file their taxes?
About two decades ago, Congress directed the IRS to provide low-income taxpayers with free tax preparation. The agency responded in 2002 with “Free File,” a public-private partnership between the government and the tax-preparation industry. As part of the deal, the IRS agreed not to compete with the private sector in the free tax preparation market.
In 2007, the House of Representatives rejected legislation to provide free government tax preparation for all taxpayers. And in 2019, Congress tried to legally bar the IRS from ever providing free online tax preparation services.
Only a public outcry turned the tide.
The public part of Free File consists of the IRS herding taxpayers to commercial tax -preparation websites. The private part consists of those commercial entities diverting taxpayers toward costly alternatives.
According to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration, which oversees IRS activities, private partners use computer code to hide the free websites and take unsuspecting taxpayers to paid sites.
Should a taxpayer discover a free preparation alternative, the private preparers impose various restrictions such as income or the use of various forms as an excuse to kick taxpayers back to paid preparation.
Consequently, of the more than 100 million taxpayers eligible for free help, 35% end up paying for tax preparation and 60% never even visit the free websites. Instead of 70% of Americans receiving free tax preparation, commercial companies whittled that percentage down to 3%.
There is more, like why we have the system we have now
One example of that complexity is the earned income tax credit, a government program for low-income people. The credit is so complicated that 20% of the people who are eligible never file, thus missing out on thousands of dollars in savings.
If the government prepared everyone’s tax returns, I believe more of that 20% would receive government support.
Nonetheless, H&R Block reportedly lobbied lawmakers to make the credit more complicated, thereby driving more taxpayers to paid preparation services.
Think it is time to call your Senators and Congressperson?
I only knew The Specials through "Ghost Town", but still I read Terry Hall, frontman for English ska-punk band the Specials, dies at 63. Obits are a thing with me. I guess they will be until I see my own.
Something for my female readers, especially any ex-girlfriends reading this: Philosophers tackle ancient mystery of why women clean and men don’t notice.
Now, philosophers believe they have found why women continue to shoulder a disproportionate amount of housework and childcare in the modern era – but men think they do half of the chores.
Writing in the journal Philosophy and Phenomenological Research, philosophers Tom McClelland and Paulina Sliwa suggest the disparity is down to “affordance theory”: the idea we experience objects and situations as having actions implicitly attached.
“We argue for the existence of gendered affordance perception,” said McClelland. “We suggest that disparities in domestic and caring labour come about not just as a result of deeply held beliefs, desires and feelings but also as a result of gendered differences at the level of perception: that two partners in the same domestic environment can experience very different affordance landscapes.”
Glad to be single, hoping to stay that way.
Afghanistan’s Taliban-run administration announced earlier this week it had closed universities to women partly due to female students not adhering to its interpretation of the Islamic dress code and interaction between students of different genders.
Female university students were turned away from campuses on Wednesday and the higher education ministry said their access would be suspended “until further notice”. Dozens of women gathered outside Kabul University on Thursday to protest in the first major public demonstration in the capital since the decision.
How is it men are so scared of women, especially intelligent women?
I do not plan on reading it, but Key findings from the Jan. 6 committee’s final report.
My sister emailed me that she has switched her work day to get me to Carmel for the polygraph.
What was and is not, but it's sure fun listening to Phil Alvin singing this:
And that takes me up to 12:56 pm. Feeding time.
2:27 now.
Lunch was eaten and a little TV watched. I added another post to the blog.
I got an email off to my PO with pay stub and news that sister can deliver me to the polygraph.
Shutting down the email for the present time. Listened to a little bit of the Christmas shown WPRB, then switched to KDHX's Greaser's Lunchbox from yesterday.
6:08
I just submitted "Best of Intentions" to 10,000 Minds on Fire.
My blog stats went through the roof, I forgot they would as I put together a draft for an essay on Raintree County.
Naps are not always restful. Mine lasted from 4 to 5:30.
I looked out the door, there is some traffic out there, and I looked at the weather report and do not see me going out until tomorrow when it is supposed to be in the 20s. Even then, I see walking anywhere past McClure's to be unlikely. Highly unlikely.
Freddie King is playing in the background.
Decided against submitting to Leavings. This magazine looks too trendy for a traditional story like mine. I did not submit to Belmont Story Review, either. "Best of Intentions" is not about the intersection of faith and culture.
I did submit to:
The Journal is not open for submissions until February.
Fiction still has "Colonel Tom" under consideration. Has had it since last March. I think I need to drop a line there. Reading their author's list, I feel like I am overreaching and then reading the posted excerpts I just feel unfashionable. Editor Mark J. Mirsky's To Sneer At Robert Musil left me suitably impressed, even though I have only read about Musil and have Joel C's recommendation, and nervous of submitting anything of mine. ( I also picked on another editor's work, even though I have never seen a Louise Brooks move, Louise Brooks: Silent Muse.) as for fiction, I chose The Force of Intercourse; also by Mirsky.
What comfort do I have--only Thoreau's cry in his journal, to seize upon regret and live in it.
Regret is the touchstone of the Christian epics. Man is born in guilt and likewise, woman, to receive the gift of hope and pardon only through the grace of a Redeemer. In this universe, age has no meaning; yet still I cannot live as Thoreau did, in the posture of that grace, regret. Did I regret my age? Her forefinger stoppers my lips.
Its touch lingers as an invitation. Try.
Yeah, I do not write with such sprightliness.
Assignment has too low of a word count for "Best of Intentions", so I will try "Colonel Tom."
Maryland Literary Review doesn't do simultaneous submissions, and I can afford no other kind. That link will take you to their archive page, which I find has a lot of interesting stuff when I skimmed the page.
On Emerald City, I read The Moon Glow Hotel by Lyz Mancini - which I thought was a thriller with good prose, a cautionary tale for online daters. Nothing like what I write.
It is 8:30. I have spent most of the day looking at this laptop's screen, and now I find my eyes are rather tired. Besides, I know I will not sleep the night through.
Tomorrow, I have writing to do.
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