In order to illustrate the absurd way in which frauds and charlatans (also known as televangelists) exploit the tax exemptions for religion that exist in the US tax code to enrich themselves by taking money from poor people by promising them rewards, Oliver has created his own church called Our Lady of Perpetual Exemption to see how far he too can push this racket before the IRS shuts him down.
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I came across this news item.
A couple who took their nearly 5-foot boa constrictor for a swim in a Pennsylvania river say the pet slipped away and they’re concerned about its welfare.
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Immigration has become a major topic in the Republican race and has placed the party in a quandary. In order to win the presidential election, their eventual nominee will need to attract Hispanic votes and a moderate stance on the issue of undocumented immigrants would help. But in order to win the nomination, they have to adopt the hardline stance that their primary voters seem to want. Any suggestion of giving the undocumented some legal status, even short of citizenship, has been denounced as an ‘amnesty’ and is seen as political poison. Marco Rubio tried to venture there and had to beat a hasty retreat from his earlier co-authorship of a plan to provide citizenship for at least some of them, because of the flak he received.
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Last week, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled 4-3 that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional. The state had already passed a law in 2012 outlawing the death penalty but the eleven people who were already on death row were not exempted. The Supreme Court’s action means that their lives too will be spared. In the past 54 years, only two people have actually been executed in the state and they both volunteered for it. Connecticut becomes the 17th state to eliminate the death penalty and the fifth in the last five years.
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Alex Bellos gives us exciting news from the world of mathematics of the discovery of a new pentagonal shape that has the ability to “tile the plane”. i.e., to cover a flat surface using only that shape, leaving no gaps. Here it is.
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I mentioned before that US government officials have the practice when visiting countries that it does not consider allies to give them public lectures on what they must do to improve. While this sounds condescending, it is only so if done selectively. I think it is a practice that should be expanded and every time there is a state visit, the visiting dignitary should take the opportunity to point out all the faults of the host country. Unfortunately, many countries do not seem to want to risk angering the world’s only superpower and thus the US has got used to being the only one giving such lectures.
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I wrote earlier that even the mighty propaganda juggernaut that is Fox News led by Roger Ailes had to abruptly reverse course and take Donald Trump back into its bosom after the furious reaction they got from their own viewers at their obvious attempt to sandbag him at the first debate.
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There is a Canadian radio show called That is That that seems to be a kind of audio version of the Onion, specializing in parody. Peter Simek, who lives in Texas, says that in a recent episode the show pretty much nails the entitled attitude that rich Texans have.
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One of the inexplicable things is the relative popularity of Ben Carson among the Republican presidential candidates. He says the most outrageous things in a calm voice and then when he is questioned about it, he takes on a hurt tone and implies that it is so unfair to focus on his words when you should be admiring him for his surgical skills.
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The always-entertaining journalist for Rolling Stone has a long and hilarious piece where he visits many of the Republican candidates’ campaign events in Iowa and provides thumbnail sketches on their attempts to survive the Donald Trump tornado that has hit the Republican party by trying to outdo him in making outrageous comments in order to get any kind of attention.
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