Teams from Chicago, Milwaukee, Madison, Minneapolis and in between participated in this weekend’s spring soccer tournament at Reddan.
Daily Archives: April 18, 2005
McDonald’s Turns 50
The fast-food franchise has now been around for half a century, and has 30,000 outlets. The original store in Illinois sold burgers for 15 cents. The company says it now serves 50 million people a day.
One must also listen to Marc Knopfler’s “Boom Like That”, which quotes McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc extensively. And, read – Fast Food Nation.
Nice move, GM – audio in on new 2006 cars
This benefit – the ability to plug your iPod or other portable audio device, into a car stereo seems trivial. Unfortunately, it’s a rarity. GM deserves credit for opening up – that is, allowing any audio device to plug into their car systems…..
Ralph Reed’s Casino Lobbying
David Kirkpatrick & Philip Shenon take a fascinating look at former Christian Coalition head, current lobbyist and lietenant governor (Georgia) candidate Ralph Reed:
In Washington, federal investigations of Mr. Abramoff, a close ally of Tom DeLay, the House majority leader, have revealed that Mr. Abramoff paid Mr. Reed’s consulting firm more than $4 million to help organize Christian opposition to Indian casinos in Texas and Louisiana – money that came from other Indians with rival casinos.
Mr. Reed declined to comment for this article; he has said publicly that he did not know that casino owners were paying for his services and that he has never deviated from his moral opposition to gambling. But the episode is a new blemish on the boyish face that once personified the rise of evangelical Christians to political power in America.
The Economist: The Flat Tax Revolution
The Economist provides several useful tax simplification pointers. I wonder if I’ll live to see the day that we have a rational, sensible tax system…
The United States, which last simplified its tax code in 1986, and which spent the next two decades feverishly unsimplifying it, may soon be coming to a point of renewed fiscal catharsis. Other rich countries, with a tolerance for tax-code sclerosis even greater than America’s, may not be so far behind. Revenue must be raised, of course. But is there no realistic alternative to tax codes which, as they discharge that sad but necessary function, squander resources on an epic scale and grind the spirit of the helpless taxpayer as well?