Weekend link dump for September 14

“But if policymakers really want to clean up the tax code, they need to look at tax breaks that are embedded in our system. And the best place to start is with some of the most regressive ones: taxes breaks for homeownership.”

Wait, so that silly Budweiser town thing involves a real, actual town? Who knew?

You want to know what the future looks like, look at the demographic trends of your local school district.

“Rather, the point is that the fading of negative headlines — combined with mounting enrollment — are shifting the ways candidates in both parties are talking about the law, potentially allowing Dems to mitigate the damage they might otherwise have sustained from it and to fight it out on other issues. There’s new evidence that this may be what’s happening.”

“Despite fears from some inflation hawks, the fact is that the weak labor market of the last seven years has put enormous downward pressure on wages, and there has been no significant pickup in nominal wage growth in recent years.”

If this doesn’t help spark greater public interest in net neutrality, I don’t know what would.

How is it that Good Omens had never been dramatized before now? I’d prefer a TV adaptation to one for radio, but it’s a start.

Some awesome dinosaur pictures to look at.

Yes, redistricting has an effect on the partisan makeup of the House. It’s not everything, but it’s definitely something.

I personally think that holding umpires accountable for ball and strike calls is a good thing. Batters will adjust, but if the current lack of offense is a real concern, the league can emphasize the actual boundaries of the strike zone to eliminate or at least reduce those low called strikes.

RIP, S. Truett Cathy, founder of Chick-Fil-A.

Parents who marry differ from parents who don’t in many ways beyond the marriage itself. Today, better-educated, higher-income adults are much more likely to marry. That means their children benefit from the marriage, and the income, and the education of their parents.”

Hey, remember the public option in the Affordable Care Act? It would still be a good idea.

I for one am glad to be living in Ted Cruz’s healthcare dystopia. May it continue to get ever worse for him.

The $15-per-hour minimum wage at SeaTac airport hasn’t caused any economic apocalypses, either. Can’t a conservative ideologue get a break around here?

Of course, wages overall are still stagnant, and there continues to be significant downward pressure on wages.

“All of this points to a flaw in our current credit system: people who may well be avoiding credit cards in order to be financially smart are also encouraged to take on those cards they don’t want in order to get ahead financially in the future as well.”

Congratulations to Vivian Boyack and Alice “Nonie” Dubes on their way, way, way overdue wedding. Mazel tov, you crazy kids.

Remembering Catfish Hunter, the other Yankees Hall of Famer whose life was cut short by ALS.

I love the movie Young Frankenstein. That is all.

Some colleges to avoid.

“A database reportedly containing 4.93 million Google user names and passwords was uploaded late Tuesday to a Russian bitcoin forum, according to reports from Russian news outlets.” You can check to see if one of them was yours here. Probably a good idea to do that.

RIP, Richard Kiel, the towering actor best known for portraying steel-toothed villain Jaws in a pair of James Bond films.

“Here are two things that are also true: Obama has become the greatest terrorist hunter in the history of the presidency; and his successful push to disarm the Assad regime of the bulk of its chemical-weapons stockpiles has removed from the Middle East, and beyond, the possibility of an unparalleled cataclysm.”

RIP, Vincent DiNino, who was to the University of Texas Longhorn Band what Darryl Royal was to the football team.

The hole in the ozone layer is getting smaller. This is a good thing.

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