Bag of Randomness

  • Yesterday an Austin police spokesman was asked if the plane crash yesterday was a terrorist act.  He replied by saying that it was not a terrorist act, but a criminal act, and then the reporter asked him to explain the difference.  The police spokesman was smart enough to just state that he believed it was a criminal act and he was going to leave the defining to the reporter.  But that really got me to thinking, I don’t know exactly how to explain the difference, especially in yesterday’s case.  Help me out and let me know your thoughts.
  • Why are there blue lines on the ski slopes in the Olympics?  Is that new?
  • It was interesting watching the women snowboard last night, the part that stood out to me was some of them pulling out their iPod before starting their routine.
  • If there is a Best Actor and a Best Actress category, whey aren’t there a Best Male and Best Female Director categories?  I think there should only be a Best Actor category that combines both male and female actors.
  • Benny Hinn’s wife files for divorce –  You may remember her from her Holy Ghost Enema sermon
  • I wasn’t aware that Denver won the rights to host the 1976 Winter Olympics, but then decided that they didn’t want to play host.  Link The games ended up going to Innsbruck, Austria.
  • If a shoe company were to come out with a mobile phone, you would probably think it would be Nike, but Puma has beat them to it.
  • Darth Vader Adidas jacket
  • GatorBike
  • 101 Muppets of Sesame Street infographic
  • Who’s Your Daddy Real Bacon HandMade Potato Chips
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Top Earners Averaged $345 Million in 2007, IRS Says

Feb. 18 (Bloomberg) — The 400 highest-earning U.S. households reported an average of $345 million in income in 2007, up 31 percent from a year earlier, IRS statistics show.

The average tax rate for the households fell to the lowest in almost 20 years.

The figures for 2007, the last year of an economic expansion, show that the average income reported by the top 400 earners more than doubled from $131.1 million in 2001. That year, Congress adopted tax cuts urged by then-President George W. Bush that Democrats say disproportionately benefit the wealthy.

Each household in the top 400 of earners paid an average tax rate of 16.6 percent, the lowest since the agency began tracking the data in 1992, the Internal Revenue Service statistics show. The top 400 paid $23 billion in taxes in 2007, up from $18 billion a year earlier, and a bigger amount than any year since 1992.

Their average effective tax rate was about half the 29.4 percent in 1993, the first year of President Bill Clinton’s administration, when taxes were increased. The top 400 earners reported an average of $46 million of income that year.

Full Bloomberg Article

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Atlantic City, N.J., police officer accidentally kills himself

ATLANTIC CITY — Atlantic City police said an officer has died from an accidental gunshot wound.

Police Chief John Mooney said 31-year-old Officer Kevin Wilkins was trying to put a rubber sleeve on the grip of his pistol as he sat in his patrol car around 1:30 a.m. today.

He had removed the ammunition clip, but was struck in the face by the round in the chamber when the gun accidentally discharged.

Link

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