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Matt Damon: 'I Need To Pay More Taxes' By Noel Sheppard Created 12/14/2012 - 11:23am Why is it wealthy liberals don’t understand that if they want to pay more income taxes, they can each year on their 1040 form make an additional contribution to the federal government above and beyond what they owe? Consider the case of actor Matt Damon who on PBS’s Tavis Smiley Show Wednesday actually said, “I need to pay more taxes” (video follows with transcript and commentary): TAVIS SMILEY, HOST: Do you think that ultimately on the things that matter to you, the things that matter...

This image, taken with a transmission electron microscope shows the cross section of a new type of transistor shaped like a Christmas tree that was created by researchers at Purdue and Harvard universities. The transistor is made from tiny nanowires of a material called indium-gallium-arsenide, which could replace silicon within a decade. Courtesy of Purdue University A new type of transistor shaped like a Christmas tree has arrived just in time for the holidays, but the prototype won't be nestled under the tree along with the other gifts. "It's a preview of things to come in the semiconductor industry," said...

There are no words. I have no words of wisdom or scintillating analysis. Just pray for these people. My God. Reuters reports: At least 27 people, including children, were killed on Friday when at least one shooter opened fire at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, CBS News reported, citing unnamed officials. The shooter, the father of a student there, was also killed, CBS News reported. The principal and school psychologist were among the dead, CNN said. There were unconfirmed reports of a second shooter after witnesses reported hearing dozens of shots fired. Sandy Hook Elementary School teaches children from...

Review of report cards for all public school districts showed majority-black school districts in Mississippi spent more money per student, hired fewer teachers, and had worse grades than majority-white districts. Some districts only had a third of employees hired as teachers while spending $15,000 per student. Liberalism at its finest.

To the author of ‪Elk Cloner‬, the first computer virus to be released outside of the lab, it’s sad that, 30 years after the self-replicating code's appearance, the industry has yet to come up with a secure operating system. When Rich Skrenta, created Elk Cloner as a prank in February 1982, he was a 15-year-old high school student with a precocious ability in programming and an overwhelming interest in computers. The boot sector virus was written for Apple II systems, the dominant home computers of the time, and infected floppy discs. If an Apple II booted from an infected floppy...

Breaking news from the US – h/t Watts Up With That? – where a leaked draft of the IPCC's latest report AR5 admits what some of us have suspected for a very long time: that the case for man-made global warming is looking weaker by the day and that the sun plays a much more significant role in "climate change" than the scientific "consensus" has previously been prepared to concede. [...] The admission of strong evidence for enhanced solar forcing changes everything. The climate alarmists can’t continue to claim that warming was almost entirely due to human activity over a...

h/t Speedunque

The Obama Administration: Year FourPresident Obama's Two Hundred and Third Week in Office12/13/2012Benghazi-GateState Dept: Clinton may not testify on Benghazi next weekSusan Rice drops out of running for secretary of state Rep. Frank Wolf: Tunisia Won't Let FBI Interview Benghazi SuspectObama Ethics, Year 4New Report Suggests National Labor Relations Board Under Obama Straying From Mission to Promote UnionsYour permanent record is now available on demandTSA's Grip on Internal Travel is TighteningChicago Sun Times: Obama swearing-in to be open to media coverage. Should not even have been a question600 Workers To Be Fired As Controversial Activist Judge Sides With Obama-NLRB And SEIU...

President Obama made a brilliant move giving up Rice for Secratary of State. He can now move her to National Security Advisor, much how Nixon originally had Kissinger inside the White House. As National Security Advisor, she is covered by Executive Privilege (Secretary of State is not). This positioning affords Obama a great deal more strategic range. Kerry in State plays into placating Republican Senators - they will resist attacking Kerry. Kerry is ultimately an ineffective leader (also known as "Figure Head"), so he can travel the world collecting frequent flyer miles without disrupting the President's Foreign Policy Agenda. Loss...

December 14, 2012 Fox News Contributor Steven Crowder Files Criminal Complaint After Alleged Assault By Pro-Union Protester Noah Rothman Fox News commentator Steven Crowder has filed a complaint with the Michigan State Police in relation to an assault he sustained by a pro-union protester while attending a demonstration outside Michigan’s state capitol on December, 11. The protesters were demonstrating against the state legislature’s efforts to pass right to work laws in the heavily unionized state. Crowder joined the protests in support of those controversial laws. The Washington Post’s Erik Wemple spoke with Richard Hale, the shift supervisor at the Lansing...

Multiple people are dead after a shooting this morning at a Connecticut elementary school, according to a report. According to a witness report, the school's principal and another staffer were killed while the vice principal was shot in the leg afte a gunman opened fire in a hallway. A witness said gunshots were heard in the hallway during a meeting and that "100 rounds" must have been fired, according to CNN. After the shots were fired, three people ran into the hallway but only the vice principal crawled back. Cops responded to reports of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary...

President Barack Obama on Thursday brushed aside concerns that he favors socialism, saying in an interview with Univision that his policies are so mainstream that he would have been considered a moderate Republican in the 1980s. Via the transcript of the interview by Alina Mayo Azze of "Noticias Univision 23" in Miami: AMA: One issue that Cuban-Americans are worried about is, they believe that you favor a socialist model for our country. Cubans and Venezuelans especially because of what they have gone through. What do you think of that? PBO: I don't know that there are a lot of Cubans...

We are not having a debt crisis. It’s important to make this point, because I keep seeing articles about the “fiscal cliff” that do, in fact, describe it — often in the headline — as a debt crisis. But it isn’t. The U.S. government is having no trouble borrowing to cover its deficit. In fact, its borrowing costs are near historic lows. And even the confrontation over the debt ceiling that looms a few months from now if we do somehow manage to avoid going over the fiscal cliff isn’t really about debt. No, what we’re having is a political...

ESPN announced Friday morning that commentator and Saturday First Take host Rob Parker has been suspended for his comments Thursday concerning Washington Redskins quarterback Robert Griffin III. Parker may not be out of hot water; network spokesperson Mike Soltys added that ESPN was conducting a "full review" of the incident.

A gunman retreated from a Casper nail salon last week after realizing one of its customers was packing heat. Police say about 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 3, a man walked into Modern Nails at 2645 E. Second St. and asked a female employee if she wanted to buy some diamonds. The man walked toward the front desk area and the woman replied that she had no money to buy diamonds. A witness said the man then reached into his coat pocket and began to take out a silver-colored pistol. At that moment, a woman who was getting her nails done...

A poll by Pew Research Center shows that majorities of Americans only favor solutions that impact wealthy Americans to reduce the national debt and avoid the "fiscal cliff."Pew provided respondents with 12 deficit reduction options and asked if they approved or disapproved of each option. Majorities approved of five of the options: raise taxes on income over $250,000 (69 percent), limit deductions a taxpayer can claim (54 percent), raise the tax rate on investment income (52 percent), reduce Medicare benefits for higher income seniors (51 percent), and reduce Social Security benefits for higher income seniors (51 percent).Deficit reduction solutions that impact...

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta said the United States does have plans to draw down its military personnel from Afghanistan by the end of 2014, but that the United States is “not departing Afghanistan.” “Well, first and foremost, we’re not departing Afghanistan. We are going to maintain an enduring presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014,” Panetta said at a Wednesday press conference alongside Afghan President Hamid Karzai in Kabul, Afghanistan. …

It felt like Christmas had come early when I got my package of Buckyballs in the mail a few days ago. Buckyballs are small, super-strong spherical magnets made of the rare-earth metal Neodymium. A set of 216 Buckyballs fits comfortably in the palm of your hand. Obviously Buckyballs are adult toys, and Maxfield and Oberton emphatically warns users not to give them to children, eat them, inhale them, or place them near objects (such as pacemakers) that are sensitive to magnets. However, for those who use Buckyballs with common sense and due care, they are reasonably safe—just like countless other...

No .. I’m not talking about the fiscal cliff, nor am I talking about the almost $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities we face as a nation. Iran and a nuke? Yeah .. that’s serious all right, but I’m told that we are messin’ with Iran right now in ways that you couldn’t even imagine – ways that could derail their nuclear plans for some time to come. Is the real problem our sagging economy? An oncoming second recession? The growth of government dependency? Sure … all of those are problems and all are difficult to deal with … but they...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said what she views as optimistic market data is a sign that investors believe an agreement to avoid the so-called “fiscal cliff” will be reached, that the markets “trust that we would not be so stupid as to go over the cliff.” At a Capitol Hill press conference on Thursday, Pelosi said, “If we agree that we will have a solution and that we will avoid the cliff—I think we all should agree to that—then what are the steps we need to take and how quickly can we take them, so that we at...