Human Rights Watch is calling on Indonesia to scrap “virginity tests” given to female police recruits. Apparently, female recruits are subjected to the “two-finger test” to determine if they are virgins. Unsurprisingly, it is described it as painful and traumatic. Senior police officials have claimed the practice has been discontinued. But the test is listed as …
Like Epicurus, Aristotle believed in the virtue of moderation in all things. Take, for instance, courage: too much can amount to recklessness, and too little in fearfulness. There is, he thought something pleasing about moderate behaviour. If you are faced with a crisis and seem to run away from making a decision about it, you lose …
Much is being made of poor Greece being bullied by the EU (or Germany as it is known). The historic fact is that Greece, until the time of the romantic Lord Byron, was a dusty Turkish province where nothing happened without a bribe, and refusal to pay tax was a sign of manhood. (Thanks for …
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IRS data show that in 2009 none of the 400 richest US taxpayers, measured by adjusted gross income, paid more than 35 percent in average taxes. Forty percent paid between 25 and 35 percent, and half paid less than 20 percent. Famously, Warren Buffett disclosed that his percentage of tax paid was less than that …
A reader has written to say that while he agrees that rich Americans should pay more tax, they are already paying a lot and the American middle classes also ought to pay more. What are the facts? The reader points to a Tax Foundation report showing that the income tax contribution of the richest decile …
