Words from a Benedictine nun

Posted by on

The Benedictines have a long tradition of  independent thought.  In this simple quote, Sister Joan Chittister, O.S.B. sums up the hypocrisy in the ‘pro-life’ movement:

“I do not believe that just because you’re opposed to abortion, that that makes you pro-life. In fact, I think in many cases, your morality is deeply lacking if all you want is a child born but not a child fed, not a child educated, not a child housed. And why would I think that you don’t? Because you don’t want any tax money to go there. That’s not pro-life. That’s pro-birth. We need a much broader conversation on what the morality of pro-life is.”

Republican lawmakers and anti-choice extremists continue to introduce and pass misogynist laws restricting a woman’s reproductive rights. At the same time, Republicans works to shut down wo.men’s health clinics, especially Planned Parenthood. You don’t hear of these Right Wing anti-choice extremists adopting children from unplanned pregnancies. But you do hear of them cutting government programs like school lunches for children, cutting government financial and heath care aid to families who are homeless and/or in need, and blocking free college education. No, the goal of these hypocrites  is control – control over women’s bodies and women’s futures. (the quote comes from Daily Kos)

(Sister Joan Chittister is a lecturer, an advocate for women’s reproductive rights and author of 50 books. . She has a Ph.D. from Penn State University and is a research associate at Cambridge University. Other subjects of her writing includes women in the church and society, human rights, peace and justice, religious life and spirituality. She has appeared in the media on numerous shows including Meet the Press, 60 Minutes, Bill Moyers, BBC, NPR, and Oprah Winfrey.  Joan Chittister’s website address is Joan Chittister.org.)

Thought for the day

Posted by on

“The word retirement is a very harmful word because it tells you that you have no more use left in you. You retire a ship, you have no use for it, you just put it in mothballs.

A human being is not something you can mothball”.    (Mohammad Yunus)

Girls brainwashed

Posted by on

Some of the schoolgirls who were kidnapped by Boko Haram from the town of Chibok, N.E Nigeria, last year may have been brainwashed into fighting for the Islamist militants. According to three women who claim they were held at the same Boko Haram camps as some of the girls, many of them are now being used to terrorise other captives and even carry out killings. The witnesses told the BBC’s “Panorama” programme that they had seen some of the girls flogging those unable to recite Koranic verses (most of the kidnapped girls were Christians), and also slitting the throats of male captives. The claims haven’t been independently verified, but Amnesty International said that kind of brutalisation of young girls did fit Boko Haram’s modus operandi. (Reported by the BBC and in The Week)

You don’t have to look far to see how very young, impressionable people, with few prospects, can be persuaded to do abominable things in the name of god. When the successors of the prophet Mohammed conquered a large part of the known world they were remarkably successful in making their conquests stick. Else why are there so many muslims in the world? They were not successful by beheading and torturing people (although no doubt there must have been atrocities). They taxed the non-believers. The Jews, for instance, thrived under a muslim regime in Spain, as long as they paid up; it was the Catholics who were threw them out in the name of Jesus. This modern lot so-called militant muslims are simply savages. Or maybe that’s unfair to savages?

Inheritance Tax: house prices on a small island

Posted by on

To The Times
Contrary to the impression given by the Prime Minister and Chancellor, the vast majority of elderly people who now live in “ordinary houses” valued at more than £1m will owe that wealth less to mortgage payments from their “hard-earned” after-tax income, than to the relentless inflation in house prices over the past 40 years.
Many of us, even outside London, have seen our house values increase more than a hundredfold over that period – due not to our efforts but to the unearned effects of house-price inflation coupled with the failure to build enough houses.

As such, it seems entirely fair for society at large, especially the less-fortunate younger generation, to have a share in that appreciation through increased tax revenues to reduce the deficit – either through inheritance tax or by taxing at least some of the capital gains on the sale of high-value houses.

The Government’s current proposal seems to benefit disproportionately the children of the already comfortably off and does nothing to help the majority.
Peter MacKay, Kincraig, Inverness-shire

Amen to that!

Inheritance tax cuts: pro and con

Posted by on

Among the most eye-catching measures of the British government’s recent budget is an inheritance tax (IHT) giveaway. IHT is currently levied at 40% on assets above £325,000 for a single person, or £650,000 for a married couple. But the addition of a new “family home allowance”, worth £175,000 per person, means that couples may soon be able to pass on a £1m property tax-free.

The argument for easing up on the Inheritance Tax (source: The Times, London):

House price inflation means that ever more family homes are attracting “punitive” death duties (nearly 400,000 homes in the UK are worth £1m or more). Most people buy family homes using income that has already been taxed. They then pay a big whack of stamp duty, followed by regular payments of council tax. And then, when they die, the state demands death duties on the house too. It’s not right. “A home that you can own and pass on to your children is a just reward for an industrious life.”

The argument for a meaningful inheritance tax: (source: Janan Ganesh in the FT)

Another way would be to say that someone who has had the “dumb luck” to inherit a million pounds has done absolutely nothing to deserve it. So why should they get their windfall tax-free when someone who risks their savings to set up a successful company, and then sells it, would be taxed on the capital gain? “Bequests of capital give privileged children, however gormless and mediocre, a crushing advantage”, helping to sustain a self-perpetuating,“ossified upper middle class”. If the Tories are serious about wanting to be a party of opportunity and of hardworking people, they can’t oppose IHT. They have to start discriminating, between those who earn their money and those who get it by chance.

Tomorrow I will post an excellent letter on the subject.