Interesting article about the income gap:

Baltimore SunNovember 21, 2007
IRS Data Reveal the Truth about America's Supposed Income Gap
By Thomas Sowell

Anyone who follows the media has probably heard many times that the rich are getting richer, the poor are getting poorer, and incomes of the population in general are stagnating. Moreover, those who say such things can produce many statistics, including data from the Census Bureau, that seem to indicate that. On the other hand, income tax data recently released by the Internal Revenue Service seem to show the exact opposite: People in the bottom fifth of income-tax filers in 1996 had their incomes increase by 91 percent by 2005. The top 1 percent saw their incomes decline by a whopping 26 percent. Meanwhile, the average taxpayers' real income increased by 24 percent between 1996 and 2005. How can all this be? How can official statistics from different agencies of the same government lead to such radically different conclusions?

There are wild cards in such data that need to be kept in mind when you hear income statistics thrown around - especially when they are thrown around by people who are trying to prove something for political purposes. One of these wild cards is that most Americans do not stay in the same income brackets throughout their lives. Millions of people move from one bracket to another in just a few years. What that means statistically is that comparing the top income bracket with the bottom income bracket over a period of years tells you nothing about what is happening to the actual human beings who are moving between brackets during those years. That is why the IRS data, which are for people 25 and older, and which follow the same individuals over time, find those in the bottom 20 percent of income-tax filers almost doubling their income in a decade. That is why they are no longer in the same bracket. That is also why the share of income going to the bottom 20 percent bracket can be going down, as the Census Bureau data show, while the income going to the people who began the decade in that bracket is going up by large amounts. Unfortunately, most income statistics, including those from the Census Bureau, do not follow individuals over time. The Internal Revenue Service does that, and so does a study at the University of Michigan, but they are the exceptions.

Another wild card in income statistics is that many such statistics are about households or families - whose sizes vary over time, vary between one racial or ethnic group and another, and vary between one income bracket and another. That is why household or family income can remain virtually unchanged for decades while per capita income is going up by very large amounts. The number of people per household and per family is declining. Differences in the number of people per household from one ethnic group to another is why Hispanics have higher household incomes than blacks, while blacks have higher individual incomes than Hispanics.

Now that the Internal Revenue data show the opposite of what the media and the politicians have been saying for years, should we expect either to change? Not bloody likely.The University of Michigan study, which has been going on for decades, shows patterns very similar to those of the IRS data. Those patterns have been ignored for decades.

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Fountain Square was completely packed Friday night for Light Up the Square. Lori and I started the evening in the bar at Morton's where we could look out the window upon the gathering crowd. We eventually ventured out into the cold, but the ceremonies got a little behind schedule so we left before the tree was lit. We had to get to Holiday Fusion at the Party Source to sample all kinds of yummy cocktails, and a few snacks.

Friday after Thanksgiving.

The federal government does NOT give its employees off the day after Thanksgiving. A lot of people take a vacation day, but I will likely go into the office. What else am I going to do? Go shopping? I hate crowds! Anyway, I will already be downtown for the Light Up the Square after work. They have a beautiful tree on Fountain Square and the ice rink is about ready. It is sure to be a great time.

Then I am going to Holiday Fusion at The Party Source. Free ticket! Yay!

Over the weekend I have to remember to check out O'Bryonville Animal Rescue's annual ebay event. It runs from November 23 - November 30 at www.members.ebay.com/aboutme/theanimalrescue. Maybe there will be some good gift certificates.

I'm baaaack. I was having computer issues. I have no patience for my computer when it doesn't work. But there are always lots of other things to do besides log onto the Internet. This Wednesday, the night before Thanksgiving, I will be one of the guest bartenders at Kona Bistro's Community Night. Club Red is taking over and all the tips go to the Cincinnati Chapter of the American Red Cross. I'm officially behind the bar from 8-10 but I'll probably be there by 6:00 anyway. Kim and Jayson Beck are tending bar from 6-8 and Monika Roberts will be joining me from 8-10.
Hopefully, I will get off duty in time to run across Madison Road to the 20th Century Theater. Freekbass is playing a benefit concert. It's only $12 at the door! I haven't seen Freekbass in years and they were awesome!

CityBeat editorial.
Yet another great editorial from CityBeat. I don't often read these, but this caught my eye. Too often in Cincinnati we focus on what's wrong or what's missing from our city. Not that we should ignore areas that could use improvement, but we also need to celebrate the things that are unique and great about the Cincinnati area. And there are a lot of things.

http://citybeat.com/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A142821

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS!

THEY MIGHT BE GIANTS!

The show at the Southgate House last night was great! Mostly new stuff - new beings since 1990's Flood album. I liked "Mesopotamians" from their latest album The Else. They also did an Alphabet Song which I had never heard. Maybe it's on one of the kids' CDs? They sang the name of a country for every letter of the alphabet. Except X, which was, naturally, xylophone. Old favorites included "Whistling in the Dark," "Birdhouse in your Soul," and "Particle Man" among others.

I need to update my TMBG music. I only have Flood on cassette!

Cincinnati Theater

I saw Altar Boyz on Saturday night. It was great! I laughed so much. You have until November 16 to see it, and I recommend that you do. Especially if you're Catholic.
http://www.cincyplay.com/shows/season/m2/index.php
(BTW, half-price tickets are available the day of the show at the Playhouse box office.)

Oh, really?

From the Cincinnati Post, October 24:
JetBlue welcome, CVG says
If JetBlue Airways Corp. is looking for another Midwest market to serve after the low-cost carrier pulls out of Columbus, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport stands ready.
"There's no doubt that we're going to be talking to them," airport spokesman Ted Bushelman said Tuesday, the day JetBlue announced it would discontinue its Columbus service. "That's just the name of the game."
But don't plan on flying JetBlue out of Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky just yet.
The problem in Columbus - too few passengers bound for destinations that JetBlue serves - and stiff competition for passengers on flights to the airline's New York base by Delta Air Lines and its regional partner Comair, the Cincinnati airport's dominant carriers, make expansion here unlikely, say experts.
Jet Blue's hub is at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where Delta is expanding domestic and international service and has spent $50 million refurbishing its terminals. Delta has 30 percent of the flights at JFK; Jet Blue has 29 percent.
Jet Blue has as its first expansion priority to better "connect the dots" with more service between markets where it already has a sizeable customer base rather than beginning service in new markets, spokesman Bryan Baldwin said from JetBlue headquarters in New York.
"We really are taking a hard look at the current network that we have, assuring that the routes that we have really fit in toward our goal to sustain profitability as a company," Baldwin said.
The decision to end service in January to Columbus and also to Nashville, Tenn., was part of that strategy, he said.
Lagging business in both of those markets prompted the airline's decision to pull out, said Dave Barger, JetBlue's chief executive officer, and "to redeploy our assets."
The dominance of Delta, which with Comair provides about 80 percent of the flights at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, is also a consideration in any decision by JetBlue or any other low-cost carrier to try to compete at the airport here, said Baldwin.
Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky has enjoyed little success in attracting low-cost carriers to the airport, which earlier this year was deemed to have the highest average fares among the nation's 100 top airports.
The only low-cost carrier here is USA 3000, which began operations at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky in 2002 with twice weekly flights to Cancun, Mexico. It has since expanded with flights to Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, and Fort Myers, Fla.
Other low-cost carriers that have tried to gain a foothold at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky have eventually left because they couldn't compete with Delta. That carrier typically lowered its fares on competing routes, and customers returned to Delta so they could earn frequent flier miles.
AirTran tried to operate at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky for three years before pulling out in 1998, the same year Air Canada left after less than a year. Vanguard Airlines twice failed at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky, the last time in 2000.
Still, Bushelman said airport officials will contact JetBlue in hopes the low-cost carrier might expand at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky.
"We'll always act on it, but apparently JetBlue has found out that the Midwest is not a good place for them to be," Bushelman said.


Jet Blue! We want you!

Winter is almost here.

They have started installing the skating rink on Fountain Square.
Broomball anyone?