In Defense of Charitable Tax Deductions

Cheryl passes on to me this article from The Economist about an attack on the tax deduction for charitable giving. ( Tax neepery about fannish non-profits follows )

As you might expect, I would be strongly opposed to removing the charitable tax deduction or to significantly narrowing the definition of what a "charity" is. I like the American system, and I think that saying "only donations to the poor are worthy," is a step down a slippery slope that leads to removing the deduction entirely and saying, "Only the government can choose what is really worth of public support." While the tax deduction (which I have sometimes taken) isn't my primary motivation for my volunteer work with fandom, I believe that removing the deduction would have a chilling impact on charitable giving of all sorts.

Devonshire Accent = American?

Courtesy of Making Light, we have Peter Sellers doing various British [not necessarily English] accents. Sellers, of course, was brilliant at this sort of thing. I wouldn't have thought of equating Cornwall/Devonshire with American, though.

Rotate!

I've turned up in one of the photo albums covering Nippon 2007, in this case as part of the Hugo Losers' Party coverage.