Lunch Links

Find tax policy a bit tiresome? Read this link, about 13 weird tax rules. Taxes and tax breaks can be found on beards, witchcraft, and the right to name your child “Metallica Tomato.”

Also, there’s a North Carolina connection: our state and Tennessee both tax the purchase of illegal drugs, with the purchaser ostensibly exempt from prosecution if he or she comes forward to pay the fee. Understandably, few take advantage of this “opportunity”: CNN reports that in North Carolina “only 79 folks have voluntarily come forward since 1990,” with another 72,000 being taxed after they were discovered and arrested.

The Justice Center is now on Facebook. Please help us by becoming a fan. Our Facebook page will be updated with resources such as this video from HK on J, with the crowd singing “We Shall Overcome.”

You can also follow the Justice Center (or a list which aggregates the tweets of Justice Center staff) on Twitter.

Upcoming: this Saturday is the first of two “mobilization” events, art and activism forays for people with disabilities and their allies.  “Presence is Progress” begins this Saturday, March 6  at 2 p.m. at the Carrboro ArtsCenter, 300 East Main Street in Carrboro. The City of Chapel Hill has an information page.

Presence Is Progress was conceived by the artist as a series of collective mobilizations / performances to encourage community bonding, public awareness, dialog and questioning. Each mobilization will utilize different pathways and sidewalks between Carrboro and Chapel Hill. The mobilizations are designed to highlight existing and new relationships between the participants, the participants and the surrounding architectural infrastructure, and the participants and the observers who witness the mobilizations.

Photographers will document this mobilization, as well as a follow-up event on March 27.

The Center on Budget & Policy Priorities has a new report, “The Zero-Sum Game: States Cannot Stimulate Their Economies by Cutting Taxes,” by Iris Lav. It mentions North Carolina in the process of proving that wholesale tax cuts just don’t stimulate the economy.

The U.S. will begin moving beyond outdated poverty metrics this year. The alternative system is a small, long-overdue step that acknowledges existing measurements do not accurately reflect the way people live their lives.

Finally today: Ole Miss is looking for a mascot to replace the antiquated, anachronistic Colonel Reb. Sometimes it’s hard to find a modern avatar that fits with the nomenclature of rebellion while ducking all the weighty historical baggage. In this case, it’s pretty easy. If you want a Rebel commander as your mascot, you could do worse than Star Wars’ Admiral Ackbar.