The latest is the dust-up over Apple not paying as much in corporate taxes as some people would like. Apple has been accused of “tax avoidance.” I distinctly remember being taught in 12th grade economics the difference between tax avoidance and tax evasion. One is fine, sensible, and in this case what the company should be doing in the best interests of its shareholders. The other is illegal.

Apple is simply following the rules that Congress setup.

Get this. Apple already pays $1 out of every $40 tax dollars the U.S. collects. How much is enough?

Of course readers here already understand the fundamental problems with the idea of a corporate tax. And there’s the presumption that the senators have first right to any money. They want their cut first, and they will decide what you get to keep afterwards.

Additional Apple links:
VERY interesting post, and food for thought
Of Course Apple Avoids Billions in Taxes—and It Should – The Atlantic
Rand Paul on Yesterday’s Apple Show-Hearing in Congress
Best Moment of Today’s Senate Hearing
Rand Paul unloads on ‘bullying, berating and badgering’ of Apple
Why Apple (And Lots Of Other Companies) Wound Up In Ireland : Planet Money : NPR

Corporate taxes:
GE Paid No Taxes, Wait, What?!
Corporations Can Not Pay Taxes!

Inconvenient weather fact: Frequency of violent tornadoes like the one in Oklahoma has been declining, not increasing

Owner-Built 1978 Toyota Land Cruiser FJ40

Fema uses ‘Waffle House index’ to take stock of Oklahoma tornado disaster

Bowling Shoes Bill

Google rolls out monthly ‘Top Charts’ to Google Trends in 40 categories

1956 Riva Ariston Cadillac

Is this really a problem in the greater scheme of things?

Local Jeweler’s WWII Dog Tags Unearthed Nearly 70 Years Later

An Explosive Encounter : the C3H5N3O9

Eco-minded 204 sq. ft. tiny home packs in tons of thoughtful details (Video)

And Then They Came for the Kindergartners

Absolutely wonderful:
Tornado Survivor Finds Dog During TV Interview

Unknown Mathematician Proves Elusive Property of Prime Numbers (more)

The Lost Art of Luggage Labels

The BMW R80 ST Super Scrambler

Fox Steals a Video Camera Hidden in an Animal Carcass

Happy Birthday World’s Biggest Crocodile!

On immigration: Amnesty Intranational

A Quick Look at the Seagull 1963 42mm

Walter Williams: We are the idiots

Best Baseball Stadium Food in Every MLB Stadium

[ And how does one get the title "activist?" Is that self-imposed? Bestowed by others or some kind of semi-official committee? Are there objective criteria? ]

I see that the body of the first Death of a Million Trees page uses the phrase “native” 72 times. Why the fetish with native vs. non-native plants? Who gets to decide what the proper flora is for any specific location at any specific time?

“The lust for power, for dominating others, inflames the heart more than any other passion.”
– Cornelius Tacitus

FEMA Plans Clear-Cutting 85,000 Berkeley and Oakland Trees – California Progress Report: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is moving to chop down 22,000 trees in Berkeley’s historic Strawberry and Claremont Canyons and over 60,000 more in Oakland. This destructive plan is rapidly moving forward with little publicity, and FEMA cleverly scheduled its three public meetings for mid and late May while UC Berkeley students were in finals or gone for the summer. UC Berkeley has applied for the grant to destroy the bucolic Strawberry and Claremont Canyon areas, claiming that the trees pose a fire hazard. The school has no plans to replant, and instead will cover 20% of the area in wood chips two feet deep. And it will pour between 700 and 1400 gallons of herbicide to prevent re-sprouting, including the highly toxic herbicide, Roundup. People are mobilizing against this outrageous proposal, which UC Berkeley has done its best to keep secret.

Star Trek Enterprise vs. Star Wars Millennium Falcon: Which Ship is Fastest?

Think your Skype messages get end-to-end encryption? Think again

Tesla Rides High, But Faces Formidable Foe: Car Dealers : NPR

Sugar and salt – The Big Picture – Boston.com

Hipsters’ PBR Obsession Driving Up Prices Of Cheap Beer: Study

Abuse of Reasons

Heartbeat by Kwanghun Hyun

Mine-seeking dolphins make historic discovery

Grizzly bear puts camera inside its mouth (VIDEO) – Yahoo! News

A Quest to Save New York City’s Disappearing Diners – Eric Jaffe – The Atlantic

The I.R.S. Does Its Job – NYTimes.com: Taxpayers should be encouraged by complaints from Tea Party chapters applying for nonprofit tax status at being asked by the Internal Revenue Service to prove they are “social welfare” organizations and not the political activists they so obviously are.

Tea Party supporters claim they are being politically harassed with extensive I.R.S. questionnaires. But the service properly contends that it must ensure that these groups are “primarily” engaged in social welfare, not political campaigning, to merit tax exemption under section 501(c)(4) of the tax code.

But I would argue exactly as David Harsanyi does, promoting free markets and free people may be the single most important social welfare work of all.

David Harsanyi: Get the IRS out of the political speech business – WashingtonExaminer.com: I suppose I would argue that any organization advocating unfettered free markets is advocating social welfare. Somehow, I assume the New York Times has other ideas about the world. The real mystery is why the IRS should have any opinion on the matter at all.

TWSBI Vac 700 Fountain Pen – Handwritten Review

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Ice Cream [INFOGRAPHICS]

Delightful Writer’s Studio and Guest House in Lakeside, Michigan

Cool, but they seem dangerous to me:
Australia’s Water Curtain Stop Signs Are A Great Idea

The Strange Story of Marie Antoinette’s Watch

Thomas Sowell Interviewed by Uncommon Knowledge’s Peter Robinson

BASELWORLD 2013 : Some thoughts on Swatch’s new SISTEM 51 movement

German Chocolate Cake Muffins

IRS: ‘Please Detail the Content of Your Members’ Prayers.

‘Robin Hoods’ who feed parking meters are hit with lawsuit in New Hampshire – U.S. News

In depth: Seiko 9F quartz movements – proof that high-end quartz is not an oxymoron

The World’s Coolest Hotel Bathtubs

The 22 Most Beautifully Secluded Places In The World (via Dr. N)

Economic and personal liberty are inseparable.

Façade Capitalism Means Façade Freedom: Political and personal freedoms require economic resources for their exercise. So to control the latter is to have at least the power to control the former. The second fact supporting my insistence on the inseparability of ‘economic’ from ‘non-economic’ liberty is, I think, just as obvious as the first – although it is too-seldom mentioned.

“All animals are created equal but some animals are more equal than others.”
– George Orwell
Source: in “Animal Farm”

Oh, yeah.

“The difference between a politician and a pickpocket
is that the pickpocket doesn’t get indignant
when you tell him to keep his hands to himself.”
– Joseph Sobran

Now Venezuela is running out of toilet paper (via @ThePoliticalHat)

Hands-On With The Omega Seamaster Bullhead (Live Pics Pricing) #want

What is The Best Streaming Radio ?

Apostasy for purists? - Going From Exclusively Shooting RAW to Adding JPEGs to the Mix

Wow - BMW K100 – Bike EXIF

A Brief History of IRS Political Targeting – WSJ.com

100 Words: Life And Death Of A Japanese Racehorse : The Picture Show : NPR

This is an interesting idea to end junk mail

Palomino Blackwing Pearl Review – The Well-Appointed Desk

A Libertarian Take on Economic Faith, ‘Facts’ and Follies

Saddest headline ever?
Police Break Up Fight Between ‘Star Wars’ and ‘Doctor Who’ Fans

1972 De Tomaso Pantera Group 3 Factory Prototype

Kids Prefer Cheese: The Problem With the IRS

Drinks When You’re Not Drinking – Good Non Alcoholic Drinks – Esquire