The Holy Father's Christmas Message
My thanks to Catreona for setting this to post for tonight, since I was AWOL!!!! 💙❤️💜
Today, as the winds of war are blowing in our world and an outdated model of development continues to produce human, societal and environmental decline, Christmas invites us to focus on the sign of the Child and to recognize him in the faces of little children, especially those for whom, like Jesus, “there is no place in the inn” (Lk 2:7).
Pope Francis’s Urbi et Orbi 2017 Christmas message: full text - from catholicherald.co.uk
You know, I don't know how I keep doing this. I keep insisting to myself that I want to sew, to make toys and to make quilts. Yet today is another day where I spent almost all of it working in the kitchen. Cooking and cleaning. I don't know why I can't get my head on straight.
ReplyDeleteI donno, Susan. Cooking and cleaning are pretty important. The results aren't as long lasting as those of sowing, but that doesn't diminish their value.
DeleteOh! Just read now that author Sue Grafton died today.
ReplyDeleteYes, I saw that. Apparently, she had reached Y in her alphabet series. Not to be disrespectful with my flippancy, but kind of a bummer she couldn't hang on to finish Z, she'd gotten so far.
DeleteI was not familiar with her; looking her up on Wikipedia, I think I ought to remedy that. And now back to work.
DeleteAlan
Glad to help, Listener. Grands are more important than the blog. :)
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting article about the end of "SALT" deductions. A perspective from Illinois on the concept of "high-tax states:" Illinois has very low income taxes. And because they're non-progressive -- everybody pays the same rate -- they're especially low on wealthy individuals. But that means local governments get very little help from the state and, especially in urban areas, must rely on high sales and property taxes. I pay almost $15,000 a year in property taxes on a house the assessor believes would sell for less than $400,000. So I will almost certainly be switching to the new standard deduction, as the Republicans intended. But whether on balance I will come out ahead or behind is very unclear.
ReplyDeleteAnd a more personal comment on this: I learned to day what the IRS means when it says you can only prepay property taxes that have been "assessed." They mean when you have access to a bill stating exactly how much you owe. As a resident of Cook County, IL, I'm OK. Our first-half property tax bills, due in February, are a fixed percentage of the bill for the previous year. And the Cook County Treasurer has mad that bill available on-line for payment. But that is apparently not true elsewhere in the state or in many areas elsewhere.
ReplyDelete