Ah, life in a Zen center. I spent much of the morning cleaning incense bowls. And yesterday I failed to note the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Five Forks, but Professor Krugman remembered.

A small family-owned pizzeria in Walkerton, Indiana, gained national attention when its owners announced they would not be delivering pizzas to gay weddings. This led to a blizzard of tweets and other commentary wondering what self-respecting gay couple would serve pizza at a wedding. See also Religious Freedom and Political Lies in Indiana and Want Some Cheese With That Whine, Conservatives?

For something a little meatier, see Thomas Edsall, Has American Business Lost Its Mojo? Since the financial disaster of 2008 more businesses have closed in the U.S. than have opened. Before 2008, there had consistently been far more start-ups than closures. The gap is closing but has not closed all the way. Edsall explores several reasons why this has been so.

Update: Here’s another one —  “Kansas continues to bleed revenue”: News keeps getting worse in conservatives’ anti-tax utopia

Two weeks after the utterly delusional Gov. Sam Brownback proclaimed in a radio interview that Kansas’ experiment in supply-side economics was “working,” the latest batch of numbers from the Sunflower State further put the lie to the utterly delusional governor’s assertion.

State figures released Tuesday showed that tax revenue came in $11.2 million below expectations in March, the latest in a string of lower-than-expected tax receipts.

Lawmakers must fill a $344 million revenue shortfall by June, and Brownback has moved to plug Kansas’ fiscal hole by slashing education funding, gutting the state’s pension fund, and cutting infrastructure. Additionally, the governor has proposed new sales taxes, which disproportionately impact the poor, in order to proceed full steam ahead with his income tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy.