I think you're trying to slice the cheese too fine, Jim. "Fairness" of taxes is something that can make some sense in broad terms, but, when you get down to specifics like the one you're describing, I think it's all trumped by politics. And that's not necessarily a bad thing. At some point, these become questions that are most appropriate for the political process to decide.
Ed Huntress
A city wide blackout at Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:12:56 GMT did not prevent Gunner from posting to rec.crafts.metalworking the following:
Count me as one of them. Making the drill collars so that Halburton energy can drill for oil so that Hollywood Celebrities will have filmstock necessary for _their_ day jobs.
Something the liberals seem unable to comprehend: big corporations hire the working people they (the liberals) allegedly care so much about.
tschus pyotr
On Mon, 23 Feb 2004 00:11:18 GMT, Sue brought forth from the murky depths:
All together now: Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
Are you keeping a repetitive spelling list on a sheet of paper yet? (Thankfully, I haven't yet progressed to that point.)
TU? Right.
(Don't blame me. My BIL used it often enough that I now equate that with "dead".)
-- If it weren't for jumping to conclusions some of us wouldn't get any exercise.
No, no, no. Not Ewwwwwetc. That was booster seat, not potty chair. It just fell apart from all the wriggling.
I bought post its to write the words on an stick to my computer monitor. Sigh. I can't remember where I put them.
Other than latin for "you" I don't know what TU means. :o( Ohhhh. I think I just figured it out. Chuckle. The things I learn on usenet. I've used the phrase but never as initials.
The word dead was what I was going for but TU will do. Sue
snipped a bunch.....
Thanks Ed. I understand your points now, but I am still not happy with what a whole bunch of tax dollars is spent on. Infrastructure I have no real problem with, but handouts and supporting foolish endeavors, I will never support. I will continue to vote, thereby assuring my right to bitch. Some small comfort to be taken from that.
michael
g'nite
michael
That's more than small comfort. That should be a big comfort. That's what politics in a democratic society is all about.
My point is not that we should be complacent about it, only that we should be clear about what the real problems are. The biggest waste of all in this society is the amount of energy wasted getting angry about the wrong things.
IMO, that is.
Ed Huntress
Something the neocons don't comprehend either: those same corporations view those working people as cogs in the machine, just one more supply to truck in at the beginning of the day. Done with 'em? Fire 'em. Easy to replace, they all have the same skills.
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
Politics? Say it so, Ed!! You mean to say that our great country has it's tax structure decided by who's buddies with whom? By who contributed the most to the elected's campaign coffers? That if I bought my own politician, I could get the regulations re-written so that I could rip off investors with impunity?
Hmm. Now exactly how much *does* a politician cost?
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
Ah, you shoul dhave seen me before!
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
Just like a tennis match. The politicos have the raquets and face off for the crowd's entertainment. And we watch and pick a favorite, and root and argue. And the ball gets knocked back and forth. Ouch! They 'feel our pain', and keep hitting, harder, and harder, and ......
michael
"jim rozen" wrote
Well, Dubya will reportedly cost his supporters well over $200 million this round. That sounds like a lot of money, but since they get about $2 _trillion_ worth of tax cuts in exchange, their return on investment is 1,000,000%. Not even Microsoft IPO investors got _that_ kind of ROI.
-- TP
200 million sounds like a lot, that's right. But consider that this was donated by probably a thousand or so individual contribution sources. If that were the case, then each one was only about 200K or so.
I guess I was wondering what it would take, on say, the state, county, or local level. Say a bunch of folks with a common thought got together, and said, we're each gonna chip in 500 bucks. Maybe one could find ten other individuals with similar political leanings.
How much would a senator, representative, or a maybe a county supervisor, jump for five thousand dollars?
Jim
================================================== please reply to: JRR(zero) at yktvmv (dot) vnet (dot) ibm (dot) com ==================================================
filipivich
Seems we have perhaps become a nation with many folks who constantly yearn for higher forms of entertainment :
"NEW YORK -- Two-thirds of Americans polled last month said they support the idea of televising executions -- and 21 percent said they'd pay to watch Osama bin Laden put to death.
"Eleven percent said they would pay to see Saddam Hussein executed."
Whoa! Talk about free enterprise! If the administration plays its cards right, they could pay for each of our little wars by running executions on a pay-per-view basis.
It would be the ultimate reality TV. I'm surprised Bush didn't think of this when he was governor of Texas.
Ed Huntress
How much did Clinton get from Red China?
Gunner
The two highest achievements of the human mind are the twin concepts of "loyalty" and "duty." Whenever these twin concepts fall into disrepute -- get out of there fast! You may possibly save yourself, but it is too late to save that society. It is doomed. " Lazarus Long
How about something even more low class, that isn't limited by the number of people on death row? Paintball hunting of naked women.
AAAHHHHH!! No, God, no, tell me it isn't true! Oh, Jeez. Wow, that's got to be it, the ultimate new Fox TV series, the absolute bottom of the barrel.
Please tell me it's the bottom of the barrel, Ok? I mean, there can't be any more to this story, can there?:
"Evanthes (a "hunter" interviewed in the video clip) shot one of the women and says, "I got the one with the biggest rack."
Ed Huntress
On Tue, 24 Feb 2004 10:16:11 GMT, Gunner brought forth from the murky depths:
For the Whitehouse B&B or other graft?
-- If it weren't for jumping to conclusions some of us wouldn't get any exercise.
from
The secretary later apologized for a poor choice of words, but repeated his criticism of the teachers' union as a group of obstructionists.
His initial remark was described by four governors and confirmed by the Education Department. "The secretary was responding to a question," said Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for Mr. Paige. "He said he considered the N.E.A. to be a terrorist organization."
...
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