Actually, a fair number of people get net income from the IRS because they get "refundable tax credits" and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Most tax credits either reduce your taxable income or reduce the amount of tax levied, but in any case, you can never end up with anything less than $0 on the "tax owed" line, so you simply get all of your withheld money back.
ALL of my withheld money back? I think you are forgetting about Medicare Tax and Social Security Tax. Those two don't even show up on the form as an option to get back, and the EITC is nowhere close to what is withheld by those two.
Any talk of "Net Income from the IRS" is laughable until there is a standard deduction or refund of Payroll Taxes.
Poor people currently pay either no taxes at all or very low taxes as proportion of their income.
Poor people pay no sales tax? No Medicare Tax? No Excise Tax on their phone bill?
Maybe poor people get away light on Income Tax, but the percentage they pay in other taxes dwarfs the percentage that the more well-off pay in income tax. Here's what tax professionals say (in 2009):
The average state and local tax rate on the wealthiest 1 percent of families is...(snip)... a mere 5.2 percent. The average tax rate on the poorest 20 percent of families is...(snip)... 10.9 percent, it is more than double the effective rate on the very wealthy.
Ten states — Washington, Florida, Tennessee, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Alabama — are identified in the study as particularly regressive. These “Terrible Ten” states ask poor families — those in the bottom 20 percent of the income scale — to pay almost six times as much of their earnings in taxes as do the wealthy
I would hope that it would be against the policy of the Israeli government to act in an anti-semitic fashion. Why would you think they would be in favor of that?
If they tried to claim the reverse, that any opposition to the Israeli government was by definition anti-semitic, that would be out of line. But opposing commonly-accepted religious intolerance sounds okay to me.
The worst part of this security lapse is that it isn't even novel. There was a widely-circulated story recently about a man who had swallowed the key to a truck. An X-Ray was taken, and a duplicate key was made from the X-Ray.
May I suggest 'Pocket Ref' by Thomas J Glover. It's one of the most compact and useful reference books out there. It will fit on any shelf, bench, in a drawer, or literally in your pocket. But it contains useful charts, conversions, and other general information about more topics than I can list here.
Wow, that's news to me. I thought I had been watching the official boards pretty well, but I guess I was slack. This is exactly the kind of information that I was looking for, thanks for posting!
>Just becuase I feel like being picky, Inu-Yasha had dog ears.
I said "catlike" not "cat."
Yes, Inu-Yasha is a dog half-demon, not a cat half-demon. And his ears are pointy and furry. I was trying not to confuse people because they are called "Cat Ears" in the game, but if you made them white and put them on a guy in a red robe, you would have a passable Inu-Yasha.
I play City of Heroes and it's a fun game, especially for people who don't have a lot of time to play every night and just want some villain-bashing action.
The weird thing I've noticed is that a lot of the new costume options are restricted to one gender or the other for no real reason. Quick background here, most costume options are unisex, but there are some obvious ones, like metal bikini-thing, that are restriced.
Some of the items restricted in the new patch include: Wooden sandals (simple, flat, wood and leather) are female-only "Student Cap" (looks like a police hat) is male-only Shoulder mascot (think of a pirate's parrot) is female-only Catlike ears (think Felicia or Inu-Yasha) are female-only I could probably come up with a few others but you get the idea.
I know game designers can get some odd gender-roles in their heads sometimes, but these choices seem a bit random. Anyone have any inside info or personal insights as to what may have been going on there?
The parent makes a great point about computers: Hardware and software from the same era work fine together. It's when you mix and match that you have problems.
Aside from Y2K and maintenance problems, there's nothing magical that says that you have to stop using a piece of hardware and software after a certain date. If the software works fine, the hardware will too.
A lot of the hardware arms race come from, IMHO, the gamers (like me!) In order to play the latest games, you have to buy the latest hardware. If gamers were satisfied to keep playing the old games, they could keep the old hardware. Some people do just that in addition to their new rig, keeping an older computer around for the purpose of playing the older games (especially DOS ones.)
Some business software upgrades will try to push you into a new OS version. I think it's Visio 7.5 that will only run on WinXP? But again, if you stick with the software that works, your OS will work, and your hardware will work.
But yeah, you can really go a long time if you can resist the temptation to upgrade. Think of it as a unit, like a set-top box, and it will last you a really long time.
If your opponent has a lot of balls left on the table, and you have sunk all of yours and then the 8-ball, then you have a high score. Simple as that.:)
Just to see, I looked up the nearest ClearChannel station from http://www.clearchannel.com . 106.1 RDU Raleigh-Durham is the nearest for me. Turned on the radio during a commercial break. The first song played when the commercials ended was Metallica's "Enter Sandman" Metallica-bashing aside, they obviously aren't too stringent.
This isn't a rights issue, this is a usage issue. You should use PayPal as a MICROpayment service. In other words, don't make any payments you are not willing to eat if the deal goes sour.
I had a polite conversation with the operator there. First I confirmed with her that eToys.com is really sueing etoy.com. Then I confirmed with her that etoy.com has been in operation longer than eToys.com. She admitted both.
She claimed that eToys.com is not trying to shut them down, but trying to get them to move. She claimed that the case is not about trademark infringement, but that children might want toys and type-in "www.etoy.com" off of the top of their heads. She mentioned at least three times throughout the conversation how much pornography and cursing were on the etoy.com web page, and how bad it would be for children to see that. Basically eToys.com is claiming to be doing a public service, not defending a trademark.
You can believe that, or you can disbelieve that. I'm just reporting what the customer service department told me.
Slashdot Mirror
Actually, a fair number of people get net income from the IRS because they get "refundable tax credits" and the Earned Income Tax Credit. Most tax credits either reduce your taxable income or reduce the amount of tax levied, but in any case, you can never end up with anything less than $0 on the "tax owed" line, so you simply get all of your withheld money back.
ALL of my withheld money back? I think you are forgetting about Medicare Tax and Social Security Tax. Those two don't even show up on the form as an option to get back, and the EITC is nowhere close to what is withheld by those two.
Any talk of "Net Income from the IRS" is laughable until there is a standard deduction or refund of Payroll Taxes.
Poor people currently pay either no taxes at all or very low taxes as proportion of their income.
Poor people pay no sales tax?
No Medicare Tax?
No Excise Tax on their phone bill?
Maybe poor people get away light on Income Tax, but the percentage they pay in other taxes dwarfs the percentage that the more well-off pay in income tax. Here's what tax professionals say (in 2009):
http://www.webcpa.com/news/Study-Identifies-Most-Regressive-State-Tax-Systems-52520-1.html
The average state and local tax rate on the wealthiest 1 percent of families is ...(snip)... a mere 5.2 percent. ...(snip)... 10.9 percent, it is more than double the effective rate on the very wealthy.
The average tax rate on the poorest 20 percent of families is
Ten states — Washington, Florida, Tennessee, South Dakota, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nevada and Alabama — are identified in the study as particularly regressive. These “Terrible Ten” states ask poor families — those in the bottom 20 percent of the income scale — to pay almost six times as much of their earnings in taxes as do the wealthy
I would hope that it would be against the policy of the Israeli government to act in an anti-semitic fashion. Why would you think they would be in favor of that?
If they tried to claim the reverse, that any opposition to the Israeli government was by definition anti-semitic, that would be out of line. But opposing commonly-accepted religious intolerance sounds okay to me.
Now that's a descriptive product name!
Comodo: flush those bad packets away!
*If you don't get why this is funny, see :)
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/commode
definitions 2c and 2d
The worst part of this security lapse is that it isn't even novel. There was a widely-circulated story recently about a man who had swallowed the key to a truck. An X-Ray was taken, and a duplicate key was made from the X-Ray.
http://alslockandsafe.com/alslockandsafe_010.htm
Whomever was selecting pictures for the website needs to realize that a clear photo is even easier to work from than an X-Ray.
May I suggest 'Pocket Ref' by Thomas J Glover. It's one of the most compact and useful reference books out there. It will fit on any shelf, bench, in a drawer, or literally in your pocket. But it contains useful charts, conversions, and other general information about more topics than I can list here.
d p/1885071337/
http://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Ref-Thomas-J-Glover/
Or go down to your local hardware store, most of them stock it too.
Wow, that's news to me. I thought I had been watching the official boards pretty well, but I guess I was slack. This is exactly the kind of information that I was looking for, thanks for posting!
>Just becuase I feel like being picky, Inu-Yasha had dog ears.
I said "catlike" not "cat."
Yes, Inu-Yasha is a dog half-demon, not a cat half-demon. And his ears are pointy and furry. I was trying not to confuse people because they are called "Cat Ears" in the game, but if you made them white and put them on a guy in a red robe, you would have a passable Inu-Yasha.
I play City of Heroes and it's a fun game, especially for people who don't have a lot of time to play every night and just want some villain-bashing action.
The weird thing I've noticed is that a lot of the new costume options are restricted to one gender or the other for no real reason. Quick background here, most costume options are unisex, but there are some obvious ones, like metal bikini-thing, that are restriced.
Some of the items restricted in the new patch include:
Wooden sandals (simple, flat, wood and leather) are female-only
"Student Cap" (looks like a police hat) is male-only
Shoulder mascot (think of a pirate's parrot) is female-only
Catlike ears (think Felicia or Inu-Yasha) are female-only
I could probably come up with a few others but you get the idea.
I know game designers can get some odd gender-roles in their heads sometimes, but these choices seem a bit random. Anyone have any inside info or personal insights as to what may have been going on there?
Yes, the picture was funny. But I was reading this at work, and would really have appreciated a NSFW warning next to the link.
Just a wild guess, but I think it must have involved late night infomercials for this product.
Wow, bullets that emulate old videogames?
n ary&va=maim&x=0&y=0
http://www.mame.net/
Sweet, get me some that will emulate Space Invaders, so when I fire them they turn into giant white pixels.
(Yes, yes, sarcastic and pedantic. The mental picture amused me though. And I think the word you want is maim.)
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book=Dictio
The parent makes a great point about computers: Hardware and software from the same era work fine together. It's when you mix and match that you have problems.
Aside from Y2K and maintenance problems, there's nothing magical that says that you have to stop using a piece of hardware and software after a certain date. If the software works fine, the hardware will too.
A lot of the hardware arms race come from, IMHO, the gamers (like me!) In order to play the latest games, you have to buy the latest hardware. If gamers were satisfied to keep playing the old games, they could keep the old hardware. Some people do just that in addition to their new rig, keeping an older computer around for the purpose of playing the older games (especially DOS ones.)
Some business software upgrades will try to push you into a new OS version. I think it's Visio 7.5 that will only run on WinXP? But again, if you stick with the software that works, your OS will work, and your hardware will work.
But yeah, you can really go a long time if you can resist the temptation to upgrade. Think of it as a unit, like a set-top box, and it will last you a really long time.
Whoops, I meant 8-ball. And "no thanks" on playing for cash, I'm not that good with billiards (as if that needed saying at this point ).
If your opponent has a lot of balls left on the table, and you have sunk all of yours and then the 8-ball, then you have a high score. Simple as that. :)
Just to see, I looked up the nearest ClearChannel station from http://www.clearchannel.com . 106.1 RDU Raleigh-Durham is the nearest for me. Turned on the radio during a commercial break. The first song played when the commercials ended was Metallica's "Enter Sandman" Metallica-bashing aside, they obviously aren't too stringent.
This isn't a rights issue, this is a usage issue. You should use PayPal as a MICROpayment service. In other words, don't make any payments you are not willing to eat if the deal goes sour.
For big purchases, use the credit card.
From http://www.gnucash.org/features.php3
"Intuit® Quicken® QIF files can be imported, and are automatically merged to eliminate duplicate transactions."
For those not familiar, QIF files are one of the choices for download of a month's worth of credit card transactions.
Am I the only one amused by a Krock talking about a Gecko?
(Say it out loud if you don't get it)
I had a polite conversation with the operator there. First I confirmed with her that eToys.com is really sueing etoy.com. Then I confirmed with her that etoy.com has been in operation longer than eToys.com. She admitted both.
She claimed that eToys.com is not trying to shut them down, but trying to get them to move. She claimed that the case is not about trademark infringement, but that children might want toys and type-in "www.etoy.com" off of the top of their heads. She mentioned at least three times throughout the conversation how much pornography and cursing were on the etoy.com web page, and how bad it would be for children to see that. Basically eToys.com is claiming to be doing a public service, not defending a trademark.
You can believe that, or you can disbelieve that. I'm just reporting what the customer service department told me.