He's talking about the crap that Obama called a "jobs bill" that this spectrum plan is attached to - the one paying for 16 months' worth of temporary payroll tax incentives (woo, comma, hoo) with permanent tax increases (conveniently postponed until 2013, after the general election).
He also refers to Obama's previous stimulus efforts, ObamaCare, and the campaign premise of "spread the wealth around", calling these policies "Bolshevik" - a simple application of rhetoric, comparing these ideas with others who called for redistribution measures, with disastrous consequences.
I mean, if you'd like to dispute those characterizations and the validity of his premises, that's one thing, but if you actually found that confusing, you're probably not smart enough to be talking about politics on the Internet.
There are going to be some tax breaks starting Soon (late 2011) for small businesses and workers. At the end of 2012, these tax breaks will expire. Also, the Bush tax cuts will expire (increasing tax on the bracket from 35% to 42% and the tax on long-term capital gains from 15% to 20%). There will also be another 0.9% Medicare tax on income over $200,000, and a 2.9% surcharge on investment income. Also, the government will raid charity for ~$400 billion (lesser tax deductions). Also,
So a small business owner is supposed to see these 16-month tax breaks and go "Yay! I'm going to create some jobs!"
Also, job training. Do me a favor. Go look up some former job programs like MDTA, CETA and JTPA and see how well they worked (and the current program, WIA) and tell me with a straight face that this is going to help the economy.
Also, more stimulus-style spending. Because the last round worked so very very well, and we know that paying it back in the future isn't going to be a problem at all nosiree Bob.
So the jobs act is a joke, but it would be worse if it were serious.
The jobs bill is a joke. It's not going to be passed. It exists so that Obama can say "Look, I did a jobs bill, and this obstructionist do-nothing Congress wouldn't pass it!" You could say it's the kickoff to the Obama 2012 campaign.
(I make no comment here on the value of the actual policies contained in the jobs bill, merely on the motives of those proposing it and its chances in Congress.)
The indie game developer, with the right business structure, could probably deduct his paycheck from his business, so he doesn't have to pay as much tax on his business profits, but then it turns into personal income, and he has to pay payroll taxes from the business, as well as payroll taxes as an individual, plus Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance...
On a related note, billionares like Warren Buffet famously only pay ~15% on his long-term capital gains and dividends, but the government has already taxed the corporate income that has made those capital gains or dividends at - what, 38%ish?
Not everyone lives in the Mission District of San Francisco with fancy, delicious places like Tartine or Delfina or Ritual Coffee on every block. Some of us out in the wastelands of suburbia have to deal with the same crappy few places (Starbucks, McDonald's) any time we want coffee out in the morning, or we have to drive 15 minutes out of our way.
(Mind you, I'm not one of those people anymore. But.)
Hey, now. There are two broad parts of economics: microeconomics and macroeconomics. The former deals with individual decisions and trade-offs, while the latter tries to talk about the entire economy all at once. Microeconomics is a solid piece of work, and contains a variety of theories which can be (and have been) tested with a fair amount of rigor -- at least, as much rigor as you can ever have when dealing with human decision-making.
On the other hand, even my family Ph.D. economist calls macroeconomics "basically voodoo". And policy prescriptions based on macroeconomic theory...
How many companies which perform research and development obtained money directly from government bailouts? I mean, General Motors definitely did, and there was definitely groveling involved; and a number of financial service firms got money and related benefits from the government, though with less groveling. But what IBM / HP / technology company / manufacturers got these bailouts?
I despise it when emotional invective such as your post takes the place of rational skepticism of corporate governance. Please. If you're going to criticize those greedy, amoral SOBs, have something better than this drivel to bring to the table. (Ooh look at me. I refuse to call it "earning". Oooh, it's probably grounds for a laawsuit if I said how lame they are. Somebody call the waahmbulance for this doofus.)
Consider how much water you use during a day that goes down a drain (shower, laundry, dishes, flushing toilets, etc). Compare that to how much water you drink a day. That puts an upper bound on how much "urine" you're looking at.
Most wastewater treatment plants put water back in the river that's cleaner than the rest of the river, anyway. Environmental regulations and the like.
Yeah, but then if Americans built parks, they'd have to get to know their neighbours.
And in some places, "their neighbors" in the parks are crazy homeless guys (who may or may not be doing drugs or litter playgrounds with biohazard sharps).
I'm curious: When America collapses, what exactly do you think "the less lucky" is going to do with six acres of Poa pratensis out in the middle of Nowhereseville, Suburbia? It's one thing to cry "some people are too rich! we will take stuff from them!" but what would an angry mob do with a six-acre lawn? Harvest it as sod and sell it on the black market? Till it and grow vegetables?
It's not even like land is that expensive in most of the country, Silicon Valley and other parts of the west coast excepted.
Technically, WLAN location isn't triangulation - it's actually done with circles. You get signal strength, but not generally much in the way of a direction (well, there's antenna orientation patterns). The proper word for this is "trilateration".
Also, there are some ways you can improve WLAN location. For starters, you want to use a different AP deployment pattern, putting APs around the outside of the building instead of deploying them for maximum coverage. Statistical techniques, in concert with taking detailed site surveys, can also help.
I was really under the impression that the GPL said you had to distribute the source to anyone you sent the binaries if they actually bothered to request it. I mean, usually that means you publish both, just as a matter of convenience, but not of necessity.
Yeah: there is no shortage decent reasons for abandoning or boycotting PayPal; they're well-known jerks. However, LulzSec directives really aren't the best reason, or the most effective way to get a boycott to happen.....
If you can take away one person's free speech, you can take away another person's - and that other person might not be as much of a piece of racist trash. They might have a legitimate opinion which is being illegitimately oppressed.
In America, we defend the free speech rights of racists, Nazis, and other monsters, so that we're sure we can defend the free speech rights of the unpopular, poor and oppressed. Any system is going to be tested by the monsters first, and if you try to cut corners dealing with monsters, sooner or later you'll end up abusing innocent people as well.
And even as a practical matter, the answer to bad speech is good speech (e.g. "Walter Bagdasarian, society deems you an idiot."). Not suppression.
The point is that it's the meaning of the words, not just the sound of them, and the reasonably expected result, not just the speech in a vacuum, that define the limits of speech. Which is why this creep was guilty of threatening a public figure,
Riiiiight, because it's reasonable to expect some moron on an internet message board to be seriously calling for a serious assassination, and seriously expect anyone to do it.
Two points. First, it's not certain that the machines will have negative operating costs - reduced operating costs, sure, but using electricity for heating has always been a silly-expensive way to do it (exclusive of certain areas with ridiculously good hydro power). Secondly - 403(b)s? I'm pretty sure those are for educational institutions, non-profits, and the like... not businesses and utilities.
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He also refers to Obama's previous stimulus efforts, ObamaCare, and the campaign premise of "spread the wealth around", calling these policies "Bolshevik" - a simple application of rhetoric, comparing these ideas with others who called for redistribution measures, with disastrous consequences.
I mean, if you'd like to dispute those characterizations and the validity of his premises, that's one thing, but if you actually found that confusing, you're probably not smart enough to be talking about politics on the Internet.
Herein I will criticize the jobs package.
There are going to be some tax breaks starting Soon (late 2011) for small businesses and workers. At the end of 2012, these tax breaks will expire. Also, the Bush tax cuts will expire (increasing tax on the bracket from 35% to 42% and the tax on long-term capital gains from 15% to 20%). There will also be another 0.9% Medicare tax on income over $200,000, and a 2.9% surcharge on investment income. Also, the government will raid charity for ~$400 billion (lesser tax deductions). Also,
So a small business owner is supposed to see these 16-month tax breaks and go "Yay! I'm going to create some jobs!"
Also, job training. Do me a favor. Go look up some former job programs like MDTA, CETA and JTPA and see how well they worked (and the current program, WIA) and tell me with a straight face that this is going to help the economy.
Also, more stimulus-style spending. Because the last round worked so very very well, and we know that paying it back in the future isn't going to be a problem at all nosiree Bob.
So the jobs act is a joke, but it would be worse if it were serious.
The jobs bill is a joke. It's not going to be passed. It exists so that Obama can say "Look, I did a jobs bill, and this obstructionist do-nothing Congress wouldn't pass it!" You could say it's the kickoff to the Obama 2012 campaign.
(I make no comment here on the value of the actual policies contained in the jobs bill, merely on the motives of those proposing it and its chances in Congress.)
The indie game developer, with the right business structure, could probably deduct his paycheck from his business, so he doesn't have to pay as much tax on his business profits, but then it turns into personal income, and he has to pay payroll taxes from the business, as well as payroll taxes as an individual, plus Social Security, Medicare, unemployment insurance...
On a related note, billionares like Warren Buffet famously only pay ~15% on his long-term capital gains and dividends, but the government has already taxed the corporate income that has made those capital gains or dividends at - what, 38%ish?
Point is, the tax code has layers.
I think it works more like this.
1. Have somewhat obnoxious business taxes.
2. Hand out tax breaks to select businesses.
3. Power!!!
(At least the spatial dimensions - and I'm willing to bet that they'll be finite in the temporal dimension as well.)
Not everyone lives in the Mission District of San Francisco with fancy, delicious places like Tartine or Delfina or Ritual Coffee on every block. Some of us out in the wastelands of suburbia have to deal with the same crappy few places (Starbucks, McDonald's) any time we want coffee out in the morning, or we have to drive 15 minutes out of our way.
(Mind you, I'm not one of those people anymore. But.)
And they're doing this on the new Second Avenue Subway in New York City, as well.
Helloo, computer.
Hey, now. There are two broad parts of economics: microeconomics and macroeconomics. The former deals with individual decisions and trade-offs, while the latter tries to talk about the entire economy all at once. Microeconomics is a solid piece of work, and contains a variety of theories which can be (and have been) tested with a fair amount of rigor -- at least, as much rigor as you can ever have when dealing with human decision-making.
On the other hand, even my family Ph.D. economist calls macroeconomics "basically voodoo". And policy prescriptions based on macroeconomic theory...
Oh. Is 'dringess' your real name, then? Or how exactly does this compare?
Nonsense. You just need to know exactly what you're doing.
How many companies which perform research and development obtained money directly from government bailouts? I mean, General Motors definitely did, and there was definitely groveling involved; and a number of financial service firms got money and related benefits from the government, though with less groveling. But what IBM / HP / technology company / manufacturers got these bailouts?
I despise it when emotional invective such as your post takes the place of rational skepticism of corporate governance. Please. If you're going to criticize those greedy, amoral SOBs, have something better than this drivel to bring to the table. (Ooh look at me. I refuse to call it "earning". Oooh, it's probably grounds for a laawsuit if I said how lame they are. Somebody call the waahmbulance for this doofus.)
Most wastewater treatment plants put water back in the river that's cleaner than the rest of the river, anyway. Environmental regulations and the like.
And in some places, "their neighbors" in the parks are crazy homeless guys (who may or may not be doing drugs or litter playgrounds with biohazard sharps).
Then you need to go over the lawn with your riding goose-poop vacuum, and it's more or the same problem as the riding mower.
(Vasona Lake County Park has a riding goose-poop vacuum. It's very strange.)
It's not even like land is that expensive in most of the country, Silicon Valley and other parts of the west coast excepted.
Alternatively, install a giant metal Faraday cage. (Good luck with that.)
Technically, WLAN location isn't triangulation - it's actually done with circles. You get signal strength, but not generally much in the way of a direction (well, there's antenna orientation patterns). The proper word for this is "trilateration".
Also, there are some ways you can improve WLAN location. For starters, you want to use a different AP deployment pattern, putting APs around the outside of the building instead of deploying them for maximum coverage. Statistical techniques, in concert with taking detailed site surveys, can also help.
How about you drop the extra "wifi-router sized boxes" and do microlocation with actual wifi routers and pre-existing security camera feeds?
I was really under the impression that the GPL said you had to distribute the source to anyone you sent the binaries if they actually bothered to request it. I mean, usually that means you publish both, just as a matter of convenience, but not of necessity.
Yeah: there is no shortage decent reasons for abandoning or boycotting PayPal; they're well-known jerks. However, LulzSec directives really aren't the best reason, or the most effective way to get a boycott to happen.....
If you can take away one person's free speech, you can take away another person's - and that other person might not be as much of a piece of racist trash. They might have a legitimate opinion which is being illegitimately oppressed.
In America, we defend the free speech rights of racists, Nazis, and other monsters, so that we're sure we can defend the free speech rights of the unpopular, poor and oppressed. Any system is going to be tested by the monsters first, and if you try to cut corners dealing with monsters, sooner or later you'll end up abusing innocent people as well.
And even as a practical matter, the answer to bad speech is good speech (e.g. "Walter Bagdasarian, society deems you an idiot."). Not suppression.
Riiiiight, because it's reasonable to expect some moron on an internet message board to be seriously calling for a serious assassination, and seriously expect anyone to do it.
Two points. First, it's not certain that the machines will have negative operating costs - reduced operating costs, sure, but using electricity for heating has always been a silly-expensive way to do it (exclusive of certain areas with ridiculously good hydro power). Secondly - 403(b)s? I'm pretty sure those are for educational institutions, non-profits, and the like... not businesses and utilities.