No one is talking about sales taxes here. Those taxes are designed to be passed to the customer. We're talking about all the various taxes that businesses are required to pay. Taxes on profit, medicare taxes, social security taxes. I don't personally go along with the whole 'businesses shouldn't pay taxes' mindset, but I see where people are coming from. Is that computer that costs $500 going to cost less if the company doesn't have to pay tax on the profit they're making at the end of the year? That's the question. And personally, I don't think so. As that is too abstract for most people to see right away...
Who said I don't believe in God and live my life according to the Christian ethic? "Believe in Christ and you shall be saved"??
I just don't feel the need to use a book written 2000 years ago to explain things that science has recently explained. If the bible would have explained the creation of the Earth through evolution it wouldn't have been understood. Think about it, how would you explain something which we take as a basic principal (like how airplanes fly) to the general population who lived 2000 years ago? Do you think they understood the physics behind things like that?
It's been proven in the Kansas supreme court, that when ID was "cooked up" they did a search and replace of many Creationism documents and replaced "Creationism" with "ID". The early drafts even forgot to remove "God" a few places. I suggest you read up on the crap you are trying to spew before you accuse others of not understanding.
Regardless of if I call it God or Dog you can't prove it which means it's not science. Science uses a little thing called "the scientific method" which involves making observations, making conclusions, testing those conclusions, and forming a hypothesis or theory based on the results of your test.
Let me know when you find a way to test creationism^h^h^h ID.
To say those sites are biased would be an understatement. Listen, there is no way that you can prove scientifically that "God did it" is right or wrong. So, it ain't science. So, there are not two sides to this argument. There is one side. ID is NOT science.
If you want to teach your kids that "God did it" is an acceptable answer to anything you don't personally understand, then fine, do that in your home or church or wherever... BUT don't pollute my children into believing that crap also. I'd like my kids to have a fair chance in the world economy, where in most 1st and 2nd world nations, they can manage to keep science to true scientific endeavors.
Well admittedly that was a well thought out and reasoned reply. Something I don't usually get from the gun freaks out there. So I will commend you for that.
That being said there is no way to convince me that arming every American to the teeth is going to decrease murders. There is no society in the history of man that has increased the arming of the populace and had a result like that. Most societies that have increased arming end up in civil war, and I think we can both agree that the amount of deaths due to civil war would be higher than any mugger could even dream about.
The fact of the matter is that there are examples which "prove" both sides of the argument, and it comes down to a moral call. Do you think people morally need to be given the right to kill eachother? And I think the answer to that is a resounding NO. A government is there to protect people, not encourage them to kill eachother.
Hmm, that would explain why the recent school shootings the shooters were all using guns they'd purchased illegally.
Oh, wait, thats right. If you're crazy enough to shoot up a school, you probably don't care about getting away with it. I find it hard to believe Engineering students would be able to track down guns on the black-market.
But arguing with a pro-gun nut is like arguing with a brick wall, despite all the cracks in the argument they refuse to collapse.
Um yeah. I live in IOWA and I don't own a gun. I travel to:
New Orleans, Dallas, Austin, San Fransico, LA, NYC, Tokyo, Nagoya, Montreal so far in the last 3 years.
Never in one of those places did I need a gun. Certainly, not under my pillow, or strapped against my ass.
I could see if you'd call a spade a spade and say you liked the feeling of power you get holding/shooting one. But this crazy, asinine explanation of needing one to protect yourself and your family, is just that... crazy. Heres an idea, don't piss so many people off, maybe you won't be looking down the barrel of a gun. Having your car broken into is another story. How is owning a gun going to solve that? Maybe you think the kid deserves to be shot for stealing your Britney Spears CD? I've had my car broken into many times. It sucks, but its not something thats deserving of getting shot.
Good luck changing the government with guns. How'd that work out for those in Waco, or the Branch Dividian? If I ran the country I'd be much more concerned about someone changing the world with the internet and a video camera than a gun. The government can make you look like a nut with a gun, but if you show your argument (with video proof) it's hard to dispute.
Think about that for a bit, before you reply. A video camera keeps the government in check much better than a gun.
Leave it to me to get the anti-gun-control whackjobs out on Slashdot again. Its about as easy as getting a swarm of bees with a hive and a baseball bat.
Listen, maybe you live in the wild west where you need to pack heat everwhere you go and make sure no "thugs" beat you up and steal your lunch money. I don't. In my nearly 30 years on this planet (in many cities around the world, outside of America) I've never been in a situation where I've had to shoot my way out. In fact, the safest I've ever felt was in downtown Tokyo, a place known to have some of the strictest gun control regulations on the face of this Earth. Coincidence, maybe.
So, like I said, if you're afraid of getting into a duel down at the saloon, then by all means, pack that gun and make sure the bulge is showing so everyone knows. If you're like me, and just drive back and forth to work, take the occasional trip to somewhere exotic / remote, and buy your food pre-killed, there's really no need to own/have a gun.
You do realize that correlation does not mean causation, right? Or is that too big of words for you?
By your logic, Japan has less guns per person than Iraq, and less deaths per person than Iraq, therefore less guns in an entire country means less deaths. Obviously, thats not the only factor at play here. Care you look into the other factors in DC that helped raise the crime rate? Like, you know, the fact that they kicked lots of people off welfare right before the crime rate went up?
So you're saying it makes sense to drive truckloads of guns into the hands of people of the most densely populated cities of America?
You know, where hunting consists of going to the store, not actually going out and hunting?
To me, it makes sense that we try to get all the guns out of that environment, by making it impossible to buy them. There is no reason people in NYC need guns, except for making up for shortcomings, and my safety shouldn't be in jeopardy because they've got penis envy.
But whatever, after the pro-gun rhetoric in your comment, I tuned out the rest under my "crackpot right-wing" filter.
I replaced every bulb in my house with CFLs (mostly the cheap ones that our power company sells at $1.50 each, and also a handful purchased at Ikea). This was 4 years ago. I have yet to have one burn out. So, I think that it varies wildly based on your area. My utilities are all underground, and from some equipment that I have that monitors the voltage/frequency on the line its very stable... I live in a town of 100,000 in Iowa.
I think the people who have problems are the ones buying the name brand stuff. Buy the cheap-o ones sold by your power company. I know that ours subsidizes 50% of the retail price of each bulb we buy (up to 12 per calendar year). They also give you $50 to replace a fridge with Energy Star fridge and $100 to replace a washer with a front loader. Since doing all that we've found our electricity bill is roughly $60/mo and in the summer as high as $180/mo -- but our central AC was installed in 1970... thats going to be replaced next year...
Then again, I also heat my house on Kerosene, a small 10,000 btu heater we keep in the living room. This is the first year we've done that, and watched our highest LNG bill hit $60 this month. I can't complain, last year we were at over $200 (thats with a 95% efficiency furnace installed two years ago)... Iowa winters get COLD!
No, I have alerts programmed on Google News to alert me to when the name of my company is in a news story. So far I've known several days in advance to all the major things our company has done compared to when the rest of the employees are notified.
Those CLEC providers will submit workorders with Verizon to reconnect them to the copper grid. Its the same as if a person elects for a CLEC provider in a new home without ever having had previous phone service. Verizon will come out and bury the lines if necessary, and install the SDU on the side of the home, and usually punch it down to activate the customer.
Seriously, what the hell is it with you gun nuts? So they have other (more noble) priorities than making sure you get to keep your guns. So, whooptie shit, you can't shoot some deers or turkeys. Seriously, I think freedom of speech is a bit more important than being able to shoot at a turkey.
If what you describe is even 50% accurate, and that's common anywhere outside of where you live too, the country is considerably more f'ed up than I could have ever even imagined. I knew Shrub screwed up this country bad -- no idea it was THAT bad.
You write that like $55,000 in New York state is a lot...
So, what is a fair amount of money for people who shape the youth of our country then?
Would you be happier if he was just barely above the poverty line?
Don't you think we should be paying enough to get _good_ people in to teach instead of people who have no other options and can settle for some low-wage job?
I wouldn't mind if teachers made twice that figure right out of college, to be completely honest with you. Teachers unions have lots of problems (mostly protecting those teachers who deserve to lose their jobs) but fighting for higher pay is NOT one of them.
You can't have it both ways. Conservatives say that all "liberals are out to tax and spend" or "they want to take our guns (which I happen to agree with)" or "liberals want to take parenting away from parents" or any number of other generalizations... they take the actions of a small group and substitute that for the entire group. BUT any time the liberals brings up conservative nut-jobs like Pat Robertson, then quickly they say "you can't use one to describe the whole group". The problem is the most vocal conservatives are the craziest, and it reflects poorly on the whole group. I saw the analogy elsewhere in this discussion. Just because some KKK members are level headed, does that mean that you can defend the KKK? No, if you join the KKK you're f'ing crazy.
Need I remind you of Carl Rove's tactics in the last election of sending fliers saying that Kerry wanted to "ban the bible"? That stunt represented (for better or worse) the conservative movement. If you're a conservitive and don't like it, make your voice known... don't just be quiet and say "oh, well, I don't agree with everything... but at least I get to keep my guns!"
You can't tell me with a straight face that those in power in the conservative movement are not the craziest.
I may be against abortion, I don't want to make someone believe something, it is and should be solely their choice.
Need I point out the double naturedness of that? You're all for letting someone make their choice on something, unless its something you disagree with.
I think its somewhat one-sided to say Nintendo is bad for the industry. It's bad for today's publishers who continue to pump out the same crap year after year after year because most of the new people who are getting into games (older people, etc) won't enjoy that garbage. It's good for gaming, though, because those more creative video game publishers will be more successful...
I say let the big companies fail, I'm hope I don't have to see Madden 2015 advertised...
Only on brand new handsets. Old handsets can still intall programs, but with the $5.99 T-Zones access you cant use them. If you go through their proxy server they'll work fine. Or, if you pay for full internet access.
Maybe you should take the time to read to conversation, brefore you spew your bullshit all over this forum. Thanks.
So T-Mobile finally requires you to route traffic through their proxy server on the cheaper plans...
Thats why your apps won't work. If you stick your SIM card in a PDA where you can program the proxy server info in to applications it will work fine. Its the same with iWireless. Pay $20 if you want full internet, or $10 if you want HTML/WAP through a proxy.
Slashdot Mirror
I think the 'woosh' is perhaps for you.
No one is talking about sales taxes here. Those taxes are designed to be passed to the customer. We're talking about all the various taxes that businesses are required to pay. Taxes on profit, medicare taxes, social security taxes. I don't personally go along with the whole 'businesses shouldn't pay taxes' mindset, but I see where people are coming from. Is that computer that costs $500 going to cost less if the company doesn't have to pay tax on the profit they're making at the end of the year? That's the question. And personally, I don't think so. As that is too abstract for most people to see right away...
Who said I don't believe in God and live my life according to the Christian ethic? "Believe in Christ and you shall be saved"??
I just don't feel the need to use a book written 2000 years ago to explain things that science has recently explained. If the bible would have explained the creation of the Earth through evolution it wouldn't have been understood. Think about it, how would you explain something which we take as a basic principal (like how airplanes fly) to the general population who lived 2000 years ago? Do you think they understood the physics behind things like that?
It's been proven in the Kansas supreme court, that when ID was "cooked up" they did a search and replace of many Creationism documents and replaced "Creationism" with "ID". The early drafts even forgot to remove "God" a few places. I suggest you read up on the crap you are trying to spew before you accuse others of not understanding.
Regardless of if I call it God or Dog you can't prove it which means it's not science. Science uses a little thing called "the scientific method" which involves making observations, making conclusions, testing those conclusions, and forming a hypothesis or theory based on the results of your test.
Let me know when you find a way to test creationism^h^h^h ID.
If you want to teach your kids that "God did it" is an acceptable answer to anything you don't personally understand, then fine, do that in your home or church or wherever... BUT don't pollute my children into believing that crap also. I'd like my kids to have a fair chance in the world economy, where in most 1st and 2nd world nations, they can manage to keep science to true scientific endeavors.
Well admittedly that was a well thought out and reasoned reply. Something I don't usually get from the gun freaks out there. So I will commend you for that.
That being said there is no way to convince me that arming every American to the teeth is going to decrease murders. There is no society in the history of man that has increased the arming of the populace and had a result like that. Most societies that have increased arming end up in civil war, and I think we can both agree that the amount of deaths due to civil war would be higher than any mugger could even dream about.
The fact of the matter is that there are examples which "prove" both sides of the argument, and it comes down to a moral call. Do you think people morally need to be given the right to kill eachother? And I think the answer to that is a resounding NO. A government is there to protect people, not encourage them to kill eachother.
Hmm, that would explain why the recent school shootings the shooters were all using guns they'd purchased illegally.
Oh, wait, thats right. If you're crazy enough to shoot up a school, you probably don't care about getting away with it. I find it hard to believe Engineering students would be able to track down guns on the black-market.
But arguing with a pro-gun nut is like arguing with a brick wall, despite all the cracks in the argument they refuse to collapse.
Um yeah. I live in IOWA and I don't own a gun. I travel to:
New Orleans, Dallas, Austin, San Fransico, LA, NYC, Tokyo, Nagoya, Montreal so far in the last 3 years.
Never in one of those places did I need a gun. Certainly, not under my pillow, or strapped against my ass.
I could see if you'd call a spade a spade and say you liked the feeling of power you get holding/shooting one. But this crazy, asinine explanation of needing one to protect yourself and your family, is just that... crazy. Heres an idea, don't piss so many people off, maybe you won't be looking down the barrel of a gun. Having your car broken into is another story. How is owning a gun going to solve that? Maybe you think the kid deserves to be shot for stealing your Britney Spears CD? I've had my car broken into many times. It sucks, but its not something thats deserving of getting shot.
Good luck changing the government with guns. How'd that work out for those in Waco, or the Branch Dividian? If I ran the country I'd be much more concerned about someone changing the world with the internet and a video camera than a gun. The government can make you look like a nut with a gun, but if you show your argument (with video proof) it's hard to dispute.
Think about that for a bit, before you reply. A video camera keeps the government in check much better than a gun.
Leave it to me to get the anti-gun-control whackjobs out on Slashdot again. Its about as easy as getting a swarm of bees with a hive and a baseball bat.
Listen, maybe you live in the wild west where you need to pack heat everwhere you go and make sure no "thugs" beat you up and steal your lunch money. I don't. In my nearly 30 years on this planet (in many cities around the world, outside of America) I've never been in a situation where I've had to shoot my way out. In fact, the safest I've ever felt was in downtown Tokyo, a place known to have some of the strictest gun control regulations on the face of this Earth. Coincidence, maybe.
So, like I said, if you're afraid of getting into a duel down at the saloon, then by all means, pack that gun and make sure the bulge is showing so everyone knows. If you're like me, and just drive back and forth to work, take the occasional trip to somewhere exotic / remote, and buy your food pre-killed, there's really no need to own/have a gun.
You do realize that correlation does not mean causation, right? Or is that too big of words for you?
By your logic, Japan has less guns per person than Iraq, and less deaths per person than Iraq, therefore less guns in an entire country means less deaths. Obviously, thats not the only factor at play here. Care you look into the other factors in DC that helped raise the crime rate? Like, you know, the fact that they kicked lots of people off welfare right before the crime rate went up?
So you're saying it makes sense to drive truckloads of guns into the hands of people of the most densely populated cities of America?
You know, where hunting consists of going to the store, not actually going out and hunting?
To me, it makes sense that we try to get all the guns out of that environment, by making it impossible to buy them. There is no reason people in NYC need guns, except for making up for shortcomings, and my safety shouldn't be in jeopardy because they've got penis envy.
But whatever, after the pro-gun rhetoric in your comment, I tuned out the rest under my "crackpot right-wing" filter.
I replaced every bulb in my house with CFLs (mostly the cheap ones that our power company sells at $1.50 each, and also a handful purchased at Ikea). This was 4 years ago. I have yet to have one burn out. So, I think that it varies wildly based on your area. My utilities are all underground, and from some equipment that I have that monitors the voltage/frequency on the line its very stable... I live in a town of 100,000 in Iowa.
I think the people who have problems are the ones buying the name brand stuff. Buy the cheap-o ones sold by your power company. I know that ours subsidizes 50% of the retail price of each bulb we buy (up to 12 per calendar year). They also give you $50 to replace a fridge with Energy Star fridge and $100 to replace a washer with a front loader. Since doing all that we've found our electricity bill is roughly $60/mo and in the summer as high as $180/mo -- but our central AC was installed in 1970... thats going to be replaced next year...
Then again, I also heat my house on Kerosene, a small 10,000 btu heater we keep in the living room. This is the first year we've done that, and watched our highest LNG bill hit $60 this month. I can't complain, last year we were at over $200 (thats with a 95% efficiency furnace installed two years ago)... Iowa winters get COLD!
No, I have alerts programmed on Google News to alert me to when the name of my company is in a news story. So far I've known several days in advance to all the major things our company has done compared to when the rest of the employees are notified.
Those CLEC providers will submit workorders with Verizon to reconnect them to the copper grid. Its the same as if a person elects for a CLEC provider in a new home without ever having had previous phone service. Verizon will come out and bury the lines if necessary, and install the SDU on the side of the home, and usually punch it down to activate the customer.
Seriously, what the hell is it with you gun nuts? So they have other (more noble) priorities than making sure you get to keep your guns. So, whooptie shit, you can't shoot some deers or turkeys. Seriously, I think freedom of speech is a bit more important than being able to shoot at a turkey.
Who cares, the thing is fun to play, so maybe the Wii's wee isn't as big as the xbox 360 or the PS3 -- does that really make such a big difference?
If what you describe is even 50% accurate, and that's common anywhere outside of where you live too, the country is considerably more f'ed up than I could have ever even imagined. I knew Shrub screwed up this country bad -- no idea it was THAT bad.
You write that like $55,000 in New York state is a lot...
So, what is a fair amount of money for people who shape the youth of our country then?
Would you be happier if he was just barely above the poverty line?
Don't you think we should be paying enough to get _good_ people in to teach instead of people who have no other options and can settle for some low-wage job?
I wouldn't mind if teachers made twice that figure right out of college, to be completely honest with you. Teachers unions have lots of problems (mostly protecting those teachers who deserve to lose their jobs) but fighting for higher pay is NOT one of them.
You can't have it both ways. Conservatives say that all "liberals are out to tax and spend" or "they want to take our guns (which I happen to agree with)" or "liberals want to take parenting away from parents" or any number of other generalizations... they take the actions of a small group and substitute that for the entire group. BUT any time the liberals brings up conservative nut-jobs like Pat Robertson, then quickly they say "you can't use one to describe the whole group". The problem is the most vocal conservatives are the craziest, and it reflects poorly on the whole group. I saw the analogy elsewhere in this discussion. Just because some KKK members are level headed, does that mean that you can defend the KKK? No, if you join the KKK you're f'ing crazy.
Need I remind you of Carl Rove's tactics in the last election of sending fliers saying that Kerry wanted to "ban the bible"? That stunt represented (for better or worse) the conservative movement. If you're a conservitive and don't like it, make your voice known... don't just be quiet and say "oh, well, I don't agree with everything... but at least I get to keep my guns!"
You can't tell me with a straight face that those in power in the conservative movement are not the craziest.
Need I point out the double naturedness of that? You're all for letting someone make their choice on something, unless its something you disagree with.
Whoops, either I'm hoping or I hope. Pick one... we're at war :)
I think its somewhat one-sided to say Nintendo is bad for the industry. It's bad for today's publishers who continue to pump out the same crap year after year after year because most of the new people who are getting into games (older people, etc) won't enjoy that garbage. It's good for gaming, though, because those more creative video game publishers will be more successful...
I say let the big companies fail, I'm hope I don't have to see Madden 2015 advertised...
Lots of people ignore them because we have about 2 or 3 tornado warnings per summer.
The last time a real tornado hit Iowa City, most of the college students came outside to look at the storm and see what was happening.
There is a downside to calling the public to fear often, its that they begin to ignore the messenger.
Only on brand new handsets. Old handsets can still intall programs, but with the $5.99 T-Zones access you cant use them. If you go through their proxy server they'll work fine. Or, if you pay for full internet access.
Maybe you should take the time to read to conversation, brefore you spew your bullshit all over this forum. Thanks.
So T-Mobile finally requires you to route traffic through their proxy server on the cheaper plans...
Thats why your apps won't work. If you stick your SIM card in a PDA where you can program the proxy server info in to applications it will work fine. Its the same with iWireless. Pay $20 if you want full internet, or $10 if you want HTML/WAP through a proxy.