meangreendork

Wow, you sound like these students didn't pay tuition at all, and for those that are still in the state, you act like they're skipping on taxes too. Don't get me wrong, more students should pitch in to some activity on campus and get into something that supports the university...but you're painting with a wide brush here.

Buy a large amount of Chinese or Czech-made weapons and start a business as a weapons dealer.

Lord. But kudos for your post, it's going to help someone, I'm certain of it. And yes, let's do the registration stuff separately.

Hah. Awesome.

The officiating was suspect. Not suspect like, "OMG, they're paid by UALR", but suspect as in, "someone needs to turn the foul penalty sliders down, I'm getting fouls for being on the court". Those refs were making everything a foul. "You touched him, FOUL." "Touching the ball, FOUL." "Touching your own man, FOUL." "FOUL, FOUL."

That's a huge fallacy. While the behavior of poor people taking out mortgages on homes they couldn't afford was a problem, it was the same way for more well-to-do people doing the same thing, just with larger homes and far larger mortgages. But the whole thing really has a lot to do with consumer confidence and spending habits. For about the last 20 years, the average person has been all about spend-spend-spend and keeping up with the Joneses. Being frugal has really gone out of style. Then the economy turned to crap and now, no one has confidence in the economy. Without that confidence, all of the tax cuts and tax breaks to any sector won't mean anything because the average person doesn't want to spend money. Sure, give me a tax break. Am I gonna spend it? Probably not since I'm worried that any one of the entities I do work for will suddenly decide they can't afford me or something. Give Best Buy a tax cut, and are they suddenly going to start doing well? Not really. Sure, they just got a better profit this quarter, but that's probably going to line the coffers and not lead to building more stores because no one is buying. Most people are going to take the money they can get and save it so they can be solvent. It's funny how people like to assign so much numerical science into economics when a huge portion...hell, the core of economics is psychology anyways.

Lord almighty. I love how Denton has a great artsy/counterculture vibe, but this is one of those moments I wish those folks would go read a book, maybe get a job, and do something. Yes, Obama's policies draw from Socialistic thought. Hell, the US government has a pile of Socialistic policies that stretch back as far as the early 20th century. But to say we're all gonna end up Communist is hilariously wrong. To Marx and the USSR - they basically proved the fact that like many other political concepts, they all work in ideal conditions. But those concepts (like our own right now) all fall victim to, and have to compensate for corruption, the fact that humans are in fact, not all equal (but should have equal opportunity), and for just poor luck. The USSR got it all wrong by letting corruption and factioning in their government to basically screw the pooch.

Trolling. Pretty much. It's trolling. And not just trolling, bad political trolling. It's like going to a video game forum and screaming out 'OMG XBOX SUX'. Hell, the article was trolling. Just to get riled-up comments, and to start a flamewar.

Pitt's making a generalization. However, that's not to take away from the simple fact that some politicians and religious figures have been pushing hate under the guise of morality. Evidently, "WWJD" is answered with, "be a big effing douchebag" by these folks.

You know, I hope this is a shakedown. I would hope that places didn't do this sort of thing anymore, but seriously, in the last few months, I wouldn't be shocked if this was true.

Heck, forget Fouts, just show up somewhere in Dallas or someplace central and throw the ball around, grill with whatever you brought, and just chill. That's a good plan. No shirts needed, nothing snazzy, just being around other fans.

There's this part of me that thinks he's taking a fall for someone else.

6 meters isn't nearly far enough away for fire protection. Especially in a dry-brush area. I mean, I'm all for environmental protection laws, but that local authority needs to rethink their system.

You're right. Might as well use what the university paid for and get some concession and merch cash out of it.

Ideally, that would cause people in that country to trade more with the US. However, that's not always the case. Actually, that same problem with money being taken by out-of-state and out-of-country contractors was one of the reasons I was strongly against the TTC project. Hopefully, we'll see the money saved in tax cuts spent in the US on American jobs. I'd really like to see some way of ensuring this. On the other hand, the economic crunch is also something that's international, and we also know that international markets have a lot to do with our own.

A good start to getting more fans is to stop running these horrifically cheap commercials. They look like something done for an amateur hour promo show. Same thing with a lot of the AD collateral. It all looks cheap and amateur to me. I say they hand it off to the URCM and get it done right by the designers.

The penalties and the federal treatment tracking thing are what really bug me. A national info center is all fine and good, and that makes patient record data easy to access for doctors and the right medical folks. But, I don't think this item needs to be looked at when lumped in with the stimulus plan.

One more item that needs to be cast off in this thing. I mean, I can see the good that can be done by a national records system, but imposing penalties is a bit much and having federal oversight on treatments is way over the boundaries. Hey, I'm still behind the stimulus bill, but this is one of those things that's been attached to it that needs to be dropped. It's not a tax cut or a jobs program or anything really beneficial like an education spending bill.

Well, a partisan is also a large medieval weapon. It's like a halberd or spear or poleaxe.

Then sell it to that extremely shady gold purchasing company that's suddenly had a large advertising budget and then lose a large percentage of your money in the process. Do it. It's awesome.

Bush didn't start this. Old Bush didn't start this. This whole thing really stretches back about 20 years in terms of American culture and spending habits. However, Bush did compound the problem with war spending. I'll say this about Obama's start and Bush's start - both talked a lot about kicking lobbyists and their ilk out. Both also really set themselves up for a lot of scrutiny. So far, Obama's saving grace has been admitting that he's messed up. But that's only going to last so long. He's gotta correct for it and he's gotta do it fast.

Pretty much. I don't know how much, but there would be some. Admittedly, not all of that money would be spent. Personally, I'd save a big chunk of that and then probably CD the rest of it. However, I'd think that the sudden flush of money to banks from the government would also cause inflation. I'd say the money being given to the people would at least cause a momentary jump in activity that isn't in the form of loans (that are partly to blame anyway).

Yeah, that's pretty spot-on. The mandated ethanol program as well as the use of corn-based ethanol (tying up foodcrops) really did hit gas prices and therefore, everything else. Subsidiaries and the rest didn't much help either. Seriously, the whole giant fiasco had a good heart in it, but it was sooo badly managed. If they'd waited for switchgrass ethanol to mature, then the corn-based stuff would be pointless. That would mean more crops freed up for the real purpose, which is for food.

More taxes on businesses is (generally) a piss-poor idea. But going back and looking the code over is. Businesses tend to be taxed on extraneous items, while not being taxed for, or being given a giant loophole for others. For some businesses, this sort of thing can hurt them bigtime, especially for the smaller businesses where stuff like employee-based taxes hit harder. I don't dig flat taxes. They have a tendency overtax those without a great deal of money and undertax those who do. The usual, "50% of $40,000 is far worse for a person than 50% of $1mil" statement. National sales taxes are horrible ideas, if for no other reason another tax would be lumped up and then unevenly spread out, plus the whole state's rights and powers thing, too. KRAM - We did get good amounts of Micro splashed in there. It's part of the reason I don't have a problem with tax cuts as a whole. You know, "make it easier to make things and it makes it easier to buy them" that sort of thing. I don't really buy one model or another in entirety...mainly because very rarely does on polar action really work without its unforeseen repercussions whipping back around and hitting just as hard. Make it easier to make, and at the same time make it easier to buy - a bit of tax cutting for everyone while also kicking in some spending to help stimulate additional growth on the other end.