Recent content by charmtrap

It'd be nice if we could back off of some of the over-the-top rhetoric. There's always going to be people throwing around "evil" and "dictator" and "fascist" about elected officials (see also: this thread), but those people used to be the fringe, passing fanzines back and forth and joining...

Are you gonna do these threads every time there's a writedown? The HCR closed a corporate tax loophole that amounted to double-dipping anyway. But accounting practices requires companies to take the deduction immediately, even though the actual money will be paid out over decades. Gary Locke...

It's almost certainly against the AMA's code of ethics to discriminate on the basis of political affiliation: AMA - Opinion 9.012 - Physicians' Political Communications with Patients and Their Families And it looks like Rep. Grayson will be filing a complaint. Congressman Plans To File...

Ach, not the 'all taxation is theft' thing again. It's not, so just...stop. You don't have a right to not pay taxes. Look...whatever the framers intended (and it's not nearly as black & white as you suppose above), that was a long time ago. We have problems and systems more complex than they...

Either taxes are going to rise or spending is going to be cut no matter who rules. And conservatives are not afraid of huge spending. Remember Medicare Part D? And of course, no one wants any actual cuts that might matter anyway... National (US) Poll * March 29, 2010 * Middle Class Must...

They seem to forget all the things, paid for out of everyone's taxes, that enabled them to become rich...things like, oh, public education, massive public infrastructure projects, a justice system that guarantees property rights, a stable political system. <staff edit> I'm honestly coming to...

Good lord, overtaxed. There hasn't been a tax increase of any note in this country since the early 90's. The idea that Americans are overtaxed is just eye-rollingly ludicrous. Quelle surprise, conservatives are ignorant about taxes: The Misinformed Tea Party Movement - Forbes.com

When you reprint a whole article without permission, it's at least polite to give proper attribution. That's an article by Warren P. Strobel of McClatchy Newspapers. Also, paragraphs!

And that's where I go, whoa, wait a minute. Is it really plausible that a country with just under 1/5 of the US's population would have 750,000 more violent crimes in a 12-month period? Or is it more likely that there is a difference in methodology that makes the two studies functionally...

I think this is the wrong conclusion (government worsens everyone's lot) mostly born of faulty input (government is hopelessly inept, and the implicit idea that private enterprise is always better). Also, I don't see government as merely a "provider", per se. I pay taxes on one end, and at the...

Well, suffice to say that I totally disagree with you, both in characterization and conclusion. But at least we do agree that taxation is not theft, and the argument over what constitutes a legitimate tax and a legitimate need is a reasonable argument to have.

Taxes aren't theft. Taxes are the price we pay to live in a civilized society, with a rule of law and system of justice and a general welfare. We can all argue about how much tax is reasonable and who should pay more or less, but arguing that one's money is sacrosanct and not to be touched by...

Yah, I kinda don't care what my urologist thinks about my voting history. You know a guy who puts up silly signs like that is probably half-nuts (ha!). I bet he'd be real easy to send off the deep end by putting Obama stickers on his door and stuff and filming the resulting apoplexy.

Uh, ok. So, you don't really want anything to change, you just like complaining about the "culture of entitlement"?

Interesting, but like the OP, mostly content-free. You've pointed out what you see as the problems, now tell us what you want us to do about it.