A Bitter Pill

Oh god, I’m having flashbacks.

part 2
part 3
part 4

Mmm. So the more you read about Ben Stein–the infamous principle from Farris Bueller’s Day Off–is quite the pwnage. It’s sad, but him and ole’ Arnold Schwarzenegger would make the best presidential candidates for the republicans, rofl/cry.

Stein on VA Tech
Stein pwns teh taxes/rich
Stein pwns media (moar)

http://verizonfails.ytmnd.com/ (blog)

Sigh. I hate this attitude in America, “It’s ok to suck at math, because not everybody is a mathematician.” Well then, kiddos, this is what happens when you fail math and go into your non-math-related profession. You FAIL at life. Honestly. I really can’t believe TWO not ONE but TWO Verizon employees could be such complete wastes of lives.

I had talked to a Citibank rep. on the phone the other day. And I thought to myself, “Oh boy, I’ve been outsourced to New Deli tech support.” But you know what? She was helpful, she kept asking if I could hold on very few minutes, and she was not an idiot. I had a very pleasant experience. The more and more I think about it, the more I realize outsourced customer service is sadly better than our homegrown Generation X/Y. You know why? They’re not complete idiots and they are trainable.

People think outsourcing is just because companies are looking for a buck? No. If our own workers weren’t such slack-jawed, lazy idiots the training and higher pay would be WORTH it. But, alas, that is not the case. It’s about RETURNS on investment (yes people are investments), and Americans are turning out to be poor investment for easily trainable jobs like customer support.

F*ck your jobs, I hope idiots like that starve and freeze.

EDIT: Good lord operantly the actual call was over 22 minutes.

Millitary.com article

US Trains Bees to Detect Bombs

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. - U.S. government scientists report developing a method for training honeybees to detect the types of explosives commonly used in bombs.

The researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory say the new techniques, based on honeybee biology, might become a leading tool in the fight against the use of improvised explosive devices, or IEDs. Such devices currently present a critical vulnerability for American military troops abroad and are an emerging danger for civilians worldwide.

By studying bee behavior and improving existing technologies, the scientists make use of the honeybee’s exceptional olfactory sense. They use the bees’ natural reaction to nectar — a proboscis extension reflex — that could be used to record an unmistakable response to a scent.

Using Pavlovian techniques they trained bees to give a positive detection response, via the proboscis extension reflex, when they are exposed to vapors from TNT, C4, TATP explosives and propellants.

The research is supported by a development grant from the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

But fear not, we also have silly string. To be honest it makes me sad we have to use… silly string.

And of course, we all naturally thought of… TO THE BEE MOBILE!

I’m not sure if we’re not spending enough or too much money in the army. I mean… either we’re giving them not enough and they have to use silly string… or we’re giving them too much lol. I’m all for money for the army, but I question how well it’s being allocated.

“other”? Zombies? Metal gears?

For life’s expenses there’s taxes, for everything else… there’s Mastercard!
But seriously, silly string and bees?

My god, graphs. Run children.

Actual lengthy article below.
Read the rest of this entry »

Damn you, whitey. First you make us build railroads you don’t even use anymore, create glass ceilings for promotions, erase any public awareness on Asian racism, and finally… TAKE OUR WOMEN!

(Ignore the fact most asian men are jerk offs or pansies)

I guess this is whitey’s answer to Ice cube.

Taxation of Virtual Assets in Online Gaming Is “Inevitable”

“If you are a hard-core player of virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, Second Life, EverQuest or There, IRS form 1099 may someday soon take on a new meaning for you. That’s because game publishers may well in the not too distant future have to send the forms–which individuals receive when earning nonemployee income from companies or institutions–to virtual world players engaging in transactions for valuable items like Ultima Online castles, EverQuest weapons or Second Life currency, even when those players don’t convert the assets into cash….”

So, I wonder what method of deprecating costs will fat lewtz be? Do I get tax write offs for my fat lewtz? Damn, my books are all scrwed up! Crap, is disenchanting epics liquidation of assets? Blizzard gonna give me a W4? Are guild banks long term assets? Are guilds companies or financial insitutions now?

IRS CRITS YOU WITH AUDIT FOR 440000

America is Evil Shockumentery Checklist:
1. Theatrical movie music - check.
2. Random political speeches clipped in (out of context for the most part) - check.
3. Random segments spliced together giving no frame of referancfe and only making unresearched assumptinos - check.
4. Random “authorities” agreeing with you - check.
5. The internets said it was true - check.

I think that video might be hinting on some debatable points, but much like the enemy it tries to engage. Fearmongering met with even greater fearmongering.

I’m really opposed to heavy taxing which is why I do consider my a conservative in the very strictest and older sense (not to be confused with neoconseravtism).

But,

We are in a new day and age, and I was bend my will a degree or two to come in line with modernism. I think mistaking the US Government as peddling “Americanism” is stretching it. It’s the companies, the fortune 500, the marketing, and the general willed ignorance of most people.

– Addressing the income tax:
Regardless if it is law or not, it’s there. I can see the argument that the rich don’t pay enough or whatever you want to say… but if we’re gonna go the “all is fair and free” route then we should remove minimum wage laws and such. Income tax is represenative of the federal government having control of your life to a degree. Well, why should they bother business owners to fair practices and protection of labor unions? Let’s get rid of it all at once.

– Addressing strong government control:
As opposed as I am to strong government control and taxes, the confederate states were a pretty clear of example of what happens when the government can’t levy taxes or has little inter-state power. Founding fathers and some of the4 most brilliant men were for a stronger government. I’m not advocating abuses of power or anything like that, but simply trying to meet this extremist preview half way.

I think the video makes the mistake Michael Moore made many times (no, not being a hypcrotical fatass): tries to squeeze to many arguments under the banner of “things are fucked up”. Too many shockumenteries only point out problems without going deeper into the ramifications of the alternatives or how to handle those ramifications or transitions would be (e.g. if we did removee income tax, how to compensate the various budgets of the federal government, etc). It’s really easy to be negative, but it’s hard to be constructive.

I’d have to see the video, but I’m willing to bet it’s not very constructive. Legal or illegal, consequences are reality in so far as repealing the income tax would have dire ones. So, unless it offers reasonable solutions I really don’t wanna hear it.

Tax protester constitutional arguments

Some tax protesters, conspiracy investigators, and others opposed to income taxes cite what they contend is evidence that the Sixteenth Amendment was never “properly ratified.” One such argument is that because the legislatures of various states passed resolutions of ratification with different capitalization, spelling of words, or punctuation marks (e.g. semi-colons instead of commas) from the text proposed by Congress, those states’ ratifications were invalid. A related argument is that various states illegally violated procedural requirements of their constitutions when passing their ratification resolutions. Another argument made by some tax protesters regards Ohio, one of the states listed as ratifying the amendment. They contend that because Congress did not pass an official proclamation recognizing Ohio’s date of admission (1803) to statehood until 1953 (see Ohio Constitution), Ohio was not a state until 1953 (and, therefore, could not have ratified the Sixteenth Amendment). These and similar arguments have been universally rejected by the courts.

Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co.

In Commissioner v. Glenshaw Glass Co.,[12], the Supreme Court laid out what has become the modern understanding of what constitutes ‘income’ to which the Sixteenth Amendment applies, declaring that income taxes could be levied on “accessions to wealth, clearly realized, and over which the taxpayers have complete dominion.” Under this definition, any increase in wealth—whether through wages, benefits, bonuses, sale of stock or other property at a profit, bets won, lucky finds, awards of punitive damages in a lawsuit, qui tam actions—are all within the definition of income, unless Congress makes a specific exemption as it has for items such as life insurance proceeds received by reason of the death of the insured party[13], gifts, bequests, devises and inheritances[14], and certain scholarships. [15]

The only court case since then that repeals any powers is from disability, injury, compensation, etc.

Murphy v. IRS

On August 22, 2006 the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled in Murphy v. Internal Revenue Service[16] and United States [Murphy v. United States]) that 26 U.S.C. § 104(a)(2) is unconstitutional under the Sixteenth Amendment to the extent that the statute purports to tax, as income, a recovery for a non-physical personal injury for mental distress and loss of reputation not received in lieu of taxable income such as lost wages or earnings. The Court stated:

At the outset, we reject the Government’s breathtakingly expansive claim of congressional power under the Sixteenth Amendment — upon which it founds the more far-reaching arguments it advances here. The Sixteenth Amendment simply does not authorize the Congress to tax as “incomes” every sort of revenue a taxpayer may receive. As the Supreme Court noted long ago, the “Congress cannot make a thing income which is not so in fact.”

The Court also stated:

In sum, every indication is that damages received solely in compensation for a personal injury are not income within the meaning of that term in the Sixteenth Amendment. First, as compensation for the loss of a personal attribute, such as well-being or a good reputation, the damages are not received in lieu of income. Second, the framers of the Sixteenth Amendment would not have understood compensation for a personal injury — including a nonphysical injury — to be income. Therefore, we hold § 104(a)(2) unconstitutional insofar as it permits the taxation of an award of damages for mental distress and loss of reputation.

The Murphy ruling is mandatory precedent only in the District of Columbia.

So, if conspiracy theorists are going to argue against the supreme court and not trust any of the three branches of government, then we shoudl just start a revolution because if this is true then the government is beyond hope anyways. Otherwise, statutory law and decisions should be recognized instead of randomly citing pieces of the constituion and trying to debase the 16th amendment under symantics.

In Summary:

Let’s take a lemon and make 40 glasses of lemonade out of it. Now, I understand the student may or may not have been racially profiled. I can accept that fact of life. I can accept the policemen may have went a bit overboard and used excessive force.

Now, the media spin. You give them an inch and they take a mile. First off, that is not a very non-violent protest when you tell them to fuck off, mention the patriot act, and a bunch of extraneous behaviors. Now, he said he was leaving, yet his reaction was to go limp? What was so hard about getting up and leaving?

Let’s assume the officers are out of control. So, why would you try to reason with them aggressively? Why not comply with their request to be escorted and THEN sue them later? Unless, of course, you feel your shocking will help the ACLU get more money. Even if this kid has a case, he’s definitely guilty of being a moron. And as far as students “pleading” with him, that dosn’t look like pleading to me. That looks like kids being stuck-up college students loving an opportunity to shove their finger in the authoritarian pie.

One bad move (by the police) met by another bad movie (by the student and students) equals a clusterF*ck. I suppose this UCLA student received a typical college education… one that lacks common sense.

Liberal Media Spin

Now, the full video with the swearing, student belligerence, telling them they are idiots on the spot.

Original Video:

Okay, so people say Americans are lazy and unmotivated. You know, our low and staggering voting ratings, our general apathy towards politics and the environment, our pitiful academic standings, etc. But, hey, what do assholes know? When we have something more important than paying the bills (e.g. our horrific American debt which most households have) is the REALLY importnat things…. waiting in like for 8 hours to 3 days for a $800+ videogame console.

The stores around here had only 5-6 units per store (I’m told from workers). Now, I wonder if Sony is liable for inciting riots and such. But seriously, I am so glad these morons froze their asses off for nothing and I hope many got injured. I praise all who bought a PS3 and sold it for 4-5X the value.