| Dime-a-can Tax on Soda for Healthcare? |
[Jun. 22nd, 2009|11:43 am] |
From ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) rjlippincott
If your family earns less than $250,000 a year, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime. I repeat: not one single dime.
--President Barak Obama, State of the Union address, February 24 2009
House eyes new taxes as senators pare health bill
Quote:
WASHINGTON (AP) - Early work on the ambitious health care overhaul the Obama administration is seeking has exposed the kinds of in-house fights that typify just how hard it will be to get meaningful legislation this year. Case in point: A proposal to help bankroll universal health coverage with a dime-a-can increase in the price of soft drinks.
Apparently, the correct of draft of the state-of-the-union speech should have read "If your family earns less than $250,000 a year and only drinks water, you will not see your taxes increased a single dime."
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Me:
And as pointed out in the comments, almost every president (in recent history) has made promises about no new taxes, and at some point reality smacked them in the face and we had to have more taxes. The question is, how much is the liberal press going to smack him? We know the right wing will.
Personally, this isn't a bad way to do it if he does actually have to raise taxes. There are zero health benefits from soda, and if anything drinking cans of slow-acting-yummy-poison willfully only increases likelihood of health problems, whether it is diet or full sugar.
I'm a coffee, water and booze girl myself, throw in some tea and crazy vitamin smoothies. Tax the booze too, I don't care. |
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| You may not be aware of this, but there is a new addiction |
[Jun. 5th, 2009|01:40 pm] |
It isn't so much that it is a new problem, just a newly recognized problem.
Millions of people have this problem. If this problem is in a person's life, it has adverse affects on their well being. It makes them late for work and appointments, it interferes with their ability to connect with peers, they often crave more when they are away, you schedule your life around them, they put stress on your physical well being often increasing significantly the amount of time you are sick, and they are very costly.
The problem my friends, are TODDLERS.
Yes, toddlers. They are addictive if you have them. This is what I have observed from my toddler wielding friends. |
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| Say a little prayer, it works, according to my mom |
[Jun. 1st, 2009|05:36 pm] |
My grandfather is in the hospital with either pneumonia or a small heart attack, or both. Not that much information yet.
My mom says "I know you're agnostic, but say a little prayer anyway"
I just said "ok mom"
Rather than "mom, would you like me to send you the empirical data that prayer does not work?"
The point of prayer, as I see it, is to make people who are helpless to do anything to improve a situation feel less helpless.
Anyway, that aside, I certainly *hope* he gets better. I know he wants to live to 100. He's 94 already, he only has 6 more years til he gets there. He's held on this long.
He really likes the story Candide. Although he still has the optimist pov, "all is for the best in the best of all possible worlds" where as I am of the other view "we must cultivate our gardens". Anyway, a story I would like to read. Maybe on tape and send it to him, since his wife won't let him listen to it or read it to him. He is legally blind, macular degeneration. |
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| Happy Birthday to these people |
[May. 11th, 2009|09:45 am] |
martak - Michael Martak
madspark - MadSpark
greencorinna - Corinna Green
twistedcat - Our Lady of Perpetual Meanderings
syncretin - Mikolaj Habryn
tybuc - Crazy Uncle Olaf
enwrong - enwrong
johntchoe - Jay Double-Yoo Tee
antoinebugleboy - Antoine Bugleboy
minorninth - minorninth
pixels_of_light - Victoria
slownewsday - Germ Tall
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| Yoinked from risawn |
[Apr. 15th, 2009|05:38 pm] |
Cute! |
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| Bay Area Peeps: Seasteading Social! (I will be on the way to LA) |
[Mar. 26th, 2009|08:39 pm] |
What: March Seasteading Social
When: March 28, 2009 12:00 PM
Where: Click the link below to find out!
Meetup Description: Come out and socialize with your fellow seasteaders! The Starry Plough in Berkeley has graciously offered to host us from 12-4. We’ve got the place to ourselves, so we’ll have plenty of roo
Because we have the space to ourselves for the March Social, we’ve decided to add in a bit of content and special meetings for those who are interested. We’ll be covering some specific areas of interest and Patri will be giving a talk/rant on Libertarianism, so if you’re curious about Sailing, Ocean Engineering, or why Libertarians are dumb, we hope you’ll come out and join us.
Here’s the Schedule:
* 12pm Socializing
* 1pm Libertarian Stupidity - A talk by Patri Friedman
* 1:15pm - Introduction of Sailing Club and Ocean Engineering
* 1:20pm - Sailing Club meeting for interested members, socializing for others.
* 1:50pm - Ocean Engineering meeting for interested members, socializing for others.
* 2:20pm - Socializing |
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| Memories |
[Mar. 20th, 2009|04:37 pm] |
Wednesday night I was talking with a friend I hadn't spoken with for a while. He's currently in Iraq as a civilian contractor. Anyway, we talked about a bunch of stuff, and his memory of the places we went together and conversations we had was much better than mine. I tended to remember the details where I had emotions of some kind, although I've noticed my attention/memory tends to operate like that anyway-- if I'm tired and not emotionally engaged, I go to sleep. If I'm tried, and emotionally engaged, I can stay up and be energized.
Anyway, some of the things I was able to remember because I wrote about them in LJ. I haven't actually written anything with words for a while. A combination of reasons. I may get into that in a f-locked post.
I also used to have most of my posts open. I may go back to that, not sure.
Anyway, I want to start writing more again, so that later, I can remember. |
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| Thanks Politicos! |
[Mar. 3rd, 2009|04:05 pm] |
Dear internet friends,
Thank you for answering my questions about politics. I look forward to digesting them.
Politicat,
Radiantsun |
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| What is a conservative? What is a liberal? |
[Mar. 2nd, 2009|01:31 pm] |
A few of my liberal friends think I misunderstand what it means to be a liberal. If this is the case, I probably also misunderstand what it means to be a conservative.
So, a few questions:
(1) How do you define yourself? (liberal, conservative, _fill_in_the_blank_)
(2) What is a liberal? ie what do they believe, what do they do? How do they feel about tolerance?
(3) what is a conservative? Ie what do they believe, what do they do? How do they feel about tolerance?
(4) do you think I'm a liberal, conservative, _fill_in_the_blank_, and what leads you to that conclusion?
(5) If you are a _fill_in_the_blank_, please tell me what that is, and what they believe and what they do.
(6) What is tolerance?
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