Journal buffer-overflowed's Journal: Fun things 11
Republicans decide to cut IRS auditing staff after a hearing showing that the super-rich are so adept at tax evasion that it simply can't be dealt with with current resources. IRS continues to go after the little guy, 'cause being wealthy means you're more important to society for all values of wealthy not including Paris Hilton or the Church of Scientology. Never mind that the law is the law and that it should be enforced, regardless of how fucked up the tax code may be or what your beliefs on taxation are, we're *selective* man! Screw you little guy!
Oh and the estate tax is now the "death tax." So we should call the other taxes something snarky involving following the rules. Like an "I actually follow the rules like a dipshit tax."
Department of Homeland Security decides to help out the cause of terrorism by raising terror level to "OH HOLY FUCKING SHIT" AKA Red in response to the well-infiltrated plot in London. Fails to justify with credible quantitative threats. They are joined by most of the media. Fox News and various campaigns chime in with their typical bevy of felons and trolls to launch a rhetorical attack on the Democrats(because actual debate would be ineffective when we're talking about a populous that honestly can't evaluate risk[see: the lottery, see: terrorism, see: nuclear power, see: gun control, etc.]). Hillary Clinton responds by switching sides. On a related note, you can no longer bring a bottle of water on a flight, but you can bring your explosion-prone Sony battery. Way to go government!
Remember the good old days when the numbers game was run by guys that had no necks and engaged in legbreaking? Ahh, progress. Now it's run by people put into power by Sith Lords, lemon-sucking faced Cajuns, men with no necks or real opinions, and this one guy with a bowtie who we don't like to talk about. Oh, and us, when we bother to show up. Lieberman lost the primary, decided to run anyway. Katherine Harris is being campaigned against by her own party(oh and I think her whole staff quit), and 2 other incumbents lost. Rather disappointing primary loses, you'd expect more given the Republican betrayal of conservatism, and the Democrats failing to provide viable opposition party platforms or to adequately represent liberalism. Plus you know, all that Abramoff corruption.
The FISA court(formed after Nixon went wiretap-happy), the rubber stamp(that's what it is, they almost *never* reject things) secret/private court the president was supposed to use for his wiretap program(you know, under the law) says the wiretap program is ok. Other courts disagree. In a few years, we'll move up to the Supreme Court Showdown, the thrilla about manilla[envelopes... containing wiretapping logs]. On a slightly but not really related note, Bush and Cheney should realize that they're utterly immune to impeachment, because if both of them go, we're left with Ted Fuckin' Stephens. Bridge to nowhere Ted Stephens, Internet is a series of tubes Ted Stephens. Ted "makes you kinda understand why Robert C. Byrd keeps getting elected" Stephens. Probably the worst Senator named Ted, and one of his competitors for that title drowned a girl in the Chappaquiddick.
Dead Rising came out, and is awesome. I particularly like the excellent Romero-style zombie AI that couldn't be done on any system less powerful than the XBox 360. It's advanced man! They grab with GUSTO!
Six String Samurai proved to be the best post-apocalyptic rock-and-roll versus death-metal alternative universe where the soviet union won featuring a brief omage to the wizard of oz movie ever. Yea, it's that awesome, and on On Demand in the Boston Comcast viewing area. Beware the spinach monster.
Ann Coulter got "pwn3d" on TV. Of course anyone who ever took Ann seriously, shouldn't be taken seriously, and it wasn't much of a pwning. She's like Rush Limbaugh/Michael Moore w/o the talent of being able to pose good questions(both of them do[or did], both fail at answering them). Pure entertainment(did you read her bit on McCarthy? Pure gold!), only really, really mean spirited and doesn't paint herself in that light.
Pluto is no longer a planet, but it still is, sorta. Queue American Idol style "Who wants to be a planet" reality TV series starring trans-neptunian objects and the spunky ball of ice that is either the 8th or 9th "planet"(where planet is defined as an object circling around the sun, or something...) depending upon when we're talking about!
War on Terror going well, for all values of well that include delusion and unquantifiable/verifiable assertions. Afghanistan, swimmingly. Iraq, hardly increased incidents at all! Israel won in Lebanon, the US won in Lebanon, Hezbollah won in Lebanon, Lebanon won in Lebanon, and contractors who are going to need to rebuild Beirut *yet again* won in Lebanon. So the only losers are the Lebanese infrastructure, the Israeli and Lebanese civilians killed in the escalation, the dead Hezbollah guerillas, and the dead soldiers of the IDF. If you missed this war, don't worry, a repeat should occur sometime in the next decade, providing Iran doesn't acquire nuclear weapons and the whole region escalates to the point of being a glow in the dark sea of glass. And to defuse that, Condoleeza brought along as part of her crack team someone who was indicted-convicted-pardoned for his role in Iran Contra. Good hands people, we're in good hands.
State of the Union. FUBAR. But don't worry, us liberals will fix it. If we don't, the conservatives will fix it. Of course the actual chances of someone fitting either description actually being elected this november are slightly lower than your risk of being struck by lightning. In related news, the war on drugs is evidentally going poorly, judging by current approval ratings and polling data. Win some... lose some.
Whoa.. (Score:1)
I've got nothing to add.
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Shrug, people on the internets making kinda a big a deal out of it.
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meh (Score:2)
six string samurai. while being a very strange and oddly watch-able movie, it was clearly NOT death metal, while it was metal, and played by death, its tempo, tone and style was that of simple glam metal. also... i take real issue with the fact that death played a fender strat. a strat would NEVER, not EVAR produce the tone as it was attributed to in the movie.
also, where the fu
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God help us when Sielwolf fires up his web browser come monday.
Disagreements (Score:2)
I am 100 percent, absolutely, in favor of cutting the IRS funding for going after super-rich people. It LOSES MONEY. Sure, it's not fair that the super-rich get away with it, and the rest of us don't. But that doesn't change the fact that this wasn't doing any good for anybody. The super-rich were still getting off, and the IRS
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I am 100 percent, absolutely, in favor of cutting the IRS funding for going after super-rich people. It LOSES MONEY. Sure, it's not fair that the super-rich get away with it, and the rest of us don't. But that doesn't change the fact that this wasn't doing any good for anybody. The super-rich were still getting off, and the IRS was not getting enough money to justify the expense of going after them. How does it help the rest of u
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I hear you, but it is a LOSING PROPOSITION as it stands. I know it sucks, but until we can change the law, I am all for not enforcing a law that does nothing but make people feel better when the rich bastards cheating on their taxes DO occasionally get caught.
While th
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Without people to catch and prosecute them, there's no incentive for them *not* to cheat on their taxes. None. At least somewhere in the back of some of the people who cheat's heads was that it was possible they'd get caught and be enormously fined a
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First, that's not true. There are several other icentives, starting with "it's wrong" and ending with "just because they have cut resources now doesn't mean you won't be caught through some other means, or caught later" (it's not like they have to catch you this year to prosecute you for last year's tax evasion, the statute of limitations is six years).
Second