And I disagree, which I have the right to do.

A flat tax with a threshold below which no tax is done is more fair than the existing system and it is more efficient making it easier to understand an implement to collect the necessary dollars to run government. It also connects people with the spending more strongly. Lots of little details but it works.

Some people fall below the threshold and pay no taxes and will even get government benefits.

Some people will fall below the threshold and pay no taxes but are too high to get the government benefits.

Some people will fall above the threshold and they'll pay X percent of their earnings above the threshold. They get to keep all their earnings up to that threshold. This is fair for them because they can live on that threshold income. The extra left over after taxation of their bonus income is a living bonus which they can save or spend as they like. Simple system.

Everyone has the opportunity to move up and down the socio/economic class ladder.

Predictability helps greatly with making economic and social
  systems work.

The problem is not that fossil fuels gets subsidies. The problem is that there are subsidies. Don't shift the subsidies and give them to someone else. It is time to end all subsidies.

No fossil fuel subsidies -> gasoline will rise to it's natural price of about $16/gallon, electric prices will rise and there will be more interest in renewables and efficiency.

No farm subsidies -> food prices will rise for the worst foods but less so for better foods and more local foods.

No mortgage deduction (a subsidy) -> cost of loans will go up but home prices will actually drop.

While we're at it, pay politicians only minimum wage and change taxation to a simple flat income tax over the poverty x 150% and institute a national sales tax of 7%, local real estate taxes only on buildings (not land) and virtually all other taxes should be eliminated. Then keep it that way for the next 100 years. Make things predictable.

Don't worry. We keep "dangerous" pets. Take cats for example. Highly unpredictable, armed with razor sharp claws and needle sharp teeth as well as a will to use them for maiming and even killing. Yet, we keep cats as pets. We enjoy them. We also keep dogs. Not your little ankle biter but big dogs that can take your arm off with a single bite. And boars. And even worse, sows who will start chewing you up at your finger tips and continue right up your arms. And bulls. Don't speak of the dreaded horses who kill and maim thousands a year. Yet, we keep all of these as pets and as livestock. Just because a species is 'dangerous' and 'unpredictable' to you does not mean we'll wipe it out. We'll even keep around Humans - although possibly in smaller numbers.

"Not that I am a fan of Google"

I am a fan of Google. Not so much the company but the tool. It is incredibly useful. I remember back in the dark ages when we had to use libraries and carve our notes into clay tablets. Pisser that was nasty.

I object to the European Union trying to censor the world. They have no business burning our books, trashing our libraries, destroying our data. It's history. It's real. They have no natural order right to be forgotten. They have no right to impose their absurdity on those of us in other countries. If the EU wants to subjugate their population to stupidity by censoring that is bad enough but leave the rest of the world alone.

So, we all have an obligation to remember. Keep lists of those who demand to be forgotten. Discuss it. Blog it. Tweet it. Facebook it. Each request to be forgotten should be documented. Google could do this easily enough by posting all requests. That would quickly quell this dumb demand with a Striesand effect.

Link it:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/2014/0...

Crimmany. Before this demand to be forgotten I had never heard of Stan O'Neil. Now, knowing this I'll be sure not to hire him, etc, etc.

Left alone these problems have been vanishing according to recent reports. Nature is eating it up. I'm not suggesting spilling more oil, far from it, but rather to not panic quite so much.

Another related issue is they've switched to fast light changes. This lets just a few cars through at a time. That is in turn causing more accidents and wasting more fuel with more stops and starts.

Because building it would be so complex it would be overly expensive and break down a lot more. My oven has been running for over a decade. It may well last several more decades. That's a lot longer than the expected life cycle for 'smart' products. I'll take a dumb oven and be a smart cook any day of the week. A ring of stones and a cook fire is better than too much technology.

He's lucky they didn't kill him.
In our state the cops have killed people with their batons, tasers, pistols and assault rifles for less than this. Of course, every time this happens the cops get off scott free without even a reprimand and with full paid leave during the "investigation" into the "incident". Cops are killing citizens left and right. These are not isolated incidenses but a problem with police mentality. Kill first, ask questions later.

Fish also eat sand and lots of other things. It passes through them. You are the same way. Not everything you eat is nutritious or digested. You poop, right!?!

Or perhaps it settles to the bottom of the sea and future scientists will call it the plastacine boundary which occurred just at the time of the great extinction number nine, number nine, number nine...

They've figured out one more gadget mobile way to extract unnecessary money from your wallet. You'll feel lighter, slimmer and faster without all that money clogging up your bank account!

Or you could think twice about making posts that make you look arrogant. We both agree warming is happening. We disagree on whether it is a good thing or not.

"might not be as concerned about the issue as someone who had their house wiped out by a tornado."

People should build their houses to be able to withstand all the possible extremes of weather they might get in their local. Climate Change is not making that much difference. Places where tornadoes are now have also historically had tornadoes. Same goes for hurricanes, snow storms, ice storms, etc. Maybe they'll get more. Maybe they'll get less.

If people fail to build to handle the climate and weather then they will suffer the consequences. That is reality. Build better. We have the technology. In fact, it is old tech.

"ice at both poles has been melting"

This has happened before. The northern pass used to be open.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N...

We're coming out of a cool period. It's a cycle. I would rather have warming than cooling. Cooling is deadly. Warming is merely an inconvenience, for you.

"In real life farmers are industry - the agricultural industry. They work very hard to maintain a farm, a farm being something radically out of balance with nature"

Obviously you have no experience farming.

I farm. I do it in balance with nature. That is a far easier way than you would suggest.