The "congresspeople" prattling on about how it's "unfair" to brick & mortar stores should shove it. How about when you buy something that's not a tangible product, like an MP3 from the iTunes store?

Meanwhile, trillions of dollars of transactions happen every day in the stock market, and NONE OF THAT IS TAXED.

So, just so we're clear: middle-class == screwed by paying more taxes when they buy stuff online; rich investors == even more rich 'cause they don't really pay taxes of any sort anyhow, then complain bitterly if their income (via investments) is taxed at 15% while the rest of us pay 30% because we actually work for a living.

Seriously; screw them all. Perhaps it's time to enforce our second amendment rights. No taxation without representation.

And believe me, we (the 99%) are NOT represented by the government.

GE paid zero corporate income taxes. ZERO. On a company that continuously reports record profits. They "offshore" most of their money so they don't even have to pay taxes on the interest they earn. Exxon Mobil plays the same games, but they're in an even better position because they receive subsidies from the government, so their taxes are actually negative (the government gives them money), on top of their record profits.

My guess is that the larger online retailers will have to start playing these games as well. Amazon for sure, will probably charge us (the buyer) taxes, and then offshore the income, so that those taxes never get to the states they should.

Therefore, Amazon will actually get more income from every product sold, and that money will go right into Bezo's pocket. Because he has lawyers and accountants to make that money vanish into his mansion(s), without ever reporting it to the government.

And if not, it's fairly easy to buy a few senators and congressmen and make the problem go away.

So, if Republicans supported this bill, and they signed Grover's tax pledge, is Grover going to go after these people come the next election? Or is Grover going to look they other way, since this doesn't affect the elite and large corporations?

But the American people are sheeple. As long as you continue to feed them their daily dose of Honey Boo Boo and American I-Dull, they will continue to scream "Yeah. Murica Number One!", go about their dull lives and take whatever crap to elite feel they can continue to crush them with.

And if any Americans do start to rise up, the government will have an act of "terrorism" to keep the people frightened of the boogeyman, and tell them to duct tape their windows and doors and we'll all comply.

Unfortunately; America is bunch of whiney, spineless do-nothings who've had it easy for so long, they can't even see they're being squeezed into slavery and servitude to the elite.

But hey, you made your bed. Now sleep in it.

Trying so hard to still be relevant.

He's trying hard to sell Balmer's terrible mistakes. Bill, I hope your money still isn't tied up in Microsoft Stock, as in 10 years it's gonna be over for you.

I can create documents on my phone. It's called a bluetooth keyboard and you can get one on Amazon for as little as $20 for a Chinese apple knock-off. (So cheap, I keep one at home, and one at work, so I don't have to carry the keyboard, just my phone).

Bill, you're smoking crack and you've missed the boat again.

And meantime, 50 years later, Moller is exactly NOWHERE.
The dude's concepts have been on the cover of Popular Mechanics since... what... 1972? And he has yet to even sell one flying car.

Even the safety crap: The electronics fail eventually and leads to unpredictable results. For example: I can't use the cruise control in my car anymore because a transistor behind the dash that runs the speedometer failed. As a result, my speedometer is off by about 20%, i.e., if I'm going 80, it reads 60. This also causes the odometer to read wrong, I'm guessing that the car has about 170,000 on it, but the odo reads 145,000.

If I attempt to use Cruise control, the engine surges in a scarey fashion, as the tach readings don't match the car speed, and the stupid computer can't do anything about the false data it's getting so the car actually TRIES to get me into an accident and/or blow itself up. Manually, everything is OK, I just drive keeping up with traffic and ignore the speedo...

I only want safety tech if I can turn it off when things go bad after 100,000 miles -- it's amazing how badly a car will operate when one tiny sensor is feeding the car bad data.

If you wanna see something hilarious, unplug the sensor coming out of the airbox (the MAF). Your car will drive 30 feet and then stall. Brilliant. And no way to get around that? No way to limp to a service station or dealership?

Screw that, I'm going back to a Carb.

I believe the national anthem to the USA contains a line about "bombs bursting in air" -- terrorist activity no doubt. Perhaps we need to arrest everyone in the USA...

Dude; have you not been following the last 30 years of elections? When was the last time *anyone* running for an office actually represented *you*?

Campaigns now cost millions of dollars, even for local elections. The only people that can run are people with "connections" to money, meaning they are already friends of the elite, and therefore, represent the elite. They are not interested in, nor do they represent the common people.

And never mind big, federal elections, We're talking hundreds of millions of dollars needed. The bar has been raised so high that no common man can ever run for a Congressional Office.

So really, what's your "vote" doing for you? You can vote for representative (D), who represents the elite, or representative (R), who represents the elite. Neither choice is for you. So your vote has already been taken away -- they just didn't take it away in a form you recognize!!

I'm sorry to say that the real world isn't like the movies. It doesn't take a stormtrooper in a black uniform to take away your rights, it can be done in a much more subtle way, in a way you'll end up going along with, and NOT rebelling against.

And in fact, you'll end up working *for* the oppression of other people's rights. And all the time, your guns will sit idle, because you trust your government while they continue to screw you.

Aside from the temperature...

Apparently in Alaska you can pull a prank and it doesn't get turned into a life-altering jail sentence and you being labeled a terrorist. Alaska may be the last refuge of what being in the United States really used to be all about. Too bad the terrorists won in the lower 48.

After reading the article about the girl expelled from school, I'm thinking the entire state could be sent there as Garbage.. Oh, I mean White Trash.

Exactly. Some of us are already programming applications with this in mind. I've normalized my virtual servers at... 256mb disk size; the websites are reactive layouts that adjust from 320x480 pixel cellphone sized displays to 3 megapixel thunderbolt displays and more; navigation is tied to keyboard shortcuts that can be mapped to haptics... be it mouse clicks, taps, swipes, or sign language.

Now days, my travel kit includes my iPad, a wireless bluetooth keyboard (solar), and an HDMI adapter. I go to friends houses, and simply connect to their HDMI hi-res television. If I want to do mobile development on the go, I grab my Mac Mini and do the same thing. HDMI is the best connector *ever*, and anybody who doesn't have an HDMI connector and wireless keyboard for their tablet is simply not groking the ergonomics of tablet portability.

Every Belgium citizen paying a 3.4% tax year after year, or Belgium citizens pooling their money to hire a hitman to kill every last top-dog in this organization?

Not according to "Taken".
If I recall correctly, if you know the right people, $100,000 can get you a young hot chick.

You wrote:
"Unless you want to kill off 90% of the worlds population..."

I would like to subscribe to your newsletter...

Any good ideas in this direction? It would solve so many problems, unemployment, high real-estate prices, traffic, hunger, poverty, ease of netfame/tv appearances, distribution of resources, global warming, and hopefully, get rid of all the stupid people.