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| 2008/5/20-23 [Politics/Domestic/California, Politics/Domestic/Election] UID:50011 Activity:moderate |
5/19 Here's my whacky idea for how politics will go after 2008:
The (D) continues a leftward shift, alienating the center, Hillary
loving, soccer mom, family types.
\_ Why do you see (D) moving left and not more Moderate?
\_ Look at who's leading it. Obama is *the* most left in the
Senate. Olbermann, http://moveon.org, dailykos, etc. are all waaaaay
left. -not op
\_ I'm genuinely curious: what policies of Obama's do you see as
left-leaning and not moderate? Are they socially left-leaning
or culturally left-leaning?
\_ How about: universal health care
immediate withdrawal from Iraq (backed off this)
removal of funding to NASA
\_ not according to his website
raising taxes on the wealthy
\_ raising taxes or closing loopholes?
opposition to free trade
making life easier for unions
\_ through secret ballots or New Deal?
\_ Obama advocates removing oversight
of Teamsters. http://csua.org/u/lne
\_ The rest of the story:
http://csua.org/u/lnf
Seems like typical D stuff.
\_ And what in there is lefty and not moderate?
\_ All of it. You think Universal Healthcare is
moderate?!
\_ *shrug* I see a lot of Americans behind it. If
the majority want it, is it that lefty anymore?
\_ Lots of people want a free lunch, but it's
very lefty to want the government to control
business.
\_ UHC or an equivalent is considered a need
by a lot of people. This is not simply a
handout or a free lunch. Opposition to
such may be categorized as Conservative,
not Moderate.
\_ I wouldn't say proposing it is very
moderate. It's left, which is why
the right opposes it.
\_ maybe the right opposes it because
they're a bunch of morons. Or maybe
this whole argument is just another
attempt by conservatives to redefine
reasonable ideas which produce
results in every other industrialized
country as "leftist," as if that's
supposed to be an insult. -tom
\_ The CEOs of GM, US Steel and WalMart
are on The Left? Wow, you guys on the
Right must be feeling pretty lonely
at this point.
\_ Shoving more of the cost onto
the gov't means less of the cost
shouldered by the business. Many
businesses pay little tax as
it is so why do they care?
\_ So, the people and big
business both agree that
universal health care is a
good thing. So, uh, who is
against it? Oh, right,
anti-government ideologues. -tom
\_ TANSTAAFL
\_ Case in point.
\_ Every election year some obviously hack study comes out
that says "surprise surprise, the Democratic candidate is
the most liberal senator/congressperson/gov/etc" so idiots
like the poster above can go spout this crap.
\_ I'm unaware of *any* lefty idea he doesn't support. -pp
\_ What, you're saying he wants to nationalize industry,
creche your kids, mandate pharma for the proles, etc.?
Seriously, can you tell me what particularly makes him
"the most left in the Senate"? I'm genuinely interested
in hearing what you have to say, but I'd like some
substance.
\_ Did you mean "nationalize all industry?"
\_ Whoops! Yes, I did. Self-correction in 5.
\_ That's pretty funny, considering I haven't seen any
substance from Obama.
\_ Yay! You hit the fish in the barrel! Now, how
about an answer?
\_ How about how he wants to raise the capital
gains tax even though it may decrease revenue,
to be "fair" ?
\_ That would appear to be lefty, but could
also be viewed as populist... or just
popular. Here's the interview with Charlie
Gibson where he says it:
http://csua.org/u/lng
Frankly, I can't argue with this: why are
multi-millionaire hedge-fund managers paying
a lower tax-rate than their secretaries?
\_ Well, there are two possible "fixes" to
this inequity: 1) raise taxes on
capital-gains, or 2) lower income taxes.
We *know* (1) decreases overall revenue,
so....
\_ BZZZT! No. The only answer is to
call the money the hedge fund managers
make what it is: income. It is not
capitol gains *for them*. For the
money manager is it *income*. If
their income was taxed as such they'd
be paying a boatload more than their
secretaries. Their earnings are
misclassified.
\_ No, we know (2) decreases overall
revenue. Or at least every sane
economists (even those who support
tax cuts) knows that.
\_ I'm sorry, but I don't agree.
\_ clearly you're not a sane
economist. I guess that
makes you a clueless
ideologue. -tom
\_ Sane = "agrees with you"
Clearly a 100% tax rate
will maximize revenue.
\_ No, but it is quite clear
that our tax rate does
not maximize tax revenues,
and that cutting taxes
from the current rate
reduces tax revenues. -tom
\_ Cutting capital gains tax does not
raise tax revenue over the long run.
There is often a short term uptick
(bonus points if you can figure out
why) but it lowers them in the long
run, at least as long as it is below
the Laffer Curve, which appears to
be around a 40% tax rate.
\_ We should be optimizing for
GDP, not for tax revenues.
\_ Says who?
\_ We should be optimizing for
the general welfare of the
citizens of this country.
GDP growth is now almost
totally disconnected from
the general welfare. -tom
\_ Yes, comrade. A healthy,
growing US economy benefits
only corporate
industrialists.
\_ Tax revenue == general
welfare in your mind? Wow.
\_ clue == completely
absent in your mind?
Obviously. Try
reading it again. -tom
\_ Funny, I've seen lots of substance from Obama,
it just changes every time he talks.
"Unlike most politicians, Barack Obama does not
waffle. He comes out boldly, saying mutually
contradictory things." -Sowell
\_ Why would you bother quoting Sowell on
anything? -tom
\_ Because, unlike you, he's occasionally
right.
The (R) party splits.
(R1) goes to the center with McCain. Grabs all the center-left the
(D) loses, but loses the conservatives.
Conservatives form new party, (R2). (R2) has a small set of hard core
voters, similar to the smaller (D) party. (R1) party gains plurality
of seats, offices, etc, but can not rule without assistance of (D) or
(R2) in general or pass individual bills without help.
Ok, the odds of this actually happening are small but it would make
things interesting, IMO. If it does happen, you heard it here first!
\_ Our winner-take-all system of representation makes three parties
inherently unstable. If a third party does arise, it will
die immediately, or else kill one of the existing parties. -tom
\_ My prediction: Obama and the Democrats end the war and balance
\_ My prediction: Obama and the Democrats end the war and balances
the budget, following mostly Clintonian economic policy. This
\_ You forgot stopping Global Warming and starting the
Age of Aquarius.
\_ No, that waits for the second term.
stabalizes the dollar, brings down the price of gasoline and gets
the economy going. The voters reward the Dems with a filibuster
proof majority in 2010. Obama then passes comprehensive health
care reform, which ends up being the most popular program ever,
even more than Social Security, which is supported by 2/3 of all
voters. He is re-elected in 2012 in the biggest landslide since
FDRs second term.
\_ My prediction: McCain wins but not by a large margin. Not a whole
lot really changes. |
| 2008/5/20-23 [Politics/Domestic/California/Arnold] UID:50012 Activity:nil |
5/20 "California proposes porn tax" link:www.yahoo.com/s/884494 Gee, we should have elected Mary Carey instead of Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor. \_ that's for sure. \_ She probably has bigger stones than he does. |
| 2008/5/20-23 [Consumer/Camera] UID:50013 Activity:low |
5/20 Does anyone know how Nikon's auto FP work? It says ... the flash
automatically fires at faster shutter speeds exceeding the
camera's sync shutter speed. How can that even be possible?
\_ As always, your question is answered by Ken Rockwell:
http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/syncspeed.htm
\_ I'm not sure about Nikon, but I'm sure it's no different
than Canon's High-speed Sync. What they do is fire the
flash bulb using high-frequency pulse, like at 50kHz. You
get significantly less instantaneous light, but you get a
stream of light instead of just one FLASH. It drains the
heck out of the capacitors, though.
\_ That makes a lot of sense! So if my sync speed is 1/200
seconds (where the start/end curtains take 1/200 second
to complete), then the flash is flashing at that duration?
to complete), then the strobe is on for that duration?
Very fascinating. This is all very interesting. Thanks
motd camera god!
\_ The fully-mechanical fully-manual 1984 Nikon FM2n has a sync
\_ My fully-mechanical fully-manual 1984 Nikon FM2n has a sync
speed of 1/250sec. |
| 2008/5/20-23 [Computer/SW/OS/Linux] UID:50014 Activity:nil |
5/20 Q: Which is faster, a 146GB 15K RPM SAS disk or a 300GB 15K RPM
SAS disk? I read that a larger drive is faster (more density
means more data at hand) and also slower (more area to
traverse). So which is it?
\_ http://Storagereview.com will a) provide you tons of raw data and b) show
you that there are different kinds of fast.
\_ Thanks. Short answer: Bigger is better.
http://tinyurl.com/587y3w
\_ boobs, penis, cars, what else?
\_ Paychecks, wallets. |
| 2008/5/20-23 [Politics/Domestic/President/Clinton, Politics/Domestic/President/Bush] UID:50015 Activity:nil |
5/20 Here's my recollection of the final candidates in presidential
elections of which I have memory:
1980: Jimmy Carter vs. Ronald Reagan
1992: George Bush vs. Bill Clinton
2000: George W. Bush vs. Al Gore
2004: George W. Bush vs. John Kerry
2008: Hillary Clinton vs. Barack Obama (With the media coverage, it
sure feels that way.)
\_ Do a lot of drugs such that you missed so many?
\_ I don't always remember the losing candidate. Besides, I wasn't
in this country until 1989 when I was 19. Oh, I just recalled
one more losing candidate called "Dukakis" or something, but I
forgot which year it was. Maybe 1996? BTW Ross Perot doesn't
count.
\_ So, basically, your recollection is worthless. We should
pay attention to you why?
\_ No reason. BTW I could've filled in the gaps by STFW, but
that wouldn't be from memory.
\_ You don't remember Bob Dole? I guess he was pretty forgettable.
\_ You don't remember Bob Dole? I guess he was pretty
forgettable. |
| 2008/5/20-23 [Computer/SW] UID:50016 Activity:nil |
5/20 Do we have a life god anymore? I need to cash in some points
--michener
\_ tom holub, and may I ask what happened?
\_ uh, what? -tom
\_ Don't you just edit your life file? If you have graduated, you
have moved on to afterlife, however.
\_ Where is the life file? -- !OP |