I'm afraid that if Hillary prevails the wind will go out of our sails, the youth and newly awakened will quit and go back to sleep, echoing suspicions will widen a chasm of resentment within our electorate, independents will desert to McCain, and in the end, having killed the Unique excitement wave, Hillary will be weakened and undefended when the Zombicans come after her in the fall, reptilians slithering through the cornfields, a twilight Shyalaman scene...
more
3.07.2008
1.05.2008
Abolishing The IRS
Two Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul, have both called for the elimination of the IRS and the income tax. Instead, government revenues would come from a national sales tax, with adjustments so as not to penalize lower income households*.
Abolish the IRS, and put an end to payroll taxes, witholding taxes, income taxes, and capital gains taxes- rewarding earnings, savings and investment, while shifting the tax burden to consumption, which we can all agree we do too much of anyway. It makes great sense. Maybe our citizens would discover the pleasures of saving money, and if they did, they'd be investing it in our future, and earning tax-free profits on our growth. We have the reverse now, where we deepen our debt hole, increasing a negative investment in the future.
Could there not be a huge appeal in this idea? Even beyond the visceral shout of joy we may feel at the idea of ending the IRS and the income tax, surely one of the greatest causes of anxiety and trouble for the citizen, the IRS is also the foundational rationalisation for the government's invasion of personal privacy, which has lately run amok. Abolishing taxes on income and earnings, and making up the revenue with a modified VAT, makes a lot of sense in an age of toxic over-consumption, shrinking income in the middle class, and negative savings rates; tax consumption, not earnings and savings.
I wonder if abolishing the IRS can emerge as a pivotal issue in 2008. For one thing, politicians and talking heads are fundamentally lazy, and this one sounds like it could be complicated. And there must be tens of millions of people who live off the whole income tax lollapalooza; they'll want to keep this quiet too.
More importantly perhaps, we measure the health of our economy by the growth in consumer spending, regardless of growing debt. You hear the monthly reports, 'Consumer spending, which represents 72 percent of the economy, grew in the last quarter....'
This is a pretty stupid way of measuring the health of the economy.
Changing our measures along with abolishing the IRS, we might hear instead something along these lines: 'Economists are buoyant on the nation's health- over the last month, earnings increased 5%, individual savings increased 4.8% , and investment increased 4%, while consumption grew at 1.5%...'
Unfortunately, this is an idea that is not part of any of the democratic candidates' policy promises.
*In France in the 70's for example, VAT rates were at the maximum on luxury goods, and diminshed to zero on necessities. Huckabee has proposed a 'prebate' of the percent of the individual's income that would be collected in the VAT. (This opens the door to federal inspection of income records, which could snowball into a mini-IRS. The French solution avoids this.)
Abolish the IRS, and put an end to payroll taxes, witholding taxes, income taxes, and capital gains taxes- rewarding earnings, savings and investment, while shifting the tax burden to consumption, which we can all agree we do too much of anyway. It makes great sense. Maybe our citizens would discover the pleasures of saving money, and if they did, they'd be investing it in our future, and earning tax-free profits on our growth. We have the reverse now, where we deepen our debt hole, increasing a negative investment in the future.
Could there not be a huge appeal in this idea? Even beyond the visceral shout of joy we may feel at the idea of ending the IRS and the income tax, surely one of the greatest causes of anxiety and trouble for the citizen, the IRS is also the foundational rationalisation for the government's invasion of personal privacy, which has lately run amok. Abolishing taxes on income and earnings, and making up the revenue with a modified VAT, makes a lot of sense in an age of toxic over-consumption, shrinking income in the middle class, and negative savings rates; tax consumption, not earnings and savings.
I wonder if abolishing the IRS can emerge as a pivotal issue in 2008. For one thing, politicians and talking heads are fundamentally lazy, and this one sounds like it could be complicated. And there must be tens of millions of people who live off the whole income tax lollapalooza; they'll want to keep this quiet too.
More importantly perhaps, we measure the health of our economy by the growth in consumer spending, regardless of growing debt. You hear the monthly reports, 'Consumer spending, which represents 72 percent of the economy, grew in the last quarter....'
This is a pretty stupid way of measuring the health of the economy.
Changing our measures along with abolishing the IRS, we might hear instead something along these lines: 'Economists are buoyant on the nation's health- over the last month, earnings increased 5%, individual savings increased 4.8% , and investment increased 4%, while consumption grew at 1.5%...'
Unfortunately, this is an idea that is not part of any of the democratic candidates' policy promises.
*In France in the 70's for example, VAT rates were at the maximum on luxury goods, and diminshed to zero on necessities. Huckabee has proposed a 'prebate' of the percent of the individual's income that would be collected in the VAT. (This opens the door to federal inspection of income records, which could snowball into a mini-IRS. The French solution avoids this.)
1.09.2007
Signs and Wonders
Manhattanites stroll in t-shirts as temperatures hit 72 degrees; the next day the region is bathed in a foul smell, like methane. In Austin Texas, scores of birds drop dead from the sky, littering the streets; men in space suits close and scour a 10 block area of downtown. Causes remain mysteries.
1.04.2007
Defense Department Funding Weaponized Suicide Gene?
The New Scientist reports on Defense Dept funded efforts to discover lethal genes:
'"There must be some DNA or protein sequences that are not compatible with life, perhaps because they bind some essential cellular component, for example, and have therefore been selected out of circulation. There may also be some that are lethal in some species, but not others. We're looking for those sequences.'
...Hampikian believes the applications of his work could be wide-ranging. He has already received a $1 million grant from the US Department of Defense...
"...there is the possibility of constructing a "suicide gene" to code for deadly amino acid primes. It could be attached to genetically modified organisms and activated to destroy them at a later date if they turned out to be dangerous, Hampikian suggests" New Scientist Jan 07
'"There must be some DNA or protein sequences that are not compatible with life, perhaps because they bind some essential cellular component, for example, and have therefore been selected out of circulation. There may also be some that are lethal in some species, but not others. We're looking for those sequences.'
...Hampikian believes the applications of his work could be wide-ranging. He has already received a $1 million grant from the US Department of Defense...
"...there is the possibility of constructing a "suicide gene" to code for deadly amino acid primes. It could be attached to genetically modified organisms and activated to destroy them at a later date if they turned out to be dangerous, Hampikian suggests" New Scientist Jan 07
12.22.2006
Global Orgasm for Peace
"The Event
WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone
you know.
WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction.
WHEN?
Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd,
at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.
WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!"
“Rapture as a state of being explodes the very subjectivity of the subject.”
- Friedrich Nietsche
WHO? All Men and Women, you and everyone
you know.
WHERE? Everywhere in the world, but especially in countries with weapons of mass destruction.
WHEN?
Winter Solstice Day - Friday, December 22nd,
at the time of your choosing, in the place of your choosing and with as much privacy as you choose.
WHY? To effect positive change in the energy field of the Earth through input of the largest possible surge of human energy a Synchronized Global Orgasm. There are two more US fleets heading for the Persian Gulf with anti-submarine equipment that can only be for use against Iran, so the time to change Earth’s energy is NOW!"
“Rapture as a state of being explodes the very subjectivity of the subject.”
- Friedrich Nietsche
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