Hey look! The sun came up! It wasn’t the End of the World!
Sheesh.
Some other quick points –
- I still suck at poker. Dropped two more SnGs last night. My focus and attentiveness at the table is pathetic, like Robin Williams after a triple espresso. Instead of playing my usual (and somewhat successful) rocklike and weak-tight game, I’m making grandiose pot-grabs (or pot-grab attempts) and pissing away large chunks of chips. I’m taking next Thursday off from work since the kids have it off for Veteran’s Day (or as the Canadians would say, Vetrans Day). I’m thinking about making TODD’S LAST STAND and putting all my online bankrolls on the line in one horrific trainwreck of a session. Either finish with $500 or $0. Get there early and share in the largesse.
- Exit polls are stupid. People who put faith in exit polls are stupider. Networks that air opinions of people who put faith in exit polls are even stupider. People who believe networks… well, you get the idea.
- Who the hell cares if gay people get married? Is it any business of the government (state OR federal) to legislate it? Hey, if two people (any people, except maybe Michael Jackson) want to get married, COOL. It’s better than the Susan Sarandons of the world shacking up forever and never formalizing the relationship. The religious right should concern themselves more with pedophile priests than gay marriage.
- Democrats, meet Gavin Newsom, the top recruiter for the Republicans this year.
- Social Security was going bankrupt long before Dubya took office, and it’ll keep going bankrupt after he’s gone. It was a BAD idea, a pyramid scheme that depended on level population growth. Blaming Dubya for SS problems is like blaming ESPN for kids playing poker.
- The NHLPA is a bunch of assholes. Salary caps work. Check out the NFL and the NBA. I will always side with the owners because they bear ALL of the financial risk. If they didn’t put up the money UP FRONT, there would be no league. No player has ever lost money on a contract. Any union that protects the interest of millionaire professional athletes is just a tool for extortion and discredits honest unions everywhere.
posted by Todd @ 9:02 AM
5 God I hate shitheads who spam your links
5 Comments:
Amen to the NHLPA comment. I actually believe all unions should be abolished. Ther's no need for them at all. They protect people who shouldn't have jobs, and prevent people from moving up the ladder even if they deserve to. They also prevent workers from earning fair pay, by not allowing for salary negotiation. The workplace has changed since The Jungle. People don't need to be protected from unsafe workplaces. They need to be protected from the unions that take their money and ruin their careers.
How ludicrous is it to have a union for millionaires? I wonder what Sinclair would think.
BTW, my comments are based on discussions I've had with my parents, who are both union members (RN and machinist).
You have parents?!
Yes, and they said that they can't wait to take your money next week. My mom's a great PL Omaha player.
Three big problems with Social Security as I see it.
1) Only the first $75k-85k of income is taxed, so whatever you make over that doesn't get taxed. So while everyone under that line is paying 7.65% of their income, everyone above the line is paying a smaller percentage. I'd rather shift it up so that all income above the poverty line pays 7.65% into it. At the same time, I'd require that only employers pay the taxes, rather than both the employer and the employee. Together that's over 15%, which is a ridiculous amount when coupled with the regular income tax scale, and hits self-employed persons harder.
2) We need to raise the age at which people start collecting benefits again. Maybe base it on some formula that takes into account average retirement age as well as lifespan. People are living twenty years longer than they did back when they started the program, but the program hasn't changed as much to keep pace.
3) This is a touchy one, politically, but some form of means testing may be necessary.
What we all need to remember is that the basic point of Social Security was to keep retired Americans out of poverty. It's done a good job of doing that. But unless we adjust it now, we run the danger of not achieving this goal.
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