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 Welcome to Mind-Forg'd Manacles
 Tuesday, September 07 2010 @ 04:49 PDT

Mr. Alaska Goes Down

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Tuesday, November 18 2008 @ 07:24 PST
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 295
General NewsThe votes are in for the race involving one of the most disgusting politicians in Washington. Corrupt oil-monger Senator Ted Stevens lost to his democrat opponent, Mark Begich.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/11/ted-stevens.html

 
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Learning from the past

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Tuesday, November 11 2008 @ 12:49 PST
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 275
ThoughtsImagine, if you will, that you are the United Kingdom in 1940. Across the Channel, every free nation you knew is knuckling under to an intractable, tyrannical force. Your cities are being cratered by the Luftwaffe, and your ports are being choked by the Kriegsmarine. You realize, in your heart, that you do not have long to live, unless you can think your way out of this fix. But you have something the Nazis do not: you have Alan Turing. You see this man at Cambridge, and you watch him hypothesize a concept called the Turing machine, which could perform any conceivable mathematical calculation far faster and more accurately than anyone alive, even him. So you move him to Bletchey Park, where you surround him with more geniuses and ask him to break the Nazis' Enigma and Lorenz code machines, with their multiple encryptions and their constantly rotating keys. And so he does. He saves your lives. You give him your highest medal. But he doesn't stop there. At the National Physics Laboratory, he designs the first stored-program computers, and creates the Turing Test standards for artificial intelligence. You are on your way to becoming the greatest information superpower in the world. And then you lose your mind. On an investigation of a break-in at Turing's house in 1952, your police discover Turing is in a homosexual relationship. You've defined this as illegal, and so you threaten to imprison him (remember, he's the victim of this crime you're investigating) if he doesn't start taking your destructive hormone treatments. And so, in 1954, misshapen and addled from your drugs, he kills himself. You profess to not understand why.

You, the formerly Great Britain, lose the race to your ally, the United States. Unhindered by competition, the U.S. makes every great computational breakthrough of the 1950s and beyond. You are left behind. But what if you hadn't killed Alan Turing? What if his Manchester Mark I had led to the Manchester Mark XII? What if your later computers had not only met the Turing Test standards, but met whatever new standards his unbridled mind could create? What if? You'll never know, I guess. But you can take comfort in Santayana's rule. Our newborn empire isn't capable of being high and mighty on this subject. So maybe we'll get to watch some more tolerant country's genius bury us in the next great race.

Found here: http://selinker.livejournal.com/11872.html
 
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Gay Marriage ban costing business

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Friday, November 07 2008 @ 08:40 PST
Contributed by: Alvin
Views: 278
General NewsSo, there's not just the state fees for wedding contracts, but also all associated wedding business.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/07/us/07marriage.html?ref=smallbusiness

"In June, the Williams Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles, which studies sexual orientation and the law, estimated that legalizing same-sex ceremonies in the state would result in about $63.8 million in government tax and fee revenue over three years."
 
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Should Prop 8 pass...

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Wednesday, November 05 2008 @ 04:51 PST
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 157
General NewsThe fight enters stage two:

http://www.eqca.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=kuLRJ9MRKrH&b=4061163&content_id={43A72A1B-BEAC-4756-84BF-1DA2414ABD80}&notoc=1

"According to the California Constitution, such radical changes to the organizing principles of state government cannot be made by simple majority vote through the initiative process, but instead must, at a minimum, go through the state legislature first."
 
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Measure B did not pass

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Wednesday, November 05 2008 @ 09:14 PST
Contributed by: Alvin
Views: 221
ThoughtsMeasure B here in Santa Clara county would have connected San Jose and Santa Clara to the BART system. Millions of of people would be able to get to BART easier, and thousands more daily with connections to the valley's light rail system and another Caltrain connection.

This in inspite of a 66.3% majority.

You see, Measure B had a 1/8% tax increase to pay for it. But because a mere 2,000 more people did not vote for it, it failed. We require a 2/3's majority on any tax increase. Because it's so important that a simple majority not be able to raise taxes. That might be a good idea.

Prop 8 did pass. It got a 52% majority. Because about 204,000 tipped the majority balance. Bigger numbers because it's not a state issue. But we have 14% less support for Prop 8 than Measure B. An iniative that amends our state constitution to take away the rights of millions was able to be passed. A measure that would have helped to fund public transportation was not, despite 14% more support from the public.

It's much harder to raise taxes than it is to take away rights. How's that for priorities?
 
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Congratulations Obama!

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Tuesday, November 04 2008 @ 08:23 PST
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 218
Thoughts
 
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Say brother, can you spare a dime?

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Monday, November 03 2008 @ 04:04 PST
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 256
General NewsCorporate HQ shut us down today. So I'm in the market for an apple cart if you see any by the side of the road.
 
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Talking about Traditional Marriage

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Friday, October 31 2008 @ 11:19 PDT
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 266
General NewsAn awesome rant from an awesome friend on the gay marriage debate:

http://andmydog.livejournal.com/381827.html
 
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What makes a socialist?

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Thursday, October 30 2008 @ 06:14 PDT
Contributed by: Alvin
Views: 263
ThoughtsIs taxing the richest Americans 39.5%, as Obama plans, the hallmark of socialism?

Reagan started his first year with a tax rate of 70% on the richest. You might claim that it's Jimmy Carter's taxes, but you'd be wrong for two reasons. First, Nixon set the tax rate at 70% in 1971, and it was unchanged. Unchanged until 1982, Reagan's second year in office. Well, we all know Reagans trickle-down legacy, so his cuts must have been ridiculous, right? He changed the rate to 50%. For 5 years, the richest Americans were paying half their earnings to the federal government under the man who's heralded as the hero of Capitalism. In 1987 he lowered it to 38.9%, and then in 1988, down to 33%. Three years later, we were in a recession. How's that for trickle down? Clinton raised it to 39.5% (same rate Obama wants) and then oversaw the only dollar adjusted income growth for the bottom 80% of Americans in almost 30 years.

But Nixon's 70% must have been reductions from the JFK/LBJ eras, right? Not exactly. When Nixon took office, the tax rate for the richest Americans was 75.25%, his first year raised it to 77% before getting down to 70% in 1971. LBJ actually lowered taxes more in '64 - from a whopping 91% down to 77%. 91%?! Damn, JFK was practically a commie! Well, no. The tax rate never changed under JFK. The 91% was set by Eisenhower back in 1954. Not even FDR's "soak the rich" got even close, not until the war (and only in the last two years of the war did it surpass Eisenhower's 91%). After the war, Truman had taxes in the mid 80s.

So, we had taxes on the richest Americans in the From 1940's to the 1970's ranging from the 70's to past 90%. Periods in which we've had the biggest and most robust growth of the middle class, the greatest improvements in the standards of living, and economically are looked back at being America's golden years. Then. As if by magic. We start to see the middle class stagnate, and then shrink in the 80's, most of the 90's, and all of this millenia. And the richest Americans grow from earning tens and hundreds times the average worker to thousands times the amount of an average worker throughout the same period.

So, remember this anytime someone tells you lowering taxes on the rich is good for America. If you ask me, Obama's taxes are too low by half.

Research and thoughts inspired by this comic zibacco posted: http://zibacco.livejournal.com/766230.html
 
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Palin's working on a book

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Thursday, October 23 2008 @ 02:30 PDT
Contributed by: EZ
Views: 214
ThoughtsSeen in HuffPost Comments:

"The Chronicles of Palin: The Lyin', The Witchdoctor, and The Wardrobe"
 
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