The News Thread

**Kurosawa Fan** · 08-10-2010, 11:41 PM

This lady really wanted her Chicken McNuggets

**Scar** · 08-10-2010, 11:52 PM

Quoting Kurosawa Fan (view post)

This lady really wanted her Chicken McNuggets

:lol:

**[ETM]** · 08-11-2010, 12:27 AM

This girl is just awesome.

**MadMan** · 08-11-2010, 06:41 AM

Quoting chrisnu (view post)

Gay bar planned next to the mosque at Ground Zero.

Fried gold.

I'm sure The Daily Show had a field day with that.

**number8** · 08-11-2010, 12:31 PM

Verrrry interesting. This would give Barty a heart attack. German millionaires reject Gates and Buffet's pledge invitation, and check out the reason:

Krämer: I find the US initiative highly problematic. You can write donations off in your taxes to a large degree in the USA. So the rich make a choice: Would I rather donate or pay taxes? The donors are taking the place of the state. That's unacceptable.

SPIEGEL: But doesn't the money that is donated serve the common good?

Krämer: It is all just a bad transfer of power from the state to billionaires. So it's not the state that determines what is good for the people, but rather the rich want to decide. That's a development that I find really bad. What legitimacy do these people have to decide where massive sums of money will flow?

SPIEGEL: It is their money at the end of the day.

Krämer: In this case, 40 superwealthy people want to decide what their money will be used for. That runs counter to the democratically legitimate state. In the end the billionaires are indulging in hobbies that might be in the common good, but are very personal.

Keep in mind that Germany's social programs is so much better handled than ours, and they recently asked the government to increase taxes for the rich.

EDIT: Source.

**number8** · 08-11-2010, 02:23 PM

I actually think this has spurred some very interesting debates. I guess when it comes down to it, it's just a matter of the German people trusting their government to put their money to good use, while Americans don't.

**D_Davis** · 08-11-2010, 03:09 PM

Mexico pulls ahead of the US regarding civil rights.

We suck!

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/11/wo.../11mexico.html

**D_Davis** · 08-11-2010, 04:02 PM

Quoting [ETM] (view post)

This girl is just awesome.

And a hoax!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/11/elyse-porterfield/

**Mara** · 08-11-2010, 04:06 PM

Quoting D_Davis (view post)

And a hoax!

http://techcrunch.com/2010/08/11/elyse-porterfield/

She was too pretty.

**D_Davis** · 08-11-2010, 04:23 PM

Quoting Mara (view post)

She was too pretty.

I'd say she was a hot of piece ass.

**B-side** · 08-11-2010, 04:46 PM

The conservatives have decided it's time to be scared of "terror babies."

**Sycophant** · 08-11-2010, 05:04 PM

Quoting number8 (view post)

Verrrry interesting. This would give Barty a heart attack. German millionaires reject Gates and Buffet's pledge invitation, and check out the reason:

Keep in mind that Germany's social programs is so much better handled than ours, and they recently asked the government to increase taxes for the rich.

EDIT: Source.

Seems to me the answer is to get rid of the tax breaks for charitable donations. And while we're at it, might as well raise capital gains tax.

**Spinal** · 08-11-2010, 06:05 PM

Quoting D_Davis (view post)

And a hoax!

Yeah, that one felt kinda fishy.

**MadMan** · 08-11-2010, 07:17 PM

Quoting number8 (view post)

I actually think this has spurred some very interesting debates. I guess when it comes down to it, it's just a matter of the German people trusting their government to put their money to good use, while Americans don't.

Perhaps they're either more trusting, or their government has actually given them a reason to trust it. Either way, they're not being cynical enough, damnit :P

**Duncan** · 08-11-2010, 07:19 PM

Quoting number8 (view post)

Verrrry interesting. This would give Barty a heart attack. German millionaires reject Gates and Buffet's pledge invitation, and check out the reason:

Keep in mind that Germany's social programs is so much better handled than ours, and they recently asked the government to increase taxes for the rich.

EDIT: Source.

But these guys are giving away 50% of their assets, not 50% of their incomes, right?

So, to make it really simple, let's say a guy has $10 billion in assets and is going to give away $5 billion. Now, let's say his yearly income is $1 billion (generous, I think), and let's say he pays 50% of that to the tax man, or $500 million. That's still a full order of magnitude less than what he's giving away to charity. So ultimately you're getting ~10 times as much money flowing towards a very generalized idea of the public good, which I think I'm OK with, as long as schools and roads and shit don't start falling apart, except that that's already happening, so...

**number8** · 08-11-2010, 07:49 PM

Quoting Duncan (view post)

So, to make it really simple, let's say a guy has $10 billion in assets and is going to give away $5 billion. Now, let's say his yearly income is $1 billion (generous, I think), and let's say he pays 50% of that to the tax man, or $500 million.

I think the math is a bit off. Most of these guys pledge to give it away after death. Per your simplification, that's $5 billion given away once, versus $500 million given away every year. If the guy lives for 20 more years, that'd be twice the amount of the pledge in taxes.

**Mara** · 08-11-2010, 08:05 PM

Fines in Sweden are based on the offense and... the person's income level? Interesting.

$962,000 speeding ticket.

**Spinal** · 08-11-2010, 08:15 PM

Quoting Mara (view post)

Fines in Sweden are based on the offense and... the person's income level? Interesting.

$962,000 speeding ticket.

Looks like it's actually Switzerland. The driver was Swedish, driving in Switzerland.

Also ...

Police said the 37-year-old motorist was driving so fast in this $240,000 sports car that it took him nearly half a mile to stop.
...
Police said he had eluded being zapped by numerous radars en route simply because he was going too fast and they were unable to clock speeds beyond 125 mph.

Wow.

**Mara** · 08-11-2010, 08:21 PM

Quoting Spinal (view post)

Looks like it's actually Switzerland. The driver was Swedish, driving in Switzerland.

...you're right. I'm trying to word a joke about how long it took him to brake and going between those two countries, but it's not working out geographically.

"Ha ha ha he probably started in Sweden, then sped through Finland, clipped Russia, Estonia, Latvia, then... aw, never mind."

**Duncan** · 08-11-2010, 09:34 PM

Quoting number8 (view post)

I think the math is a bit off. Most of these guys pledge to give it away after death. Per your simplification, that's $5 billion given away once, versus $500 million given away every year. If the guy lives for 20 more years, that'd be twice the amount of the pledge in taxes.

Well, in that case, I don't think you can write off a pledge to give an unspecified amount of money on some unspecified date in the future, so you'd still be paying income tax all those years until you died + the lump sum posthumous donation.

**chrisnu** · 08-12-2010, 10:23 PM

Same-sex marriage in California can resume in six days.

**Spinal** · 08-12-2010, 10:55 PM

Quoting chrisnu (view post)

Same-sex marriage in California can resume in six days.

Which means that traditional marriage should be completely undermined by .... what? ... late October?

**chrisnu** · 08-12-2010, 10:59 PM

Quoting Spinal (view post)

Which means that traditional marriage should be completely undermined by .... what? ... late October?

The sinkhole underneath San Francisco is already opening.

**D_Davis** · 08-12-2010, 11:11 PM

Quoting Spinal (view post)

Which means that traditional marriage should be completely undermined by .... what? ... late October?

Makes a completely mockery out of my straight divorce.

**bac0n** · 08-13-2010, 01:38 PM

Quoting D_Davis (view post)

Makes a completely mockery out of my straight divorce.

How do ya think Newt Gingrich feels?

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