georgerussia

The problem with such a policy that a company limits their ability to hire a really good CEO. And I do not see what they are getting in exchange. It's not "fairness" feeling, as the fairness question would relate to multiplier - like why 100x and not 50x? But I suspect such a policy doesn't really matter, as CEOs have a lot of other ways to get compensated besides salary. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

If you look on this using holier-than-thou moral-grounds approach, then even ten time minimal wage increase won't help. "Is it right to rent a HUMAN LIFE for miserable 500 bucks a day?" - pronounce with dignity and self-righteousness. But realistically there are several places in this world where you could "rent a human life" much cheaper than 50 bucks a day. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Those programs are not useless. They are just something we could survive without until the economy gets better. It is like upgrading your 5-year old container with a new skyhook-equipped Vector 3. Is it useless? No. But is it really necessary? No, it could wait. Completing the BART loop is just one example of what could be definitely put on hold right now. Another example is seismic retrofitting. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, let's be honest with ourselves - didn't Californians vote for a bunch of crazy spending projects just less than four months ago? Call me an asshole, but I fully support those changes. Unlike income tax increase, the increase in sales and car tax will make every voter here pay for what they voted for. Hopefully next time more people will think money before they approve yet another multi-billion project in the middle of recession. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Cograts on your surgery, but I think you might be in a big trouble now. Your Jesus might interpret your act of preferring going to scientific medical facility instead of submitting to spiritual powers as you really do not have any faith. In the best case Jesus would say that you sold your spiritual soul in exchange for relieving from body pain, which might be a major trouble on your way to the Heaven. I wonder why didn't you post the source you copy-pasted from. Is it because you thought http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/prayer.htm does not look convincing? Here's one of the latest researches for you: http://www.ahjonline.com/article/PIIS0002870305006496/abstract According to the Pew Research Center 2008 study, people who are not affiliated with any particular faith today, represent 16.1% of U.S. population, so you're talking about spreading your Christian-based Creation theory over much more than 1-2% of population. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

And, I guess, not only rice, but something else as well. The captain should have known the associated risks for himself (losing his seaman certificate at least) as well as real danger to his team while trying to leave the country illegally. The whole story as described makes no sense to me. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No, I didn't. This part is even quoted in my own post. Note it doesn't say "IRS employee", and basically everyone who spends couple hours on irs.gov could call themselves "IRS researcher". This, however, doesn't change anything I said - we do not even know if such report exists at all, and since it is not available, we cannot get a second opinion on it to see if the research was invalid or biased. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No, the source is not IRS. The source is "Joel Slemrod, an economics professor and the director of the Office of Tax Policy Research at the University of Michigan's business school, and Andrew Johns, an IRS researcher". They claim to base it on the unpublished IRS source, but there is no confirmation about it, so the real question is, how trustworthy are those people. Even if their research is based on a real IRS source, they said nothing about how they calculated the percentage. This may have huge difference. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

There is no moral in my story. It just shows a major flaw in the way some Christians justify their beliefs, and why everyone better follow them. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Usually a typical Christian reply to this is "God has its own ways and we shall not try to understand them as we cannot anyway". Which basically means everything they do might make no sense at all, and it's still possible that at the end only married gay people will go to Heaven. After all, it would be just one of those "own ways". * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Great! Now read the rest of the thread. We've covered that. Sorry, I didn't make myself clear enough. "Proud to be American" in my interpretation sounds different comparing to "proud to be black". The first one does not sound to me like someone is really proud just by the fact he was born in the USA, but more like you said it - being proud of the country accomplishments and being somehow associated with them through ancestry. Even though this is something you do not have any control over, and therefore could be considered "a little silly". "Proud to be black" definitely sounds different. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Like "proud to be American"? :) * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

That's the part I doubt. The proponents claim that the whole system will be only supported by user fees, and not the government. And maintaining a 737 and ATC cannot be cheaper than maintaining a 500-mile high-speed railway tracks alone. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Are you sure we _badly_ need a /rare-stop/ train from San Francisco to San Diego? But then there is another problem. I know a lot of airlines which are not government-owned or operated. But so far I do not know any railroad in the world which is not government-owned or operated on government subsidies. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I'm here to discuss subject with the people. If the person cannot even state their opinion and just points to some YouTube video, it seems like they have nothing to say themselves. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, since that it is you who brought up the video as evidence, it should be your responsibility to prove that the evidence you've brought is not fake. Not every video on YouTube is real, as you obviously know. However I'll take it. Yes, it has very high chance to be fake. First, there is no information in the video about the slaughtering house, which a) makes it impossible to verify the information stated and b) makes it impossible for anyone to legally clarify it as false information. After all, I could set up a slaughtering house in my backyard for ten minutes, bring in some cows and video guys and shoot a 10-minute video of much worse "evidence". Second, it looks like this has been shot on pro equipment and then was edited to look like it was shot by a camcorder; I'd give a strong verdict if I got access to a higher-quality version of the video. But it was definitely edited, and I'd put my last dollar on this. But your problem here is that it's not really relevant. If you had a verifyable list of California farms which abuse the animals, and there was significant amount of them, you'd prove your point at least partially. Then we would need to take a look on the farms outside California, because if they do the same, the ballot measure will not really help at all. So far even if we accept your video as evidence (which we cannot do as it's not verifyable), it looks like just a single incident, which does not require any measures. I guess your "common knowledge" so far only came from special interest groups, because you definitely not talking as someone of his own experience. Did you EVER personally visit a slaughterhouse? How do you know how they operate? You obviously know that special interest groups are not created and funded to tell you the truth. In the best case they usually tell you only one side of it. That's a good suggestion, and I assume you already done it yourself. Could I ask you how many have you have visited already, and what was your overall experience? Do you have any evidence for this 75% figure, or you're just guessing? But anyway there would be no wonder. A slaughterhouse worker's job is not like secretary in the office. It is the job to slaughter animals, that's what they are hired for. Obviously this is not job for everyone. The executioners in the ancient times had even higher turnover as well. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, if insults are the only things you could come with to support your position, I'd say it is kinda weak. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Maybe I missed something, but do someone really need a train to visit all the cool dropzones we have up here? Won't a car work? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

No. This is a "special request" video, which was DIRECTED and filmed for a specific purpose. They did not even make it look like a hidden cam video. A special interest group paid money for it to get filmed. Do you _really_ expect them to provide you a true picture? Why would they? At some point in my life I was making such videos for a couple politicians. This made me extremely cynical when something is shown on video, and the people are asked to vote for or against something because of that. I would accept your position if you personally (or through personal connection) visit those farms and collect the statistics. However if all your information comes from special interest groups, I'd say you're insulting others while having no real knowledge on the subject. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Yet another "save-our-children-and-protect-the-environment" fake video? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I wouldn't care about people leaving, as it probably only be a few of them. We didn't see the exodus during Bush term as well. I would however be more worried about _money_ leaving - it is much simpler. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

In a socialist system there is no tipping. Nor he needs any tips, because by the government rules his salary is the same as yours. We had something like that it in Soviet Union. So actually he'd be much better in a truly socialist system. But you gave me a good idea. Next time I see a waiter with Obama button, I won't give him any tip, as he'll obviously agree that I need to save money now to be able to pay for his family healthcare. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

This is what I'm thinking (I already posted some of it though, so may be duplicate): 1A High speed train No. Not only the bond measures are just not a smart way to fund things right now when the state has a huge budget deficit, but I also do not see the whole point. It's not like California has a real problem of getting from San Francisco to San Diego and back. The planes fly every day and cost $200, which is probably what the railroad ticket would cost as well. If public transit system is to be extended, we need more local transit. At this moment it is faster to get to LA from SJC than to Oakland using available public transportation. 2 Standards for Confining Farm Animals No. For me it's just another kind of hypocrisy. Basically we're saying it is humane treatment to castrate and slaughter animals, but not humane if we do not provide them with a large cage (or no cage at all). There are countries where HUMANS live in much worse conditions than animals in Cali farms. Not to mention it will drive the cost of doing business for farms, which will force them out of California to the states which do not have such stupid restrictions. Or to Mexico. 3 Children's Hospital Bond No. Not a good time for bonds, and the economy goes south. And I generally do not like "save the children"-style proclamations as those who bring them very often revealed to be full of crap. 4 Waiting Period and Parental Notification for Terminating Pregnancy No. Yet another "protect our children" proposition. Now to ban teenage abortion (I'm saying "ban" because requiring family notification for teenagers who do not want it mean that such teenager will not go for legal abortion), and shift it to the back alley abortions. Included some stupid speculation about some unknown Sarah and that she might be alive - probably because her family would pray for her after receiving notification. Usually I do not really care about abortion issues - you could always fly outside USA and have it there no matter what - but this one is really stupid. Either the proponents never had kids, or they follow some very special interests. 5 Non-violent Drug Offenses Yes. There are too many people in prisons who shouldn't be there. 6 Police and Law Enforcement Funding No. This is long-term shot. There are much more critical problems which require monetary investment. 7 Renewable Energy Generation No. The cost analysis does not support the general idea. 8 Eliminates Right of Same-Sex Couples to Marry No. Actually the only argument proponents have is that "the children MAY BE forced to learn in school that gay marriage is the same as non-gay". Why don't they just say that "your son may be forced to suck a dick in school", or that the aliens may invade the Earth? 9 Criminal Justice System Victim's Rights - Parole No. Too much bipartisan stuff. 10 Alternative Fuel Vehicles and Renewable Energy No. Agree with Cris. 11 Redistricting Yes. Current legislature is disgusting. They already tried to extend their term in Constitution last election, and failed. Now they are trying it again (see http://www.sos.ca.gov/elections/elections_j.htm at the bottom). I understand they're all politicians and demanding any dignity would be just unreasonable - but do they have any self-respect, after all? The People of California already told them to forget about it, why try again? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

This is kinda funny. You're talking about deaths due to lack of health insurance, but provide a search results pf "death due to lack of health _care_". Which is obviously different thing. Is that why all those countries are on the top of the WHO lists? Because they provide lousy healthcare and higher costs that we do? Well actually the opposite is true And not only healthcare; they have socialized government. How you define the "poverty line", as it is not the state-mandated poverty line because they would qualify for food stamps? And it all depends on priorities. I know a person who is in the same position you described. He has a cable TV and Internet at home, and drives a 2-year old Prius. But when I suggested that because the times are tough, and he might need to cut cable TV and Internet and maybe sell Prius and get a $2000 junk car - he's not driving a lot anyway - and buy health insurance for him and his kid, he looked at me like I'm crazy. I'm 99% sure that if you reviewed their budget, you'd see it yourself that most, if not all of them, could afford it. They just need to set priorities right. Just ask how many of them have cable TV, cell phones, Internet? Going out for a lunch or dinner? Spent on vacation? Expensive hobbies? Unnecessary stuff like tobacco and alcohol? And when it comes, you'll hate it. Mark my words. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

According to Webster, regressive tax is "decreasing in rate as the base increases". The _rate_ technically stays the same, so it may or may not be considered a "regressive tax", and has been argued a lot over the Internet. Like sales tax on food - it has fixed rate for everyone, therefore someone who makes 1M pays the same amount that someone who makes 25K. However the amount they pay as a percentage to their income is smaller. Therefore it could also be considered regressive. Again, it's the word play. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *