That's one smoothly operating excavator.

Below is an explanation of why it is both fair and logical for the rich to pay more taxes. Taken from http://www.zompist.com/richtax.htm The website also has an argument against the flat tax.

It was written a while ago (90s I'm guessing) but most of the points are still valid today.

For more than a century it's been generally recognized that the best taxes (admittedly this is an expression reminiscent of "the most pleasant death" or "the funniest Family Circus cartoon") are progressive-- that is, proportionate to income.

Lately, however, it's become fashionable to question this. Various Republican leaders have trotted out the idea of a flat tax, meaning a fixed percentage of income tax levied on everyone. And in their hearts they may be anxious to emulate Maggie Thatcher's poll tax-- a single amount that everyone must pay.

Isn't that more fair? Shouldn't everyone pay the same amount?

In a word-- no. It's not more fair; it's appallingly unfair. Why? The rich should pay more taxes, because the rich get more from the government.

Consider defense, for example, which makes up 20% of the budget. Defending the country benefits everyone; but it benefits the rich more, because they have more to defend. It's the same principle as insurance: if you have a bigger house or a fancier car, you pay more to insure it.

Social security payments, which make up another 20% of the budget, are dependent on income-- if you've put more into the system, you get higher payments when you retire.

Investments in the nation's infrastructure-- transportation, education, research & development, energy, police subsidies, the courts, etc.-- again are more useful the more you have. The interstates and airports benefit interstate commerce and people who can travel, not ghetto dwellers. Energy is used disproportionately by the rich and by industry.

As for public education, the better public schools are the ones attended by the moderately well off. The very well off ship their offspring off to private schools; but it is their companies that benefit from a well-educated public. (If you don't think that's a benefit, go start up an engineering firm, or even a factory, in El Salvador. Or Watts.)

The FDIC and the S&L bailout obviously most benefit investors and large depositors. A neat example: a smooth operator bought a failing S&L for $350 million, then received $2 billion from the government to help resurrect it.

Beyond all this, the federal budget is top-heavy with corporate welfare. Counting tax breaks and expenditures, corporations and the rich snuffle up over $400 billion a year-- compare that to the $1400 budget, or the $116 billion spent on programs for the poor.

Where's all that money go? There's direct subsidies to agribusiness ($18 billion a year), to export companies, to maritime shippers, and to various industries-- airlines, nuclear power companies, timber companies, mining companies, automakers, drug companies. There's billions of dollars in military waste and fraud. And there's untold billions in tax credits, deductions, and loopholes. Accelerated depreciation alone, for instance, is estimated to cost the Treasury $37 billion a year-- billions more than the mortgage interest deduction. (Which itself benefits the people with the biggest mortgages. But we should encourage home ownership, shouldn't we? Well, Canada has no interest deduction, but has about the same rate of home ownership.)

For more, see Mark Zepezauer and Arthur Naiman's informative little book, Take the Rich Off Welfare.

How about social spending? Well, putting aside the merely religious consideration that the richest nation on the planet can well afford to lob a few farthings at the hungry, I'd argue that it's social spending-- the New Deal-- that's kept this country capitalistic. Tempting as it is for the rich to take all the wealth of a country, it's really not wise to leave the poor with no stake in the system, and every reason to agitate for imposing a new system of their own. Think of social spending as insurance against violent revolution-- and again, like any insurance, it's of most benefit to those with the biggest boodle.

Always appreciate the promote, amigo.

In reply to this comment by rasch187:
*promote

Say what you will... Bill Clinton is a smooth operator.

sirex, I think you have to understand a little better about what it means to be a chef. The chef is ultimately responsible for every fuck up in the kitchen. A good chef respects hard, intelligent work, and absolute loyalty and respect. In return that chef will be not just your boss, but your mentor, ally, resource, teacher and friend. A good chef (and ramsey is the best) will work twice as hard as his staff, move heaven and earth to make a restaurant happen, to make GOOD food happen, and to make the customers happy.

But if you let up. If you act stupid, disrespectful, or somehow endanger the smooth operation that he has put his heart and soul into, woe be unto you. If your heart isn't in your job, if you are not honestly giving your best, a good chef will correct you. And those lessons will be harsh, and few. If you don't get it soon, you're out the door.

You need to understand, GR isn't being a prick for laughs. He's trying to create the perfection that makes him one of the best chefs in the world. He expects exceptional effort, and exceptional results. People who aren't in food service can not understand this. Obviously, mr angry guy in the video couldn't understand it either. I hope he has fun working at Denny's, or Bennigan's, or whatever other greasy spoon he goes back to.

I was a fiend before I became a teen
I melted microphone instead of cones of ice cream
Music orientated so when hip-hop was originated
Fitted like pieces of puzzles, complicated
cause I grabbed the mic and try to say, yes y'all!
They tried to take it, and say that I'm too small
Cool, cause I don't get upset
I kick a hole in the speaker, pull the plug, then I jet
Back to the lab ...without a mic to grab
So then I add all the rhymes I had
One after the other one, then I make another one
To dis the opposite then ask if the brothers done
I get a craving like I fiend for nicotine
But I don't need a cigarette, know what I mean?
I'm raging, ripping up the stage and
Don't it sound amazing cause every rhyme is made and
Thought of, cuz its sort of...an addiction,
Magnatized by the mixing
Vocals, vocabulary, your verses, you're stuck in
The mic is a drano, volcanoes erupting,
Rhymes overflowing, gradually growing
Everything is written in the cold, so it can coin-
Cide, my thoughts to guide,
48 tracks to slide
The invincible, microphone fiend rakim
Spread the word, cause I'm in
E-f-f-e-c-t
A smooth operator operating correctly,
But back to the problem, I gotta habit,
You cant solve it, silly rabbit
The prescription is a hypertone thats thorough when
I fiend for a microphone like heroin
Soon as the bass kicks, I need a fix
Gimme a stage and a mic and a mix
And Ill put you in a mood or is it a state of
Unawareness? beware, its the reanamator!
A menace to a microphone, a lethal weapon
An assasinator, if the people ain't stepping
You see a part of me that you never seen
When I'm fiending for a microphone, Im the microphone fiend...

After 12, I'm worse that a gremlin
Feed me hip-hop and I start trembling
The thrill of suspense is intense, your horrified
But this ain't the cinemas of tales from the darkside,
By any means neccesary, this is what has to be done
Make way cause here I come....
My dj cuts material....
Grand imperial.
It's a must that I bust any mic youre hand to me,
Its inherited, its runs in the family
I wrote the rhyme that broke the bulls back,
If that dont slow em up, I carry a full pack.
Now I dont want to have to let off, you should of kept off
You didnt keep the stage warm, step off!
Ladies and gentleman, youre about to see
A pasttime hobby about to be
Take it to the maximum, I cant relax see, im
Hype as a hyperchrondriac cause the rap be one-
Hell of a antidote, something you cant smoke
More than dope, you're trying to move away but you cant, you're broke
More than cracked up, you should have backed up
For those who act up need to be more than smacked up
Any entertainer, I got a torture chamber
One on one and Im the remainder!
So close your eyes and hold your breath,
And I'm a hitcha wit the blow of death
Before you go, you'll remember you seen
The fiend of a microphone, I'm the microphone fiend

Well excuse me, take a few minutes, to mellow out
Big Daddy Kane is on the mic and I'ma tell about
a minimum length, of rhymes of strength
and power, so listen to the man of the hour
Flow and go to a slow tempo and you know
sing hoe, swing low, then yo the show
will go on, as I perform
Transformin on stage like a Decepticon
But I'm not animated like a cartoon
I'm for real, shootin lyrics like a harpoon
Across the crowd, the listeners, the spectators
So let's groove with the smooth operator

The B-I-G, D-A-double-D-Y-K-A-N-E
I'm good and plenty, servin many and any
competition, wishin for an expedition
I'm straight up dissin and dismissin, listen
Rappers act so wild, and love to profile
Frontin hard but ain't got no style
I give nightmares to those who compete
Freddy Kreuger, walkin on Kane Street
Confuse and lose abuse and bruise the crews
who choose to use my name wrong, they pay dues
Destruction from the exterminator
But in a calm manner, cause I'm a smooth operator

Now girls step up to this
One simple kiss, and it's over Miss
Sold to nice dreamers, high as the price seem
girlfriend, you been scooped like ice cream
So just swing or fling a gathering try to cling
Cause It's a Big Daddy Thing
And I'm lovin em right word is bond
So just play Marvin Gaye and Let's Get It On
I make it real good like Dr. Feelgood
To make sure that my point is understood
That when it comes to this there's none greater
Sincerely yours... the smooth operator

Now ain't that the pot callin the kettle black
Sayin I'm a new jack, you need to be smacked
The smooth way I say em and the way I display em
to make them sound different in a way that's gifted
and hey I'm, makin sure every lyric is done fine
And I make one line, bright as the sunshine
Attack you like Robatussin on a cough
If you know like I know -- step off!
Competition, I'ma get rid of
You can't get a bit of, so just consider
a break or rest vacation hibernation
And make way for my smooth operation
I'm a smooth operator

I can't see an advantage from having a foot like ours, compared to monkey-feet-hands. Yet somehow, small mutations such as straighter feet took place, and selective breeding led to our feet the way they are.

Well I wrote an extensive paper on "the selective pressures leading to bipedalism in the genus Homo", and trust me, there area lot of reasons why our hands and feet are more differentiated than other primates.

For the bulk of its evolution, humanity has been a fairly nomadic, hunter-gatherer race. Mainly, you can't walk upright very well or have a smoothly operating human knee if you also have an opposable big toe. Morphology facilitating bipedal locomotion conferred a number of survival and sexual selection advantages to a primitive human. Mainly:

1. Bipedal locomotion is more energy efficient than any other locomotor pattern... humans have better endurance for long voyages by foot than any other species, including horses, large cats, etc..
2. Walking upright exposes less skin surface area to UV rays
3. Walking upright allows the focussed use of the hands to carry things, protect young, gather food, etc..
4. Walking upright allows a greater field of vision and viewing distance, which is better for hunting as well as defending the tribe.

And so on...

I'm so glad I live in a time when I'm free to say that there is no bigger waste of time or engergy than religion. Used to be someone could sincerely believe in god and I could accept that. These days, if you tell me you believe in god, you're gonna have to be one smooth operator to convince me you aren't also otherwise a thoughtless moron.

Sifty - the smooth operator!

mmm... beignets!

The power supply's ability to handle the new specs is going to depend a lot on what the total current rating is for the 12V rails. In general, today's higher end video cards are going to need at least 30Amps combined. Another factor to consider in selecting a power supply is its efficiency. A good power supply these days can operate at around 80% efficiency or better. A quick look at what I could find stat-wise on Thermaltake's 430W PSUs lists them as 65% percent which means it will run hotter and waste more energy. The ability of a PSU to deliver stable and sufficient current is critical to building a system. Upgrading the PSU may be a small price to pay for smooth operation and piece of mind.

The thing with positively identifying stormtroopers is...eh....nevermind. He's got the same smooth moves as DTS (dancing tokyo stormtrooper). Like when he points at the camera all cock-sure, such a smooth operator. Upovoto.

I wonder where.

If this is HIM, it's most likely Akiba/Akihabara District, Tokyo.

Sorry, this is a dupe. The original still works.

http://www.videosift.com/video/These-Monkeys-Are-Smooth-Operators

*discard