Well, remember how we were talking about taxes? If we're going to play the fashionable game and tack dollar values of benefits onto people's salaries to pad the number for demagogic effect, then my effective tax rate is even smaller, more like 8% if you add the value of my health & retirement benefits to my income. You really need to consider doing your taxes yourself, clearly your CPA is doing something wrong.

So here's the thing, you say firefighters have such a sweet deal because of unions. I have an idea, how about instead of taking away unions from firefighters, why not get unions for everyone?

As for why you get flack from liberals for being a selfish fascist when you bitch about taxes, it's because you never give anyone a reason to think you're somehow being treated unfairly. There's one set of Federal tax laws, and most of us can fill out our 1040 or 1040EZ, grumble, and go on with life. You aren't running your business as a charity to help the unemployed, you're trying to make a buck. There's no blankfist tax, or anti-entrepreneurial tax. On the contrary, there are tax subsidies for small business all over the place, to the point where little middle class worker bees like me get fucking tired of hearing about it.

GE somehow paid zero taxes, and got a 3.2 billion dollar check from Uncle Sam. Instead of bitching about the insanity of that, all you want to do is fuck over all public sector employees all across the nation because you think they might be getting a slightly better deal than you.

Surely by now you've seen this:

A CEO, a tea party member, and a union worker are all sitting at a table when a plate with a dozen cookies arrives. Before anyone else can make a move, the CEO reaches out to rake in eleven of the cookies. When the other two look at him in surprise, the CEO locks eyes with the tea party member. “You better watch him,” the executive says with a nod toward the union worker. “He wants a piece of your cookie.”

That's what you're doing.

Oh, and by the way, student loans are subsidized by tax dollars. As was your K-12 education, I suspect. I bet you've also taken advantage of the services of countless thousands or millions of people who had their education paid for or subsidized by tax dollars. I bet the navy taught you some marketable job skills even (beyond the right way to use a glory hole). You were probably born in a hospital that was subsidized by tax dollars, and delivered by a doctor whose education was subsidized by tax dollars, and received vaccinations for childhood illness that were developed by research subsidized or wholly funded by tax dollars. You might even occasionally use this thing called the Internet, which is based on technology developed at DARPA as part of the defense budget.

Look, I have sympathy for anyone who's struggling to make ends meet, and I know running your own business is tough -- that's why I haven't tried it. But it's your philosophy that says people have to own their failures even if it's not really their fault. If you were working for, say, Blockbuster the last 15 years, did an excellent job, but then got laid off because traditional rentals got destroyed by Netflix, that's your fucking problem, and nobody else should have to help you out with your plight. That includes bailouts in the form of tax cuts.

Me, I want a safety net so that if you seriously fall flat on your face, you won't have to worry about having a place to sleep, and food to eat, and will still be able to go see a doctor for the STD you picked up from fucking farm animals. I think all life is precious, and that the markets are a fickle and harsh mistress, while the nanny state should always welcome you into her large, welcoming bosom.

In reply to this comment by blankfist:
Yes, LA is really fucked up. So is California in general. And so are my apocryphal firefighters and policemen.

The average pay for firefighters you linked me to doesn't account for benefits and pension, does it? That's just base salary. So, if the average pay for firefighters is just under $44k, then that's pretty much their taxable income because I cannot image what possible expenses they'd deduct, because they have zero financial risk being an employee. And I'd imagine his benefits alone would equal around $15k to $20k. And then of course their pension which is available when they retire at 55.

That's a pretty good deal. And they get women fawning over them and the vox populi calling them heros. Then there's the guy in the private sector, who's painted to look selfish and evil. People like me. But we don't have unions to protect us, give us great pensions and benefits, and we actually create jobs. I created two last year myself. That aside, the real problems with LA and CA are the unions. They were one thing when they protected proletariats from the bourgeoisie in Charles Dickens' England, but they're something entirely different today, especially when allowed to collude with government and legislators.

I grew up in a milltown in the South. You can't get more working class than that. I'm almost 40 and I'm still paying off my college loans, so suffice it to say no one helped me out. Being happy? I know what makes me happy. The same things you mentioned: not having to worry about rent, not having to worry about food, etc. But without getting too personal here, I can safely say some of that worries me right now because of what I owe to the taxman. And probably nine to eight years back I was in a really, really bad place, yet the taxman cometh. I tried to cash a honkey check, but apparently those don't exist. I guess being white only goes so far contrary to modern lib rhetoric.

What I find interesting is if someone like me bitches that the tax is too high, which it is, then some of you complain I'm selfish and refusing to pay my fair share. But isn't it you, the statists who believe in stealing my money to give to others, that are actually being selfish by laying the tax burden so heavy on the middle class? Specifically income tax.

>> ^Mandtis:

"Approximately 23,000 military and civilian employees[3] and about 3,000 non-defense support personnel work in the Pentagon."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Pentagon
5200 out of about 26000...?? Not a chance I can believe that.


Well, every single word of the title is inaccurate or misleading. It's mind boggling really. The title is taken directly from MoxNews' post, so I don't blame gwiz. But let me try to make a clear list of everything wrong with the title.

1. "5200" - That was the complete number of names/e-mail addresses swept up under ICE project flicker. This was not an investigation into the DoD, but they came across several e-mail addresses that obviously belonged to the DoD. The Pentagon's investigative branch (DCIS) was informed of this and for some reason they checked only 3500 of those names, and of those 3500 found 264 DoD employees.

2. "Pentagon Employees" - No, they were investigating Department of Defense Employees and Contractors, the Pentagon is only one small part of the DoD. The DoD includes Departments of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, DARPA, DIA, NSA, ect. According to Wikipedia there were over 2 million DoD employees in 2009. Plus an unknown number of contractors who are not counted as employees. Coup mentions that Contractors were part of the DCIS investigation at 1:08. So if DCIS did cross check the names against all DoD employees and Contractors, we're talking about basically the entire US Military Industrial Complex. "Pentagon employees" might be 1% of that.

3. "PURCHASED Child Pornography!" - 264 are the number of suspects who were employees or contractors of the DoD. You cannot assume that every suspect is guilty until proven innocent. Coup mentioned that fewer than 20% of them were fully investigated (so less than 52 people). He goes on to say "fewer still were prosecuted", and doesn't mention the total number found guilty.

I agree it's an outrage that they stopped the investigation before looking at the entire list, or completely investigating all of the matches. And it's good to see CNN putting pressure on them to reopen the investigation. But this MoxNews fellow is either completely unscrupulous in spreading misinformation to get views, or just not very smart.

For many individuals, like Indiana Jones, snakes are crawling creatures of nightmare. What do the afraid do with flying snakes, then? Hand them over to the "Flying snakes fascinate DARPA" Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency for research. You will find flying snakes in southeast Asia. The Chrysopelea ornata (ornate flying snake) might just have armed service application. The tree-dwelling serpent typically grows 2 to three feet long and can glide long distances. Based on the Washington Post, it's this gliding ability that has prompted Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to throw money at Virginia Tech so that scientists can decode this secret of nature.

Wow, that's got to be about the easiest DARPA funding proposal ever.

The internet was invented in 1994, dude.

In reply to this comment by choggie:
you people need to realize from he information available....on this site even..
that Facebook is an arm of all-encompassing surveillance....Plus, yer a fucking girl if you use it, a vapid, 11-yr-old-born-11-years-ago, little girl...otherwise-

DARPA motherfuckers!...Homeland Security is a mouse-click away in the coming paradigm refresh....Go!! Tend your farms and your Mafia Wars and tell friends you never see what your last bowel movement was like!

Your life is a cruel joke......Fucking Facebook!

you people need to realize from he information available....on this site even..
that Facebook is an arm of all-encompassing surveillance....Plus, yer a fucking girl if you use it, a vapid, 11-yr-old-born-11-years-ago, little girl...otherwise-

DARPA motherfuckers!...Homeland Security is a mouse-click away in the coming paradigm refresh....Go!! Tend your farms and your Mafia Wars and tell friends you never see what your last bowel movement was like!

Your life is a cruel joke......Fucking Facebook!

These DARPA project ads remind me of Command and Conquer cut scenes. My only question is, are these new cyborg soldiers and engineers NOD, or GDI?

Tags for this video have been changed from 'aerovironment, nano, uav, nav, darpa, hummingbird, mercury' to 'aerovironment, nano, uav, nav, darpa, hummingbird, mercury, skynet' - edited by kulpims

DARPA is not the world's friend.

Tags for this video have been changed from 'darpa, military, bigdog, big dog, bostondynamics, robot, scary' to 'darpa, military, bigdog, big dog, bostondynamics, robot, scary, skynet' - edited by kulpims

Uh... NSF going up 40% is not much, when you consider all of the funding from DARPA that went away. Bush could have been worse, but he was no champion of science.

Funding overall went up during Bush, yes, but funding for basic research in many areas was static or went down. The money went, and in some cases was redirected, to DARPA, to fight bioterror, and to "combat" bird flu. Great for technology, great for national defense, really bad for a public curious about the world around them.

Fair enough, it would probably be hard to get investors to fund primary research, but for the more applicable stuff, the potential ROI is in some cases so massive that it might motivate some long term commitment.

But I really have no idea how the world of research funding works today. Seems to be moving at glacier speed though.

And yeah, military research (i.e. DARPA) has probably been the most successful route to progress so far... although it's a little sad.

>> ^vairetube:
You know what, I'll just google the phrase: convicted criminals appointed by bush .
Here's a start for you:
John Poindexter, Convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress.
Appointed to head DARPA by Bush [...in December 2002]

"The convictions were reversed in 1991 on the technical grounds that the prosecution's evidence may have been tainted by exposure to Poindexter's testimony before the joint House-Senate committee investigating the matter, in which Poindexter's testimony was compelled by a grant of 'use immunity'. The prosecution was not able to re-try the case."

Elliot Abrams, Pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair. Appointed as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy by Bush [...in June 2001]

"Instead, Abrams entered into a plea agreement that ultimately led to a conviction without imprisonment on two misdemeanors of withholding information from Congress. He was fined $50, placed on probation for two years, and assigned 100 hours of community service. Abrams was pardoned by President George H. W. Bush as he was leaving office following his loss in the 1992 U.S. presidential election."

Otto Reich, Convicted in 1990 on five felony charges of conspiracy.
Appointed by Bush to direct Inter American affairs at the State Department. President Bush used the tricky recess appointment procedure to bypass potential hostile and damaging questioning by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

can't find any evidence as to your otto reich contention - cite, please?

And that's just the stuff we already know they did.

You know what, I'll just google the phrase: convicted criminals appointed by bush .

Here's a start for you:

John Poindexter, Convicted of conspiracy, lying to Congress.
Appointed to head DARPA by Bush

Elliot Abrams, Pleaded guilty in 1991 to withholding information from Congress in the Iran-contra affair. Appointed as Deputy Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security Advisor for Global Democracy Strategy by Bush

Otto Reich, Convicted in 1990 on five felony charges of conspiracy.
Appointed by Bush to direct Inter American affairs at the State Department. President Bush used the tricky recess appointment procedure to bypass potential hostile and damaging questioning by Democrats on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

And that's just the stuff we already know they did.