They want to put a state income tax in place on those making $200K or more. And the rate goes up on higher incomes. They expect to get over $11 billion in tax revenues. I've got a better idea. Let's find all those bank CEOs and take away about 2/3s of their investments like they did to our retirement plans. But seriously I know this won't pass because it has an increase in the bussiness and occupation tax (that's a % bussiness pays on sales). Plus as we all know when the tax man gets his foot in the door the $200K figure lands up going down while loopholes for the rich somehow make it into the tax codes.
The taxman
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A Flaming Radioactive Russian?
Vladimir Putin sure knows how to take advantage of a photo op. Today he was seen copiloting a plane putting out the fires in Russia. You'd never see a U.S. president doing that. There has been great concern that the fires have reached the area around Chernobyl creating radioactive smoke. When I first heard that I was alarmed until I did a little research. In a comparison of fallout from a nuclear bomb and the Chernobyl accident scientists have determined that there is very little in the way of radiation.
Here's a comparison of the radiation of a Hiroshima type A bomb compaired to Chernobyl accident.
This was from a study done by Russian, Japanese, and South Korean scientists. They've been studying this accident since it happened in 1986. (Note on the graph that it's just over 10 cSv. By comparison a chest xray is 50 cSv. At 300 cSv 50% exposed die. At 750 Csv death is certain). Let's just hope the fires don't burn up to and inside the containment dome of the plant.
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Superbugs
First there was MRSA then SARS, West Nile, and Swine Flu and now there's NDM (New Delhi metallo-ß-lactamase) a wonderful drug resistant bacteria. Only a few cases have been found in the UK but this could spread with international travel. I've been waiting for the next Black Plague and this could be it. We'll see how this works out. I also think they're fighting all these bacteria the wrong way. Rather than using antibiotics they should be developing other bacteria to fight it. That's how our bodies work. We have over 1000 different types of bacteria living on and in our bodies. Some are good and fight off the badies while others are the badies. Now doesn't that just make you want to itch?
5 comments:
And how does all that make you feel...
I'm freaking Pissed.
Putin and Medvedev are hilarious. There isn't a newscast that doesn't feature them, one at a time, being serious statesmen making important decisions, being briefed about critical things etc. Tanya watches Russia 24 which is a Russian language Fox News (all Russian TV stations are that way)and Putin and Medvedev are on EVERY time.
Demeur you may find this interesting: Radioactive wild boars are on the rise in Germany, where they have attacked and frightened residents, even snarling traffic when they gang up on roadways, according to Spiegel International Online and numerous other media reports over the past couple of weeks.
Their radioactivity stems from Ukraine's Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, which happened way back in 1986, but contaminated much of Europe. Apparently the nuclear contamination is still detectable in some animals, including Germany's wild boars. radioactive wild boars
Just wait until those radioactive wild boars learn to harness their ability to shoot death rays from their eyeballs.
I think that Washington state tax income tax is right on target. I don't disagree there will be pressure to add loopholes over time, and the tax could creep downward some. C'est la vie. You just have to keep an eye on it and vote for legislators who won't go along.
Washington is something like the No. 7 state in the nation for the number of rich and super-rich citizens. (If Bill Gates were to relocate, the state would probably slip to 14th :) )
The state's main revenue sources are a hodgepodge of regressive taxes and fees that weigh more heavily on lower middle class and poor people. It's past time to begin to reverse that situation.
What's more, some of the regressive taxation is past the point of being self-defeating. Every time Washington's Legislature boosts the tax on cigarettes and booze, hundreds of retailers in Idaho and Oregon do high fives and cheer, with good reason. I suspect they send lobbyists to Olympia to push for higher sin taxes.
I've long wished the state would eliminate a bunch of its taxes, reduce others and institute a genuinely progressive income tax that's revenue neutral at the start. That way, you get a federal income tax deduction, which now is very difficult to impossible, and you know what you're actually paying in state taxes. As it is now, few Washingtonians have any idea how much they pay in state taxes each year.
Re: super bugs. This is hardly a surprising development for a number of reasons. It should be something for people who deny evolution to have to explain. But on second thought, they would just say God is punishing the U.K. for being tolerant of gays, or something equally foolish.
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