Samson's Flow

I think continuity is extremely important in sports, and especially in football where schemes and familiarity play a crucial role in success. Even if Rex isn't the best coach (I think he is a good defensive coach), maintaining continuity in the type of players you need, playbook terms and such allow the players to play fast and react rather than think throughout the game.

Ah that newfangled twitter. I'll get on that as soon as I figure out how to de-activate my MySpace account.

Where did you hear this from? Was it on the radio?

Quoting myself since I did a minute worth of research and noticed that the bottom two teams play a best of three playoff for relegation. So it looks like it will end up being Belarus v Switzerland.

I would think that Belarus would be the team for relegation. According to the results on the first post of this thread, they have lost every game by a significant margin thus far. and don't appear to have any games remaining.

This is exactly what I was arguing for in my posts above relating to simplifying the tax code. The big change is that instead of only having this progressive tax rate on income (i.e. wages), which excludes things like capital gains, the simplified tax code taxes all gains in the fiscal year using this method, whether it is wages, sale of capital/property or earnings from investments.

We bought tickets ahead of time for the Wednesday 12/23 showing at 7pm, and showed up way ahead of time thinking we would need to get seats. The theater ended up being roughly 2/3rds full, so at this point you can probably walk up and buy tickets no problem. This was at the Regal Elmwood in Buffalo.

Seems everyone hates Cooney as much as I hated Brandon Triche a few years back. :lol:

We'll see how they do once the ACC schedule starts this week. One of the biggest problems with this year's team is they don't have the length that they used to in order to make the zone really effective. Even Texas Southern yesterday afternoon gave them troubles in their own end with back door alley-oops and interior passing. I agree that the incoming class and the freshmen this year will make for an interesting team next year. Again, they are much more physically able to run Boeheim's system which should make them more effective.

This is what I was trying to get at a week ago, but I gave up explaining it as you took up the fight for the cause. I'd point out that the rich guy with the tax professional is able to find many more deductions than the average citizen who doesn't itemize and takes the standard deduction. the tax code is not working for the right people. Then you throw a bunch of tea into the Boston harbor.

Wife got me a few bottles of bourbon for Christmas that were on my list - Four Roses Single Barrel and John E. Fitzgerald Larceny. Currently enjoying the four roses with a single cube. It had a spicy yet fragrant taste with nutmeg on the finish. Very smooth and definitely a different taste - starts smooth with honey and maple and then provides the flowery (?) notes at the end. I can't quite put my finger on it but it's damn good.

I think Hillary's perception of being a liar comes more from the way she has been known by the public for nearly 16 years now. If you put any politician in the spotlight that long their flip-floppyness will come into focus. Couple that with her willingness to change her platform to appeal to voter trends and this is what you get.

In the four games I have gone to this year, my experience was similar to the quote you provided. I think that my enthusiasm for the Sabres is in the top 5% of the Buffalo population, and there were even times where there were limited scoring chances and nothing really happening where I thought - why did I buy a ticket for this? The $25 Kerfuffle concert tickets were a way better value than the $30 Sabres tickets in terms of entertainment level. That's a problem. I'd much rather see lots of back and forth scoring and a loss than a 1-0 Sabres win snooze-fest. In the 5-3 Sabres loss, I have three times where I get to watch a quality play that led to a goal, where I can then stand and cheer and high-five my friends. The current product just doesn't have enough opportunities to cheer quality play. This is a league-wide problem, save for a few teams like the Stars this year.

It seems me and Neo are on the same page here. I don't think I can explain it any better than I have with Neo's supporting posts. d4rk has stated pretty clearly that he believes there will be inherent complexity, and while I have an opposing view, there is no way to prove either side without attempting tax code reform. Since this is a hypothetical discussion, there is no way to verify either view. Happy Holidays. :thumbsup:

I actually don't want the progressive tax rate to be any different from the current percentages listed in the current tax code. But instead of having thousands of pages of loopholes and incentives in it, if the tax code was say, 3 pages long, there would be far fewer ways to game the system. If you didn't pay 20% of what you earned this year in taxes, then you are committing tax fraud/evasion. There's nothing left up to interpretation. (Again I use this mythical 20% as a random example. I like and agree with the current progressive tax rates of 15%-35% based on income level.)

I am merely trying to shepard the politics conversation to a more entertaining level by providing some levity amidst the serious talk. I've got nothing against the fine folks in the hookers and blow field. Supply and demand at it's finest ;)

I understand your uneasiness with respect to simplicity given the above examples. I agree that not all policies should be simplistic - and Mandatory Minimum Sentencing is certainly one where I would much rather defer to a judge's ruling as opposed to a "one-size-fits-all" penalty. That's an area that needs discretion and common sense to prevent productive citizens from being locked up for 20 years. However, the tax code, or as Neo so elegantly put it "the rules under which their government confiscates its wealth" should be straightforward and easy to understand by the common man so that they are able to predict the effect as well as understand at an arm's length that every other citizen is being effected similarly. Under a simple to understand tax code, Joe Janitor and Charlie CEO are both giving up 20% of the money they earned this year to contribute to common societal benefits, as determined by the government. Where the current tax code breaks down IMO, is that Joe Janitor still pays his rate, but due to the complexities, Charlie CEO has a team of guys he hired to find every opportunity to move his 35% to less than 15%. Joe Janitor thinks the tax code means the rich are paying their share, but in reality, he is paying a higher percentage of his wealth in taxes than the wealthy are. Problem is that the wealthy are the ones that can both 1) afford to pay taxes and 2) whose taxes can actually fund meaningful programs/infrastructure.

:lol: I added the last line just for effect. That was actually an add after the edit.

How does 20% of all money you gained in the year need interpretation? No need to make exceptions for the various ways you got that money - wages? 20%; sold a boat? 20%; hit it big on your vietnamese hooker & blow business? cool, that'll be 20% please. The reason the current tax code is a thousand pages long is the government was trying to incentivise certain activities (i.e. charitable contributions) that were considered good for the community. Problem is that the poorer folks don't have the excess capital to give to charity, whereas the wealth can use that tax break incentive to lower their effective tax rate. So it ends up boning the folks that actually need the tax breaks and giving tax breaks to the rich f***s that have Scrooge McDuck swimming pools full of money.

My wife's best friend had an unhealthy obsession with Drew Stafford. We often attempted to convince her he was a middling hockey player but she would have none of it. She was devastated when he was traded to Winnipeg.

Nothing like some good accounting policy/GAAP to get my blood flowing. I knew I liked you SFiNS.

I think the american public as a whole is growing increasingly frustrated with the wealthy's ability to circumvent the rules and their wealth allowing them to dictate special treatment. With the way the current code is constructed, the complexities are lost on the average citizen, but the wealthy are able to pay a "tax code specialist" to identify ways for them to save millions in taxes through tax shelters/offshoring/etc. If the tax code were as simple as "every dollar you earn gets taxed at 20%", then there wouldn't be ways for the middle class citizen to pay a higher effective tax rate than the guy with a billion dollar valuation. That's the simplification = correctness argument that I am getting at.

That's how current taxes are intended to work, yes, but right now the X guys are smart enough to find loopholes in corporate taxes/capital gains tax so that their effective rate is not .35X but more like .15X. The tax code needs to be simplified to the point where It can be calculated by everyone and done on one single sheet of paper.

:lol: :lol: I really didn't think you were actually going to listen to my advice! Glad you had a good time at the holiday party.

Doesn't help that their numbers are 28 and 88. For a 70 year old, those can look awfully similar from the nosebleeds.