Does hat-o-rade come in both fedora and bowler flavors?

are you serious?

In order to qualify for unemployed the government soaked off a load of taxes from your own paycheck.

End of year, you have to pay tax for all the unemployment money you received.

If you lucky enough to find a part-time job, you can kiss goodbye to your unemployment benefits, or if you are very lucky they will only take away 2/3 from you...

hat-o-rade in a fedora??? More of a tea-cup to me.


Of course I'm serious!


Yup they sure did, and get this for once I'm "using" the government for something instead of government always using me. IMAGE THAT ONE!


Actually, not that I am giving any tax advice, but the first 2400 of unemployment is tax free.


Well I guess if you find a job then you wouldn't need unemployment because technically you would be considered working...

Here's the kicker for me, maybe you don't agree with the government taking any money from you for unemployment maybe you do, whatever, I like to grasp the reality that in 20 years they predict we won't have a medicare system in place for those who pay into one. Check your stubs and do some quick math. 300 a month x 12 months = 3600 x 30 years (estimated retirement) = 108,000 plus or minus you will have paid into something you will get no return on. That my friend is fraud.

On a bright note if o-bomb-a passes his health care bill we will all be paying for health care regardless of who can afford it, and who knows maybe we can all just live on unemployment from the debt other countries owe us.

You pay out $300 a month in medicare taxes?

*snickers*

You shouldn't really be complaining with a $20,700 a month salary!

P.s. The social security system is broken because the government won't stop raiding for the lock box for more bad investments and wars.

We're $2,300,000,000,000 behind on infrastructure.

All we seem to like to do is rob stoical security to fund wars, write big checks to research and development companies who make absolutely worthless projects that end up in warehouses all over the country, coincidentally not pay anyone their 'guaranteed' benefits (retirement, VA et cetera) which the government gets sued annually for and fund wars we almost always lose in.

I like to think I can survive here without another 300 fighter jets being ordered from Lockheed Martin.

I believe "hat-o-rade" should have an "e" in it... hate-o-rade? I'm just saying.

Also, dear hot-golden-nugget, we are in a lot more debt to China than other countries are in debt to us.

montagneux, did you know that Lockheed Martin is getting into the energy efficiency industry? It kind of wigged me out when I first heard about it... but at least maybe they won't be so hell-bent on making war machines to make money anymore?

The government will never just cease the social security just like that, they know very well how powerful the mob is, and they have done a very good job since the days of the founding fathers by keeping the mob under control. And by the mob I mean, people like you and me, the working class. Because if they will just cease the social security in 20 years, there will be a big revolt in the control, it won't be pretty, it will be a complete collapse of the government.

So they know this very well, and will never go the point of just cancelling the social security program, all you hear right now, is just stupid propaganda stuff against current president.

I hope they will pass the health-care reform already, all the europe, even canada had universal health care coverage for ages and they are doing just fine, but for some reason this country has almost 40 million people without health coverage, its shocking, because 40 million is more than entire population of some countries...

dubk,

i assumed it was like a parade, only for hats...

montagneux is correct 20.700 isn't bad for an architect these days... REALLY.... simply trying to make a point here. *Almond Joy*

I agree with your comments about spending on wars has become quite ridiculous, however at the end of the I would rather have 300 hundred jets in my backyard rather than my enemies. The real problem is that unfortunately our country has become so politically correct we have lost the ability to enforce the values that made us who we are. If 911 would have happened in the 40s, 50s, 60s we probably would have seen a completely different approach to handling the issue.



DJ dub::K ,

Your right, we are in debt to China, Japan, Russia, UK, etc... however I was wishfully thinking that maybe someday we could collect all the outstanding debt that we forgave almost all of these countries back when they were rebuilding from their own wars. Wishful thinking, besides you and I won't be paying for this, the generations below us will.

Lockheed Martin goes green, and I'm the next president.


zen maker

The mob, what is this the sopranos! I own a gun too! The time for change was supposed to happen with our current administration or at least thats what was promised in their campaign. I don't believe they will ever cancel social security either, however I don't doubt for a minute that you and I will see a drastic change in the amount you and I receive when it comes time to retire.

The problems I see with passing health-care is that we are not Europe nor are we Canada, do some research on there immigration policies and your comparing apples to oranges here. I would also question of the 40 million people in this country uninsured how many of them are legal residents? Can't disagree with you more on this one!

Social security is already past the breaking point for this year. Maybe, there's some sort of quick fix for this year. But what about next year? Or the year after?

Over the next 3-4 years, the US wants to spend $271,200,000,000 on F35 jet-crafts from Lockheed Martin. Yes, that is $271 bil... with a B... billion.

That's enough money to almost completely rebuild and refurbish New York City. At 300 dollars per square foot, that's 904,000,000 sq ft of space. If we take a 50-30-20 split of residential (1500 sqft/unit), commercial (2000 sqft/unit), industrial 4000 sqft/unit)...

That's 301333 new units of housing or 1,054,666 people (3.5 people/unit).
And that's space for 135,600 businesses and offices or 1,130,000 jobs (240 sqft per employee).
Lastly, that's space for 45,200 industries.

We don't need airplanes. Considering that the last 4 or 5 "wars" have all been ground wars, sophisticated jet fighters shouldn't exactly be a priority here. Not to mention, we really haven't been very successful at fighting ground wars in general.

The last true enemy combatant to step foot on United States soil -- that is, on newly acquired soil or territory -- occurred in the War of 1812. And many of us tend to forget that we were the antagonists in that war with trying to [strike]conquer[/strike] liberate Canada and all.

When you're surrounded by two oceans, the arctic to the north and presumably a jungle to the south... active defensive strategies are a costly mistake. There is no possible way for anyone to mount an attack on the United States without being noticed. And because of the Trans-American Highway never being finished, there is no way for a country to attack us from the south.

So, this whole... let's spend ourselves blind with military might makes little to absolutely no sense.

And since you evoked the torrid "9/11" argument, I'd like to remind you that even Sun Tzu's Art of War suggests to strongly ignore terrorism.

The concept of terrorism isn't necessarily about waging a common war comprised of sides. It is intended, however, to be used as an act to alter the behavior of an enemy. Since terrorism is often ideological, a terrorist attack can be successfully used to alter the ideology of the target even if retaliatory action eliminates the group behind the terrorist attack.

Even if we 'beat' all terrorist groups involved in 9/11, we have technically lost. This is even more apparent when you hear countless politicians, figureheads and the press talk about how "9/11" has fundamentally changed America permanently.

So, there is some agreement there. We were a little to PC there. However, since the United States has a long history of vengeance and violence... we reacted and therefore made the terrorism valid.

I'm not saying we should 100% pretend it never happened-- but if you look around at this country, the terrorists did win because so many civil rights have been suspended, the government has gained an extraordinary amount of power, there is no longer 'free' travel and we now have 'permanent' institutions like the Department of Homeland Security.

So, feel safe... if that makes you feel safe.

I, however, prefer the old Latin phrase... "I'd rather have freedom with terror than peace with slavery."

when the hell is this retarded recession going to end? it's just rediculous.

everytime i read this thread title, i think it's going to be about hats.

the gulf war (early 90's) depended heavily on those fancy stealth bombers-n-fighter jets

regarding social security, it was never intended for people to retire on. when social security was enacted in the mid 30's the average life expectancy was around 61. now it's 78 which is great .. but there's your trouble.

mEn HaViN' nO hAtS sSsAfEtY dAnCe !!