Submitted by Elaine Magliaro, Guest Blogger
All you Christian warriors out there best make ready for battle! Sean Hannity and the Catholic League’s Bill Donohue are now claiming that there is a war on Easter. “Oh no!” you say. “Who would do such a thing?” Why, Lady Gaga, comedian Ricky Gervais, and a few other dastardly demons—that’s who.
I even heard it through the grapevine that the CEO of Easter Bunnies, Inc., is hopping mad. I was told that he’s organized his bunny brigade and worked in co-operation with the president of Hatchling Chicks Corporation to devise a plan to go after anti-Easterites like Lady Gaga and Gervais.
Get your trebuchets ready! I’ll bring eggs. We’re planning to meet in Mister MacGregor’s garden tomorrow at the first light of dawn. We’ll shell the hard-boiled enemies of Easter ova and ova again until they surrender. They won’t know what hit them.
Are you ready to join me and my fellow warriors?
More about the War on Easter:
Stephen Colbert has an excellent summary of the story for us here: Easter Under Attack—Egg Edition
Fox News And Catholic League’s Bill Donohue Invent ‘War On Easter’ (Think Progress)
Easter Brings Out the Crazies (Catholic League)
Hannity – War on Easter (4.21.11) I couldn’t embed video. Here’s the link:
How it a newborn baby supposed to earn $1000 during the baby’s first month of life? If the babies do not earn their keep, and fully pay their way, someone else has to pay more than an equal share.
They are not nor should we. We didn’t get ourselves into the mess. It was the government and the government is trying to have one group pay more than another. That is not equal. Next time you cash a $10 check maybe the teller will give you $1 and you can set there and try to explain why they are equal. After all they both share a 1.
Jim 1, April 29, 2011 at 2:37 pm
J. Brian Harris, Ph.D., P.E
What a croc! Stop using your PHD to explain a very simple word-equal. 2+2=4 just like 2×2=4 both are equal. You know exactly what I mean when it comes to the IRS taxing all Americans equally. I believe all Americans are not equal because it depends on your earnings to what tax bracket you fall. That is not equality.
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Sorry, I do make mistakes, and attempt to learn when someone corrects a mistake I have made.
Using 3.8 trillion dollars as the US budget and 311 million people, with each citizen person equally, I find that paying taxes equally requires that each person pay around $12,000 per year in US taxes, or about $1,000 per month.
How it a newborn baby supposed to earn $1000 during the baby’s first month of life? If the babies do not earn their keep, and fully pay their way, someone else has to pay more than an equal share.
Or, while you may believe that I know exactly what you mean, I am wondering whether you or anyone else ever knows exactly what anyone ever means, when meanings are put into words.
Checking a dictionary, I find that equal means having no variance in proportion, structure, or appearance. If two people can be distinguished from one another by body proportion, by body structure, or by body appearance, the two people are not equal.
Let me check the math.
2 lineal feet plus 2 lineal feet equals four lineal feet.
2 lineal feet times 2 lineal feet equals four square feet if the lineal feet are orthogonal in plane geometry.
Some simple words may appear simple without being simple in terms of such actuality as simple words may represent.
Again, I am ignorant and have more to learn.
2+2=4
2×2=4
1+1=2
1×1=2 because addition and multiplication are equal.
3+3=6
3×3=6 because addition and multiplication are equal.
Turning something 45 degrees does not change what it is, so + is like x rotated by 45 degrees, so + and x are equal.
I love to learn how wrong I am.
How can I know what you mean if I cannot know what I mean?
J. Brian Harris, Ph.D., P.E
What a croc! Stop using your PHD to explain a very simple word-equal. 2+2=4 just like 2×2=4 both are equal. You know exactly what I mean when it comes to the IRS taxing all Americans equally. I believe all Americans are not equal because it depends on your earnings to what tax bracket you fall. That is not equality.
Jim 1, April 28, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Stamford Liberal
You still can’t run from your lie. Equal means we are all treated the same. If just one group is allowed to not pay income taxes then we are not equal. Corporations have to use loopholes and deductions to avoid it but those making less than $42,000/year (family) are GIVEN that break. They are not the same!!!!!!
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Within my social role as a unique, individual, person, I find the view that being equal means everyone being treated the same to be worthy of careful study.
Consider the following, courtesy of the National Institutes of Health:
http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/condition/familial-adenomatous-polyposis
My dad and my brother both died at ages notably younger than I have attained, and died from cancer characteristic of familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP). In 1986, I underwent surgeries intended to prevent my dying at an unnecessarily young age, having started the surgery sequence before my brother was diagnosed as having polyposis (and, alas, with that diagnosis came also a diagnosis of terminal cancer).
With my dad and brother, FAP developed into terminal cancer before either of them developed any symptoms.
Equal would mean that I am dead from terminal cancer because I would have to have been medically treated the same as my dad and my brother were, with diagnosis delayed until all that was left was pain management until death stopped the pain.
OR
Equal means that I am alive because, being a unique person, I received unique treatment.
One view of equality has everyone being the same. Another view of equality has everyone being unique.
Equality will happen if everyone is treated the same, and equality will equally well happen if no two people are ever treated the same.
If no two people are ever treated the same, then, in that respect, everyone is treated the same, to wit, uniquely.
In apparent contrast with some folks, I make an effort to understand people as unique individuals, each of whom has a unique sequence of life-context experiences, and do not think of individual people in terms of clusters of categories of observed properties.
Many years ago, a story came to my mind that I found helped me make sense of my life in the context of human society.
Imagine that there actually is something usefully named “objective reality.”
Imagine imagining “objective reality” as though a fine diamond cut and polished into a quasi-spherical shape with countless polished facets.
Imagine that people’s lives happen outside the “diamond of objective reality” and people’s lives occur at various distances from the “diamond of objective reality.”
Someone whose life happens very close to the “diamond objective reality” will see only one facet of the diamond, all other facets being below the horizon for that person. To that person, observable “objective reality” will have exquisite detail of that one facet, as contrasted with someone whose life happens much farther from the “diamond of objective reality.”
However, a person whose life happens at a great distance from the “diamond of objective reality” will be able to see close to half of the facets of the “diamond of objective reality,” yet, will not be able to see even half of the whole “diamond of objective reality.”
In this child-like model, one I found useful, I understand that no one can ever see the whole of reality, whether said reality is objective or is subjective.
Were people able to learn to share, with equanimity, that which each person has seen, whether one facet in exquisite detail or many facets only in broad outline, without expecting or wanting any two people to have the same belief system, might it become possible to undriddle human destructiveness?
It saddens me to recall my repeated observation that people who have been treated coercively as children tend to become adults who treat children coercively.
What obviously is “wrong with me” from a social perspective is, methinks, my absolute exclusion of coercion from my life.
Alas, those who were coerced into becoming themselves coercive are as though only able to see the coercive facet of the “diamond of objective reality,” and, having never seen any other facet of reality, are perfectly certain (and within the context of their lives, correctly) that anything I have observed of other facets of reality are forms of “my mental disorder.”
Alas, also, to me, if to no one else, “equal” means that all people are treated the same, and, being unique, all being treated uniquely.
I am a trusting person. I trust the social process of groupthink to generate an endless sequence of atrocities, doing so as a clarion call to cease and desist using groupthink as a social structure building resource.
Stamford Liberal
You still can’t run from your lie. Equal means we are all treated the same. If just one group is allowed to not pay income taxes then we are not equal. Corporations have to use loopholes and deductions to avoid it but those making less than $42,000/year (family) are GIVEN that break. They are not the same!!!!!!
Stamford Liberal
Do you believe that ALL Connecticut residents are driving legally or after 30 days the police are chasing down everyone of them because they failed to register? Are you saying that by buying a piece of property in Connecticut forces me to become a resident? Otherwise, I could simply not declare residency and never register my vehicle. As long as I don’t do something that brings the police attention to me then I could never pay that tax. That is EXACTLY what many people here on the border are doing. Get a wake up call early so your brain might actually work!!!
rafflaw,
Lol – You can tell he’s really chasing that tail … Moron! Idiot! Dingbat!
Stamford,
Quit confusing Jim with facts. 🙂
Dingleberry,
“You also should know better that corporations can’t be compared to individual filers.”
Not according to SCOTUS, sport. Therefore, they should be treated exactly like individuals. Seems to me that if multi-billion dollar corporations don’t pay taxes and can get multi-million dollar refunds, the poor shouldn’t pay taxes and get a couple of hundred in refunds, too.
You don’t like it? Lobby your Congress Critter.
Dingleberry,
If moving to Connecticut from another state, you have 30 days to register your car and obtain a CT license. If you are found to have not complied with the law, you are fined. Heavily.
Keep going – I can keep slapping the shit out of you until the cows come home, little boy.
Stamford Liberal
What if I choose not to register my out of state car? Huh, Moron?
Stamford Liberal
Again, No one from any other state can live in Connecticut because they have a car registered from a different state. You really are a moron. I’ll bet your birth certificate has moron as your middle name.
STAMFORD LIBERAL
I wouldn’t expect a family of four living on $25K to pay income taxes.
I would if we are all equal. You just proved my point again that we are all not equal.
You also should know better that corporations can’t be compared to individual filers. Close the deduction loophole and it will all go away. Don’t tell me you need a lesson in accounting.
Dingleberry,
“Someone (classified rich) who pays sales taxes, payroll taxes, and income taxes but doesn’t qualify for the uneraned tax credit is NOT treated EQUALLY under our current system. You can argue all day long about a progressive tax system in the U.S. but no progressive in their right mind can argue equality.”
And having the wealth and the ability to exploit every tax loophhole available doesn’t register with that one brain cell of yours, either.
One more thing, putz – you cannot re-register a vehicle in Massachussetts, New York or Rhode Island if you have outstanding taxes, tickets, arrest warrents and child support.
In the words of Mike Spindell – You’re a schmuck.
STAMFORD LIBERAL
Obviously, the term “proof of residency” has absolutely no meaning to you. Putz.
So I guess no one who owns a car from another state can live in Connecticut. You are such a dingbat.
Your dog said scratch higher next time, Jim.
Dingleberry,
“You idiot. The middle class and rich pay all of those to plus income taxes. Therefore you are making the case that not everyone is treated equally.”
I wouldn’t expect a family of four living on $25K to pay income taxes. But, don’t fret, wee one. The poor and working poor pay their fair share of taxes.
If you are this “outraged” over the working poor and poor not paying income taxes, I can only imagine that you are positively apoplectic that many corporations don’t pay income taxes and actually get multi-million dollar refunds, and the wealthy who hide their funds overseas …
“I wonder how many Connecticut drivers actually have Rhode Island, Massachusetts, or New York vehicles to avoid the taxes?”
Obviously, the term “proof of residency” has absolutely no meaning to you. Putz.
Buddha Is Laughing
You have not clue about proportionate. All progressives want those who make more to pay more. If we gave grades in school proportionate to how much one studies then our whole educational system would collapse. That is exactly what is happening to America right now. We are the frog in gradual warming to hot water put there by some progressive who has no idea we won’t jump out.
Buddha Is Laughing
If I pay sales tax, payroll taxes, but no income taxes and in fact get back the unearned tax credit then the credit may even offset the other taxes paid for the year. (classified poor)
Then
Someone (classified rich) who pays sales taxes, payroll taxes, and income taxes but doesn’t qualify for the uneraned tax credit is NOT treated EQUALLY under our current system. You can argue all day long about a progressive tax system in the U.S. but no progressive in their right mind can argue equality.
Hopefully this lesson will enlighten your molecule brain if you at least have one that size.