9 Comments

There is no age qualification for asshole.

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I admire you for persistening (sic) with this. You may want to trademark it before King Industries beats you to it.

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IMO, there is a place for a reduced capital gains tax rate, but it should be restricted to the <i>primary</i> market, and limited to investments of your own capital.

That is, if you pony up some real cash or credit to get a business started, or to sustain it (even if you are a vulture capitalist), I'd be okay with your gains -- if any -- being taxed at a privileged rate. Note: capital losses should only be permitted to offset capital gains, as at present.

I'm in favor of business creation, given the economic model under which we now operate, and I'm willing to give incentives to encourage it. I'll even accept a situation where you borrow the money to invest, although I would like to see an exclusion for LBOs.

But "capital gains" that derive from the secondary securities market (aka the casino), or from holding valuable items (artworks, antique cars, houses, classic dildos, etc) while they appreciate, have nothing to do with business formation or sustenance, and should be taxed as ordinary income. I do think that <i>losses</i> on such items should also be deductible for individuals (as they are now for corporate "persons"), against their ordinary income.

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i will watch 11 minutes of that if...

yeah, no. i won't.

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Yup, it's always a good idea to pay attention to weather trends at this time of year, make preparations in advance and to take care of expected problems before they become actual problems. Like closing schools when a particularly nasty storm is anticipated, because the fewer vehicles on the roads the better.

So, how many feet of accumulation were you all expecting to get from this storm?

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I hear ya, ice storms are the devil!

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We call them ‘libertarians” because ‘sociopath’ is such an ugly word.

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<i>If this be treason, give it your best shot, punk</i> -- Patrick "Dirty Harry" Henry, Patriot

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"we’re all in this together"? So it takes a village?

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