Posts by Terra Incognita

AUSTIN — A tax break for big yachts sailed through a House committee this week despite the massive budget shortfall that already has school districts across Texas laying off teachers, health care providers bracing for Medicaid cuts and lawmakers scrambling for money for key services.

The House Ways and Means Committee voted 8-3 Thursday for House Bill 2187, which backers painted as necessary to keep yacht sales and the economic activity that goes with them from being lured by Florida's lower taxes.

"It's economic development," Rep. John Davis, R-Houston, author of the bill, said Friday. "I think it's the right thing to do to keep us on a level playing field with Florida."

Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, voted against the measure and lambasted it as wrongheaded at a time when cuts are threatened in areas including education and Medicaid reimbursement rates for health care providers

"With all due respect, sometimes I'm not sure what planet my Republican colleagues live on," Villarreal said in a statement. "How can they say tax breaks for yachts are a higher priority than supporting our children's classrooms or keeping nursing homes open?"

Joining Villarreal in voting against the measure in committee were Reps. Wayne Christian, R-Center, and Trey Martinez Fischer, D-San Antonio.

Davis' bill originally would have capped the sales tax on a boat at $15,625 — the amount normally due on a $250,000 vessel — regardless of sales price. He changed that to match Florida's $18,000 maximum, the amount normally due on a $288,000 yacht under Texas' existing rate.

The fiscal analysis on the original bill said it would cost Texas about $1.4 million annually in lost tax revenue, but yacht brokers and other supporters of the measure said that figure does not take into account the ripple effect of Texas losing yachts. An updated analysis of the impact of the $18,000 maximum was not immediately available.

The bill next goes to the full House, where Davis and Ways and Means Chairman Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, expressed optimism about its chances.

"The hearing was pretty convincing that we're losing business to Florida. It's one of those things you have to do," he said.

"Why don't you tell that do a kindergarten parent?" said Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, of San Antonio, who chairs the Senate Democratic Caucus.

'Absurd step'

The committee's OK of the special sales tax break comes as lawmakers in the House and Senate are searching for additional revenues to help close a two-year budget shortfall of $15 to $27 billion. Budgets proposals in both houses already would cut billions in state and federal funds from social services and give public schools billions less than they would get under current funding formulas.

"This is an absurd step in the wrong direction. Instead of digging Texas' budgetary hole even deeper, legislators should be looking for new revenue to pay for the public schools and other critical services. The cuts being contemplated for the public schools threaten educational quality in Texas to the point that, within a few years, fewer and fewer people will qualify for jobs that pay enough for anyone to even think about purchasing a yacht," said Texas State Teachers Association spokesman Clay Robison.

F. Scott McCown, of the Center for Public Policy Priorities, which advocates for low- and moderate-income Texans, said, "This isn't the time for tax breaks for rich folks with big yachts. A strong economy is built by investing in the education to prepare our children to be tomorrows inventors and entrepreneurs. Our goal should be for our children to get an education so that they can own yachts, not for our children to sacrifice their education to attract rich folks with yachts."

Davis said he did not yet have a Senate sponsor for the measure. Senate Finance Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, declined comment on the bill.

"I don't own a yacht," he said.

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THE OSAMA ENIGMA! THE NECKBEARD THEORY THAT IS SURE TO ANGER SHEEPLE.

by NeckBeard in

connecting the dots on the scandal of the century.

ok. so we got osama bin smoked killed dead a few days ago, right?.

here are some weird things:.

Terra Incognita

CyberJesus:

"the most plausible situation? So we are to believe what the goverment says because it the most simple explanation and fits the evidence? evidence that they themselves feed?"

I'll leave the most important point for last.

As to its being the most plausible explanation there's a rule of thumb called Ockham's Razor.

Now for some illumination on Contrarian psychology. In the 1960s the Tobacco Industry, facing Government regulation on cigarettes, went on a massively funded campaign (about 100 million dollars) to propagandize the "safety of cigarette smoking.

There were a lot of scientists who eagerly prostituted themselves to the Tobacco Industry by generating falsehoods, including pseudo-scientific reports, claiming that "the science had not been settled". These prostitute scientists were not even Oncologists (who study cancer) but were a motley crew; from different specialties including Geologists and several Nuclear Physicists who had worked on the Alamo project.

What the hell did nuclear physics have to do with the connection between cigarettes and lung cancer? Absolutely nothing. Why? Not because they chain smokers. They were, consistently, Republicans and Libertarians.

What did their ideology have to do with the issue of cigarette caused lung cancer? Everything. Why? Not because there's anything specific in those ideologies about cigarettes, lung cancer or science. Nor did it have anything to do with their being chain smokers. Nor was it necessarily a financial motivation. The reason had nothing to do with the 'factual' or the 'logical' but it had everything to do with the psychological.

The psychological issue is known as Contrarianism. If you despise someone or some social group or structure, you will have a tendency to formulate opinions that are the exact opposite of those you despise.

Those scientists were rigid ideologues who; seeing that the institution they despised was going to take action restraining the absolute freedom of a Corporate entity; used the typical Contrarian logic of "If my enemy says it, then it must not be true".

The issue of this thread, a silly and typical paranoid conspiracy theory, is pure Contrarianism. You could respond to its individual points but soon you'll see how its adherents generate contrarian theories one after the other while being immune to reason. It becomes pointless to maintain a posture of pure analytical thinking. You can't reason with psychotics or, in the case of those who puppeteer them, psychopaths.

* * *

Now, for the most important issue. You spoke of evidence that the Government "themselves feed". Who's feeding you? No, absolutely not. You're not feeding yourselves. You're being fed; whether you admit or not, even if you don't consider yourself one of them; by those who are on the political Right (It's no longer meaningful to speak of the "far right"). They themselves, have some of their mouthpieces associated with; influenced by; or outright funded by Corporate Psychopaths such as the Tea Party funded Koch brothers (vis a vis Americans for Prosperity).

Contrarianism is not a thought process. It's a form of psychosis. This nation is suffering from mass psychosis.

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THE OSAMA ENIGMA! THE NECKBEARD THEORY THAT IS SURE TO ANGER SHEEPLE.

by NeckBeard in

connecting the dots on the scandal of the century.

ok. so we got osama bin smoked killed dead a few days ago, right?.

here are some weird things:.

Terra Incognita

Aussie Oz:

"nah, i dont think they are fooled at all. I believe Bin Laden has been dead a long time. As opportune as it is for the US to declare his death now and gain support at home, Al Qaeda can find it opportune to use the 'news' as a call to further its own agenda also. Bin Laden is worth more to the movement as a martyr than he ever was alive."

Sorry Oz, but this logic is very toirtorous and self contradictory.

There is no reason why Al-Qaeda would want to postpone news of bin Laden's death. If the United States had killed bin Laden 7 years ago Al-Qaeda would have had its martyr back then. Why delay his martyrdom by 7 years?

If they had come out 7 years ago and said the Americans had got their beloved leader i dont think a single person would have believed them, esp not the American Government who would have demanded a body for proof.

Why would the Bush administration not take credit for bin Laden's death? If you find it suspicious that Obama did not produce his body then isn't equally suspicious that Bush did not produce his body as well?

Same goes for his followers. So by waiting for the Americans to to announce his death at their hands, they can capitalize on it to whip up more favor.

Minor correction you must have meant to say fervor instead of favor. As to the point above, the same thing I just stated applies. Why would the Bush administration not take credit for killing bin Laden let alone allowing such a declaration to be postponed until another president took office?

Its a game, its called politics.

The rationalizations that are being given is A GAME CALLED POLITICS!

Declaring a person that has not been seen since 2004 'dead' does not make proof. And unless real tangible proof is given, doubt and conspiracy remain.

ANY PROOF WHATSOEVER WILL BE DECLARED FAKE; PERIOD! The Deaders; as someone on this forum appropriately suggested they be called; will say absolutely anything including the claim that the body itself is faked.

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