"When the war gets to this level--whether or not we believe the Army's assertions that the kids it's killing in Afghanistan deserved it--it's time to rethink whether you are winning hearts and minds, nation rebuilding, or just involved in an endless insane game of blowing shit up and making people so mad they give you what you think is a legitimate excuse to keep blowing shit up." Continue reading →
"This may be the last Christmas of online shopping without paying sales tax. A proposed online sales tax has been offered as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, much to the ire of opponents. The Marketplace Fairness Act, and its House counterpart the Marketplace Equity Act, seek to clarify, and arguably overturn, a 1992 Supreme Court ruling that requires retailers to have a physical presence in a state in order to collect sales tax on goods." Continue reading →
"The Federal Register for Monday, November 19, 2012, quietly advises that 'TSA also is creating and maintaining a watch list of individuals who are disqualified from eligibility from TSA Pre✓TM…' Millions of frequent flyers have applied to PreCheck in the hope of mitigating the abuse they suffer at the airport. But now, with breathtaking irony, the TSA discloses that anyone it rejects winds up on yet another of the police-state’s watchlists, his agony at the airport even worse than before." Continue reading →
"Foreign financial institutions will be required to scour their records for signs that customers are American, like a U.S. address or phone number or instructions to transfer funds to a U.S. bank account. Anyone flagged in the search will be asked to provide proof of citizenship and/or residence status, and Americans will have to provide a Social Security number. Even with the penalties, Fatca is not expected to raise significant revenue for the U.S. Treasury; the Congressional Budget Office forecasts a take of $8.7 billion over 10 years. That is barely a rounding error in an annual budget of more than $3 trillion." Continue reading →
"In the 2009-10 tax year, more than 16,000 people declared an annual income of more than £1 million to HM Revenue and Customs. This number fell to just 6,000 after Gordon Brown introduced the new 50p top rate of income tax shortly before the last general election. It is believed that rich Britons moved abroad or took steps to avoid paying the new levy by reducing their taxable incomes. Far from raising funds, it actually cost the UK £7 billion in lost tax revenue." Continue reading →
"A former Microsoft executive and Washington state resident is planning to enter the upscale marijuana business, in the hopes that it will help bring some respectability to the industry, reported KiroTV. Jamen Shively plans to name his business after his grandfather, who supplied hemp rope to the Spanish Armada at the time of the Spanish-American War. 'By creating the category of premium marijuana, we want to position it similar to a fine cognac, a fine brandy, a fine cigar,' Shively told KiroTV." Continue reading →
"California’s Humboldt State University announced recently it would form a new institute that combines experts from the fields of economics, psychology, sociology, politics, geography, social work and public policy to help better inform the nation’s ongoing debate on marijuana reform. The school, which is accredited and funded by taxpayer dollars, said it would begin offering lectures on marijuana policies as soon as Tuesday evening. At least 11 faculty members are also onboard, according to the institute’s website." Continue reading →
"Under sanctions imposed by the U.S. and its allies, dollars are hard to come by in Iran. The rial fell from 20,160 against the greenback on the street market in August to 36,500 rials to the dollar in October. It’s settled, for now, around 27,000. The central bank’s fixed official rate is 12,260. Yet there’s one currency in Iran that has kept its value and can be used to purchase goods from abroad: bitcoins, the online-only currency." Continue reading →
"The United States and European Union have imposed tough sanctions on Iran that have weakened its economy. But Tehran has found ways to bypass the penalties, such as Turkey's use of gold to pay for Iranian natural gas imports. The Menendez-Kirk measure would allow the president to impose sanctions in cases of the sale or transfer of precious metals, targeting efforts by Iran to circumvent the penalties." Continue reading →
"Intrade decided all its U.S. customers must now close their accounts and withdraw their money from the site. Why did the American government sue Intrade? It was not for operating an online gambling operation, but for allegedly violating America's incomprehensible financial regulations. The government says that many of the things Intrade allows people to predict - everything from what the price of gold will be in the future to whether the U.S. will go to war soon - are legally considered 'commodity options,' and that Intrade broke the law because it isn't licensed to trade those. The penalty is $140,000 per violation." Continue reading →