Among the destroyed papers, federal officials charged, were American and foreign passports, applications for asylum, birth certificates and other documents supporting applications for citizenship, visas and work permits

(via Oblomovka) [Boing Boing Blog]
3:54:06 PM    comment []  

And while I'm incredibly happy with my job (it's consistently been one of the best things in my life for years), it's somewhat disheartening to work hard, get great reviews, and never receive a payraise. (Although to their credit, I did get a bonus a while ago.) But I feel far worse for my many friends that have been laid off in the past year or two. The question is: can the current administration just not see what they're doing to the economy or do they just not care? Lowering taxes for the wealthy -- sorry -- "investor class" isn't going to help; all it will do is raise our national deficit. We need to do all we can to increase consumer spending. So what if eliminating the dividend tax even manages to increase public stock investments? The dividends go back to said investors, who may or may not re-invest this money. They will take that money and put it in a more secure investment source, or into a savings account. But does it help Joe Consumer go out there and buy that new car or computer or sofa? No, because they share the same dread that I do. When you see people getting laid off all around you and you're not sure if we're going to war, it's not as easy to buy that convertible you always wanted, because it may very well make you homeless if your luck turns sour.

But luckily everything is cyclical, and the faster it gets worse, the faster it will get better again. My idea? Tax the ever living shit out of gasoline. Like, more than cigarettes. Oil is a harmful societal addiction, just like nicotine can be a harmful personal addiction. And if we make polluting fossil fuel energy sources extremely expensive, we create a whole new opportunity for development. $1.2 billion is a pretty small amount, almost laughable, for alternative fuel research. And the citizens have little incentive to switch from the status quo and to upturn an existing physical infrastructure. Invest money into small technology companies; yes, sometimes they go belly-up but they get a technology into the marketplace at breakneck speed. In 1995 the Internet was barely known or understood by anyone, and it's now an integral part of our society. All of the big companies, including Microsoft, refused to acknowledge the Internet because it made them change how they do business. The RIAA is still resisting the Internet. Why should the auto industry, which is still propelling people by setting liquified dinosaurs on fire just as they did a century ago, be any different? Put the money into the hands of people who are willing to take huge risks, even if there's a Microsoft out there to steal their business model when it proves to be a success. Even if Netscape didn't succeed as a business, it did succeed in changing society and sparking the economy as a whole. Let's do the same for transportation.
8:48:46 AM    comment []