Knowing is half the battle.
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What if they ended a war and nobody cared? I’m afraid this short article on Salon explains a very sad and sobering truth about my country.
The end of the internet sales tax loophole -
Awhile ago I wrote a post about how expensive it is to shop online in Europe, especially when compared to the United States. The disparity had less to do with the exchange rate and more to do with the fact that virtually no one pays sales tax on internet purchases in the states…. but, it looks like that tax loophole is about to be closed. Recognizing that defeat is inevitable, Amazon has switched sides and is now a proponent of collecting sales tax from companies that have ANY kind of physical presence in a state, so distribution centers count, as does R&D.
So there you go. End of cheap internet shopping… and I’m inclined to not complain. Many states are flat out broke, hopefully they’ll use the extra cash to fund social programs that were slashed in recent years.
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After reading through some of Salon’s collection of Halloween articles I’m feeling a bit bummed. Between literally locking up registered sex offenders for the night and paranoia induced “carpool” trick or treating it just seems like we’ve let our fear get the better of us. Reading articles like this makes me long for the Halloween of my childhood. I miss making army costumes out of the dress ups bin, taping a few realistic looking plastic guns together and running around all night in the dark (chaperone free!) terrorizing the neighborhood with all sorts of tomfoolery… I hope kids today still get to do that.