An insightful comment by SilentMajority from the Bruce Sterling On Total Information Awareness /. thread:
My definition of “dumb conservative” is a conservative who earns less than $500,000/year or has a net worth of less than several million dollars.
These poor souls would rather focus on why they (the middle class) have to pay a bit more taxes than the poor instead of focusing on why they have to pay a LOT more taxes than the ultra-wealthy or profitable corporations like Microsoft. You knew Microsoft paid $0 taxes in 1999 [via CTJ], right?
These morons also like complaining about things like a minimum wage bill because it raises the minimum wage rather than complaining about the luxury yacht fuel subsidies buried inside that same bill. “To hell with the undernourished child of a single working parent, my taxes shouldn’t pay for that! Instead, my hard-earned taxes are gonna help filthy rich bastards play on their yacht because my misguided middle-class ass is too lazy to get informed.”
- Will it rot my students’ brains if they use Mathematica? – an excellent little piece about education, and the role of technology in civilization, co-written by one of the co-founder’s of Wolfram Research
- The Credit Card Prank – John Hargrave asks “How crazy would I have to make my signature before someone would actually notice?” Hilarity ensues
Incidentally, that Sterling interview is much recommended.