Your town: Los Angeles, CA
Your town: Los Angeles, CA
State Republicans Propose Eliminating Gas Tax... for a while
Bobbiez- you obviously didn't read or if you did read the article, you didn't understand it. This question is about repealing the SALES TAX that is being charged on gasoline, which goes into the general fund. It is not earmarked for road repair, that is the job of the excise taxes. Frankly I don't see how it matters whether it was introduced by a Republicrat or a Demican, it is something that should never have been charged in the first place. (14 hrs ago | post #32)
State Republicans Propose Eliminating Gas Tax... for a while
While I don't agree with repealing the federal and state excise taxes on gasoline, repealing the charging of sales tax on gasoline has been something I have been advocating for a long time. With the way that the sales tax works, we are not just paying sales tax on the gasoline, but the excise takes as well. The federal tax is 18.4 cents per gallon. The Michigan tax is 19 cents per gallon for gasoline. On top of that we pay .875 cents per gallon to pay for environmental clean-up. But on top of it, Michigan charges sales tax on the net of the price+ excise taxes, and as the price of gasoline goes up, so does the sales tax that gets charged to the consumer. So with the current price of $3.87 a gallon, we pay 37.275 cents per gallon in excise taxes, and 21 cents per gallon in sales tax. I can't speak for everyone here, but I don't think that it is right for the state government to benefit from the higher cost at the pump in the form of higher tax revenues, nor do I feel that it is right that they have been charging sales tax on the excise taxes. EITHER stop charging sales tax on gasoline or drop the state excise tax. (14 hrs ago | post #31)
Horizons school not renewed, programs merged
Then your son is behind in his education, right? I'm not stereotyping. I live right up the street from that school. I have a kid that used to attend Omega, so pardon me, and kiss my behind, while your at it. The kids that you see outside that school belong to one of a few groups. 1. Emo/Scene (you may consider them to be the sensitive artistic ones) kids that wear black, stare at the ground, and think they are depressed all the time (some of them may very well be depressed). 2. Kids that got behind in school and were failing in a traditional setting. 3. Kids with behavior problems (gang troubles, troubles with the law, etc) 4. Pregnant teenage girls. Who did I leave out? Your perfect son doesn't fit any of those groups right? Mine had behavior and education troubles. I can admit it. He turned out to have dyslexia and once it was found and worked on, he was able to re-integrate into the traditional schools. My point is that these alternative schools shouldn't be treated as a landing point, but more of a way station in a child's education. Art school is great, but if a child can't graduate then they won't ever get into an art college. (Friday | post #58)
Science, religion and the problem of evil
Hrm.... considering the topic of this thread is Science, Religion, and the Problem of Evil, we may need to look at it like this: Science has found out that there are many reasons why people get fat. The foremost among them is that they eat too much. Religion states that gluttony is one of the seven deadly sins (in fact for once they are right, being too fat will most likely cause an early death for you). The people that pick on you by saying things like "Stewie, Stewie two by four, can't fit through the kitchen door," are carrying out evil because they are damaging you, another human being's feelings. Just because you are fat enough to have your own zip code doesn't mean that you don't have feelings, right? Now back to a more on-topic Topix. (Friday | post #252)
Do you think Marijuana should be Legalized?
Then DON'T. This isn't a discussion on whether people should be forced to use mj or not. It is a discussion on whether responsible adults should be allowed to CHOOSE whether they want to use it or not without fear of having their front door kicked in by Gestapo-like police teams. (Friday May 9 | post #3206)
Grand Rapids Police staking out intersections to reduce accidents
Pretty sure that you're mistaken, because the city of Wyoming has several traffic cameras "patrolling " out there right now. To top it off, the timing of the yellow light has been shortened to catch as many people as possible. 54th and Ivanrest is a perfect example. Check it out if you're in the area- but don't try and get through on a yellow! (Thursday May 8 | post #36)
Horizons school not renewed, programs merged
Alternative schools should be more a way to catch the kids up academically and allow them to re-enter the traditional school population than they should be about arts and PE. Horizons had more of an arts-related curriculum, I agree, but I think that they were moving too far from that part of things to warrant continuing the charter. I would much rather my tax dollars go to getting the kids caught up and back into a regular school than coddling to them because they want to wear black and mope in a corner all day long. (Thursday May 8 | post #56)
From T. Rex to Chicken: The Dino-Bird Connection
Then he can point and laugh at us from his cloud in hebbin. (Wednesday May 7 | post #627)
From T. Rex to Chicken: The Dino-Bird Connection
Maybe we could engineer them to eat just cats? (Wednesday May 7 | post #626)
From T. Rex to Chicken: The Dino-Bird Connection
Dod bless YOU (Tuesday May 6 | post #604)
Police search for robbery suspects; shots fired
In case you haven't noticed, most of the people committing these crimes come from the Byron Center to Clyde Park corridor between Burton and Prairie. That area has become a haven for low income and "undocumented " people, so of course it will have a higher crime rate. This isn't because of Horizons school, more like the kids that aren't going to school because their parents don't give a crap. (Tuesday May 6 | post #4)
Science, religion and the problem of evil
Evil" has nothing to do with going with the will of God or going against the will of God. It is a matter of perception. The Crusades are a perfect example of this. While the European Catholics thought they were doing God's will when they carried out their war in the Holy Land, the Muslims with whom they were fighting perceived what they were doing as evil, as they were trying to oust them from one of their holy sites. The thing is that there are very few absolutes. You would believe that I am evil simply because I don't follow the tenets of the bible. I see you as evil because you are inflexible in your perceptions, and therefore unable to appreciate the things that I and others like me do. I don't run around killing, robbing, raping, etc. But I choose to not believe that there is some invisible being watching over everything that we do waiting to pass judgement upon us when we die based upon whether or not we accept that some human in Israel 2,000 years ago was his son or not. Justice must prevail in this age. If you do harm to another, whether it be in the name of your god or not, your act is evil. If you are intolerant of another, based simply on whether they believe the same as you or not, then you are harboring evil in your heart. You are more than welcome to base your life upon your ancient tome. I choose to base my life upon whether or not I am harming others. Whether right or wrong, I know that my not harming others, I am not continuing the cycle of evil and wrongdoing done in the name of and against the practice of religion. (Monday May 5 | post #115)
Horizons school not renewed, programs merged
As the program is being merged with Omega, the safety net isn't gone, it will just be in a different place. Though I am concerned about this change, I don't think that it will be as bad as you are making it out to be. Of course you can keep in mind that Wyoming isn't the only school district out there, and there are several good alternative programs out there. I am hopeful that something good will come out of this. Alternative schools are often a mix of people that are simply struggling in a traditional setting, and those that are truly criminal. I am hopeful that the criminal element will be identified and removed from the alternative setting, thereby producing a better learning environment for those that truly want to learn. The building the housed Horizons is quite old and is in need of some major repairs. If we want to maintain the quality- and improve upon the quality of the education in our district, we need to get the old buildings out of the loop that simply aren't economical to continue to repair anymore. The building that houses Horizons is just one of those buildings. (Monday May 5 | post #54)
Science, religion and the problem of evil
Theproblem, as I see it, is that religion, in the past, had been THE AUTHORITY on all things spiritual and physical. If it wasn't in the bible, then it wasn't true according to the church. Unfortunately (I guess), as the human race has advanced its knowledge, the bible has been found to be wonting in many technical areas. This is perceived as a threat to the power of the church, but it really needs to be taken as a cue for the church to evolve (ironic, ain't it?) into something that is more in tune with the quickly changing knowledge of the world. If religion and its leaders would simply focus on the things that it CAN be useful to- that of international diplomacy, inter-cultural relations, interpersonal relations, etc.- then it can be successful and relevant in today's day and age. But this will take a HUGE change in the way that one religion approaches another, and a quantum leap forward in acceptance. To this time, I have not seen much in the way of acceptance from any members of religions that are referred to in Islam as "People of the Book." The intolerance that I see in fundametalist Islam is just as prevalent in today's fundamentalist Christian apocalyptic groups, and orthodoz Judaism is right in the mix as well. The question I have is why do we allow the people that are so buried in their own faith that they are intolerant of other faiths to influence us at all? Some day we will be able to look at them and realize how backward they are. This day and age is going to be known as the Crazy Time in the future, and if we can make it out of this time alive and with our psyches intact, we will be stronger and better as a race. Unfortunately for our progeny, if we make it out of thistime regressing back to the old ways, then there will be no history to look back upon, as it will be washed clean by the future leaders of the cults that run the world. How do you want the future to turn out, and what do you want our legacy to our children to be? (Monday May 5 | post #102)
From T. Rex to Chicken: The Dino-Bird Connection
You're a looney. If you think that you're witnessing will get you anywhere around here, may I suggest that you reexamine that thought? There's a whole bunch of forums for you here at Topix. This just isn't the one for you. Please check here http://www.topix.n et/forum/religion/ list for something more up your alley. Now back to your regularly scheduled forum. (Sunday May 4 | post #563)
