11-21-2003, 04:19 PM (This post was last modified: 11-21-2003, 04:22 PM by fritoman.)
This truly is a miracle; two heavily damaged aircraft. The pilots would have been
justified in "punching out" but instead, they chose to bring the jets in. This
endangered their lives but saved the taxpayers about 80 million dollars. What is
especially intriguing is in picture 01, notice the radome, radar and all of the
avionics equipment, everything, in front is gone. This created several problems for
the pilot: aerodynamics, eventual loss of hydraulics due to loss of fluid, navigation,
and probably the most amazing, as the pieces fell away, some debris had to be
ingested by the engines (F.O.D.) and he still was able to bring it home!
The story behind them is: Two F/A-18 Hornets from Top Gun were dogfighting
and made a head on pass, just a bit too close. One got home with part of the left
wing and left vertical fin and rudder missing, while the other jet is missing everything
forward of the cockpit pressure bulkhead - and is a flying convertible because the
canopy is shattered too. These guys are lucky. It shows how rugged these aircraft
are...Also shows how good our pilots are.
waitwait, i'm conflicted here: sure, it's lucky that these guys survived, and saved the planes, and whatnot, but for some reason it seems to me that they were screwing around, made a mistake, and endangered their own lives, and 80 million taxpayer's dollars. maybe i'm misunderstanding it, since i'm not familiar with some of the lingo used here, but i would like to believe that money (in a $1.000.000+ per week war going on) is spent on things damaged by our enemies, not by ourselves. so, this isn't miraculous to me. it's rather frustrating, in fact.
11-21-2003, 06:42 PM (This post was last modified: 11-21-2003, 06:48 PM by PIX.)
....and how much money did you contribute to Uncle Sam this year through Federal Income Tax? I gave quite a bit and am happy to let it be spent fixing military aircraft or tanks whether it be here in the US or over in Iraq or Afghan territory. Damn it's good to be a proud, taxpaying, working American these days. Before you question the spending, make sure you are a federal taxpayer first, and that doesn't mean that $200 dollars they took out of your 100 hours you worked part time last year. You got that back in your refund.
nono, you've got me all wrong. let's not be hasty.
sure, i support whatever mission the government needs, be it warring foreign nations, or repairing the ones in chaos. i'd be a hypocrite if i condemned soldiers fighting for my liberties. i'm just saying that it doesn't seem to me that these fighters were fighting, yet they still ended up with damaged goods that me and you pay for.
as for taxes, it's hard to say exactly how much i pay: as a teenager, i've been stereotyped into the "cheap labor" category that successful capitalist businessmen take advantage of every day. i work hard, i get little in return, and i make those that take advantage of me more successful. as far as worth is considered, if every underpaid, overworked employee quit there job right now, then out economy would fail, and we'd become a third world country in a matter of hours. my efforts, therefore, are invaluble to [y]our society.
and by the way, i don't get paid enough during the year to get taxed enough to get a substantial refund. so, in the interest of karma, i let 'em keep what little they are willing to return to me. they obviously need it more than i do.
The point was not anyone having patriotic deficiency. It was simply, don't complain about how government $$$ is spent if
it never came out of your pocket in the first place. It's like voting...if you didn't vote in an election, you have ZERO right to
complain about any political issues. You are still a teenager and according to the school of hard knocks...you are gonna get paid
the lowest wage. Once your skill set increases and you can do more than flip a burger or be a cashier, then you can look for higher wages.
Employment science has a good formula: skill times years of experience = pay scale. Therefore, if you are 18 and just started out building
birdhouses for Birdhouse Unlimited and you build a good BH, but have no experience....you get low pay. However, if you keep it up and
stay in college for 8 years and support many Democratic causes, then you multiply 8 to that pay scale since you are STILL building birdhouses.
I don't know where I'm going with this birdhouse thing, but it sounded fabulous.
Broke.....it's alright....not fighting with you. Just keeping it real and in perspective.
ok, you bring up an issue i've been aching for a while: i get paid barely more than minimum wage in colorado, but i'm not flipping burgers or working as a cashier; rather, i'm lower management, and i have had 4 years experience working in a management position. furthermore, i've gained a management position in a company (while it's a respected independent establishment) has a turnover rate of about 25 employees a year. i make 5.75 an hour. i get about 15 hours a week. i have authority, but not the paycheck that i deserve.
and after all that, i still end up paying taxes.
now that i'm thinking about it, maybe i should have a prolonged discussion with my boss.
So if you're 17 and have been working in lower management for 4 years already??? You had your first interview at 13???
For one, I want to say I am honestly glad you are a young person and have a work ethic. Honestly. Most
young people want to be a slackass mole and mooch off their parents. However, you haven't learned the
job hopping skills for low payed employees yet. If you make minimum wage and keep getting the SAME wage
over the years with the same job...GTFO!!! Last time i checked, there wasn't a shortage of jobs for minimum wage
people. That low paycheck is your incentive to educate yourself to move up the ladder. I waited tables for 5 years during
college making $2.13 an hour (waiter pay) plus tips. Once I got my education, I started up the ladder getting more and more
pay for each new job as my skill set went up. Wanting more money is a GREAT incentive to move forward and do better.
2nd, good work, people really dont give teenagers enough intellectual credit. An educated, nice, teenager has many assets that can not be taught in any educational institute. They would be grounded (assumeing they are educated and competent), they would have people skills, because they're nice. They would have have energy because they're young, high morale (assumeing they're mentally healthy), and compasionate to fellow workers. That being said, dont be afraid to hire a teenager for a job, they have many good assets, i'm just glad to see someone like brokend in management, keep up the good work buddy :thumb:
That's a pretty minor crash there. The first pilot would have absolutely no problem returning to the airfield, though the second would have had some trouble.
As for complaining about wasted money, since the amount they take is a percentage, why does paying more make an opinion weigh in more heavily? The only thing that matters when judging someone fit for complaint is whether or not they voted, not how much income they rake in.
I just want to say that i'm glad there are teenagers doing the jobs I don't want to do, and they are going to complain about it on the job, or sitting at home.Jeez, they complain about mowing the grass and the injustice it is. So I would rather they worked cheap and complained alittle. A few years of flipping burgers might teach them that flying planes would be more fun.
I realize this might not be a popular opinion, but I do have kids of my own that at times didn't realize what a help they can be instead of a burden. Thankfully now they are working towards being there own persons instead of depending on others.
11-21-2003, 10:32 PM (This post was last modified: 11-21-2003, 10:34 PM by PIX.)
So if a welfare person with ZERO income, who has been getting free money from the government for 20 years and has 9 chillen complains
that the govt. shouldn't be spending money on a military budget, I would say that this person has NO right wutsoever to talk about how govt.
money is spent. AND...as for that percentage tax they take, THAT is the most unconstitutional thing there ever was. You shouldn't be penalized for
being successful by having to pay MORE money than the bum with food stamps who trades them in for some malt liquor. Should be a flat tax on EVERYONE.
Therefore, everyone fairly gets to pay the same and no one slips out of their fair share. I think it very much matters how much say you have by how much
you give to the govt. If they tax me 34,000 this year, i damn skippy better have more say than the guy who didn't pay ANY taxes.
"Work harder......Millons on Welfare are depending on you."
well, maybe taxes should be a little more eye-opening. for example (based on a local issue), instead of the city taxing for street lamps, and having residents gripe about it, just let them go without them for a while, and see where that gets 'em. same situation could be applied to the military, government, and other "burdening" organizations.
One of the people I admire most did the following to protest her payment of taxes to military spending. She calulated the portion of her taxes that would have gone to military spending and put the money in several helium balloons and sent them off into the sky in front of the IRS building in Denver, CO.
Of course the IRS did not appreciate her protest and hounded her to try to get the money or take something of value for her non-payment of income taxes but she was prepared and the next year she worked out a way to stay under the paying taxes amount of her salary.
I realize that most people her would think this is unpatriotic and deplorable but one would have to agree that it is very creative.
Quote:I realize that most people her would think this is unpatriotic and deplorable but one would have to agree that it is very creative.
well, she found a creative way to prove she's an idiot... congratulations.:mellow:
maybe we should elect her president so we can completely run this country into the ground, instead of using the half-assed approach the current administration is using.
FreeFall....what are you talking about homeless for? A flat tax would be an across the board
tax such as the one they just imposed in Iraq... 15% across the board. If you make 5 dollars
then you owe 15% of that. If you make 5 billion, then you owe 15% of that. FAIR across the board.
Liberals hate this because they won't be able to tax the shit out of the successful as they have been
in the past and people who never pay taxes will owe their share.
Here's a quote frome Daniel Mitchell of Capitalism Magizine:
Quote:In spite of this success, however, the Iraqi flat tax likely will prove unpopular with France and Germany. They opposed the war in Iraq, and they also happen to be leading the effort for global âtax harmonizationâ (meaning that all nations would have bad tax policy so that oppressed European taxpayers will have less incentive to move their money out of places like France and Germany). It would be deliciously ironic if the Iraqi flat tax begins to attract business away from Europeâs welfare states and helps pressure these socialist nations to lower their tax rates. This might be a fringe benefit of Iraqi tax reform.
The only people who fear the flat tax are of course socialist countries and tax and spend liberals. As for homelessness...I believe my tax burden would actually go down as would most of
America. Since everyone is paying their share...then we'd be fine.
