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Wow, I own a few WWII photo anthologies from LIFE magazine and had not seen any of those. Really chilling to see him and his henchmen in color, thanks for posting that.
Very strange to see all those Nazi bastards in color. The pictures are mixed form a Reichsparteitag in Nuremberg, an event in Munich, probably the annual coming to power celebration and Hitler’s 1938 visit to Italy. The one with the 2 Volkswagen is from the 1938 laying of the foundation of the Volkswagenwerk in Wolfsburg. On the right, in white, the master mason.
Sewage fees are a tax? I guess if it’s charged to you whether you use it or not then it is a tax. The proposal to charge for usage would make it more like a utility or a road toll. I’m for it.
I’m at work so i cant google this but 90%? that seems high. Is that an actual stat that you have seen somewhere?
On the “toilet tax,” that set up is actually quite common in the United States and is a libertarian-friendly fee arrangement.
From the article, it appears that sewer charges are currently billed in the area in question based on property value. So if you live in a nice house in a nice neighborhood, you pay $X, regardless of what you produce in wastewater. There’s no incentive to conserve (with rain barrels, or short showers, or shutting off the tap while you brush your teeth, or “letting it mellow” sometimes after you pee) because there’s no relationship between consumption and cost.
The new cost structure would measure what you use and charge you based on that. You would no longer pay based on property value. So if you live in a mansion but are a good conservationist you will benefit. If you live in a shanty but take 50 minute showers you’d pay more.
Surely operation and maintenance of a modern sewerage system is a legitimate function of government, and this is a fair apportionment of how to pay for it. Like a toll road for sewers.
(BTW, great reference to the Beatles on your headline. And I can’t believe you didn’t commend the Daily News for their porn tax headline.)
Those German pics are great. Thanks for posting them. You should post a warning, tho, as there is nudity about 2/3rds of the way down (some naked lady standing next to a nude portrait of herself).
As for the sewage tax, aren’t all taxes shit to begin with?
Seeing all those Nazi pics made me wonder how many heads of state since Hitler have sported military uniforms while in office, then I remembered our own W dressed as a pilot touting premature victory on an aircraft carrier . . .
I would be astounded if that SWAT transparency legislation gets through without being gutted first. After all, it’s clearly a bold-face attack on out boys in blue for an honest mistake.
The sewer tax makes a lot of sense. Perth is a largish city, with a very limited water supply. They are currently supplementing their water with desalination plants, which is expensive. They also have bans on watering at certain times of the day, higher water rates (on a sliding scale, so heavy users pay more for each marginal use).
Toilet tax is only another way.
On the sewage tax, I’m not sure what the big deal is. One township where I used to live had municipally chartered water company. The township also authorized this company to collect sewage taxes on its behalf. It assessed sewage taxes based on the amount of water each household used (I guess on the theory that what goes in must, er, … come out).
Some of the comments on the Boston PD parking story are precious. A lot of “Well, what do you expect cops to do when there’s no parking?” types. I expect them to do the same thing I have to do in that situation.
Why can’t these dicks ever understand that wanting law enforcement to be follow the same rules as everyone else is not “cop-hating”?
One of the few smart things I have seen done in Boston (and every other place in New England I have lived) is to charge sewer rates based on water usage, what goes in most likely comes out. Watering the lawn, car washing, etc. results in double charging, but a flow meter on sewer pipe would be very impractical (gravity fed, lots of air, solids). Of course when my house was built the gutters were hooked into the sewer system – great for getting rid water – not so good for the sewer system – and I don’t pay for it (or I should say I only pay a small fraction of the cost).
And parking around BPD HQ is worse than article states – there is a school across the street and the police park all over that property as well.
David,
That’s because when cops expect civilians to follow every little detail of the letter of the law some of them are very well doing it as a matter of “hating”. You have to realize that there really are some cops that really do hate non-cops.
Remember, the us-vs-them mentality is very real and very powerful to many cops, it affects every aspect of some of their lives. It affects what neighborhoods they move into, what friends they have, who they marry, where they shop… It’s surprisingly how pervasive police culture comes to impact an officer’s life and they segment themselves away from the rest of society, in some cases, to the point of complete exclusion because of that cultural influence.
So when you hear or see them react this way to what appears to be a reasonable expectation, at least reasonable to the rest of society, it’s because they truly don’t feel as though they are subject to the rules that govern society… since they aren’t members of the same society anymore anyway.
Reading the Smoot-Hawley link made me cringe. Legislative solutions to economic problems are always so devoid of any actual efficacy that the economy would almost always be better off if they never happened.
All I hear on the news is how unemployment is sky rocketing, but the idea of abandoning the minimum wage never even is suggested by the hordes of “top economic experts” they interview. Everyone knows that minimum wage laws generate unemployment. I learned that in high school (back when they economics was a course requirement).
Heaven forbid that we would ever loose the minimum wage and put the US into a position where it could actually compete against overseas and Mexican labor markets. It’s much easier to cry about how we’re “exporting jobs” and need protectionism to to save America from the rest of the world.
Why should Patterson care about taxing porn, it’s not like he can watch it so he won’t be obligated to pay the tax.
This might be the meanest comment I’ve left on this site…but everyone else was thinking the same thing…
I’m sorry, but am I the only one that thinks making SWAT use transparent is about as useful as making a fart stink. Nothing changes, everything continues as normal, and you still hold your nose at the retched odor.
I do not agree that it is a start, it is an appeasement of an offending situation that should be stopped, not just glossed over till forgotten.
MacK,
I’d say greater transparency can’t make things worse, and has a decent chance of making things better.
CC
Ein Volk, ein Reich, in Lederhosen.
Funny guy in the bottom right corner of photo 42. He wears a Nazi shirt & cap together with bavarian leather pants. I’ve never seen that combination before:
http://www.fuckthemeat.com/foto2/naziincolor/42.jpg
Pornhub.com is a great free site. Just sayin.
Looking over those photos of late-1930s Germany, I am struck by the grasp of showmanship the Nazis had. As well or better than any other State, the Nazis demonstrated the majesty and raw power of the State to the extreme.
It is important to remember that global catastrophes like World War II are only possible, and are quite likely inevitable, because of the existence of States.
How is Gov. Patterson going to define what constitutes internet “porn”? He knows it when he sees it? ummm…wait….
Nah, Let him keep paying for it.
I’m sorry but is “Boston Globe Finds Out Something I Knew Since I Was 6″ really a story?
Is anyone really suprised that the porn tax was proposed by a blind guy?
Regarding the Nazi photos, with that magnitude of choreographed adoration, it would be hard for anyone not to become convinced of their own self-importance and omnipotence. It’s not just Nazis that have big celebrations in honor of their leaders, of course.
On a different note, I can’t believe that Hitler actually let himself be photographed with that dickhead Mussolini.
#17
No, you’re not the only one. I’m to the point where SWAT teams should be reduced to one per State Police barracks, with an additional one in each city over 500K population. The only way to deal with SWAT excesses is to reduce the number of SWAT teams.
#23
It took the publishing board that long to decide that running with the story was worth the risk of losing their press badges.
I would be astounded if that SWAT transparency legislation gets through without being gutted first. After all, it’s clearly a bold-face attack on out boys in blue for an honest mistake.