www.airbornelaser.com

http://adlib.superfighter.com/

http://www.if-legends.org/~yois/

http://store.yahoo.com/classicsoftware/





And a freaky screenshot i took:

fuck, just a few logged on there...

just like here at its busiest

Hehe, I luurve Bob.

No need for a new topic if i can post it here: a random story i came across: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3477285.stm

It's only fair that they do their fines that way; don't want some daddy's boys thinking they got the right to drive like a friggin maniac cos they can easily pay the fines eh? yet another measure for my up and coming political movement/party.

It makes sense indeed to fine people according to their income. I don't know how the system works exactly, but what would they do with somebody who's unemployed though?

Anyway, i know people who think: "i drive to fast, if i get busted who cares, i make tons of money anyway". And if they have to hand in their drivers license, they just keep driving anyway. For those people this finnish law should apply.

Need an extra hand in that party ox? I always dreamt as a kind to rule the world.

oh, that fair. Just because I busted my ass and am making $10,000/year more than you are, I pay a bunch more money for the exact same crime? That just sucks. How is that fair? It's discrimination based on income.

no it's not. You also pay more taxes if you make more money, and that's not unfair either. You can't expect everyone to pay the same amount of tax now can you? So, with taxes being a % of your income so should fines be calculated. You're not gonna tell me that someone who makes 10 grand a year is gonna refrain from driving way too fast cos he had to pay a measly fine (in his budget). I'm not saying someone poor will necessarily worry about such a fine, but at least it'll make an impact on his life, whereas it wil be very small to someone rich.

Keeping in mind that someone rich will be minorly affected by an average fine you could maintain that logic to put rich ppl in luxury prisons (= minorly affect by punishment) and normal ppl in regular prisons. Blah, this is a far-fetched comparison, but it stands, kinda. And i'm not even coutning in the fact that rich ppl prolly will be able to buy their way out.



On another note (only a tad connected to this); i'm also pro more taxes on the super-rich. (say, Bill Gates and co) Since they got more money you can ever imagine to be spent they won't feel it, at all, if they're taxed a bit more that the regular tax %. I'm not talking HUGE tax rises eh, just a minor increase. Blah. Of course, i'd rather see taxes and the current state systems to dissolve completely, but that's kinda unrealistic at this point. Maybe after i made my political party. You're welcome to join J, but you'll have to move to my hometwon to be eligible for town elections!

P.S. lol, after reading my post i realized that my views are completely the opposite of most us measures; i.e. "lower taxes so there will be more entrepreneurism" etc. Heard from a guy i know that starting a business is hugely promoted in the US (his brother started one there). Maybe it might not seem so hugely promoted to you americans yourselves, but in comparison with Belgium and most of europe..

monkeys on crack.

Taxes and fines are two different animals, IMO. Taxes are the government being greedy, whereas fines are supposed to be punishment. Why should someone be punished more because they're rich?

Hell, I think taxes suck, too. I think we should get rid of taxes entirely. Every month, I pay my government $666 in taxes. That's ALOT of FREAKIN MONEY. And that doesn't include what I pay for sales tax (8.25%, I believe), or gas tax (20 cents/gallon state, +18 cents/gallon federal).

My opinion: the government should legalize drugs, make it a state-only business, and make all their money by selling its citizens weed and coke and XTC. The FDA and ATF would monitor the quality of the drugs sold to the people. I mean, how expensive is it to mass produce weed? That's almost pure profit... just sell it at $5/pack. That alone would probably allow my damned federal taxes to drop 50%.

Plus, no more drug problems or gang problems. Well, maybe drug problems, but what's the point of gangs if the government sells better stuff for cheaper? Why buy it illegally when there's a government store down the road that'll sell you an eight ball for $60?

Down with Ox's European Party of Liberal Tax-Mongers!

They shouldn't be punished more, but if you're an average Joe and get a fine of say 1000 dollars, that hurts. A lot. If you're some rich guy that gets the same fine you're like "so what". So the same fine for the same crime can be punishment for some people but for some people it's just NOT a punishment. And they should be punished. The point of fines is (besides making the governement rich ) to make people think twice before making the same mistake. But that rich guy won't care, so he won't change his behaviour.

Goddamn Yankee, liberal doesn't mean leftish. Don't call me goddamn leftish. Europeans invented democracy and liberalism so when we say we know what liberal means we know that.

lol, chill out Arathorn, Satis didn't call you liberal or left. Nor did he say left=liberal in fact, even if that seems to be the implication.


I too am in favor of government-controlled drugs sales, but i still think the fine thing should be done everywhere, for the reasons J highlighted. Rich ppl shouldn't be punished more, but they should feel equal discomfort (financially) to someone poor when they break the law. My extra taxes for the super-rich don't fall under this tho, obviously. That's just my megalomaniac plan.

lol@ the name of my party btw

Im gonna have to agree with Satis here, a speeding fine isn't exactly a lot of money, like £60-£100 or something, it's not a major crime. You can't decide to charge a wealthy person a massive fine for exactly the same crime that a poorer person would get charged for. It's just not fair, somewhere along the line someone has worked bloody hard to become wealthy and then you penalise them for it??

The fine isn't supposed to be a massive deterent on speeding, it's more the points on the licence and then eventual stripping of the persons drivers licence that's going to be the major deterent. No one's gonna be stupid enough to still drive around and speed without a licence cause then the fine is big. Fine's should remain in proportion to how dangerous the crime is, not how wealthy you are.

Also, taxes are totally different to speeding fines etc.
Also, i expect Bill Gates and Co. pay well over 50% tax on everything they earn, and just so you know Bill gates has recently donated $83 million to a charity, so it's not like he is just hoarding his money, and you can't tell me $83 million is pocket change to bill gates, cause that is a large chunk of cash however much money you have...

[quote="Franny"]No one's gonna be stupid enough to still drive around and speed without a licence cause then the fine is big./quote]

Yeah well, father of a friend of mine (big business guy, "ne rijke hollander") does exactly that. If he can't drive around he can't go to meetings or whatever, so he doesn't care. Btw in belgium the speeding tickets went severely upwards i believe. 550 € tot 2.750 € isn't exactly cheap imo (this is the worst category btw, more than 40 km/u too fast on a highway for instance).

Btw Satis, maybe it's my impression from tv, but whenever i see something like "spectatcular carchases" or something on tv, they're like "oh my god, look at the madness, he's driving 70 miles an hour" . Sometimes 90 miles. But still, i think people here have a bad habit of driving way faster than in the US. Or is this a wrong impression?

70 mph? What, on a residential street or something? I go 75mph on the highway always. And I'm about average (well, maybe a little faster). 90 is going pretty fast, I guess. Anyway, unless you're talking 70 on like a street with school children playing on it...

Oh, on the Bill Gates donation thing... just so you know, donations are tax deductible here. So, if you owe the government $10,000, you could just go donate some clothes, computer equipment, software, maybe some money, and owe nothing.

So...probably Bill Gates didn't really donate $85 million. He probably donated $85million worth of software...which actually cost him $50,000, but saved him $85million in taxes. Or something like that.

Crap, I lost my train of thought. I'll get you Euros some day.