What happened to American optimism?

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

Sigh, I guess I have to google bottle rockets since no one will tell me what they are.

Thank goodness for our crazy co workers stories. They make the rest of us look like we brought up perfectly sane kids.

They are a little firework attached to a stick. You light it and it goes up in the air and pops. You're supposed to put the stick into a bottle before lighting it. The bottle acts as a sort of guide. The trouble is when you stick the stick in someone's rump, well it won't launch and just cooks the person's rump the stick was put into.Some people light em and just throw them in the air. Some people throw them at each other.
Some bottle rockets are bigger than others. And some actually come in the form of what looks like a rocket and are free standing. Those are also technically bottle rockets even though no bottle is needed.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

Bottle rockets are a very simple style of firework. They are especially dangerous because they are notoriously difficult to aim - usually they spin off course and cause property destruction and bodily harm. Pretty obvious why they are illegal in Canada and many US states... but!!! if you paid attention in chemistry/science classes, our teachers likely all had us set up a water bottle rocket... so everyone knows how to make a bottle rocket, you just need the powder...

Of course... I don't think you need to use Google to find out what happens when you try to ignite and shoot off a firework using an orifice of your body.... no need to desecrate your search history for THAT!

I appreciate you sparing my google history.

 

[AnnaFloridaLover]

They are a little firework attached to a stick. You light it and it goes up in the air and pops. You're supposed to put the stick into a bottle before lighting it. The bottle acts as a sort of guide. The trouble is when you stick the stick in someone's rump, well it won't launch and just cooks the person's rump the stick was put into.Some people light em and just throw them in the air. Some people throw them at each other.
Some bottle rockets are bigger than others. And some actually come in the form of what looks like a rocket and are free standing. Those are also technically bottle rockets even though no bottle is needed.

Jaysus.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

And rich people aren't necessarily smart. There are many morbidly obese, well off people riding scooters and eating turkey legs around Disney. Not poor.

Hey, hey, hey, easy on those turkey legs LOL

 

[Gumbo4x4]

They are a little firework attached to a stick. You light it and it goes up in the air and pops. You're supposed to put the stick into a bottle before lighting it. The bottle acts as a sort of guide. The trouble is when you stick the stick in someone's rump, well it won't launch and just cooks the person's rump the stick was put into.Some people light em and just throw them in the air. Some people throw them at each other.
Some bottle rockets are bigger than others. And some actually come in the form of what looks like a rocket and are free standing. Those are also technically bottle rockets even though no bottle is needed.

Side note, DW was with friends years back when someone lit a bottle rocket in a bottle. The rocket fell off the stick, dropped into the bottle, and then exploded there. This shattered the bottle and severely injured the foot of the guy who lit it (loads of stitches and an eventual surgery).

 

[LSUmiss]

While I agree such issues are more prevalent among the poor, there's no shortage of well educated Americans who've made terrible health choices. My PCP is morbidly obese, and I used to date a nurse who smoked - just as examples.

True. But the prevalence among the poor & less educated is much higher. It’s often pervasive in those communities. And in my experience, Traditional attempts to educate this population has been unsuccessful.

 

[LSUmiss]

Poor people aren't necessarily stupid.

Absolutely not but they are more at risk for being undereducated &/or uninformed. And stupid is not the same as not having access to information or opportunities.

 

[L&Lfan]

You'll get no argument from me.

Yes, but are we the taxpayers paying the rich's medical bills or just the poor's?

 

[MillauFr]

Yes, but are we the taxpayers paying the rich's medical bills or just the poor's?

Unfortunately what we are continuing to pay for is bailing out the Wall St. Bankers who crashed the economy back in 2007. I don't understand how anyone, conservative, or liberal can justify that we bailed out Wall St. back in 2007 during the housing debacle.

 

[WebmasterMaryJo]

They are a little firework attached to a stick. You light it and it goes up in the air and pops. You're supposed to put the stick into a bottle before lighting it. The bottle acts as a sort of guide. The trouble is when you stick the stick in someone's rump, well it won't launch and just cooks the person's rump the stick was put into.Some people light em and just throw them in the air. Some people throw them at each other.
Some bottle rockets are bigger than others. And some actually come in the form of what looks like a rocket and are free standing. Those are also technically bottle rockets even though no bottle is needed.

These used to be really popular in my neighborhood. Back in '79 we had a shake shingle roof, and one landed on it. Good thing my dad and brother were home and realized our house was on fire. I've never been a fan of them since. Now our neighbors and the nearby soccer field light up the skies with 'real' fireworks during Independence Day celebrations, so not so many people shoot off those bottle rocks around here. lol

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

These used to be really popular in my neighborhood. Back in '79 we had a shake shingle roof, and one landed on it. Good thing my dad and brother were home and realized our house was on fire. I've never been a fan of them since. Now our neighbors and the nearby soccer field light up the skies with 'real' fireworks during Independence Day celebrations, so not so many people shoot off those bottle rocks around here. lol

Around my neck of the woods, we're allowed these beauties.

Our drunk neighbor didn't nail his launcher tube down, kicked it over and one launched right into a crowd of about 12 on his porch. Then he just laughed at em. What a guy.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

The estate tax only has 2 outcomes - ruining the family business, or making lawyers & accountants rich as they maneuver to avoid it. And in the process, it reduces future tax revenue. Lots of family farms went away because of this.

The bolded is false. The current law requires taxes on estates worth more than $5.5 million annually. Most successful farms are small and don't even bring in $500,000 annually. Family farms have continually disappeared because of inability to pay back operating loans and heirs not being interested in farming for a living.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

It is 2017, there is no "lack of education" about these things. Nobody needs an education to know that injecting elephant tranquilizer into your veins is a bad idea. We all know that cigarettes, obesity, drugs, alcohol, etc will end badly. I think these days people are just so hedonistic that they don't want to take personal responibility. It'a a lot easier/more enjoyable to indulge, indulge, indulge then cry "poor me" when the consequences evtenually happen.

You are simply wrong. Many people are surrounded by what you listed regularly and it's not always their choice. If a child lives in a city apartment where poor air quality exists, neighbors smoke, and mold grows frequently - how is that his poor choice? If a 54 year old man is in end stage MS, do you not wonder if he had access to information and resources on slowing the progression? And as I said in the previous post, if a woman has to DC her insulin pump because she lost her insurance - what's the right choice? Her health or racking up bills she can't pay?

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

Poor people aren't necessarily stupid.

And?

But poor people have challenges getting transportation to doctors, paying for meds, taking time off from work to see doctor, etc.

 

[Gumbo4x4]

The bolded is false. The current law requires taxes on estates worth more than $5.5 million annually. Most successful farms are small and don't even bring in $500,000 annually. Family farms have continually disappeared because of inability to pay back operating loans and heirs not being interested in farming for a living.

I said lots, not all. I know of plenty of former family farms that would exceed $5.5 million in today's dollars.

 

[tvguy]

The bolded is false. The current law requires taxes on estates worth more than $5.5 million annually. Most successful farms are small and don't even bring in $500,000 annually. Family farms have continually disappeared because of inability to pay back operating loans and heirs not being interested in farming for a living.

I think you are misunderstanding what the estate tax is based on. It is not based on the annual income, it is based on the value of the entire operation, the land, the buildings the equipment. Especially the appreciated value of land, depending on where it is. That is the central issue in the estate tax debate. The land that makes up the farm that a family has owned for generations may have been very reasonably priced 50 to 100 years ago when it was purchased, but the estate tax is based on today's value. Nobody could afford to operate that farm if they had to pay for the land at today's prices, and in many instances the estate tax forces them to sell the farm because the estate taxes exceed many years operating income.

 

[Colleen27]

I think you are misunderstanding what the estate tax is based on. It is not based on the annual income, it is based on the value of the entire operation, the land, the buildings the equipment. Especially the appreciated value of land, depending on where it is. That is the central issue in the estate tax debate. The land that makes up the farm that a family has owned for generations may have been very reasonably priced 50 to 100 years ago when it was purchased, but the estate tax is based on today's value. Nobody could afford to operate that farm if they had to pay for the land at today's prices, and in many instances the estate tax forces them to sell the farm because the estate taxes exceed many years operating income.

The numbers from the IRS just don't back up this "estate tax killing family farms" narrative, any more than the actual data backs up the "lobsters and Cadillacs in the housing project" talking point. IIRC, the Department of Ag. put the percentage of farms at risk of owing any estate tax at about 1/2 of 1%.

The "central issue", really, is the political value of using a group with high social standing in the American cultural mythos (the down-to-earth farmer) as pawns in an effort to lighten the tax burden on real estate speculators, hedge fund managers, and venture capitalists. Making the estate tax about farmers is great PR, plain and simple.

 

[Boardwalk Jedi]

I said lots, not all. I know of plenty of former family farms that would exceed $5.5 million in today's dollars.

List them

 

[Gumbo4x4]

List them

Oh please, I shouldn't even dignify that with a response. My family has been in this county - in farm country - for nearly 200 years. There are 4 such farms still in existence within 5 miles of where I sit right this minute, and countless others that have broken up.

 

[Bobbles1954]

That's us. Just got our statement, and very optimistic.

I think a lot of folks liked their 401's in 2008. Then 2009 happened. It is hard to have much faith in anything related to Wall Street sometimes.