Elerond

Horrific news from Texas that will become part of ongoing political debate http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41880511 At least 27 people have died after a gunman opened fire at a church in Texas during Sunday services, police say.

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-41876942

http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/358640-epa-names-industry-state-officials-to-advisory-boards The overhauled boards reflect a new policy Pruitt established earlier this week that no scientists receiving EPA grants could be on any of the EPA advisory committees, which he said would reduce conflicts of interest. Instead, Pruitt has pushed to encourage state and local government representatives and people with diverse viewpoints. “To ensure that EPA is receiving the best independent scientific advice, I am appointing highly-qualified experts and scientists to these important committees,” Tony Cox, the new head of the clean air committee, runs a consulting firm serving oil and chemical clients. He has published research questioning whether recent reductions in pollutants like fine particulate matter and ozone yields health benefits, which runs contrary to the EPA’s position. Robert Phalen of the University of California, Irvine is a new science board member. He has argued that current air quality in the United States is too clean for “optimum health.”

I spent a week in Catalonia in September. All the local media reported that polls say that support for independence and support for staying in Spain were even, but you could not tell that from street scene, as there you only saw banners, posters and flags that said vote for independence. And lots of people had Catalonia flag hanging out from their window or balcony. Meaning that there was no stay in Spain campaign or people showing support for being part of Spain by hanging out Spanish flag. And it was same all over Catalonia (Barcelona, Tarragona, Salou, Falset and some smaller towns that I visited). Meaning that it didn't look like that they were readying towards referendum where result is excepted to be very even. Which indicates that people's ability to campaign for staying in Spain wasn't in level that it should be in democratic referendum. Observation which is supported by fact that people supporting staying as part of Spain boycott referendum (less than 50% of Catalanian's voted) and then vote in Catalonia's parliament opponents of independence left before the vote. But I also have problems with Spain's central governments attitude dismiss any possibility for independency and their heavy handed operations to prevent referendum vote.

Catalonia is one of the riches parts of Spain. There isn't black and white answers to Catalonia's independence aspirations. Way how Catalonia's leaders went with their referendum and declaration of independence was anything but good democratic process. But also Spain's central government hasn't acted like constitutional state when it comes to this issue.

Food used to be 17%, but because EU VAT code dictates that there can be only 3 different VAT levels, so that 17% was dropped and food products were moved in lower VAT tier, so it is seen as tax cut, although people are aware that food here is expensive compared to other countries and people complain about it lot, but it don't usually effect on how they vote. In medicine nearly all prescription drugs are compensated by government, so that 10% is really true for drugs that you can buy without prescription.

Simplified version of Finnish income taxation for single individual without kids Brackets for progressive state income tax Addition to state income tax everybody pays flat municipality tax 16.5-23% depending on municipality where individual lives And progressive Public broadcasting tax Some examples (all examples use my home municipality's tax rate 19.5%): Tax rate for income of 10000€ is 0% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 0.0€. Tax rate for income of 15000€ is 2.5% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 366.21€. Tax rate for income of 20000€ is 8.5% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 1626.43€. Tax rate for income of 35000€ is 18.5% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 6417.01€. Tax rate for income of 60000€ is 27.5% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 16353.41€. Tax rate for income of 100000€ is 35.0% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 34534.88€. Tax rate for income of 350000€ is 44.5% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 155075.43€. Tax rate for income of 5000000€ is 48% with basic deductions, meaning total taxes and tax-like charges for the entire year 2389324.87€. Basic deductions consists of things like employment pension contributions and unemployment insurance contributions, which are seen as income deductions when it comes to paying taxes. VAT in Finland is currently for most goods 24%, 14% for foods and 10% for books, magazines, cultural services and medicine. Alcohol and fuels and some other things have special product specific extra tax.

Christian Cross is not just derived from Roman method of execution but is symbol that is meant to make us remember that method of execution and that we let son of God to be tortured and executed and we didn't do anything to stop it. It is also meant to tell us that son of God died because of our sins and we need to honor that sacrifice by living according of his teachings. It is also meant to symbol hope that we all can be saved at the end if we have faith in God and his son and Holy Spirit, and just like son of God we can rise to Heaven have eternal life there. And I am obviously against use of such religious symbols on government property

Because it has long since been debunked, it's the latter. Where is the debunk part in the link? Don't think it has been debunked as it's new information. Hillary denies it, but that's not surprising. I can't imagine too many people thought that she or the democrats weren't involved in the dossier creation at least. Above link leads to patreon page of poadcast that did episode about issue and they present evidence why situation isn't what you would think by reading articles about it in media. You can find link to said poadcast from mentioned patreon page. http://armscontrolwonk.libsyn.com/uranium-fever

Where I get this kind $300 million contracts to my two man firm

Geez, lucky you didn't heard Churchill Churchill was one big communist supporter who should have been hanged with other war criminals

Come on, don't read The Sun. Not even the **** are real Don't dismiss The Sun that fast, it is useful, because it tells which version of story definitely isn't true

I understand that people don't want to watch certain type of content for multitude of reason, but I wonder why people just don't read reviews for movies or plays before they go to watch them instead of asking complex lists of content descriptions. I have pondered if such behavior is because of new media, where media companies try to analyze their content in order to create word clouds and similar things to offer additional content for their users and users have adopted use of these content lists so thoroughly that they don't only look new content to consume but also content that they don't want to consume and therefore they disdain services/products/productions/etc. that don't have them.

I have always found it quite ironic how biblical movies get either 16/18+ rating or they have censored some of the content from the bible, make it to be more fitting for younger audiences, but still they make people start reading bible as soon as they can read (ages 6-8 ) (although these days they only give New Testament for elementary school students before they go in confirmation school at age 15 [Finnish Lutheran tradition where people go in camp like thing to learn about Lutheran faith and become full members of Church]).

*Sigh* Youre not even trying any more. I think people mix up different rating systems In USA TV programs have content descriptors when they are seen to have something questionable in them Content descriptors Some thematic elements, according to the FCC, "may call for parental guidance and/or the program may contain one or more of the following" sub-ratings, designated with an alphabetic letter: D – Suggestive dialogue L – Coarse or crude language S – Sexual situations V – Violence FV – Fantasy violence Here media products (tv-series, movies and games have age ratings and possible content descriptors to explain why it has certain age rating) Contains violence Contains sex Contains horror elements Contains drug use Then there is PEGI system that has its own content descriptors violence bad language fear/horror sex drugs gambling discrimination and worst of all online play option

Nothing has changed in 500 years. There are still people that think Shakespeare's plays are inappropriate for decent folk

This clearly means that Trump collaborated with Russian to hack US elections and took bribes from Russia, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and so on. As everything is true what people are accused of even if investigation/probe of subject is still going or just starting

I would say that is pretty accurate description.

My plan is 500€/year : 150€ deductible (per year), it pays up to 40000 € of medical expenses and other things. It is completely different insurance plan.

Can't say about Sweden, but in here is how things generally work in Finland You can either use public health care system where you can if you need to see doctor you can go to emergency room if you have acute problem, or reserve time which you can get for same day or next day if you need to see general practitioner, for specialists it may go next week. When it comes to treatments, then non-urgent surgeries are the ones which you may need to wait months before there is free slot in schedule depending on what kind surgery you are needing. Or go to private clinic which there are multitude which offering varies quite lot. In most private clinics that I have used you need to wait max half hour to see doctor gp and usually you can get time for specialist for same day. When it comes to treatments it depends lots of what you need. Most clinics can do simple things, but when it comes to complicated operations then most clinics will give you referral to one of the central hospitals (which are bigger hospitals that have capacities to do complex operations), but there are also private clinics that have capacities to do complex operations, but usually they focus on certain fields. Of course cost of treatments on private clinics can be quite expensive, so it is recommendable to have health insurance (either one that you pay yourself or one that is paid by your employer).

Although these parties don't want that to be true in future and they do their best to undermine current systems. what system you mean? Democracy? Systems that allow free education and universal health care Not sure about that, do they have it in their policies? Anyway its fine as its based on voter want it that way, its called democracy, still its capitalist versus socialist, nothing far right about it (at least not in term I think most people today relate far right to) For example our "close borders, anti EU, anti immigration" party has cut hundreds of millions from education, health care, created policies to make people get private health insurances in their time in government. During elections they said that they would do opposite, but currently they have been very "right wing" in everything that they have done. Well that is sad, they should be hold accountable. Polls show that their popularity has dropped from 20% to 8%, so in next elections they probably will lose their place in government. That is good, I am surprised there is no left leaning party which would still want secured borders. (well there is plenty in our country - even commies want them secured ) Our borders are already very secure, as our longest border is with Russia that is heavily guarded and controlled because of political and historical reasons, our borders with Norway and Sweden are in very north which makes them quite unattractive to larger forms of population traffic. Our southern border is with sea, which means that people coming from that direction needs to use either boats or airplanes which are both heavily regulated forms of transportation, which means that population traffic from that direction is already under control. So main reasons to secure our borders more is to prevent people from other EU countries legally move in Finland and currently only population group that cause notable problems are Romani people from Romania and Bulgaria as they have beggar camps that have caused public disturbance which have made people demanding breaking them down and so on. Although it is Polish and Estonian workers, especially construction workers, that are in our anti-EU party's target as there are lots of them and they are able to work cheaper than Finnish workers can (because of temporal living arrangements, not paying taxes to Finland and having home in country with much cheaper price level).

Although these parties don't want that to be true in future and they do their best to undermine current systems. what system you mean? Democracy? Systems that allow free education and universal health care Not sure about that, do they have it in their policies? Anyway its fine as its based on voter want it that way, its called democracy, still its capitalist versus socialist, nothing far right about it (at least not in term I think most people today relate far right to) For example our "close borders, anti EU, anti immigration" party has cut hundreds of millions from education, health care, created policies to make people get private health insurances in their time in government. During elections they said that they would do opposite, but currently they have been very "right wing" in everything that they have done. Well that is sad, they should be hold accountable. Polls show that their popularity has dropped from 20% to 8%, so in next elections they probably will lose their place in government.

Although these parties don't want that to be true in future and they do their best to undermine current systems. what system you mean? Democracy? Systems that allow free education and universal health care Not sure about that, do they have it in their policies? Anyway its fine as its based on voter want it that way, its called democracy, still its capitalist versus socialist, nothing far right about it (at least not in term I think most people today relate far right to) For example our "close borders, anti EU, anti immigration" party has cut hundreds of millions from education, health care, created policies to make people get private health insurances in their time in government. During elections they said that they would do opposite, but currently they have been very "right wing" in everything that they have done.

We pay taxes to keep public sector running like any other country. Our policy is that education is public service and therefore it is publicly funded which is generally known as free education, but of course in money based economy there isn't anything that is actually free, only things that person don't directly pay themselves from their own pockets.