Posted on 07/31/2015 11:49:41 AM PDT by Slings and Arrows
The time has come to take action against thread hijackers.
Let me begin with an example of thread hijacking:
Like most Freepers, I am pro-life. Abortion and and euthanasia appall me, and marketing the results even more so. I support candidates who oppose the culture of death, and cheer when it is thwarted.
I also do not find it necessary to mention these facts on EVERY. FREAKING. THREAD.
There is a certain type of Freeper, though, who has no such restraint. For these zealots, any thread that deviates from the pro-life cause, no matter how trivially, is a heresy that must be immediately suppressed.
You are shocked by cruelty to animals? I guess that means you couldn't care less about the cruelty of THE MILLIONS OF CHILDREN ABORTED EVERY YEAR!!!!!
You lost a beloved pet? Why can't you mourn THE THOUSANDS OF ABORTED BABIES WHO DIED THE SAME DAY?!!!!
Your car shredded its transmission and you're looking at thousands of dollars in repairs? Why aren't you thinking about THE BABIES WHO WILL NEVER GROW UP TO BE AUTO MECHANICS BECAUSE THEY WERE ABORTED?!!!!
(OK, maybe I made that last one up.)
Arguing with these people is pointless. It's the same principle as wrestling with a pig - you just get muddy and the pig enjoys it. Similarly, trying to convince them that they are being rude is a waste of time - THE CAUSE is far more important little things like courtesy and respect.
So, what can we do about it?
We can get drunk.
I hereby propose The Thread Hijack Drinking Game. The rules are simple: When a poster tries to hijack an unrelated thread to his or her pet cause, you 1) reply to the hijack attempt by quoting the text in question, followed by the word "DRINK!", and 2) Take a drink (or any volume) of your favorite beverage (alcoholic or non-alcoholic). Moderation is suggested on animal cruelty threads to avoid alcohol poisoning.
This game will not, I admit, solve the thread hijacking problem. But after a certain number of attempts we will no longer care.
And if anyone is offended by my little proposal, I can only say...
DRINK!
PG&E HATES, HATES, HATES people having solar, so they developed a system to punish them.
If you generate more power than you use, the "excess is a GIFT to PG&E (by law, a law sponsored by and paid for by PG&E).
If you use more power than you generate, they bill you for an entire year's worth of power in one lump. Mind you, they could bill you every month, they know to a fraction of a cent how much it is, but they'd rather punish you with a huge annual bill.
After the first year of THE BIG SURPRISE, I started paying 1/12 of the expected lump every month. The microsecond I get ahead on my PG&E bill, I start getting a THIS IS NOT A BILL DO NOT PAY notice mailed to me detailing my gas expense, the fee for having an electric meter and every charge except the actual electricity, and a notice of the positive balance.
No return envelope, of course.
I cut them a check, enclose the notice and mail it in a non-standard sized envelope...
That all sounds like a raging pain.
Stoughtonhyde®
Yes, that would be my daughter. Yes indeedy.
I think so.
I have one calendar that says it is, and one that says tomorrow is.
Lint starts on Ash Wednesday...
The talking heads on the alphabet news said it started tonight, so I guess it’s just a preference...maybe.
starts at sundown today, which is tomorrow by Jewish practice. Sometimes as confuzalting as metric and regular weights and measures.
It’s cold outside, there’s no kind of atmosphere, I’m all alone, more or less...
Yup. Now that I’m charging enough rent to cover the mortgage, I’m somewhat more ambiguous about selling it.
We have lint year-round, here.
Depends on how much it has appreciated, I guess, and what you think the market will do next, and whether you’d have to pay tax on the capital gain.
I don’t think it’s still underwater.
Given that I never actually bought it, I don’t know what basis should be used to calculate capital gains, and given that I would use any proceedings there to buy a house here (1031 swap?) it’s going to need an army of tax specialists to sort it out.
If you inherited it, except from a spouse, the basis would be the value at the time of inheritance. However, if it’s not your primary residence, you might not get the capital gains shelter from turning it over into another house.
Turbo-Tax probably has a calculator that will figure it out for you.
It was the booby prize in a divorce.
My gut reaction is that this event would not reset the basis because it’s not a taxable transfer. An inheritance is a taxable transfer even if no tax is assessed because the total estate is below the exclusion level.
Gee. I wish my brain worked that well.
I can’t even calculate the mpg in my truck, properly.
Coming in from outside, I seem to have walked into a conversation that has left me...
in the dark...
again.
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