It's starting...

[slm76.livejournal.com]

Darling unveils 50% top tax rate

Yes, it's in the United Kingdom, but other countries are going to take note. Including the USA.

Actually, what's interesting to me is when this will be brought in. The UK does not have a set election cycle as in the USA. General elections are usually held every 4-5 years, and a few folks from back home have told me that PM Brown won't call an election unless he can be sure his party will win. April has previously been a popular month for elections.

In other budget news...
Petrol (gas) prices are already higher than in the USA. Keeping the taxes of it above inflation for the next 4 years will not help a lot of regular folks.

But here's my rant...

My mother, age 57, has been told by her doctor that she is not physically able to work. Getting disability payments has been crazy, with the local office trying to get her to travel to a physician of their choosing out of town. My mother cannot even GET out of town right now. She can't currently drive so has to rely on a friend, and that friend has been fantastic so far but has her own family responsibilities. Driving my mother 40 miles to get her to an 8:00 am appointment is just not going to happen.

Meanwhile, my mother is relying on an inheritance from my gran who died in January. So far, despite being the sole inheritor, she's faced bureaucray at every step. If, for some ridiculous reason, she doesn't receive that inheritance this year (which will already have been taxed), will she suddenly find herself in that highest income tax bracket? Since the government is being ridiculous over her getting disability, she's relying on that inheritance to live. If she loses half of it due to taxation...

Then there's my godfather. Left school at 16, but worked his way up the corporate ladder anyway. It's not something you can do these days. Why should he give up half the income he's worked so hard for?

Mr. Darling has said that those who earn more should pay more. Hmmm... where have we heard that before?

Millionnaires are already leaving New York. Will they also be leaving the UK?

Sorry, I'm just extremely peeved at this.

It's like Hulu ... but it's not

[sameinanylingo.livejournal.com]

Reposting this to see if anyone bites. I thought I had found what I was looking for (twice) but it turns out I was mistaken (twice).

A while back (it might have been in February it might have been in March) someone on my friends list (or so I thought) posted a link to a new (?) web site that is very much like Hulu and like an idiot I forgot to bookmark it. However I've gone back through and search the journals of everyone I thought might have posted it and I can't find it so now I'm wondering if maybe it was posted here since community entries and FL entries seem to get muddled sometimes.

So, does this sound familiar to anyone? If it wasn't anyone here does anyone here have any idea what the site may be? I've been searching google and coming up short :P

I specifically remember whoever posted about this said they liked it better than Hulu because they had a lot of Food Network shows available. And that's specifically why I'm looking for it now. Why oh why did I NOT bookmark the darn thing?!

I tried looking through the archives of the past couple of months but not everyone uses a subject line so it's kind of difficult.

Not Your Everyday Hero.

[kimaginethis.livejournal.com]

Is anyone else a fangirl of Icelander Magnus Scheving? The guy is amazing -- he is married, has 3 kids, built his own house, has his own show, writes and produces, is an award-winning fitness guru and still manages to work to make sure kids are healthy...

The thing is, the show was started after he did five zillion other things first. He became Sportacus because, well, he was bored, I guess, and wanted something else to do:

“Among his many sports awards and trophies he was the two-times European Champion of aerobics in 1995 and 1994 as well as silver medalist in the World Championships of aerobics in 1994 and following that was voted “Athlete of the Year” in Iceland. Furthermore, he was also the Nordic Champion and holds six Icelandic Champion titles. He successfully built up one of the most popular health & fitness clubs in Iceland and was the manager and owner of the club for five years.”


Magnus became a public speaker on the subject of fitness, and throughout his travels he noted that there was no super hero to motivate kids to lead a healthy, active lifestyle. Magnus then began to research the topic, talking to parents and kids, and observing kids to see what kinds of things they were interested in.

http://kidstvmovies.about.com/od/lazytown/a/magnusbio.htm

*sigh*



Just wondering. The spandex and splits in the air might have a wee bit to do with it, too...

*whistles*

Earth day coincidence?

[peacenlove2332.livejournal.com]

Earth day is also Vladimir Lenin’s birthday.

And the first ever Earth day was held on his 100th birthday on April 22, 1970.


Coincidence?


But then again Adolf Hitler’s birthday was on 4/20, and maybe if he had some pot he wouldn’t have been so angry at the world.


p.s. don't take this too seriously :P

Fangirly Request

[fi-harkness.livejournal.com]

Okay! So I'm booting up for the return of Burn Notice in June, and I was wondering if anyone had some good Burn Notice icons to share? Extra points if they're of Fi or Victor (I love Victor even more now that I've realized it's Jackson from Stargate).