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Space-Bird posted:I didn't realize charities could just be funding for religious propaganda. I always thought there had to be some sort of veil of humanitarian outreach. And that vacation offer? Well... Wikipedia posted:In Oregon, the attorney general added that Kars4Kids failed to disclose that its offer of a "free vacation" for vehicle donors was designed to recruit people to attend timeshare presentations.
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Aug 22, 2015 18:32
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Space-Bird posted:I didn't realize charities could just be funding for religious propaganda. I always thought there had to be some sort of veil of humanitarian outreach. Basically every religious organization is a charity. Charities can also spend all of their money on administration and advertising. They're poorly regulated and get a lot of leeway from the IRS. This is part of why I never, ever give money to a charity that is up in my face about getting me to donate, such as with cold-calling or door-to-door or TV commercials. Those things are evidence that the charity is spending a large proportion of donations on marketing. You can seek out a charity that does what you want to help support, and a little research can tell you what proportion of raised funds actually goes to the actually-useful activities.
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Aug 22, 2015 20:48
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Leperflesh posted:Basically every religious organization is a charity. Charities can also spend all of their money on administration and advertising. They're poorly regulated and get a lot of leeway from the IRS. This is part of why I never, ever give money to a charity that is up in my face about getting me to donate, such as with cold-calling or door-to-door or TV commercials. Those things are evidence that the charity is spending a large proportion of donations on marketing. You can seek out a charity that does what you want to help support, and a little research can tell you what proportion of raised funds actually goes to the actually-useful activities. Right. Like the Komen Foundation and all the controversy. Basically it's like Rich Person 101 to start a charity and give your family members/spouse a nice 6 figure salary help 'administrate' it. The interesting thing is this is a charity FOR religious organizations, not the other way around.
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Aug 22, 2015 22:21
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Space-Bird posted:I always hated that commercial too. There seemed something strange about it to me, like it wasn't on the level, because they never really say what the charity is actually for, other than 'kids'...but apparently it's only for Jewish children. There are a ton of charities like this. About 10+ years back, the way these worked was that you donate your car to them, and they gave you a tax receipt for full blue book value no matter what the condition of the car was. The charity itself basically is a shell to funnel money to the executives -- with the total amount of money going to charity being some small token amount. The law has changed since then that they can only give you a receipt for the actual auction value of the car (or $500, whichever is more). On one hand, this is incredibly slimy; doubly so for people who think they're actually doing a good deed and not just taking advantage of a tax loophole. On the other hand, when my dad's 2000 Chevy Malibu with a bunch of mechanical problems finally blew its transmission -- I was more then happy to give a similar organization a call to tow it off the lot and just take the $500 receipt. If these "charities" didn't exist -- I wouldn't be surprised if it actually cost me money to get someone to dispose of it. Chuu fucked around with this message at 01:48 on Aug 23, 2015 |
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Aug 23, 2015 01:39
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Nah, a typical car has enough steel scrap value to be worth more than a tow. But $500 for a non-op car is usually a better deal, unless it's a huge old hulk with like 4k pounds of steel in it.
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Aug 23, 2015 17:31
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Chuu posted:I was more then happy to give a similar organization a call to tow it off the lot and just take the $500 receipt. If these "charities" didn't exist -- I wouldn't be surprised if it actually cost me money to get someone to dispose of it. I contacted a local charity I knew did good work, because I wanted them to get the full money from the sale. They actually had a mechanic on staff, repaired it, and sold it as a working car. The donation did exactly what it was supposed to. It helps when you cut out the middleman.
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Aug 23, 2015 18:06
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Also it blew my mind to see the barely functional car I donated 10 years ago driving along on the freeway last week with some wacky rasta guy behind the wheel. Stay cool rasta guy.
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Aug 23, 2015 18:54
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Bastard Tetris posted:Also it blew my mind to see the barely functional car I donated 10 years ago driving along on the freeway last week with some wacky rasta guy behind the wheel. Stay cool rasta guy. The sheer blinding whiteness of this post causes passing airplanes to crash.
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Aug 23, 2015 19:07
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Leperflesh posted:Nah, a typical car has enough steel scrap value to be worth more than a tow. But $500 for a non-op car is usually a better deal, unless it's a huge old hulk with like 4k pounds of steel in it. I had to call 4 wrecking yards before someone would tow my 1989 Buick Skylark from my house. Even for free they didn't want it 
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Aug 23, 2015 20:22
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Klaus88 posted:The sheer blinding whiteness of this post causes passing airplanes to crash. Hey man you're the one with the 88 in your username PS it was a Mercedes
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Aug 23, 2015 21:48
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Bastard Tetris posted:PS it was a Mercedes 
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Aug 23, 2015 22:15
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"Barely functional" often equals "easily repairable." FCKGW posted:I had to call 4 wrecking yards before someone would tow my 1989 Buick Skylark from my house. Even for free they didn't want it When? If it was in the last five years or so, that's pretty amazing. Maybe the wrecking yards just didn't have a tow truck handy, or maybe you're really far away? A huge hulk like an 89 skylark probably has at least $300 in scrap value, maybe more.
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Aug 23, 2015 22:20
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FCKGW posted:I had to call 4 wrecking yards before someone would tow my 1989 Buick Skylark from my house. Even for free they didn't want it We're you nothing but a mark in a bucket skylark?
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Aug 23, 2015 22:34
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Leperflesh posted:"Barely functional" often equals "easily repairable." Sorta, it was an 80s turbodiesel, I ran biodiesel on it for 2 years and no longer had the means to make it anymore 
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Aug 23, 2015 22:52
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Leperflesh posted:"Barely functional" often equals "easily repairable." Nah, this was my first car around 15 years ago. It was shooting some weird green fluid sideways from unnder the driver side wheel well.
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Aug 23, 2015 23:01
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Minarchist posted:I'm fairly libertarian and somewhat left leaning Hahaha what does this even mean
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Aug 24, 2015 17:41
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H.P. Hovercraft posted:Hahaha what does this even mean It means he would be the perfect bay area techie.
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Aug 24, 2015 17:43
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H.P. Hovercraft posted:Hahaha what does this even mean BUT ANY TAX OR ACTION OF THE GUBMENT IS A FORM OF VIOLENCE AND I DO NOT CONDONE THAT UNDER THE BILL OF RIGHTS alternately: I have no idea what my political beliefs are.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:12
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FCKGW posted:Nah, this was my first car around 15 years ago. It was shooting some weird green fluid sideways from unnder the driver side wheel well. It was leaking radiator fluid, which might have been a $20 fix if that was just a hole in a hose.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:30
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FilthyImp posted:I enjoy weed, prostitution and would like my massive college loans to be forgiven. You're not actually left leaning at all then.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:33
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It's a little pointless to debate some internet guy's political beliefs for him, but I don't really think minarchism is particularly right-wing either. I'd say it doesn't really fit into the left-right spectrum.
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Aug 24, 2015 18:37
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VikingofRock posted:It's a little pointless to debate some internet guy's political beliefs for him, but I don't really think minarchism is particularly right-wing either. I'd say it doesn't really fit into the left-right spectrum.
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Aug 24, 2015 20:36
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TBH its just an outdated username  I'm near the bottom and slightly left on that political compass quiz for whatever that's worth but I'm willing to compromise on things.
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Aug 24, 2015 23:22
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Leperflesh posted:It was leaking radiator fluid, which might have been a $20 fix if that was just a hole in a hose.  this is so loving true. I wonder how many cats died.
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Aug 25, 2015 00:48
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Pohl posted:
This is getting way off on a tangent, but: I read/post a lot in the AI meets BFC recommend me a car thread, and a very common theme in there is "I'm just sick of my old car and want a new one, but I'm going to rationalize it by describing my old car as half-dead or costing way too much to maintain or whatever." Most of the time once the details are dragged out of them, it turns out they're trying to justify a $20k expense by complaining about $800 in needed repairs and maintenance or something.
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Aug 25, 2015 01:03
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Minarchist posted:TBH its just an outdated username I just looked up that quiz, and the questions seem to me to be weighted in a way that you have to be a sociopath to end up not somewhere in the green area. I'm curious to see a spread of the results.
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Aug 25, 2015 01:07
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I figured out how it was scored a while back: http://appliedpc.crappycomic.com/scoring.php
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Aug 25, 2015 01:31
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CopperHound posted:I just looked up that quiz, and the questions seem to me to be weighted in a way that you have to be a sociopath to end up not somewhere in the green area. I'm curious to see a spread of the results. I remember there was an informal study on how members of various discussion boards answered. If I recall, Stormfront was centrist and Rapture Ready was very slightly north-and-west of center. It is hilariously shifted towards the libertarian quadrant.
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Aug 25, 2015 01:47
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Pohl posted:
Then the wrecking yard got a great deal then. The car was a bucket with tons of problems and I have already saved up a down for another used car so I went without a car for about 2 months until I was ready to buy.
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Aug 25, 2015 04:09
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So a San Diego assembly candidate named Louis J. Marinelli is trying to get measures on the ballot that would make California a sort of sovereign state within the US instead of just a regular state like all the other losers - in his mind the relationship between California and the US would be like the relationship between Scotland and the UK. LA Times has an interview with him here, website for the plan is here. It apparently used to be called "Sovereign California" but people confused it with sovereign citizen and also can't spell sovereign, so now it's "Yes California." The interview touches on a couple of interesting points, like how super-state California would deal with immigration, and it may be more sensible than Six Californias, but the fact that he's "hoping" the Sec of State accepts digitally-gathered signatures instead of finding out whether they'll actually be accepted makes me question whether he's got any hope of getting his measures anywhere. I'm kinda hoping it gathers more steam, if only to see other states howl at the prospect of California getting special status (which I think some might find to be even more offensive than full on secession). andamac fucked around with this message at 14:40 on Aug 26, 2015 |
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Aug 26, 2015 14:35
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That won't happen, if only because Texas would immediately do it too.
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Aug 26, 2015 14:39
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Yep. I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of other states tried to jump on the train as well.
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Aug 26, 2015 14:44
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If every state is special, then no state is.
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Aug 26, 2015 16:41
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Oh look, another ballot prop that doesn't understand what the supremacy clause is. I'm shocked, really.  You can't impose laws on the federal government via a state referendum. This could pass by 100% with 100% voter turn out, and the federal government could shrug and go "that's great, we're not giving you special status."
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Aug 26, 2015 18:20
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Man, at least agitating for no-poo poo independence would be honest. This special administrative region stuff is... I don't know what this is. Possibly just unfocused, given that half of it is about titles and symbols and bottled water.computer parts posted:That won't happen, if only because Texas would immediately do it too. This is what we call a "bonus".
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Aug 26, 2015 22:45
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Ooh yes, maybe California could become like Puerto Rico! American, but only technically. I'm sure that the federal government would have no say in this.
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Aug 26, 2015 22:53
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We'd have access to the dollar and other benefits of the US economy but the feds wouldn't be able to tell us what to do, why wouldn't they go for it?
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Aug 26, 2015 23:15
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I like the requirement that the state invest in gold and build a depository for said superior store of value.
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Aug 26, 2015 23:29
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Sydin posted:Oh look, another ballot prop that doesn't understand what the supremacy clause is. I'm shocked, really. This should get stopped for the same reason the kill the gays one got stopped.
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Aug 26, 2015 23:34
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Nice work, fellow CaliforniansSJ Mercury News posted:California Drought: Urban users cut their water use by whopping 31.3 percent in July heat
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Aug 28, 2015 11:49
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