Did You Know? Another Fact Feast.

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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Another fact feast today.

Fifteen more random pieces of trivia to store away in your mind just ready to impress when you get the chance. (If you get the chance!)

As always, enjoy.

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The Playboy bunny costume was the first service uniform

to be registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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Chickens with white ear lobes lay white eggs,

whereas chickens with red ear lobes lay brown eggs.

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Alexander H. Stephens was the only Vice President

of the Confederate States of America

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In 1897, Indiana tried to pass a bill stating that pi is equal to 3.2,

as opposed to its truly infinite value,

but it never became law due to intervention

by a Purdue University professor

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The urine of patients with diabetes tastes sweet

because the extra sugar in a diabetic’s bloodstream

overwhelms the kidney’s ability to reabsorb it.

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The total cost of WWI for all involved is an estimated $185 billion.

When indirect costs are factored in, it was even greater.

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During the shower scene in Psycho,

what looks like blood funneling down the drain

is actually Bosco chocolate syrup.

Hitchcock thought it looked more real in

black-and-white than the fake red stuff.

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Morse Code was made for letters, not numbers.

In fact, signaling the number “one” requires a dot and four dashes.

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In horse racing the Preakness Stakes doubles as

the Run for the Black-Eyed Susans.

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Freddie Mercury,

the lead singer of British music group Queen,

was born in Zanzibar as Farrokh Bulsara.

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Jerry Lynn Ross and Franklin Chang-Diaz hold

the record for most spaceflights by an astronaut.

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Habitual singing causes the lungs to release leptin,

a protein manufactured by the body’s fat cells

that is involved in the regulation of appetite.

This may partially explain why in operas

the fat lady does sing.

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When Mario made his debut in the original Donkey Kong in 1981,

he was known as Jumpman.

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Trees do not grow higher than 130m as it is

physically impossible for the water to rise higher.

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Despite his amazing success as a songwriter in the early 60s,

Paul McCartney wanted to test the theory whether it was

the Lennon-McCartney name that made hit songs.

He wrote “Woman” for Peter & Gordon using the pseudonym “Bernard Webb.”

The song became a hit.

I wouldn’t have bought it, but here it is anyway.

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Are These Dumb Politicians And Bureaucrats Trying To Make America A Better Place Or Just Trying To Destroy It!

“Fight Against Stupidity And Bureaucracy”

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I talked before about the bureaucrat’s insatiable desire to make things more difficult, awkward and expensive for legitimate businesses in America and Europe. That’s all they know how to do. I’ve also said before that introducing ever more taxes and regulations on bricks & mortar businesses would not be enough. They would have to try to destroy businesses operating online as well.

Well that latter attempt at destroying what is left of American entrepreneurship moved up another notch this week when the US Senate passed the “Marketplace Fairness Act”.

 

I’ll come back to that in a moment, but the title of this latest piece of needless bureaucratic interference illustrates perfectly once again the deceitfulness of the politicians and bureaucrats.

The “Marketplace Fairness Act” is not about “fairness”. It is not about leveling the playing field between those businesses operating online and those on the proverbial “High Street”. Anyone who tells you that is lying. (Really, a politician lying? Whatever next?)

 

Like all similar legislation, the “Marketplace Fairness Act” is about control; about making life more difficult for people who want to do business; and, not least, about trying to extort the last penny out of your pocket in the form of taxes.

I say “your” pocket, because at the end of the day businesses have to pass their increased costs on to the final consumer and that my friends is us!

Yes, the “Marketplace Fairness Act” has just been passed by the US Senate. As these things do, it still has to pass through the House of Representatives as well, and it will, if not on the first attempt on subsequent ones. Have you ever seen a stupid bad law that wasn’t pushed through by fair means or foul?

What the “Marketplace Fairness Act” does is to impose sales taxes for business transactions or sales done online. In other words, when you buy something from an online retailer, or a retailer with an online facility, you will be subject to the addition of a sales tax.

In the simplest terms, for you, the consumer, this Bill means that your bills will be bigger – you will have to pay more! For the business operating online it means more bureaucracy, more forms to fill out, more tax filings to be done – in short more hassle.

But for the government it means more money to be squandered on another war or on the next idiotic idea that Washington can think of.

 

And another unfairness that the Marketplace Fairness Act will create is that online businesses operating outside the United States will be laughing their tax free socks off.

You see this law will not – cannot – apply to foreign companies who do business online and sell to US-based consumers.

Why? Because the US authorities have no practical way to enforce it, and because businesses in foreign countries couldn’t care less about enforcing it, nor will their governments.

Do you seriously think for one moment that either businesses or governments in, for example, China, or India, or even Mexico are going to waste their time collecting sales tax for Uncle Sam?

So if I was setting up an online business would I still do it in America? I think you know the answer.

You could be forgiven for asking whether these dumb politicians and bureaucrats are really trying to make America a better place or just trying to destroy it!

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