Russell Newquist

Russell Newquist

17p

13 comments posted · 0 followers · following 0

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Our Stupid Tax Code · 0 replies · +1 points

It's an open weblog, no sign-in is required.

<a href="http://philosophers-stone.typepad.com/my_weblog/" target="_blank">http://philosophers-stone.typepad.com/my_weblog/

Edit 5 seconds after I posted this, I realized that you meant signing on for comments, and now I feel like a jerk. If you follow through the "comments" link at the bottom of each post, there's a "sign in" link at the bottom of each page. Commenting requires a Typepad account (it used to be open, but like every other blogger I had ridiculous problems with comment spam).

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Notice: Testing New C... · 0 replies · +1 points

This'll probably be my last note, because if it were my own blog, this would kill the new comment system for me, hands down. Over on your post on the tax code from this morning, the threads are all boned up now. They're not displaying correctly at all - comments are being threaded with other comments that are completely incorrect, even though they were matching up fine earlier in the day. If the key feature (threading) breaks down this easily (that post only has 15 comments currently), it's worthless.

For what it's worth, my final opinion is that this was a noble but failed experiment.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Notice: Testing New C... · 0 replies · +1 points

Also, with the "e-mail replies" feature enabled, I get an e-mail when I reply to my own comments. This is *very* annoying. It should be smart enough to know that I'm well aware of any replies that I myself left.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Our Stupid Tax Code · 0 replies · +1 points

Because we live in the real world and have to deal with what's achievable.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Notice: Testing New C... · 1 reply · +1 points

More notes: (sorry, the thoughts come up as I'm using this in another thread to comment)

This system lacks formatting controls that the old system had. Also, it provides no indication as to whether or not it accepts formatting tags. Do HTML tags work? BBCode? Nothing?

There's no preview feature, so amongst other things I can't try out various tagging codes to see if they work.

--

For whatever it's worth, I really liked this system at first, but the more I use it the more I'm disliking it.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Our Stupid Tax Code · 0 replies · +1 points

I'm inherently suspicious of any plan that begins with "I'm afraid you don't understand..."

I understand the plan just fine. I also understand that the tax, as proposed, will never in any reality stay as simple as the proposers make it out to be.

Also, yes, small businesses all over the country already do it with state sales taxes. This is already a pain in many localities, and adding a layer of federal taxes on top of it won't make it any easier, as I discuss in greater depth at my own blog, here:

http://philosophers-stone.typepad.com/my_weblog/2...

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Notice: Testing New C... · 0 replies · +1 points

Yet another note... it's probably not the fault of the comment system, but your posts no longer contain a trackback URL. They still have the "send trackback" link, but since the page that link points to requires that the user enter an actual trackback URL, it's essentially useless now.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Notice: Testing New C... · 0 replies · +1 points

Yes, now that you mention it, I recall that.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Notice: Testing New C... · 0 replies · +1 points

Another note: the threaded comment feature doesn't appear to be working when I click the "show comments here" link for inline comments rather than clicking through to a separate page.

14 years ago @ Outside The Beltway | OTB - Our Stupid Tax Code · 0 replies · +1 points

No, in fact, this reform doesn't do everything *I* want. I'm not a fan of the so called "fair tax", and think it's actually anything but.

Also, anybody who thinks it will end up simpler is naive. There's absolutely no reason that Congress can't gimmick up a sales tax to make it just as complicated as the current income tax. It merely shifts the burden from individuals to businesses, with small businesses being hardest hit by the paperwork. As someone who's owned and operated multiple *very* small businesses, I'm sensitive to this problem. The paperwork for such individuals is already insane, and I don't support anything that makes it worse.

If we're going to have a complicated tax code (which realistically, we always will given the nature of our political system), I'd *rather* have it place the burden on individuals. It keeps us all aware of how complicated and crazy the stupid thing is and gives each individual voter an incentive to keep a check on just how complicated it gets. Take that away, and it'll get even worse than it is now because your average voter won't care.