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Early Winter Banter, Observations & General Discussion 2017


powderfreak

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1 hour ago, Hoth said:

Isn't Hill Farmstead up there too? That's on my pilgrimage list for sure.

 

1 hour ago, DomNH said:

I thought they were more in the Burlington area but I could be wrong.

Nope, they are in Greensboro. East of Stowe and north of Montpelier. Good snow location. 

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Hoth, I agree. Was hyping a bit. In a more formal gathering and having more time to get my thoughts out....this is an interesting discussion I enjoy. 

I am all for ‘liberalizing’ our personal freedoms. The more you cap what people can legally do, the more back alley aka shadey underground stuff appears - drug dealers, prostetution, etc. People will find ways to get there pleasure. It’s why drug delears do what they do. billions to be made because humans love their pleasures. We could regulate it, tax it, and stop dumping money on the war on drugs that has proven to FAIL. Drug dealers would go broke here, no US market. It’s a simple concept, yet too complicated with too many hands in pockets to execute. 

Online poker was banned - I use to play for a living after college - and for what? people playing each other in a game of skill and chance....people enjoy that. Why stop it? Just tax the sites, make it legal, and let people play. This notion, just like Fanduel or Draftkings, that we cannot allow people to play against each other regardless if it is skill or luck, is garbage. But the Lottery is fine right....is that skill? Like...I’m tired of this country being a the model of HYPOCRICY. Create and maintain laws that prevent harm to one another, agree obviously.....but if I want to ‘harm’ myself by drinking to my coffin or smoking cigs to my coffin....so be it, you make money off me doing it....So if I wanna ‘harm’ myself by smoking weed or gambling, why does it all of the sudden become a problem? Like we pick and choose what is right or wrong, what is legal or not. We act like we have moral standards when we berate a heroin addict for by jailing him when he tries to score a bag but we high five the alcholic who walked out of the bar blasted. 

 

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Got motivated this past summer, stared working out and joined a weight loss program where you you pay in monthly but actually get paid with profit to lose weight as long as you meet your weightloss goal, it's called HealthyWage.  Down 46 pounds since the middle of July .  I probably can't run like the Rev Kev.  but I consistently run 3 miles or so and have occasionally gotten up to 7-8 miles.  

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21 minutes ago, dryslot said:

A full keg and i would be impressed.....lol, I lifted my share of 1/2 bbl back in the day, My back lets me know every day...........:(

Yeah, I'm super careful. Fortunately the demand is mostly 1/6bbl these days. I can tell my boss I don't want to lift anything anymore but I kind of enjoy the exercise. 

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15 minutes ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

Yeah, I'm super careful. Fortunately the demand is mostly 1/6bbl these days. I can tell my boss I don't want to lift anything anymore but I kind of enjoy the exercise. 

The keg pads came in handy but not helpful going up a few flights of stairs.

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38 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Hoth, I agree. Was hyping a bit. In a more formal gathering and having more time to get my thoughts out....this is an interesting discussion I enjoy. 

I am all for ‘liberalizing’ our personal freedoms. The more you cap what people can legally do, the more back alley aka shadey underground stuff appears - drug dealers, prostetution, etc. People will find ways to get there pleasure. It’s why drug delears do what they do. billions to be made because humans love their pleasures. We could regulate it, tax it, and stop dumping money on the war on drugs that has proven to FAIL. Drug dealers would go broke here, no US market. It’s a simple concept, yet too complicated with too many hands in pockets to execute. 

Online poker was banned - I use to play for a living after college - and for what? people playing each other in a game of skill and chance....people enjoy that. Why stop it? Just tax the sites, make it legal, and let people play. This notion, just like Fanduel or Draftkings, that we cannot allow people to play against each other regardless if it is skill or luck, is garbage. But the Lottery is fine right....is that skill? Like...I’m tired of this country being a the model of HYPOCRICY. Create and maintain laws that prevent harm to one another, agree obviously.....but if I want to ‘harm’ myself by drinking to my coffin or smoking cigs to my coffin....so be it, you make money off me doing it....So if I wanna ‘harm’ myself by smoking weed or gambling, why does it all of the sudden become a problem? Like we pick and choose what is right or wrong, what is legal or not. We act like we have moral standards when we berate a heroin addict for by jailing him when he tries to score a bag but we high five the alcholic who walked out of the bar blasted. 

 

The online poker thing was a head scratcher for me. I just assumed the big casino companies didn't like marginal players muscling in on their turf and cracked the whip across their lobbyists' backs, but it always struck me as high hypocrisy that the gov would ban online gambling, but then try to drum up lottery sales with catchy TV jingles. And playing poker is no more risky than speculating on Bitcoin. I also agree that people are pleasure seeking. Life can be a damn tough slog, and people need outlets. As Curt Cobain eloquently said, "No one dies a virgin; life fooks everyone in the end." As far the legalizing drugs, I'm not sure how that ends. Obviously marijuana has significant medicinal value. A friend of mine has stage 3 brain cancer and it's the only thing that helps her migraines and nausea when she's doing chemo. Perhaps the market would become so flooded with supply that prices collapse and organized crime loses the profit motive? Perhaps they would respond violently to legal purveyors to force them out? Try to set up legit operations? I dunno, I just don't see gangs losing their meal ticket and just going quietly into that good night. Again, just spitballing, no clue how that plays out, but I can be sure that while such a move would probably be a tax bonanza, our government will find a creative and stupid way to squander it. 

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8 hours ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Micro breweries like Treehouse, Trillium etc and IPA’s are reshaping the entire beer community . All FTW.

If the long time craft breweries don’t start producing the same types of IPA’s and doubles..they’ll meet the same fate.

Sam Adams just came out with one. They knew they had to.

New tax code is a boon to craft beers but bud light still had a huge huge huge lead on sales. Crafts are a Nice niche but that's all. Most people arent beer aficionados 

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37 minutes ago, sbos_wx said:

I love domestic beers. I'll never understand the IPA craze. Maybe it's an age thing. I know a lot of older guys around here that really don't drink IPA's either. I almost think it's an occupational thing. 

I don't either, guys in my golf league are always drinking something different and trading beers and I'll just order my bud light and enjoy it.

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1 hour ago, sbos_wx said:

I love domestic beers. I'll never understand the IPA craze. Maybe it's an age thing. I know a lot of older guys around here that really don't drink IPA's either. I almost think it's an occupational thing. 

Right.....I don’t need a beer competing with the serious ****e....besides most stringer beers are just ass

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3 hours ago, Hoth said:

The online poker thing was a head scratcher for me. I just assumed the big casino companies didn't like marginal players muscling in on their turf and cracked the whip across their lobbyists' backs, but it always struck me as high hypocrisy that the gov would ban online gambling, but then try to drum up lottery sales with catchy TV jingles. And playing poker is no more risky than speculating on Bitcoin. 

The online poker thing in 2006 was due to taxes.  Players' winnings at the non-US gaming sites weren't getting reported to the IRS nor having the tax withholding done.  The big casino companies were all for the restriction, citing how THEY complied with the rules - but obviously happy to have the competition whacked down.  In theory there were supposed to be guidelines and stuff devised for how online gaming would handle betting and reporting and withholding and then things might be opened up again (by which time the big casinos would have worked out their own sites).

Nowadays, the big deal is the prospect of sports betting being legal anywhere in the US rather than just in Nevada (and a few other states).  New Jersey's challenge to the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act of 1992 was heard by the US Supreme Court last fall, and the expectation is that the Act will be overturned.  They're not expected to issue a ruling for a few more months.  If it is overturned, expect a flurry of referendums on the ballot this fall, since it'll be up to each city and state to decide whether or not to legalize it locally.

And yeah, getting sports gambling made legal in your hometown is also tax-related.  It's a recognition that huge amounts of money -- $150 billion annually is one figure that is frequently tossed around -- is being bet illegally and therefore the winnings not being taxed.

 

 

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8 hours ago, Hoth said:

The online poker thing was a head scratcher for me. I just assumed the big casino companies didn't like marginal players muscling in on their turf and cracked the whip across their lobbyists' backs, but it always struck me as high hypocrisy that the gov would ban online gambling, but then try to drum up lottery sales with catchy TV jingles. And playing poker is no more risky than speculating on Bitcoin. I also agree that people are pleasure seeking. Life can be a damn tough slog, and people need outlets. As Curt Cobain eloquently said, "No one dies a virgin; life fooks everyone in the end." As far the legalizing drugs, I'm not sure how that ends. Obviously marijuana has significant medicinal value. A friend of mine has stage 3 brain cancer and it's the only thing that helps her migraines and nausea when she's doing chemo. Perhaps the market would become so flooded with supply that prices collapse and organized crime loses the profit motive? Perhaps they would respond violently to legal purveyors to force them out? Try to set up legit operations? I dunno, I just don't see gangs losing their meal ticket and just going quietly into that good night. Again, just spitballing, no clue how that plays out, but I can be sure that while such a move would probably be a tax bonanza, our government will find a creative and stupid way to squander it. 

I would love to see life with legalization and not just drugs, but basically unchaining society socially. Like, lets do a 10 year trial run somewhere, close it off to everything else...make The Truman Show out of it. Watch it unfold and measure quality of life, economy, health, crime, etc. Allow people to do what they want, give them acces to what they want.......

I had more written but the site is unusable with all the ads and amazon winnings. 

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12 hours ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

Hoth, I agree. Was hyping a bit. In a more formal gathering and having more time to get my thoughts out....this is an interesting discussion I enjoy. 

I am all for ‘liberalizing’ our personal freedoms. The more you cap what people can legally do, the more back alley aka shadey underground stuff appears - drug dealers, prostetution, etc. People will find ways to get there pleasure. It’s why drug delears do what they do. billions to be made because humans love their pleasures. We could regulate it, tax it, and stop dumping money on the war on drugs that has proven to FAIL. Drug dealers would go broke here, no US market. It’s a simple concept, yet too complicated with too many hands in pockets to execute. 

I see the boldfaced sentence as overly optimistic, at the very least.  The biggies in the illicit drug trade are, as a species, businessmen - of a particularly ruthless sort but still businessmen.  If the federal government were to legalize recreational marijuana use, as one example, the drug lords won't try to compete with city hall; neither will they walk away from their money machine.  They'll do what other, less shady, businesses do when faced with intense competition - find a different product, a niche market, be imaginative.  If marijuana/cocaine/heroin become legal, maybe specialize in fentanol, bath salts, some mind-altering chemical beyond my imagination.  At what point of self-destructive substance should the government stop legalizing?  The line between restriction of some freedom and protecting citizens is never hard and fast.  That's why we have speed limits, so some doofus with a 'Vette doesn't lose control at 160 mph and annihilate a whole family as well as himself.

With billions of tax revenue at stake and at their fingertips, they will find a way. 

Billions?  I think you have Maine confused with California.  ;)
The proposed (and failed) legislation to regulate rec sales included 20% total taxes on the product.  By the time the state has reaped a billion dollars, every eligible (21+) citizen of Maine will have had to purchased at least $5,000 of marijuana.  I'm ignorant of prices and amounts generally used, but wonder how long one could stay high on 5 grand.  (And somebody would have to add my share to theirs. :lol:)

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