Iceland Annie could teach the Tea Party about patriotism

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Saturday August 13, 2011 · 12:44 PM PDT

2011/08/13 · 12:44

Annie Thórisdóttir, known as Iceland Annie, was a winner at the 2011 Reebok CrossFit Games. She won the title of World's Fittest Woman plus a check for US$250,000. Under Icelandic law, she has two weeks to surrender about half of her prize to the government in taxes. This has apparently raised concerns in Iceland that the country's taxes will drive high income Icelanders to move out of the country.
She answered those questions on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's news program As It Happens (the interview starts about 17 minutes into the second half of the show). The relevant part of the story ...

Annie: "The taxes have always been fairly high in Iceland and all the Norwegian (sic) countries just because of the system we have. It's different from the States. The doctors and the health system are free and the school system and the colleges are for free. We cannot pay for that without the tax money."
Interviewer: "So it sounds like you don't have a problem with paying 50 percent of the prize."
Annie: "No. That's how it is, so of course not."
Interviewer: "Has it ever crossed your mind to not pay, maybe to be not Icelandic?"
Annie: (laughs) "No it hasn't."

Iceland Annie said that winning the prize wasn't any different than earning a salary, so she shouldn't be exempt from paying the same taxes as anyone else. She also views the welfare of her countrymen as something she needs to support. Compare that to our conservative rump, who never seem to miss a chance to demonize those who need a helping hand, and would dump this country in a second if there was a buck in it for them. So I salute you, Iceland Annie, for loving both your country and your countrymen more than 30 pieces of silver.

Poll

65 votes Show Results

If you won $250,000 would you ...

65 votes Vote Now!

If you won $250,000 would you ...

cheerfully pay the taxes?

43 votes

emigrate to the Cayman Islands?

3 votes

donate to a worthy cause?

3 votes

dump it on the bed and roll around on it?

4 votes

invest in the stock market?

6 votes

put it in a safer investment than the stock market, like a slot machine?

0 votes

see how fast you could spend it on chocolate and champagne?

1 vote

rent a congressman's vote?

2 votes

waste it on sheer foolishness?

3 votes

A small request

writerofag

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Sunday July 31, 2011 · 6:04 PM PDT

2011/07/31 · 18:04

My nephew was severely wounded in Afghanistan several years ago. He came back and found a wonderful woman (their baby turned one yesterday) but he is looking for an online community of people who have shared the same experiences. Specifically, he is looking for groups concerned about the issues of disabled vets. Does anybody have any links I can send him?

I pissed off Thomas Jefferson

writerofag

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Saturday January 29, 2011 · 9:55 PM PST

2011/01/29 · 21:55

I hate slagging on Clay Jenkinson. He is one of the few people who have a view of the founding fathers based on anything resembling reality. But today's show made me crabby. My response is below the cut.

writerofag

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Sunday January 23, 2011 · 6:04 PM PST

2011/01/23 · 18:04

Anyone remember this song?
It's been a long day. I've been reading too many blogs lately with liberals slagging other liberals while I'm looking for work. The news sites are full of stories about how the bad people of the world can't be blamed for nothing (yes, I have been reduced to employing double negatives). I'm bored out of my skull and even my cats are crabby today.
I sure could use a little good news today ... so I found some ...

Poll

25 votes Show Results

Is a

25 votes Vote Now!

Is a

good idea?

18 votes

bad idea?

1 vote

There's good news?

4 votes

pie?

2 votes

Don't Be a Sucker

writerofag

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Monday October 18, 2010 · 11:43 AM PDT

2010/10/18 · 11:43

Don't Be a Sucker was an anti-fascist film produced by the military after WWII. It is scary that it is still so relevant today. Substitute Muslim for Catholic and immigrant for Jew, and you could have a biting commentary on Beck or WorldNutDaily. It is sad that we have come so far as a nation but can be dragged back to our worst impulses so easily. I put the YouTube under the cut for you viewing pleasure.

writerofag

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Monday March 29, 2010 · 4:38 PM PDT

2010/03/29 · 16:38

A large percentage of people from North Dakota have Norwegian heritage. That has led to frequent cultural exchanges and many student from Norway have come to study at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. One of Grand Forks' many friends in Norway wrote that the things he was reading in the media had him worried about his friends across the Atlantic.

Excerpts after the jump

writerofag

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Wednesday February 03, 2010 · 5:54 AM PST

2010/02/03 · 05:54

I managed to shake Kent Conrad up last fall by asking him if he was aware that Grassley was bragging about punking him on HCR. I was thinking about questions I could ask him the next time that would be equally embarrassing about the horrendous Pain Caucus committee he wants to set up to slash Social Security while leaving defense waste untouched. Eventually it evolved into a series of questions I thought I could share with the group as an opportunity to brainstorm questions that would shame some of our hired help into voting better. Or would if they had any shame. At least we can make some of them uncomfortable for a minute or two.

Please note that these questions are very short. Take it from someone who has attended way too many public meetings in his life. If your question is in the form of a paragraph, by the time you actually get to your question even the people in the audience who agree with you will hate you with a passion.

In the comments I would like to see the questions you would like to ask Ben Nelson or Bart Stupak if you had a chance. I don't think my questions are necessarily anything special. I would like to see them honed on the whetstone that is Daily Kos.

The questions are below the cut.

writerofag

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Wednesday August 19, 2009 · 7:37 AM PDT

2009/08/19 · 07:37

I encouraged my sister to write a letter to Conrad, Dorgan and Pomeroy because her situation is exactly the kind of thing we are fighting to solve. I don't know if it will penetrate their thick skulls, but if we don't try we'll never know.

writerofag

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Saturday April 19, 2008 · 8:08 AM PDT

2008/04/19 · 08:08

This is the fight the Schiavo case should have been. Not for a woman a decade dead but held in limbo by machines, but a living breathing fighting woman who has suffered greatly and survived but is now being denied food - the very basis of life - by Medicare. Nyceve has talked about murder by spreadsheet, and it is hard to imagine a case in colder blood than this.

Susan Spicer will die because some insurance bureaucrat thinks her only source of nutrition is "supplemental."

writerofag

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Thursday May 24, 2007 · 2:08 PM PDT

2007/05/24 · 14:08

In a few short days all them Congresscritters will be dispersing to the winds for the Memorial Day recess. Many, if not most, will take varying amounts of that time to get in touch with the people who sent them to Babylon-on-the-Potomac. As this holiday is dedicated to the memory of the brave soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines who have died for this country, lots of the critters will use this time to do some demagoguery over the "need to support the troops."

Sounds like an opportunity for a little reframing, hmmmm?

Politely, but persistantly and repeatedly, ask 101 versions, no make that 535 versions of:

"Are you going to support the troops or the president?"

Poll

10 votes Show Results

Are you

10 votes Vote Now!

Are you

Supporting the troops?

4 votes

some sort of gol-dang, effing, bad-smelling, dirty, granola, pinko, HIP-PIE FREAK!?

6 votes

A call to the religious left

writerofag

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Tuesday February 13, 2007 · 6:38 PM PST

2007/02/13 · 18:38

I am ignostic. I believe that a person's belief in a deity and afterlife are irrelevant to whether he or she is a good or bad person. In religious debates I tend to keep my head down except in the case where a deity is claimed to have a measurable effect on the secular world, I will ask for independent documentation of those effects, preferably in a double blind study. So I have no call to inquire into the beliefs of others or the desire to change those beliefs. Behaviors and politics, being in my view independent of the views of a deity or afterlife, are a different matter.

I am in a way going against my own beliefs because I want to speak to what has been called around here in DKos the Religious Left, and more specifically to the Christian Left. I want to speak to you with respect as brothers and sisters in a cause that is greater than we are, to create a country worthy of the ideals upon which it was founded. I have a request of you.

writerofag

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Friday June 16, 2006 · 1:23 PM PDT

2006/06/16 · 13:23

The North Dakota Democratic-NPL Party released a statement showing Democratic candidates had unprecedented support in Tuesday's primary election, outpolling the candidates in the Republican primary in 46 out of 53 counties. Now I am not one to bank on extrapolating general election success from primary results but... Read More

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A call to the religious left

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