Ye New Galactic Bar & Grill & Phong's Head Cantina - After Hours

[Puke]

duplicate post

[ August 04, 2002, 18:43: Message edited by: Puke ]

[Growltigga]

Saxon, I am awfully sorry to hear about your run-in with the local oinkers. I have 1 tip for you and 1 query.

Dealing with the tip first, I have been stopped quite a few times in south east asia by 'bent' policemen who see that you are a tourist driving a hire car and then proceed to tell you that you ran over a stop line that did exist until the white paint was eroded in the 1950's.. The fine they usually try and charge is whatever amount of local currency you have in your wallet! whether the legal 'chutzpah' helps or not, I dont know but I always say that I am a British lawyer on secondment to a government department and am a close personal friend of the national justice minister (look up his name first and carry a picture in your wallet if you can). Say you will pay the fine but pull out a notebook and take down the policemen's name, details, official number and a description of the location before hand. It is amazing how many of them suddenly develop cases of 'I will let you off this once sahib, say hello to Minister Bloggs for me". Of course, I also carry 2 wallets, one with about $5-10 of local currency, the other, buried in my underpants, with the rest of the cash

The query I have is that I thought you were a man of means? if this is the case, how does a 1,000 shilling ($13) make you broke?

[dogscoff]

Dogscoff shambles into the cantina, muttering incoherently and looking nervously over his shoulder. He orders "a big bottle of something strong" and then, after scouring the area for listening devices, sets up camp underneath one of the corner tables with a small sidearm and a copy of Orwell's 1984.

[Saxon]

Road tax is a pretty straightforward thing and a relatively progressive form of taxation. If you have a vehicle, you need to pay a yearly tax that goes to maintaining the roads upon which you will drive. It is not a very North American idea, where we think we have a god given right to good roads, but it is not a bad idea. The people who use the roads pay for using them and see that they are paying to do so. A petrol (gas) tax usually goes into general revenues and may or may not be used on the roads, while the road tax usually goes straight to the roads department.

In any case, I had not paid my yearly tax, so I was legitimately nailed by the cop. I wanted him to just give me the ticket and let me go to court (no simple and rational things like a fine at city hall, I would actually have to go to court) but he would not give me the ticket. Thus the informal, but time honoured, method of conflict resolution.

I did not get my wallet cleaned out, but I did end up paying about five times the going rate. I usually can talk my way out of these things or at least get the ticket I deserve issued, but not on this occasion. I even tried taking him up on his offer to spend the night in the cells, but he was not interested, at all, in due process. The Last time I ended up paying a bribe was when I was fresh in country and I actually thought I was paying bail. When I asked for the receipt, I found out just how ice cold a police officer can be, so I chalked that one up as a learning experience and got out of the station quickly.

I was thinking of Tigga’s trick of having a picture of the Justice Minister in my wallet, but have a better solution. I will keep a picture of my mother in my wallet, the sight of whom should make any man flee in terror.

The two wallets trick is very useful in muggings and break ins. I have some money set aside at home for such an occasion. It is enough to convince a thief they got the stash and hopefully convince them to leave. It is also nice to have the cash on hand in case of something unusual, like a coup. With elections coming up, we might get to have some interesting times. So, who was coming down to play hot seat during their vacation

[dogscoff]

It is also nice to have the cash on hand in case of something unusual, like a coup. With elections coming up, we might get to have some interesting times. So, who was coming down to play hot seat during their vacation

Damn, and there's me whinging about the political situation over here.

*Dogscoff jumps out from under his table and fires his gun into the air until he has everyone's attention.

"I hereby propose that we all club together enough cash to found a self-sufficient colony on Mars, and declare independence from Earth. We can live without government in a state of anarchy, with no fear of being bullied or snooped on by the authorities, and no-one to interfere with our right to experiment with decent beers and commit random acts of cartoon violence."

With that a large section of the ceiling, loosened by the gunshots, crashes down and buries Dogscoff utterly.

[tesco samoa]

Tesco spent a nice weekend drinking Tusker, creemore, guiness, Harp and Tuborg....

Ahhh hot sunny days with little to do. Love weekends... And I have my new camera now... Casio qv-4000 so I have been taking pictures....

[Growltigga]

Originally posted by tesco samoa:
Tesco spent a nice weekend drinking Tusker, creemore, guiness, Harp and Tuborg....

Ahhh hot sunny days with little to do. Love weekends... And I have my new camera now... Casio qv-4000 so I have been taking pictures....

Tusker? is that Fremlin's Tusker Ale? I havn't seen that in the UK for ages.. Creemore I presume is a local beer, Guiness we know and love, Harp has not been sold in England for about 10 years and Tuborg? cripes, that is a bLast from the past and no mistake...

Glad you had a good time Tesco, I spent the weekend at the Commonwealth Games watching the Canadians come in behid England and Australia on the medals tables

[Growltigga]

Saxon, we have road tax here in the UK and whilst I agree with you about its efficacy and functionality, we are having all sorts of fun over here as the government repeatedly are saying how they want to charge tolls on motorways (that is freeways to you north americans) and the public are gobbing off about how it is another sort of stealth tax etc....

I agree, I always keep cash at home, you never know when the proverbial fecal matter will hit the domestic air impeller unit and a stash of cash is the next best thing to a marine battalion in a tight situation. I kept quite a bit of cash at home until I found out that the current Mrs Gt had found the stash and had been spending it (she claimed it was housekeeping and she earns more than me the trout)..

[geoschmo]

Saxon, what you are forgetting is EVERYBODY uses the roads, not just the people with cars. At least in an industrialized, urban soceity that is true. Everybody that goes to the local market and buys produce that was grown on the other side of the continent uses the roads. The cost of transportation of goods and services is one of the largest parts of the end retail cost of everything we buy. If you only lay the burden of the road tax on the individuals that use the roads, be it private citizens or trucking companies, you raise the cost that they must charge you to buy the stuff they produce and ship.

Roads are infrastructure. They are one of the fundamental reasons for governments to exsist, beside national defense and protection of personal liberty. A road tax that is paid by vehicle would be paramount to only charging those that live on the borders with the defense budget.

EDIT: Sorry, this maybe isn't the place for this post. If someone wants to start a OT road tax thread I can move this there.

Geo

[ August 05, 2002, 17:50: Message edited by: geoschmo ]

[Lord_Shleepy]

*Lord_Shleepy yawns and rolls over on his motorized waterbed

I think dogscoff hasn't been getting enough sleep lately.

*Lord_Shleepy returns to his slumbers