Virginia ponders tax breaks for (dead) human space flights The US may not be able to singlehandedly put a live man into space right now, but Virginia politicians may be about to boost the number of dead Americans catapulted into orbit. The Virginia General Assembly is soon to consider a bill that will allow an income tax deduction of up to $8,000 (£5,100) for burials in space, WTVR …
I was watching James May send the remains of a cat and a bird into "space" using a PARIS-style weather balloon.
That looked pretty cool and relatively cheap so I wondered why there weren't "space funeral services" around using the technique. Some kind of licensing hurdle?
PARIS icon for obvious reasons. Perhaps Vulture 3 will be a hearse ;-)
"What a way to protect the bourgeoisie lifestyle."
Isn't the prime reason for having a funeral is that the guest of honor is dead?
If a funeral is a way to preserve a "lifestyle", with the actual event only occurring once in order to send the remains off, why isn't it more appropriately called a "disposalstyle"?
I also don't get the association with the 'bourgeoisie' bit. Being dead, the funeral participant has no money, and therefore can't be a member of the 'bourgeoisie'. Otherwise, the OWS crowd also needs to camp out at cemeteries and graveyards, protesting oversized headstones, tombs, and other monuments reflecting the conspicuous consumption of the dead, which can be significantly higher in cost than what's been mentioned here.
I'd also like to point out that nobody outside of a freshman level political science classes uses the term 'bourgeoisie' anymore. That would be because normal people don't want to sound like a freshman level political science student who has read one book, and thinks it solves all the world's problems, never mind the fact that there are no successful implementations of the prescription in that book. That, apparently, is learnt in the *sophomore* level political science course.
Methinks you're just outraged at the conspicuous consumption of money spent by people grieving their dead and felt the urge to open your piehole and share your 'wisdom' regarding other peoples' grief -- why don't you go hang out with the WBC crowd, and see where those sort of comments take you in actual society, as opposed to your mom's basement?
HTH
No, the outrage is because a tax break is being offered to the survivors on the simple grounds that they are spending money on a luxury purchase for a room-temperature corpse, whereas regular Joe doesn't get an $8000 tax break for buying a regular tombstone and burial plot for his dead wife. Hence, bourgeoise.
I'll grant you that the rich do not need tax credits to bury their dead.
However, that is not so much a function of the rich being rich, as it is of plain old cronyism and shitty governance. This is just another government handout to potential donors for electioneering purposes, using the money seized from people who can least afford it.
If politicians thought us geeks could get them the cash to get their disgusting asses re-elected, there'd be tax breaks for computers & stuff. It has nothing to do with being filthy rich -- as a matter of fact, there are plenty of filthy rich on both sides of the political spectrum, leading to a massively unfair and convoluted tax code -- made convoluted especially to conceal the true amount of unfairness from both political ends of the spectrum. Neither wants the corruption to slow down, let alone stop.
If we actually had any idea how much of our money is taken out of society from those who cannot afford it and handed to people that don't need it in order to receive a tithe back in the form of political contributions, we'd have our own arab spring here.
The only person I remember to have his ashes shipped off into space was Timothy Leary, who was hardly the sort I can imagine the Virginia legislature regarding as a role model. On the other hand, paying taxes has never been popular in Virginia (see: Jefferson; Henry; Washington), so perhaps any old excuse will do.
Portions of the cremated remains of Gene Roddenberry, Timothy Leary and 22 other people were put into orbit onboard a Pegasus rocket in 1997 which remained in orbit until 2002.
Some of Eugene Shoemaker remains were carried to the moon onboard the Lunar Prospector in 1998, so strictly speaking the only person buried in space is Eugene Shoemaker.
you know, if it becomes popular to launch your loved ones into space, we are going to end up with and environmental disaster...
forget for a moment the effects of the ash that will block light rays and therefor cooling the planet... forget for a moment the fuel needed for such a launch....
but.....
if my O'level physics is correct, each time you launch something into orbit the force required does indeed SLOW the rotation of the earth (every action has an equal and oposit reaction....)
we are going to end up with 30 hour days... tides will all be out of whack... it will end up bringing an end to life as we know it !!!
I need to clarify, is this physically dead as certified by a doctor, or can the term dead be expanded using prefixes such as
"Brain"-Dead - those individuals that are polluting the gene pool, a majority of so-called celebrities, Senior management and the (L)Users that we have to deal with.
“UN”-Dead – A Politician - Rather than brains or blood these walking corpses in suits are feeding off our tax dollars.
There are cheaper alternatives, sure, but none as spectacular
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