Say Congress is debating a law that allows individual taxpayers to designate $1,000 of their federal income taxes (out of their total overall individual federal tax burden of, say, $14,657 or whatever for the year) to go as additional funding towards a particular cause or department of their choice (Department of Education, Ukraine, Health and Human Services, Social Security, Medicare, Veterans Affairs, etc.)
Would you want such an option?
- Yes, it would be neat
- No, it would play too much havoc on the government’s budget
How many pairs of jeans do you own in good condition? In other words don’t count the ones with rips/holes and such.
- 0
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
- 11
- 12
- 13
- 14
- 15
- 16
- 17
- 18
- 19
It looks like the “number rating” style poll only allows a numerical response. I kind of doubt anyone here owns more than 19 pairs of jeans, but if you do, just pick 19.
You get to pick one item from a political wish list for the USA:
- National debt magically drops from $30 trillion down to pre-Obama level ($10 trillion)
- Gun control passed nationwide, 99% of all private firearms confiscated
- Taxes drastically increased on the rich
- Single-payer universal healthcare adopted nationwide, like Canada or the UK
- Military budget cut in half
- All student debt forgiven
- Legalization of all recreational drugs
- Electoral College abolished; national popular vote adopted
- Supreme Court gets packed
- Puerto Rico gets statehood
- All illegal immigrants get U.S. citizenship
- All gasoline/diesel vehicles are replaced by hydrogen/electric vehicles
Which forums theme do you use?
- Dark
- Discourse Classic
- Graceful
- Material Design
- Minima
- Sam’s Simple
- Straight Dope Dark
- Straight Dope Light
- Vincent
- We have a choice?!
You are walking in your usual shopping neighborhood when you smell wood smoke. Puzzled, you then spot several men arranging large fish in a circle around an outdoors brazier fire. The new restaurant has Arabic in its sign. Turns out, it is selling Iraq’s national dish, masgouf (fire-roasted giant freshwater carp, washed and rubbed with salt). It is the dish the Saddam regime served to foreign dignitaries such as Jacques Chirac, Saddam’s personal favorite (and the reason he was eventually caught by US forces,) and the last meal of ISIS suicide bombers. The aroma is delectable, alas, masgouf costs $40 per fish (although each carp can feed 2-4 people).
- I will partake of the masgouf once, but that will be all.
- I will do it more than once.
- I’m never touching the masgouf.
Which of these amusement parks have you visited?
- Busch Gardens Tampa Bay – Tampa, Florida
- Cedar Point – Sandusky, Ohio
- Disneyland – Anaheim, California
- Dollywood – Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
- Fun Spot America – Orlando, Florida
- Hersheypark – Hershey, Pennsylvania
- Kennywood – West Mifflin, Pennsylvania
- Kings Island – Mason, Ohio
- Knott’s Berry Farm – Buena Park, California
- SeaWorld San Diego – San Diego, California
- Silver Dollar City - Branson, Missouri
- Six Flags Magic Mountain – Valencia, California
- Universal Orlando Resort – Orlando, Florida
- Universal Studios Hollywood – Universal City, California
- Walt Disney World – Orlando, Florida
- Hey! Whatabout……?
You have spent 10 years of your life in Texas prison for a crime you did not commit, due to prosecutor shenanigans. Now you are finally freed and the government is offering you around $120,000 per year of wrongful incarceration as compensation, per state law ($80k in outright per-year compensation and $40k in lifetime annuities). You have the option of either accepting it at face value, or declining it and pursuing a lawsuit that could get you many million dollars but runs the risk of nothing of any form if you lose.
- accept the payout
- take chances, proceed with lawsuit
Have you ever been to Springfield?
- Springfield, Massachusetts
- Springfield, Illinois
- Springfield, Missouri
- Springfield, Arkansas
- Springfield, California
- Springfield, Colorado
- Springfield, Florida
- Springfield, Georgia
- Springfield, Idaho
- Springfield, Indiana (either one, apparently there are two in Indiana)
- Springfield, Kentucky
- Springfield, Louisiana
- Springfield, Maine
- Springfield, Michigan
- Springfield, Minnesota
- Springfield, Nebraska
- Springfield, New Jersey (apparently more than one there, too)
- Springfield, New York
- Springfield, Ohio
- Springfield, Oregon
- Springfield Township, Pennsylvania
- Springfield, South Carolina
- Springfield, South Dakota
- Springfield, Tennessee
- Springfield, Texas
- Springfield, Vermont
- Springfield, Virginia (multiple Springfields there, too!)
- Springfield, West Virginia
- Springfield, Wisconsin
- Another place named Springfield not listed here
- I’ve been to a Springfield outside the US
- I have never been to anyplace named Springfield that I can recall
Hey, they increased the limit on poll options!
- I work in the kind of job where people go to an office and do stuff that can also be accomplished at a home office
- Something else
If you answered that you work in an office job above:
- At my employer’s site, I have my own office, with a door, and I prefer to work there
- At my employer’s site, I have my own office, with a door, and I prefer to work at home
- At my employer’s site, I share office, with a door, and I prefer to work there
- At my employer’s site, I share office, with a door, and I prefer to work at home
- At my employer’s site, I have my own space, a desk or cube but not an office, and I prefer to work there
- At my employer’s site, I have my own space, a desk or cube but not an office, and I prefer to work at home
- At my employer’s site I book the space I need when I go in, and I prefer to work there
- At my employer’s site I book the space I need when I go in, and I prefer to work from home
- I really really want to do both. Hybrid work, baby! Or I can’t decide.
There are a lot of stories about how Millennials have put off having kids until they’re older, or have had none at all, because they can’t afford houses.
The housing market has been beyond frustrating since 2020, but did your parents wait to have children until they owned their first home?
- My parents bought their first house before their first child was born
- My parents were renters when their first child was born, and they bought later
- My parents lived with my grandparents (or other relatives) when their first child was born, and they bought later
- None of the above, my parents inherited their first home, or it was purchased for them
- None of the above, my parents always rented
Note: if your parents weren’t together when the first child was born, answer based on the circumstances of the parent who had primary custody
You are told that you must go back to college and get a degree (anywhere from associate’s to doctorate.) No worries, all tuition, room and board, associated expenses are all paid on your behalf already. What do you major in?
- Business, management, finance, accounting
- Social studies
- History
- Medicine
- Science
- English, literature
- Music or arts
- Law
- Engineering or technology
- A technical trade (HVAC, welding, etc.)
- Psychology
- other
Do you know how to play euchre?
- Yes
- No, but I’ve heard of it
- Sorta
- Who? Okra? Euclid?
I’m listening to an audiobook about Thurgood Marshall. The reader pronounces the word “judiciary” in a way that sounds weird to me. How do you say that word?
- Ju DISH ee ary
- Ju DISS ee ary
- Something else
Pet peeves! I hate it when people
- snore
- don’t rein in their bratty kids
- talk during movies or plays
- litter
- don’t acknowledge it when I let them cut in front of me
- don’t use the turn signal
- run red lights
- don’t return phone calls
- insist on talking about politics
- insist on talking about religion
- chew with their mouths open
- talk about their health issues
- other