Huh? I recently moved to Washington State, and state sales tax was included in my Amazon order last week (a MP3 player for my daughter's birthday). Does it work differently in different states?
[WS:] If a mail order business ships to the state in which it has its physical operations (e.g. warehouse or retail facility) it has to add sales tax. For example, if I bought something from target or Wal mart online, I would have to pay MD sales tax, however, when I buy from a NY web based electronics retailer - I can skip sales tax altogether. AFAIK, I have not paid any sales tax on my Amazon.com online orders.
As to your comments on IQ testing - I agree that vilifying the tool is not a good way of addressing the discrimination issue. I also take your point that students can avoid taking those idiotic tests altogether by enrolling in community colleges and then transferring to 4-year institutions . In essence, the devil is not as fearsome as it is being portrayed, as they say in the old country. Having said that, however, you have to acknowledge that the format of these tests - putting artificial pressure to see how many standard answers can a poor student crank out in the allotted time - is quite idiotic and discourages thinking outside the box, especially that test preparation is increasingly taking a lion share of school instruction.
Wojtek