Additional notes on Taxes and Bribery of Congress....

We have a Fed that abuses States Rights.

The Commerce Clause has been interpreted and liberally extended by Liberals to hold states hostage for their own money in many ways that violate the 10th Ammendment.

Congress uses lobbyists to write law, and the lot of them (Lawmakers and Lobbyists) should be indicted for bribery.


'Nuf said.

'Nuf said?

Mebbe not.

Today's gripe: Taxes....

I don’t pay my taxes “voluntarily”. I don’t know anybody who does.

We pay because of fear of being audited, jailed or fined; and if you don’t believe that you are either an IRS employee, a liberal elite who is drinking the kool-aid and thinks that we should all live on a government stipend, or you are a fool.

The tax system is backward. My money should go to my county and city and then to the state and the feds should have to ask my state for money.

Why should I have to hope that my representatives “bring home the bacon” and thus contribute to the vast corrupt beaurocracy of it all? My damn bacon should stay right here!

Happy Christmas....

Regarding the Christmas Season as it is, not as it should be:

Let's stop chucking The Baby under the chin and bow before The Savior of mankind.


And on a kinder, gentler, amazed at the Grace of Our God note:

Like a stone on the surface of a still river
Driving the ripples on forever
Redemption rips through the surface of time
In the cry of a tiny babe

- Bruce Cockburn

A Couple of Quotes from Ben Bryant....

I really like these. They are so unfortunately true.

"... When we're all working at Wendy's, Wal-Mart, and Big Lots, who's going to be able to afford to shop at Wal-Mart and Big Lots and eat at Wendy's?"

"There is no such thing as a service based economy."

Bush has "... set the Presidential bar so low that we are considering people like Hillary, who wouldn't normally have a chance. Most of us would vote for a goat with a necktie right now."

-- Ben Bryant

Ben recently ran and lost a City Council race here in Lancaster. He is a young man, and hopefully will continue to rage against the machine.

Boo, Hissss... I Crap on the Top-Ten Lists.

... See, that rhymed.

I like it when my favorite music is all a non-mention in the year-end lists of your more hoity-toity music mags (Re.: Paste Magazine).

It's a sign of an almost "Bushian" combination of ignorance and self-confidence that these non-mentions make me feel both superior and privileged to the rewards of a secret knowledge that makes the highest audit level of Scientology seem a cheap investment.

In short, it makes me look down on you critics like I look at Amway salespeople.

My listening habits, like our President's reading habits, are a tad narrow, and actually spending time telling these people what I like would be self-defecateding my superioritedness.

Sufjanifice it to say that although Mr. Henry is a hell of a writer, and though you did blind squirrel it through to the everybodyfields pick, Tommy Womack's "There, I Said It" is the best record of 2007.

Nothing will change....

... and that's what's wrong.

The Mitchell Report on use of HGH and Steroids.

Nothing to say here on the details.

One observation that is hardly original:

Baseball is America's Sport. It is a microcosm of our society, and as such the mirror tells the tale.

Nothing will change. We'll keep on making money. We'll keep on breaking records that shouldn't be able to be broken. We'll do it because we have to. Otherwise the Americans who watch us will no longer watch us, pay the freight and propel the economy of the American Sport.

America has sold whatever soul it had. This is just another fall-out.

Maybe I'll watch baseball again someday. I doubt it, but maybe when players start looking like humans again, I'll think about it.

We Can't Make it Here

"We Can't Make it Here"

Vietnam Vet with a cardboard sign
Sitting there by the left turn line
Flag on the wheelchair flapping in the breeze
One leg missing, both hands free
No one's paying much mind to him
The V.A. budget's stretched so thin
And there's more comin' home from the Mideast war
We can't make it here anymore

That big ol' building was the textile mill
It fed our kids and it paid our bills
But they turned us out and they closed the doors
We can't make it here anymore
See the pallets piled on the loading dock
Just gonna set there 'til they rot
'Cause there's nothing to ship, nothing to pack
Just busted concrete and rusted tracks
Empty storefronts 'round the square
There's a needle in the gutter - glass everywhere
Don't come down here 'less you're looking to score
We can't make it here anymore

The bar's still open, but man it's slow
Tip jar's light and the register's low
Bartender don't have much to say
The regular crowd gets thinner each day
Some maxed out their credit cards
Some 're working two jobs and livin' in cars
Minimum wage won't pay for a roof,
Won't pay for a drink if you gotta have proof
Just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour'll go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can't make it here anymore

....

Now I'm stocking shirts in the Wal-Mart store
Just like the ones we made before
'Cept this one came from Singapore
I guess we can't make it here anymore
Should I hate a people for the shade of their skin
Or the shape of their eyes or the shape I'm in
Should I hate 'em for having our jobs today
No, I hate the men who sent the jobs away
I can see them all now, they haunt my dreams
All lily white and squeaky clean
They've never known want, they'll never know need
Their sh@# don't stink and their kids won't bleed
Their kids won't bleed in the a f***in' little war
And we can't make it here anymore

Will work for food, will die for oil
Will kill for power and to us the spoils
The billionaires get to pay less tax
As the working poor fall through the cracks
Let 'em eat jellybeans, let 'em eat cake
Let 'em eat sh$%, whatever it takes
They can join the Air Force, or join the Corps
If they can't make it here anymore

And that's how it is, that's what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind if you're listenin' at all
Get out of that limo, look us in the eye
Call us on the phone, tell us all why
In Dayton, Ohio or Portland, Maine
Or a cotton gin out on the great high plains
That done closed down along with the school,
The hospital and the swimming pool
Dust devils dance in the noonday heat
There's rats in the alley
And trash in the street
Gang graffiti on a boxcar door
We can't make it here anymore

Music and lyrics © 2004 by James McMurtry

Economic Fall-Out Hits Home....

More fallout:

My company has decided to "restructure" salaries throughout -- although I am sure that "throughout" is a very subjective term.

I'll find out tomorrow whether this is something I can live with.

The problem is that when you voluntarily accept a pay cut and the company lets you go a few weeks later, any Unemployment Compensation is figured on the lower salary.

Maybe I can get them to agree to a better release package (extended health insurance?) for signing on with the lower salary.

Not holding out much hope, though.

This comes at an inconvenient time, as I am learning to cope with a larger group of responsibilities than I have ever had in my life. Now it looks like I'll be learning to cope on a much lower salary.