The Smoke Break

You want some brie with that whine?

Father’s Day

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“Scars remind us of where we’ve been; they don’t have to dictate where we’re going.”
(Rossi, Criminal Minds)

 

This is way past its time, but I would like to thank my Dad, well, for being my Dad.

Back when I was growing up there wasn’t such a thing as a dysfunctional family. Families had issues and they dealt with them best they could; sometimes not so well. My family was the latter type, and a big family of 3. I won’t go into the bad and the ugly, suffice it to say there was lots of it and as I have gotten older (and hopefully wiser) I’ve come to see it wasn’t all one person’s fault, although it was certainly twisted in such a way that as a child I thought it was.

So to my Dad, thank you for loving me the best you could and the best you were allowed to.  I know that even tho’ a time or two you threatened my life you would have given your life to save mine.

Thank you for making me tough, giving me a strong work ethic, for telling me to always take the time to have fun and, oddly enough, for being one of the funniest humans I’ve ever met.

I remember all the years you ranted about long-haired hippies yet, when we bought the farm in 1971, you refused to cut your hair until the old house sold.  (How does 2 years sound?)

You made the best German wine on the face of the earth, smooth but lethal; even tho’ you had quit drinking years before the impromptu wine tasting parties of which you were so fond.

I remember the young smart-ass kid, studying to be an electrical engineer, who was going to show a non-college-educated old guy what it was really all about.  He had no clue who he was talking to until you, quite politely, buried him with your applied knowledge of the subject.  (Yes, Dad was, indeed, the best at what he did.)

When we actually lived in the ‘burbs, it was apparent that Dad was a good guy to move out to the country.  The lady across the street was always snooping out her window so Dad would throw open the front door and, standing there in only his BVDs and a t-shirt, scratch in the area of his privates and wave at her.  I can still hear the gasps even now but it was gobsmacking funny.

Then there was the young property tax guy who told Dad he couldn’t have his WPA outhouse out at the farm.  But Dad was real proud of that outhouse.  Mom and I both had to leave the scene because we were laughing so hard. I doubt if being called a Shithouse Inspector was part of that guy’s government job description.  But Dad was a Navy man in WWII, a subber to boot; oh, and he paid the damn taxes around here.

I could go on, there are years of stories both bad and good and we both carried our scars, but after too many years of separation I was informed he was in a coma and dying. I went to see him and I know that, somehow, he knew I was there.  We made our peace and he died an hour after I left. That was almost 20 years ago and in that time the bad memories have been replaced by so many good ones. I wish so much he was still alive; I’m grown up now, Dad, and hindsight always being 20/20 I would have made sure you were allowed to love me and I would have showered you with all the love I always felt.

Thank you, Dad, for being you.  Warts and all, I love you very, very much.

The Giant And His “Friends”

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There is a wind blowing.  A mighty wind. The Giant, long asleep, has awakened to find his home being pillaged in the stealth of night. 

And he is angry.

The Giant, who is kind, works hard, takes care of his tribe and usually keeps his own counsel, thought the thieves were Friends. He thought that by taking care of himself and his tribe, and those Friends, he would keep the land safe so his tribe could grow strong and prosper. He gladly paid a small tithe to the Friends, but that is not what they want.  The stores he has put by for the long winter, the patch of ground he has worked, they want all that, too. The Friends want to control the Giant and his tribe, so what the Giant won’t simply hand them they take and steal.  They want the Giant to be dependent on them; he has too much, they say, so they take it and make it theirs.

The Friends have never seen the Giant angry. They ignore him in his protests; they turn a deaf ear to his complaints. He has been quiet too long and that quiet has been taken as complacency. But that wasn’t what it was.  It was simply the Giant going about his business, content with his world, warts and all. He never expected his life to be perfect, but he always had options and choices and he could work with that. He sees now the Friends aren’t his friends; they have been waiting quietly for the Giant to sleep so they may take away what he has worked for, to take away his choice of how he lives. Has the Giant awakened in time?  How greedy have the Friends really become? How far will they go? They have already started to smear the Giant’s good name, to say things about him that are untrue. The Friends have already shown they might use force if the Giant doesn’t cooperate and go back to sleep.

How far will they go?

It has been many, many years since the Giant has had to fight on his own land for his right to be left alone. Can he still do it? For all the Giant holds dear, he must now fight or what he loves will be forever changed.

We, The People, of The United States of America are at the crossroads of one of the most dangerous times in our long history. Is that statement scaremongering? Over the top? I don’t think it is. The wealth of our nation is our wealth, wealth that we have earned. The government has no wealth except for what WE, THE PEOPLE, create.

Think about that.  They are borrowing on what we do, on what we will do in the future, and spending it. It is NOT their money; the government has no money but what they take from WE, THE PEOPLE.

WE are a kind and generous folk, always have been.  Are we perfect? No, we are humans. However, we should always understand and be proud of all the good we do. The money, goods and time we give freely to help others in this country as well as others.  WE, THE PEOPLE, are good folks.  We can’t forget that though they, the government, would like us to forget. They call us greedy and tell us we have no idea not only how to take care of ourselves but how to best use what we have earned though our labor and so they will take it.

This isn’t about the rich,  it is about our rights.  It is about our right to choose how we conduct our lives.  To choose how to to PURSUE our own happiness, how we live day-to-day.

It is about control.

Do we have the guts to fight this? I believe we do and it isn’t just Congress.  It is the local and state governments as well.

How do they play?  Let us count the ways.

Schools go right after busing and anything else they can think of to upset the kids and inconvenience the parents. Yet on closer inspection they have hired more administrators, given them raises, and have spent money on precious little that has to do with actual education. Plus they have to follow unfunded, useless mandates from the state and federal
governments.

At the local and state levels they say “We will cut services”; police and fire go right off the bat, yet spend $500 a pop on office chairs (yes, that happened in my state). Hire more pencil pushers and give everyone raises. Have assistants for assistants; everyone has a state car to drive, and on and on.

The Federal government …won’t even start.

They all have their hand in our pocket.  They all make laws and rules daily that take a bit more of our rights and our ability to pursue happiness.

It is time to stop “The Friends” because our “friend” they are not.

Pay No Attention To Those Funny, Bouncing-Like-A-Poll Markets

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Back before the checks were in the mail (you know, those stimulus checks we got last summer), the “deficit” was at $273 billion (+/-).  The cost of all those checks added $200 billion, which then gave us a deficit of $473 billion.

Yes, G.W. did ask for those checks, but the bill that put them in our mailboxes was created and passed in the House of Representatives.  Because the House of Representatives is where spending bills originate.  And when G.W. asked for those checks and the House created and passed the bill that put those checks in our mailboxes, the House was controlled by the Democrats.  You know, those Democrats who keep saying G.W. spent too much money.  Well, guess what?  They could have said no to the stimulus check idea.  They didn’t and it passed both the House and Senate.

All hell breaks loose last September so the Federal Reserve, along with the US Treasury, go have a meeting and scare the hell out of everyone and claim they need at least $700 billion to save us from chaos and utter financial meltdown. What happened next is that $550 billion electronically flew out of the US in about an hour; the Federal Reserve saw the run on the banks and shut down the “Money Market” accounts.  Of course, the question of who was taking this money out of their accounts and where it went hasn’t yet been explained….  

Some evil Representatives in the House (the House of Representatives, where spending bills originate) didn’t want to fork over the $700 billion being asked for by the Federal Reserve and the Treasury. These evil Representatives were labeled as obstructionists; they were bad and they wanted to destroy the country. Well, darn. They were overridden and the $700 billion TARP was passed. Now remember, this was all before the 2008 election so His Majesty VOTED for this. With the additional $700 billion the deficit then climbed to $1.1 trillion. So, yes, His Royalness did inherit a $1.1 trillion deficit, but he also voted for it.
Since the markets are getting worse and no plan has been forthcoming the excuse is, well, he has only been in office since Jan 20th.  True.  But this didn’t just happen on the 20th, it had been going on for several months; he knew the mess was there before he was even elected on November 4th.  We have been told ad nauseum what a brilliant mind he has and all the brilliant minds that he has with him so why the hell was he not formulating a plan of action?  It isn’t like this was going to go away; he talked incessantly about what a mess he was inheriting.

But no, not a plan, not even an idea.  Nope; big focus is on heath care and that useless “stimulus” package that was done up in the House by Pelosi and does absolutely NOTHING to actually fix the problem and stabilize the markets. Yes, folks, the markets need to be stabilized; 50% of the population of the USA have a personal interest in the markets and the ones who don’t instinctively know that when the stock market drops, like it has, things are bad and they QUIT SPENDING MONEY and that further depresses the markets.  When the President says, and I’m paraphrasing this a bit, that he doesn’t pay much attention to the markets because they are like a political poll that bounces around, we are in deep, serious shit.  Sorry for the language, but we are.

I’m solid middle class, my other half works in a factory, and we both were absolutely appalled at that statement! Either Mr. Wonderful was trying to be upbeat (didn’t work), or he really has not one clue about how the economy works.  I’m really betting it is the latter since so far his only goal has been to spend more money and tax folks more.  The guys with the real money have it tucked away safe and the way things are going the middle rich won’t be so who do you think will foot the bill?  The same people who always have – the solid middle class.

 

A little P.S.  NYC is in deep trouble, tax-wise, since those evil Wall Street guys and their evil bonuses paid the city’s bills.

Just Words?

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“Make Work Pay” is being touted as a tax cut.  The IRS is calling it a tax credit.  But there is no “check in the mail”, as some seem to think. I do wonder if we have some weasel words here since nothing is mentioned changing the rates in the tax tables used at the end of the year to figure how much tax we owe.  BUT…there IS a change in the withholding tables used by our employers to calculate how much they take out of our paychecks during the year.

This from the IRS:  “It is not necessary to submit a Form W-4 to get the automatic withholding change.”   

So there you have it.  It is a withholding change, something any one of us could do ourselves – IF WE WANTED – to keep more of our money during the year.  Which we do, right?  Personally, I’ve never thought using the IRS as a saving account was a good idea, and with quite a few states not having the money to refund overpayment of state taxes, when, I wonder, with all the money being spent by the Feds, just when will the IRS have the same problem?  But I digress.  So depending how you have your withholding set up, you might get less back than before and if you have the very minimum taken out, say, a 2 person household that claims 2 on their W-4, you could owe money at the end of the year, even though up until now you broke about even.

Being rather nontrusting of government types, I have to say, what a perfect way to claim MORE tax revenue came in at the end of the year than before!  Simply because people would get less back than in prior years, or now they’ll have to pay to make up the difference.

We also have this little caveat:  “These changes may result in an increase in take-home pay. The amount of the credit must be reported on the employee’s 2009 income tax return filed in 2010. Taxpayers who do not have taxes withheld by an employer during the year can also claim the credit on their 2009 tax return.”

And then this one:  “However, an employee with multiple jobs or married couples whose combined incomes place them in a higher tax bracket may elect to submit a revised W-4 to ensure enough withholding is held to cover the tax for his or her combined income. Publication 919 provides additional guidance for tax withholding.”

And here are more weasel words that folks might not see or not quite understand:  no matter your income, if you BOTH work and file jointly they will be taking less out of both your paychecks.  That could be a problem so we need to go in and change our w-4s.  I think the “higher” tax bracket is a bit disengenious – are we sure just exactly they define “higher”?  $250K and up is now rich, $249K isn’t, and this tax credit phases out at $75K for singles, but not someone making $74,999.00, and $150K for married couples file jointly, not $149,999.00.  I won’t even go into the stupidity of these lines in the sand that separate the hardworking from the alleged “rich”.

The tax folks with whom I’ve spoken see this as only a withholding change, not a tax RATE change, but the truth is that it can make quite a difference.

All in all, even though how this is actually being done and how it will affect us at the end of the year is still quite murky, be warned.

What’s Going On?

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I keep trying to figure out how a nation such as ours, built on freedom and personal responsibility, can all of a sudden want the government to regulate their lives. Being somewhat a cross between a libertarian and conservative, I have the firm belief that I can manage my life and my money quite well on my own, thank you very much. Have I made bad decisions in my life?  Sure thing; and some have caused me some real unpleasantness.  But because the consequences weren’t much fun I learned not to do some things twice.

My mother told me two things that have always stuck with me.  One, you are now 18 and we, your parents, have done all we can to teach you right from wrong; it is now up to you. We will always love you and will always be here for you, but if you screw up, YOU and only YOU will pay the price.  Two, one time when I was being, to be perfectly honest, a real shithead, my mother told me I will always love you, but right now I do not like you as a person. WOW.  My growing-up years were far from perfect and my parents weren’t perfect either, but I did learn to stand on my own two feet.  And I learned that my actions had consequences, and whether sometimes good or sometimes not so good, those consequences were always mine. Oh yeah, and when signing a contract always read the fine print.  It’s binding and it’s yours.

What I see now are 24-year old “kids”, college-educated “kids” who are, in their parents words, “just kids who don’t understand.” Huh??? I’m not talking any complicated abstract idea, I’m talking simple things like respect for someone else’s personal property.  Yet these same helpless little darlings play their parents like fiddles; new cars as soon as they are old enough to drive, and every whizzbang new something that comes down the road.  These are not folks in the Obama “rich” category, but the oh-so-put-upon middle class who are having such a hard time making ends meet.  So while both parents work, the “kids” can’t even bestir themselves to mow the grass and as the home , yes, the actual home, falls down around their ears, the parents rail against the government that it just hasn’t done enough. The “kids” have the perfect example – in their parents – of the throw-away mentality.  Buy new and if it breaks, toss it and buy more new, and if we run out of money it’s the government’s fault.  I think what shocked me the most was the day one of my neighbors, the mom, called here about a potential problem in the neighborhood (which was nothing more than the meter reader and the high-tech “gun” used to read the meter; but I digress, and we do have some issues) and she said we would need to watch out for each other.  No worry for them since all they had was junk, but we had “lots of nice stuff” and the envy/jealousy was quite evident in her voice.  We are also part of the middle class that Obama wants to help, but really, really prefer he didn’t.

One other blurb I hear way too often is, “I always know where my kids are”; they are “at home playing games on the computer and I’m so proud of them, at least they aren’t out smoking, drinking and having sex”.  The smoking/drinking/sex thing must be the new “I’m a good parent” war cry. So what are they saying? That if the “kids” leave home to do “anything”, it will include smoking/drinking/sex? Is that the narrow world these parents live in?  Maybe it’s just me, but that whole concept seems just a bit unhealthy.  Funny, too, but a good portion of these folks are overweight, as are the “kids”.  And I mean quite a bit overweight; sex would at least provide some exercise.  Well, so would mowing the grass. Other kids are so pale and skinny they look like death warmed over; mowing the grass would help them, too.

One more bit before I sign off.  A couple years ago my state seemed to have a rash of accidents involving children and ATVs; really young children who, while on their own or riding with a parent, were injured or killed.  Hideous thing to happen and I truly feel for the parents…except for, and up to the point where, the hue and cry went up from the parents that the state needed to make a LAW to require all sellers of ATVs check and make sure that there were no young children in the family, and no young nieces or nephews who might at some point have access to the “big”  ATVs. All because the parents obviously couldn’t tell their 5-year old that, no, they did not need to be on the ATV alone – or at all, or couldn’t figure out that a 3 year old might not be able to hang on tight enough, or realize that said parent might screw up and roll the thing.  They, the parents, wanted to absolve themselves from any responsibility and put that responsibility – by government fiat – on to the sellers of said ATVs.  Such stupidity, thankfully, got voted down.

Are all “kids” and parents like the ones I described above?  No, but there are enough of them for this to be more than just a little bit scary.