Friday, February 20, 2009
To the American Auto Industry
The US auto industry is whining for me to "buy American" and purchase the junk they sell. So I'd like to make a proposal to the American Auto Industry. When you decide to reimburse me for the thousands of dollars I spent repairing the last two piece of crap American cars I've owned, then I will consider buying another American made car. Until then I will continue to buy Japanese owned-American made vehicles.
Monday, January 26, 2009
Today's Sports Coaches: an Open Letter
I read with interest the story about the Girls High School basketball coach - Micah Grimes - who "cheered wildly" as his team closed in on 100 points (while holding their opponents to 0). He further pressed his players even into the fourth quarter.
I am not going to assassinate Grimes' character as that is not fair I do not know him. However, all around me I see him. His actions mimic coaches I see everyday at all levels of recreational and club sports teams. For some reason the mentality that the New England Patriots ran by in 2007 - which is fine in the NFL - has filtered down to grade school level sports.
Case in point. My son plays indoor soccer. Recently we moved from one facility to another. At the previous facility, teams were generally juggled and evenly matched. At the new facility there appear to be 7 year old club teams. Nick, not being on a club team because I don't deem it necessary at 6 to be that devoted to any one sport, got put on a team with some new and some mildly experienced players. This would be fine except for the fact that they're playing against teams that have been together since they were 4 and have excellent soccer skills for 7 year olds.
I am happy for the challenge posed by this. You always learn more playing against more talented players than less talented. What makes me sick is the way the coaches have allowed their players to play against Nick's team. Most of the time they spend pressing. Even in the fourth quarter after the team has scored 30+ goals in a 30 minute game, they are still pressing their offense and cheering on the goals.
Give me a break.
This past week I got the joy of listening to a parent run down the number of goals each player scored. Oh and "that one girl even scored a goal!". Yay. So not only does the coach condone it, the parents love it too. Well, congratulations. Your team is capable of beating a completely over matched team by 35 goals. I hope you're happy about that.
If I was a parent of a child on that team he'd have been off the team before the game was over. I would be thoroughly embarrassed by the boorish behavior of the coach, and not ever want Nick to be involved with such poor sportsmanship again.
So all you Micah Grimes and those of you defending him, you can have your lopsided wins. And you can speak all you want about how you did nothing wrong and you can continue to believe that mercilessly pounding an over matched opponent is "[playing] with honor and integrity and [showing] respect" for your opponents. Yep, go on ahead believing that. Hopefully it comforts you and helps inflate your tiny ego. Because clearly you need something that your life is not currently providing.
I am not going to assassinate Grimes' character as that is not fair I do not know him. However, all around me I see him. His actions mimic coaches I see everyday at all levels of recreational and club sports teams. For some reason the mentality that the New England Patriots ran by in 2007 - which is fine in the NFL - has filtered down to grade school level sports.
Case in point. My son plays indoor soccer. Recently we moved from one facility to another. At the previous facility, teams were generally juggled and evenly matched. At the new facility there appear to be 7 year old club teams. Nick, not being on a club team because I don't deem it necessary at 6 to be that devoted to any one sport, got put on a team with some new and some mildly experienced players. This would be fine except for the fact that they're playing against teams that have been together since they were 4 and have excellent soccer skills for 7 year olds.
I am happy for the challenge posed by this. You always learn more playing against more talented players than less talented. What makes me sick is the way the coaches have allowed their players to play against Nick's team. Most of the time they spend pressing. Even in the fourth quarter after the team has scored 30+ goals in a 30 minute game, they are still pressing their offense and cheering on the goals.
Give me a break.
This past week I got the joy of listening to a parent run down the number of goals each player scored. Oh and "that one girl even scored a goal!". Yay. So not only does the coach condone it, the parents love it too. Well, congratulations. Your team is capable of beating a completely over matched team by 35 goals. I hope you're happy about that.
If I was a parent of a child on that team he'd have been off the team before the game was over. I would be thoroughly embarrassed by the boorish behavior of the coach, and not ever want Nick to be involved with such poor sportsmanship again.
So all you Micah Grimes and those of you defending him, you can have your lopsided wins. And you can speak all you want about how you did nothing wrong and you can continue to believe that mercilessly pounding an over matched opponent is "[playing] with honor and integrity and [showing] respect" for your opponents. Yep, go on ahead believing that. Hopefully it comforts you and helps inflate your tiny ego. Because clearly you need something that your life is not currently providing.
Friday, January 9, 2009
Teens and technology
OK, so I ran across the following website:
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/sextech/
that has a study of people ages 13-26. It made all sorts of fascinating findings about how many of these people had posted or IMed nude images (or sexually suggestive text) of themselves to others.
I'm not going to claim that it doesn't happen but I'm going to explain my own personal experience with these surveys.
I filled out all sorts of surveys in middle school and high school. I would claim all sorts of crazy crap about myself. I did drugs daily (never touched them). I would drink and drive (didn't drink). I had sex with a different person at least once a week (I was a virgin). Etc, etc. None of it was true, I just thought it was funny.
Looking back I probably should have been honest. But really who cares?
So how many of these kids are being honest? Doesn't really matter. Just make sure you teach your kids about the perils of doing stupid stuff and hope they listen to you. It's the best you can do.
http://www.thenationalcampaign.org/sextech/
that has a study of people ages 13-26. It made all sorts of fascinating findings about how many of these people had posted or IMed nude images (or sexually suggestive text) of themselves to others.
I'm not going to claim that it doesn't happen but I'm going to explain my own personal experience with these surveys.
I filled out all sorts of surveys in middle school and high school. I would claim all sorts of crazy crap about myself. I did drugs daily (never touched them). I would drink and drive (didn't drink). I had sex with a different person at least once a week (I was a virgin). Etc, etc. None of it was true, I just thought it was funny.
Looking back I probably should have been honest. But really who cares?
So how many of these kids are being honest? Doesn't really matter. Just make sure you teach your kids about the perils of doing stupid stuff and hope they listen to you. It's the best you can do.
Monday, December 1, 2008
The Wal-Mart Stampede
Sickened.
That's the best description I have for how I felt when I heard about this. I was watching the news Friday with my family. My dad and I ended up in an argument about who should be sued/punished. I argued that the shoppers should all be brought up on murder charges. He argued that Wal-Mart should be held responsible for creating the mob with its "deals", and not providing enough security. Obviously, out of the thousands of Wal-Marts in the country the only one stampeded was this one, so I held my ground.
Later I got more information on the story. Still no pictures, but more information - the crowd busted the doors down and actually walked over and around the dieing man lying on the floor so they could get to spend their money on their precious stuff. When asked to leave angry shoppers refused citing how long they'd waited in line, callously ignoring the death of an employee because they needed to get their stuff. Someone else's life is far less important than MY stuff!
So today I finally found some pictures of the incident here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/galleries/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures.html
I was immediately struck by the ethnic race of the crowd. Obviously being a white male, I would have felt out of place there. My initial reaction - and I'm ashamed to say this - was "of course! They're black/hispanic. That explains it." We always tend to look for order and reason when something tragic like this happens. I realized what I'd done was essentially say "I would never do such a thing! I'm white!" This is wrong and - again - I'm ashamed at my initial reaction. However, upon thinking about this more, it really has nothing to do with color. Clearly this could happen to any race/ethnicity with equivalent values.
People in this country have lost sight of what truly matters. So much of our economy is based on the fact that everyone wants newer and better stuff. It's what Christmas is about, right? Getting new stuff, giving new stuff, shopping, buying new stuff. Yay!
It's gotta end folks. We're in the midst of the worst recession in decades and people are spending money like there's no tomorrow. And all because Wal-Mart is advertising 50% off on a television? A $2000 TV is marked down to $1000 and people rush out to buy it forgetting that they're spending ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS on a television! It's insane. And it's greed. Pure and simple greed.
One last word on the stampede. Even though this one occurred in a black/hispanic area, this could happen at any Wal-Mart. My wife refuses to shop there because most of the patrons (not all, just most) are mean and nasty, and this is a prime example. It's got nothing to do with race and everything to do with values. As a country we need to get back to what's important and get away from the "me and my stuff first" mentality.
That's the best description I have for how I felt when I heard about this. I was watching the news Friday with my family. My dad and I ended up in an argument about who should be sued/punished. I argued that the shoppers should all be brought up on murder charges. He argued that Wal-Mart should be held responsible for creating the mob with its "deals", and not providing enough security. Obviously, out of the thousands of Wal-Marts in the country the only one stampeded was this one, so I held my ground.
Later I got more information on the story. Still no pictures, but more information - the crowd busted the doors down and actually walked over and around the dieing man lying on the floor so they could get to spend their money on their precious stuff. When asked to leave angry shoppers refused citing how long they'd waited in line, callously ignoring the death of an employee because they needed to get their stuff. Someone else's life is far less important than MY stuff!
So today I finally found some pictures of the incident here:
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/galleries/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures/walmart_stampede_captured_in_pictures.html
I was immediately struck by the ethnic race of the crowd. Obviously being a white male, I would have felt out of place there. My initial reaction - and I'm ashamed to say this - was "of course! They're black/hispanic. That explains it." We always tend to look for order and reason when something tragic like this happens. I realized what I'd done was essentially say "I would never do such a thing! I'm white!" This is wrong and - again - I'm ashamed at my initial reaction. However, upon thinking about this more, it really has nothing to do with color. Clearly this could happen to any race/ethnicity with equivalent values.
People in this country have lost sight of what truly matters. So much of our economy is based on the fact that everyone wants newer and better stuff. It's what Christmas is about, right? Getting new stuff, giving new stuff, shopping, buying new stuff. Yay!
It's gotta end folks. We're in the midst of the worst recession in decades and people are spending money like there's no tomorrow. And all because Wal-Mart is advertising 50% off on a television? A $2000 TV is marked down to $1000 and people rush out to buy it forgetting that they're spending ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS on a television! It's insane. And it's greed. Pure and simple greed.
One last word on the stampede. Even though this one occurred in a black/hispanic area, this could happen at any Wal-Mart. My wife refuses to shop there because most of the patrons (not all, just most) are mean and nasty, and this is a prime example. It's got nothing to do with race and everything to do with values. As a country we need to get back to what's important and get away from the "me and my stuff first" mentality.
Monday, October 6, 2008
These people need to go to jail
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081006/ap_on_go_co/meltdown_lehman
All top executives at any banking corporation that failed need to do hard time. ALL OF THEM. A message needs to be sent to this greedy, corrupt disgusting people that we won't stand for it anymore. And don't think your Republicrats or Democans will do anything about it. They are part of the problem.
Please, PLEASE vote third party this election. This has got to change.
All top executives at any banking corporation that failed need to do hard time. ALL OF THEM. A message needs to be sent to this greedy, corrupt disgusting people that we won't stand for it anymore. And don't think your Republicrats or Democans will do anything about it. They are part of the problem.
Please, PLEASE vote third party this election. This has got to change.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Our Wonderful, Wasteful IRS
OK, so the IRS spent $42 million this year to notify tax payers that they needed to file a tax return to get their income redistribution payment from Uncle Sam. Fine.
So in June this year the IRS notified me that my 2006 Tax Return was being examined. I had claimed $7000 in 1099-misc income as Hobby Income. The IRS claims that it's not a hobby based on the fact that the income was in box 7, and since it was in box 7 it was subject to Self Employment Tax (more commonly known as Social Security). For those of you who have never worked for yourself, the government takes almost 15% of Self-Employment income right off the top for Social Security and Medicare. When you work for someone else, you only pay half of this and your employer pays the other half. However income from a hobby is not considered Self-Employment income, and therefore not subject to Self Employment Tax.
So this is where my beef with the IRS lies. Is my work for a Hobby (not subject to Self Employment tax) or is it a For Profit Business (subject to Self Employment tax)?
I thought long and hard about this because more often than not the IRS forces people running businesses to file as hobbies. The following was my response to the IRS:
The IRS finally responded last week in classic fashion - they sent me FOUR copies of the same letter in TWO different envelopes stating that they would get back to me by Sept 27th. We'll see how this pans out. I feel my argument is solid and I feel I could win with a good lawyer, but it wouldn't be worth it for me to pay to go to court. If at some point that's my only recourse, I'll simply pay the SE tax and move on. Sadly, that's how this government works. Taxpayers have little recourse against a wasteful, erroneous IRS.
So in June this year the IRS notified me that my 2006 Tax Return was being examined. I had claimed $7000 in 1099-misc income as Hobby Income. The IRS claims that it's not a hobby based on the fact that the income was in box 7, and since it was in box 7 it was subject to Self Employment Tax (more commonly known as Social Security). For those of you who have never worked for yourself, the government takes almost 15% of Self-Employment income right off the top for Social Security and Medicare. When you work for someone else, you only pay half of this and your employer pays the other half. However income from a hobby is not considered Self-Employment income, and therefore not subject to Self Employment Tax.
So this is where my beef with the IRS lies. Is my work for a Hobby (not subject to Self Employment tax) or is it a For Profit Business (subject to Self Employment tax)?
I thought long and hard about this because more often than not the IRS forces people running businesses to file as hobbies. The following was my response to the IRS:
Dear Ms. Lunnon:
With respect to our enclosed examination, the IRS contends that my Not For Profit Activity (otherwise known as a Hobby) was actually a For Profit Business, i.e. that I am self employed. This was due to income reported on line 7 of a 1099-MISC form for the Tax Year 2006. It is my contention that the issue boils down to whether or not the Activity I was engaged in was done For Profit. On our 2006 return I claimed it was a Not For Profit Activity (Hobby), and I stand by this assertion. I put a lot of thought into this and I did so based solely on the IRS’s own information about how to distinguish between an Activity done For Profit (Business) and an Activity done Not For Profit (Hobby). I know the IRS often looks into whether or not an Activity claimed as For Profit is really a Not For Profit Activity, so I paid particular attention to this information.
Firstly, I would like to note that the key difference between Hobby income and Business income is the intent to make a profit; not whether a profit was made. Just because I make money from a Hobby does not mean that I am self-employed or that I am running a Business, regardless of how said income is reported to the IRS. Further, Self Employment Tax is only required if the Activity is carried on as a trade or Business. In my case it is not, my Activity is carried on as a Hobby.
Secondly, I would like to make clear the following points:
I am not a contractor - there are no written contracts involved.
I do it for fun and enjoyment with no profit motive.
I don't do any advertising or marketing - I don't even have a Business card.
I do similar work for free, just for fun.I don't run my Hobby as a Business.
I spend between 60 and 120 hours a year on my Hobby; sometimes maybe a bit more and sometimes less.
The amount of money I receive is not a significant part of my income and I am not trying to increase or maximize it. I can stop it at any time with no significant financial impact.
In summary, it is quite clear that this Activity is engaged in for recreation and is not engaged in For Profit – even though a profit was made. Since this is the case I argue that my income is a result of my Hobby and should be treated and taxed as a Not For Profit Activity. I therefore am not liable for, nor should I be required to pay, Self Employment tax.
The IRS finally responded last week in classic fashion - they sent me FOUR copies of the same letter in TWO different envelopes stating that they would get back to me by Sept 27th. We'll see how this pans out. I feel my argument is solid and I feel I could win with a good lawyer, but it wouldn't be worth it for me to pay to go to court. If at some point that's my only recourse, I'll simply pay the SE tax and move on. Sadly, that's how this government works. Taxpayers have little recourse against a wasteful, erroneous IRS.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Vote for Change - Vote third party
This time two years ago I sent out an email encouraging everyone to at least consider voting third party. Two years ago this country overwhelmingly elected Democans into the Congress, and guess what? We have more of the same-old same-old in Washington. The Democan controlled congress has done little more than talk, while gas prices, inflation and food prices have gone through the roof. Congress's approval numbers have slipped to record lows.
And the Democans want us to believe that their candidate can change all this (he's pro-change - whatever the hell that means)? Wha? Oh really?!?
And the Republicrats want us to believe that their candidate will lower the deficit and not be a spend thrift like his cousin GWBush! Wha? Oh really?!?
Two years ago I asked you to consider voting third party. Right now I ask you to consider it again. Don't be hoodwinked another year by the powers that be in Washington. Send a message that your vote counts and that you'll no longer stand for their corrupt, wasteful ways, or their lying and bloviating and outright contempt for the American people. Send the message that you want change, not change from a Republicrat to a Democan, but true change that can only come from new fresh ideas, not watered down same-old politics.
And the Democans want us to believe that their candidate can change all this (he's pro-change - whatever the hell that means)? Wha? Oh really?!?
And the Republicrats want us to believe that their candidate will lower the deficit and not be a spend thrift like his cousin GWBush! Wha? Oh really?!?
Two years ago I asked you to consider voting third party. Right now I ask you to consider it again. Don't be hoodwinked another year by the powers that be in Washington. Send a message that your vote counts and that you'll no longer stand for their corrupt, wasteful ways, or their lying and bloviating and outright contempt for the American people. Send the message that you want change, not change from a Republicrat to a Democan, but true change that can only come from new fresh ideas, not watered down same-old politics.
A vote for a third party candidate is never wasted. In fact it is the only way for us as a country to affect real change. Send your message to the ruling parties in this country in November. Remember, the only truly "wasted" vote is a vote "against" another candidate.
I have attached below links to the four major third party candidates for president in 2008. I encourage you to read about each of them, and resolve this year to vote for the candidate that best matches your ideals. If that turns out to be a Republicrat or Democan, so be it. But at least be knowledgeable about what else is out there.
Don't believe me that voting 3rd party is not wasting your vote? Review the following:
http://satyagraha.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/why-vote-third-party/
http://www.silentpc.org/third.php
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jsuebersax/parties.htm
If you want hard numbers and math doesn't scare you, take a gander at this link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/hooper1.html
I have attached below links to the four major third party candidates for president in 2008. I encourage you to read about each of them, and resolve this year to vote for the candidate that best matches your ideals. If that turns out to be a Republicrat or Democan, so be it. But at least be knowledgeable about what else is out there.
Don't believe me that voting 3rd party is not wasting your vote? Review the following:
http://satyagraha.wordpress.com/2008/01/07/why-vote-third-party/
http://www.silentpc.org/third.php
http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/jsuebersax/parties.htm
If you want hard numbers and math doesn't scare you, take a gander at this link:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig5/hooper1.html
Doug
Libertarian Candidate:
Robert Barr
http://www.lp.org/barr-root
Green Party Candidate:
Cynthia McKinney
http://votetruth08.com/
Constitution Party candidate:
Charles Baldwin
http://www.baldwin08.com/
Natural Law Party Candidate:
Ralph Nader
http://www.votenader.org/
Libertarian Candidate:
Robert Barr
http://www.lp.org/barr-root
Green Party Candidate:
Cynthia McKinney
http://votetruth08.com/
Constitution Party candidate:
Charles Baldwin
http://www.baldwin08.com/
Natural Law Party Candidate:
Ralph Nader
http://www.votenader.org/
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