Oakland Mayor Brown Suggests Tax on Unhealthy Behaviors Could Generate Much Needed Revenue – His protege may be out of office, but Governor MoonBeam is still as crazy as ever.

Prosecutor: Humbug to Jurors’ Holiday Cheer – She likes to pick juries when everyone is the worst mood possible; during tax season. Unfortunately for her, she can’t choose from professional tax preparers during that season since we are exempted from service during our busiest time of the year.

Notorious e-mail scam snares Volusia retiree’s nest egg – It’s practically impossible to have any sympathy for someone stupid enough to fall for the long running Nigerian money laundering scam. The fact that this idiot lives in South Florida shouldn’t be much of a surprise either.

Bush committed to combating budget deficit – He sure has a funny way of showing this. He hasn’t vetoed any of the drunken sailor spending bills passed by Congress and has in fact himself been championing record levels of new programs, such as the expansion of the already screwed up Medicare system. I’m a big believer in actions speaking louder than words; so I can’t buy into Bush’s sincerity regarding fiscal conservatism until he implements controls over the size and cost of government.

Last Day to Sell – This is a good explanation of the often confusing issue of the effective dates of stock transactions for tax purposes. This is also a good time to remind everyone that a stock has to be actually sold by December 31 in order to claim a loss on your 2003 tax return. Just because it has dropped in value from your original purchase price does not entitle you to claim it as a capital loss. This is completely consistent with the way you handle stocks that have gone up in value. Those gains aren’t taxable until you actually sell the stocks.

Courtesy of Spook

How far technology has come in support of numerical calculations.

Courtesy of danfoxh

No limits for House appropriators who pile on pork – Our rulers think they’re a bunch of Santa Clauses.

Child abuse in government schools – It’s not hard to see why the principles of capitalism are dying off in this country, with school kids being indoctrinated in socialism.

Standard Is Set: No New Taxes For Texans

The Taxman Clicketh

Teaching the Gift of Giving to Children

The Stock Market and … Saddam Hussein? – I’ve always gotten a kick out of newscasters who try to explain the stock market’s movement on a particular day by connecting it to something that happened in the news. They have no grasp of the difference between causality and coincidence. As I’ve always said, there is very little rhyme or reason to how the stock market moves. Anyone who claims to have the magic formula for predicting stock prices is nothing but a con artist.

Tennessee Urges Net Purchasers to Pay Tax – It’s nice to start this on a voluntary basis. However, I’m not sure how much money this will generate. Although, with virtually no collection costs, anything they receive would be pure profit to the State government.

Profits without honor – The concept of profits is considered obscene by too many ignoramuses in our poorly educated society. – Part 2 — Part 3

Internet Grinches. Online sales taxes are back in play.