Truth – What A Concept

This is the first time I have heard of a TV station refusing to run an ad attacking a GOP candidate with lies about Social Security. Unfortunately, I’m not holding my breath waiting for that concept, of being truthful, to be applied to the liberal propaganda inherent in the newscasts.

KMK

Less Stress

I have to agree with this article that having pets around keeps things mellow. One of the big benefits of working at home is being able to spend time with our kids, which currently consist of five cats & three dogs, plus one llama. We no longer have any sheep, so there are no more baby lambs in diapers in the house, or the office, as was described in this 1993 San Jose Mercury article about my office in Fremont, CA. It must be working, because so far, I haven’t had any heart attacks or strokes, common occupational hazards in the tax profession.

Of course, it also helps to keep your mind off of things rather than dwell on them.

KMK

Envy & Income Taxes

Our tax system is designed to stick it to the evil rich.

Missing Out

Any serious user of the Internet knows that the difference between connecting via dial up modem and a broadband method is night and day. Living up here in the boonies, we could only dream of having access to anything better than the one slow dial-up service that is available to us. In fact, I have always made very clear to everyone that the main criterion for selecting a new place to live, if we ever sell our ranch, would be some place with access to either cable or DSL Internet. Late last year, I even came very close to opening another office, in downtown Harrison, just to have access to the cable Internet.

Since this January, we have been using the DirecWay two-way satellite. Overall, it has been great, allowing us to do things that would be impossible over dial-up, such as listening to & watching Rush Limbaugh‘s show. This came at the perfect time, because we can no longer pick it up via over the air radio.

The satellite has been very reliable, except for times when there are heavy clouds, which does happen about once a week. We had been pestering our local phone company for years to make DSL available up here. Even with the satellite, we still want DSL as a backup. Although our phone company just started connecting some customers to DSL, we have been informed that our line is well beyond the distance limits of DSL technology from the closest switching station. So, we have resigned ourselves to being satisfied with and grateful for the satellite. At $69.95 per month, I consider it a bargain considering the huge increase in productivity it allows. That is why it boggles my mind to see that so many other people around the country are refusing to sign up for broadband service, often for even less than we are paying. Unfortunately, if more people don’t sign up, more of the broadband companies will be going out of business.

KMK

False Alarm

I have never taken seriously the concerns by the big government fans linking the stock market decline to the efforts to allow people to have some control over their retirement funds. As I have always said, and is echoed in this piece, only an idiot would put all of his/her retirement funds in high-risk speculative stocks. Practically any investment would yield a better return than the Social Security Ponzi scheme. In fact, in most cases, you could put your money under your mattress and still be better off than flushing it away with our rulers in DC.

KMK

Tax Cuts Not Gonna Happen?

You can’t say National Review doesn’t have a breadth of opinion on topics, both on their main page as well as on their blog. Just the other day, they had an optimistic article by Bruce Bartlett on the likelihood of new tax cuts being enacted before the end of this year. Then, they have this piece from Joel Mowbray claming that there is no chance of that happening.

There couldn’t be a better illustration of how disorganized our rulers in DC are than this. Of course, the possibility of heavy military action does change the national priorities somewhat. It also reinforces my constant warning to only act on tax laws that are really here and don’t make plans on any that are promised.

KMK