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Showing posts from December 5, 2010

Sales Tax on Home Sales, More Government Sleight of Hand

A few days ago, I had a good friend of mine tell me that Congress had passed a new sales tax on home sales or purchases. I didn't think that statement was true simply because a new tax like that would have caught my attention. Could I have missed some bill? Last night I googled "sales tax on home sales" and this is what I found. http://www.snopes.com/politics/taxes/realestate.asp http://www.moneytalksnews.com/2010/09/19/a-sales-tax-when-you-sell-your-home/ http://www.factcheck.org/2010/04/a-38-percent-sales-tax-on-your-home/ I clipped this piece from the second link. The truth is that only a tiny percentage of home sellers will pay the tax. First of all, only those with incomes over $200,000 a year ($250,000 for married couples filing jointly) will be subject to it. And even for those who have such high incomes, the tax still won’t apply to the first $250,000 on profits from the sale of a personal residence — or to the first $500,000 in the case of a marrie

Nobel Committee Restores Credibility, Scandis' Get Off the Sauce

After President Obama received the Nobel Peace Prize for doing essentially nothing, I had contemplated relegating the whole Nobel Peace Prize propaganda process through my hippocampus into the garbage disposal part of my brain. However, having been a willing refugee of Idaho's Moonbat Valley, I quickly realized the dangers of this. I could easily envision myself surrounded by a bunch of wine induced dip shits waving diplomas from expensive colleges and claiming that Obama's likeness should be carved into the Black Hills. Thus, you may never know when seemingly worthless information becomes valuable once again. That and I reasoned, if a bunch of sheep could fall for such nonsense, perhaps the disease was simply contagious and the scandis' had caught the same virus that we had. I cut them some slack. Maybe they would recover. So when Liu Xiaobo won the Nobel Peace Prize this year, I thought I'd find out who he was and if he had accomplished anything worthy of the prize.

Celebrating The New Underground Economy

The last three years have been an economic tragedy. Depending on who you believe, we have structurally lost 10-30 million jobs in the U.S.- permanently. Those jobs were lost to cheap labor markets all over the world. That sucking sound that Ross Perot, business and political prophet, warned us about a little over two decades ago. That leaves us with 30 million people not paying their mortgages, not buying health insurance, not paying federal and state taxes, not paying property taxes. Federal, state, and local governments have been slow to catch on. In fact, they want to maintain their status quo employment levels. Some still want to give themselves "raises." It is as though absolutely nothing concerns government. They are completely self absorbed. They don't give a shit about you- as long as they have theirs. This self absorbed attitude is mind numbing and to deny it's existence- would simply be grossly inaccurate. So government just continues pillaging tax payers.

I Have a Promising Future Behind Me

I will turn 50 this week. So what I thought I'd do today, is take a breather from all of that crooked government bullshit that I usually write about. Tell you about some of the observations I have made during the last 5 decades. How it was for me. When I was 10, I was a very happy kid. Playing baseball, beating up on kids, fishing, honing juvenile delinquency skills. I started using tobacco around 11. Got my first hickey about that time. My parents were happy to see that. Nasty girl, about 17, did that the first time I met her. I liked her right away. I have always loved older women. Strange how that works. We shined shoes in the bars in Butte, Mt. Made a lot of money courtesy of drunken miners. I saw my first stabbing turned homicide in a place called the Helsinki Club. From these humble beginnings, I would become a cop. Like I said, strange how those things work. When I was 20, I still hadn't learned much. Drinking beer, working full time, going to college. Mostly drinkin

Obama on TV...Angry and Pissy, Media Calls It "Passion", Gridlock Officially Arrives!

Watching Obama on the "buy the fucking dip" channel. My ex used to call it the stock channel. Barack making excuses and claiming that he has the moral high ground. He was forced to capitulate and extend the Bush tax cuts because of those damn Republicans. Unemployment benefits will also get extended another 13 months. Just a little hostility leaking out. Obama takes this shit personally. So let me see. Less money in via tax cuts, more money out via unemployment. One hundred and fifty weeks on unemployment now available. Collecting unemployment may soon become a specialized career. In fact, I don't even think we should count the unemployed as unemployed. They have jobs collecting checks. Not unlike full time government workers. Obama wrapping up with semi-angry tirade. Now he is saying that he has fulfilled every campaign promise he made. Finishes. John Harwood on CNBC referring to Obama's  demeanor as "passion." I say Obama is just plain pissy. Like a

Social Security Now Officially Broke, Eight Years Ahead of Schedule

Just a couple of years ago, I remember the "experts" telling us that social security was still running a surplus and that it wouldn't turn red until 2018. Apparently the "experts" didn't price in the great recession. http://www.zerohedge.com/article/social-security-2010-results-%E2%80%93-long-slide-red In Mr Krasting's simple analysis, I agree that the cash position is all that matters. Everything else is just fuzzy math. The 1946 born "baby boomers" started taking early benefits in 2008. The timing was near perfect. Baby boomers were forced to cash in as our country shed millions of jobs. Thus the social security "fund" started leaking oil. Losses went parabolic. How do you feel about "experts?" Every once in awhile, while searching for supportive links to embed, I come across something so utterly stupid and unconscious that I simply must use it. This author, while hardly an expert- is certainly a piece of work. This

Thank Gawd for Gridlock

In the mountains of Idaho, in a place called Wildhorse Campground, this embedded tune was played something like 50 times. I don't think that is an exaggeration. There was plenty of whiskey that weekend. Campfires, guns, and fishing poles. Things to like. Not a bad place to throw a retirement party. No more small town politics, no more meetings, no more law enforcement.  Legislative bodies love to pass laws. They really enjoy passing laws when they think the constituents are watching and supportive. When they get a little over zealous with all that law passing- thankfully we have a remedy called "gridlock." As a Libertarian, I have DNA that demands that any law passed better be proven useful and that government had better not trample my rights or my freedom. I expect results if you are going to pick my pockets. By my internal controls, seat belt laws barely get the nod. I don't mind that the insurance lobby got away with that piece of seat belt trickery. That is

Bernank Finally Utters Something Vaguely Truthful, BUY SILVER!

The Bernank has now admitted what everyone without a job knows. We are turning Japanese. His comments were still shaded optimistically. Just wait for 5 years or so. In the meantime, please go out and buy a bunch of Chinese shit at WalMart. Charge it. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke , in an interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" that aired Sunday, said it could be four or five years before the economy is back to a normal unemployment rate. He also said fears of inflation are overstated, and that the central bank could resort to another round of stimulus by buying up Treasuries. Silver now cracking 30 bucks an oz. Buy silver with your mortgage payment. Steal your kids money. Jaime Dimon playing this song on his Ipod. Last week, I bought a ten ounce bar of silver. This week I am going to buy another. If screwing over a TBTF bank is not enough incentive, what is? I could care less if silver crashes through the floor...or whether Max Keiser is right or not. Just the

Connecting the Dots

Steve Jobs probably said it best. You can only connect the dots as you look backward. That as we reflect back upon our lives, we begin to see things clearly. The dots aren't visible to us as young people. The dots, or the decisions that we will make, are waiting for us. So it stands to reason that an individual's future can actually be kind of hazy, yet our past has the potential to be crystal clear. I understand that now, in as much as I know quite a few young people that think they have life all sorted out. I don't waste much time trying to influence them. It annoys them and who am I to deny them some pain? Go ahead young man and piss on that electric fence. It is your right. Perhaps you are not bound to the same laws of physics that I must adhere to. Who am I to quench your thirst for knowledge? Now I've seen and met quite a few talented and remarkable people in my lifetime. Movie stars, musicians, billionaires, hall of fame athletes. Religious leade