Far too many of the new President’s appointments have turned out to be tax cheats. For us, a couple that has prepared their own tax returns for the last 28 years, this is very disappointing. These, after all, are the bozos who created the laws that make preparing tax returns so complicated that most people hire it out. “Innocent oversight” and “minor misunderstanding” have no weight with the IRS for peons like us. The IRS is merciless if you are regular folk. If anything good comes from this, it will be a simplification of the tax structure. Any tax system that you have to pay someone else to understand cannot be fair. And apparently it makes it way too easy for the fat cats to cheat. President Obama, the glove is down. Accept the challenge. Fix this mess.
Austin Healey
I took some pictures of this great restoration of an Austin Healey 100 yesterday. John Burton is a neighbor has spent years working on this. The results are definitely worth the effort. What a great job. Additional pictures in a new window. My son took some of the pictures while the hood was open.
Making Glass Beads
My daughter was home for the holidays. Most of the days were rainy but we had at least one nice day when we could be outside. She took the opportunity to make glass beads. My son took this picture. The glass rod is melted and gathered on a mandrel, additional colors are added. The bead is then cooled slowly.
Sphere of Falling
Many years ago, my late mother gave me a birthday present Sphere of Falling. Over the years I have never failed to smile whenever I see it. Sphere of Falling is a hollow clay sphere. It must have been very difficult to make. It is very round. The small base of the sphere is flat and it stays in balance on its own if left undisturbed. But if bumped, it will roll. At some point I got concerned and made a base for Sphere of Falling. There is a post in the middle of the base that keeps the sphere from tipping or rolling.
A few weeks ago, one of Mr. Sphere of Fallings feet got bumped and broke off. A spot of glue put him right and he is again back where he lives
Sphere of Falling was created by Meg Scott. Now she teaches Laughter Yoga .
License Plate Light
A neighbor stopped me to tell me that my license plate light was out. I thanked him and said that I would take care of it. That was almost two weeks ago. Last weekend, I did get the correct bulb at the parts store but did not get it changed. Here is what I did yesterday.
The socket itself is retained by two small TORX screws. I have two drivers but it was smaller than either. I got a bit from the “security bit set” that I had recently purchased at Harbor Freight. This kit contains an assortment of sizes of every odd bit for odd screws. The kit has a 1/4-in drive bit holder. I used a 3/8-in drive extension and a 3/8-1/4-in adapter to make a screwdriver to remove the screws. The lamp housing was stuck to the license plate recess so I used a putty knife to gently separate it. The lamp was cracked but came out easily. It was clearly burned out. The housing was also cracked, problably from frozen water. I sealed it with Goop brand sealant/glue. When I inserted the new bulb, it did not make contact initially. There was some grease or silicone gunk that kept it from making good contact. Wiggling the bulb got it to work. Re-assembly reverse of disassembly. Phillip and I also checked all of the lights on all three cars and topped up the mini-spares.
CO2
My father has been studying CO2 for a number of years. He is convinced that the folks that want to reduce CO2 are the same folks that have starved the third world for years. Ask yourself, “Is <fill in a name here> making any money from this <fill in a noun here>? Try substituting “Al Gore” (who is selling “carbon credits”) and “scam” (just exactly do you get for a “carbon credit” and how is that different from blackmail? Who gets the commission on the sale? Just exactly how did this transaction change any production/consumption relationship?) and you will get the idea. Meanwhile, who is paying for this? Not the mbillionaires, you can be assured of that. My father has sent a letter to the ELCA. Update: The Bishop has referred the letter to his collegues for recommendations.
Chicago, Chicago, that toddlin’ town…
When 2 years of campaigning concluded with Sen. Obama’s election, I wondered when the corruption in Illinois would re-emerge in the headlines. Now we know. What continues to surprise me is that the only “scandel” I can recall connected with Sen. Obama was some piece of real-estate he may have gotten a sweet deal on. I will not be surprised if there is more to come. If Sen. Obama is actually as squeeky-clean as he appears at this time that will be a good thing. What we do not need is a Spiro Agnew type episode. And perhaps the press was not snoozing on watch during the entire Presidential Campaign.
On State Street, that great street, I just want to say They do things they don't do on Broadway
And hopefully not what they appear to have been doing in Springfield.
Microsoft Software
I spent a perfectly frustrating day trying produce results with Microsoft software. I normally use Excel and although it is not as good as it was around V4 or V5 and does support more rows than it did back then it cannot hold a really large number of rows (more than 65000). So I thought I could put my data into an Access database…silly me. If I thought that Microsoft Excel was clueless about dates and more importantly times, I had not reckoned with Access. Access, what a piece of junk. I spent all afternoon trying to get the mainframe to format the data in a way that Access would read it in without success. I even got it to recognize that the dates were dates and the times were times but when it read it in, #NUM error. And of course there is no log, no message, no nothing. Junk. And absolutely no help to resolve the problem. Another reason to not use Microsoft products. If they were available without charge, they would be overpriced.
Capital Gains
The current U.S. tax law provides a special rate for capital gains. This should be eliminated. The implied purpose of the tax savings is to encourage risk taking through capital investment. But since the term for these “long-term” capital gains is only one year, I fail to see how they are different from ordinary gains or losses on inventory. And no more risky than choosing to work at a non-capital trade.
Besides what else is a person with capital going to do. They can spend the money on consumption, they can loan the money to a borrower, or they can purchase ownership in an income producing asset.
Spending the money provides income to those who produce the items consumed.
Loaning the money provides a stream of income through the interest charged.
The income producing asset may or may not provide additional jobs for others.
For example, investing in the stock of a company does not provide any capital to the company that issued the stock after the initial public offering (IPO). It can provide an opportunity to issue new shares to raise capital but the original shares are just the right to collect the income stream from that original investment (and particpate in liquidation should that occur). The jobs have already been created through the initial investment or through business growth provided by retained earnings.
Starting a new business takes capital. And there is a risk in starting a new business. It is hard work and requires a bunch of time and attention. But the statistics show that about 1/3 of businesses started make money, 1/3 break even, and 1/3 lose money. But should the taxpayers be part of the reward structure? I don’t think so.
It is time to treat capital gains, regardless of term as ordinary income. The gain can be declared when recognized or when realized. This means that you can work out the number every year (and every business person already does this) and pay the tax on the increase or subtract the loss from your income. Or you can save it all up and take it all at once when the business is sold or liquidated. Of course you might not have any income to deduct the loss from when you go bust so you might want to use the pay-as-you go method.
Litter
Our cats are mostly outside cats. The boys (Hillard, Harry, Bullett, and Lorenzo) are definitely outside. Lorenzo cannot be trusted in the house at all, Harry is trained to go straight to the bedroom when he comes in. Bullett and Hillard seem to be ok but always go out when then need to go. The girls on the other hand seem to need to be in. Is it the privacy? Tabby goes in the box if it is clean but has intentionally gone on the rug. Adah goes in the box if one is clean and available. Otherwise it is unpredictable where she will go. As a result, we have shifted from clay litter to pine-bark mulch. We get the mini-nuggets. The regular pine bark is to large. And the ground pine mulch is too fine. There is too much track out even though it is more absorbent. With the mini-nuggets, cat can keep her feet clean and cover if she wants to without too much getting out of the box. Except for Adah who is too energetic with the covering.
We go through a 2 cu-ft bag per week. This is with changing each box after each use. To get rid of the stuff, I put it around the trees and in the garden. No need to fill up the landfill.