Category Archives: What? Are They Nuts?

Half Staffed

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The shutdown has hit backcountry guides in the Florida Keys. The National Park Service told charter guides that they cannot take clients fishing in Florida Bay until the Feds return to work. That puts the prime fishing between the southern tip of the mainland to the Keys — more than 1,100 square miles — off limits until further notice.

US Flag -- Mayday at Half StaffThe shutdown has hit veterans who demanded access to the World War II Memorial following the government shutdown Tuesday. The site is one of several hosting protests. Park rangers erected barricades and police tape to block veterans and other visitors. Rep. Randy Neugebauer (R-TX) confronted a ranger for keeping visitors out. “The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves.” (Say what? The park rangers didn’t shut down the government. Mr. Neugebauer and his 534 Congress Critters did.)

The shutdown has hit Vermont’s Billings Farm and Museum of Woodstock in the wallet, too. The Billings Farm and Museum is the gateway to Vermont’s rural heritage and a working dairy farm but it is also right across the road from the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.

“It’s a national disgrace,” a visitor from London said. “You don’t get government shutdowns in Germany, in China, or other civilized places. It’s a disgrace. What does [your] government normally do that makes it safe to walk” around there?

The shutdown has not hit the U.S. Congress who appear to be on vacation. Again.

Even Mark Halperin, the senior political analyst at Time Magazine, acknowledged that the Demorats’ strategy depends not on the facts but on the mainstream media blaming Repuglicans for the shutdown.

Determined to jettison the Constitution, this Administration and this Congress don’t know how prescient the Founding Fathers were. After all, if the framers in that hot, sticky, Philadelphia hall had hewed a little more closely to our British cousins, we would have already had the No Confidence vote and recall election.

 

Shut Down

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For 10 days, every MSM news outlet and every elected Demonbrat reported that the House Repuglicans “refuse to pass a budget unless it shuts down ObamaCare.”

That, of course, is not exactly true.

For 10 days, the House Repuglicans have passed about 47 budgets so far; the Senate Demonbrats have refused to consider any of them and Obama has stated publicly he will “veto any bill that shuts down ObamaCare.”

Who is refusing what?

For 10 days, John Boehner (R-OH) and Harry Reid (D-NV) lobbed the spending bill back and forth.

Mr. Reid sent the Senate home on Sunday.

The bill would have prevented the government from running out of money at 11:59:59 p.m. last night.

Mouse with smaller craniumMr. Reid sent “his” Senate home when Mr. Boehner passed “his” conference request last night.

And we pay these airheads to work for us?

There are 800,000 “furloughed” federal workers this morning. Each and every one of them should go to the Capitol and demand our money back.

 

Common Sense

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New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg outlawed food donations to homeless shelters last year.

It’s all because the city can’t assess their salt, fat and fiber content, huffed Mr. Bloomberg.

Alrighty then.

Maslow's Hierarchy of NeedsI’m thinking Mr. Bloomberg’s nanny needs to read a little sociology. 70 years ago, in 1943, Abraham Maslow codified human needs in what has become a well known pyramid. Food and sex are the most basic needs. Healthy, safe food is important, but only after we meet the most basic requirement of finding something, anything, to eat in the first place.

Eastman Kodak developed the digital camera in 1975 but never invested in the technology. “Digital photography will undercut sales of our film business,” they rightly said. Kodak stock peaked in 1997 at over $94/share. The stock had dropped to 65 cents/share by 2011; the company is in bankruptcy.

Alrighty then.

I’m thinking that if you introduce a new budget item in a business like Kodak, one that may have no positive effect whatsoever on the company’s performance but one that mirrors past performance, many of the decision makers will allocate money to that cost and keep investing in it even as the company goes down the tubes. Likewise, if you introduce a new budget item in a business like Kodak, one that may turn the industry on its ear but one that defies past performance, many of the decision makers will never invest in the new line even as the company goes down the tubes.

A Florida Keys man named Mitchell about beat his Labrador Retriever puppy to death, got sentenced to nine months, and then his conviction was reversed by a three-judge District Court of Appeal panel.

Then-prosecutor Terre Hunnewell told jurors that the only way Mr. Mitchell was not guilty was if the eyewitness, two veterinarians, and three deputies all lied on the witness stand. The panel said Mr. Hunnewell’s argument “improperly placed the onus of demonstrating the burden of proof [on] the defense.”

Alrighty then.

I’m thinking the evidence outweighs a lawyer’s stupid summation (lawyers ask more stupid questions and make more stupid comments than almost any other population group) but appellate courts rarely consider, well, evidence.

I can’t make sense of any of that.

I’m also thinking Dr. Maslow left Common Sense out of his hierarchy. As a survival need it should maybe be at the base of the pyramid, underpinning even the physiological needs. It’s certainly lacking in New York City, Rochester, NY, and Monroe County, FL.

 

Do Not Feed the Bears

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Vermont lawmakers passed only 89 new statutes this year, and dozens of them took effect with the start of the new fiscal year last Monday.

Among the new laws, Act 200 replaced the state’s criminal penalties for possessing marijuana with civil fines. Another gave local and state officials the authority to inspect home-based breeders of dogs, cats and wolf-hybrids. A third instructed employers to “consider in good faith” requests for flexible work schedules.

The State of Vermont also made it illegal to feed bears.

Legislators did go a little overboard again this year but that one strikes me as one of those are you Nuts? rules. After all, is anyone reading this actually out there in the dooryard singing “here beary, beary, beary” and whistling?

Lordy Lordy™.

“You’ll starve!” Liz Arden said.

I know!!! I AM™ soooooooooo worried.

I want to know if the law targets only gay bears or if it is every man who might be furrier than me.

Oh.

Forrest Hammond, the state wildlife biologist, reports that bears are looking for food at bird feeders, bee hives, chicken coops, cookie jars, and the like all across Vermont.

So maybe “feeding” the bears means leaving a bird feeder out or letting them eat the chickens in your coop.

Next year, Act 1999 will make it illegal to feed burglars by leaving your jewelry on the bureau. And to feed car thieves by leaving the keys…

 

We the Overtaxed People

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At 11:59 p.m. tonight, not 12 hours from now, millions of Americans including Rufus will make their annual mad dash to the post office.

Filing High
I e-filed for the first time this year. Tubbo Tax was a little confused because I didn’t owe any extra and wasn’t due a refund

Familiar icons with Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, IRS logoOddly, Tubbo sent the email announcing that the IRS had accepted my return four minutes before they sent the email announcing that they had successfully sent the IRS my return.

I shouldn’t be worried, right?

This little box came up at the end of the filing status:

How to check your refund status?
Download the MyTaxRefund app and check your status anywhere.
Available on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.

And then! And THEN!

Filing feels good! Share your tax triumph with your friends.
(Don’t worry, nothing confidential is shared.)
[f Share] [Tweet]

What? Are they nutz?

Taxation WITH Representation
An Internoodle meme going around states incorrectly that Americans paid no taxes before the Income Tax was made permanent in 1913.

The U.S. did impose income taxes during the Civil War and again in the 1890s to pay for war expenses but didn’t make them permanent until 1913. Up until then excise taxes on alcohol and later added to gasoline, tires, telephones, tobacco, and a host of other commodities raised a lot of money to fund the government. Tariffs raised even more. Tariffs were the largest source of federal revenue (and the easiest to collect) from the 1790s until the income tax started growing.

IRS asks, Do you need more time?Tariffs were one of the major causes of the Civil War.

We’ve also had property taxes since colonial times; in fact, the only reason we could go to war against Britain is that we had well-developed tax systems in place to pay for it. By 1796, seven of the then-15 states had poll taxes. 12 taxed some or all livestock. All taxed land one way or another. Most taxed specific occupations.

We the Overtaxed People have been that way since before we threw the (taxable) tea in the harbor.

For the record, I support (a) the flat income tax and (b) elimination of all other tax methods including corporate taxes. People have the right to be taxed fairly, the right to know how much is coming out of their pockets, and the right not to be taxed two or three times on the same income.

Tariffs, excise taxes, sales and value added taxes, and even property taxes are the most regressive way to raise money from a population.

Alabama and Mississippi which have no state minimum wage charge sales tax on food (and they’re not alone). Let’s assume you live in Birmingham in the forward thinking state of Alabama and make $7.50 per hour. You don’t make enough to owe any income tax but we’ll still get you.

Americans report spending $151 on food per week on average but let’s assume you can’t afford to spend half your gross paycheck at the grocery.

If you buy $100/week in Alabama groceries, $8 of that goes to the state. That’s a tax rate of “only 2.66%.” Add in the tax on your phone and cable and apartment and gasoline and it’s easy to see how someone earning minimum wage has a higher actual tax rate than Warren Buffett.

We’re from the Government; We’re Here to Help You Get Healthy
My friend Kay Ace visited the doc a couple of times recently. She was in just before Christmas for a well-grownup, six-month checkup. And she went in last month with that crud going around.

The cost of her office visit went from $93 in December to $113 in March, 100% of which was covered by Medicare. Her Medicare Advantage copay went from $20 to $25. Oh, yeah, and her premium went up.

“Obamacare: We’ll save you money®.”

SCOTUS Upholds Obamacare: It's a tax