. . .And Another Thing

Oooh!  Are we all excited yet about our big PAY HIKE due to the gop tax cuts?

I received my retirement check today for March 1 and it is true that my "take home" is increased due to a reduction of the withholding for federal taxes.  Who doesn't love a pay increase?

Smoke and mirrors are still basic props for governmental fiscal operations-- across a wide range of activities, I might add, up to and including the creation of "money" out of thin air.  But books could be written on the subject-- and little would be fixed thereby.  So back to the issue at hand.

The payer of my retirement stipend has no knowledge of my over-all income status.  He simply uses a federal table of deductions and applies it to the amount I have earned for the month.  And what he doesn't know doesn't hurt him-- but it hurts me, but only to the extent that I allow myself to be the victim of the ruse that I have gotten a "tax cut."

Because the Lord has blessed me I have certain other incomes in addition to the one referenced above.  Hence I pay taxes monthly on them, but in addition I submit a quarterly ES voucher with payment to the IRS four (4) times a year.  And wind up, usually, writing a fifth check in April, but that is also another issue.

So, this "pay increase," thank you Washington, DC, that I receive this month will ultimately cost me bigger checks direct from my bank account to the IRS.  But wait!  You say.  Your 2018 taxes will be less in the long run.

Can you repeat after me:  Poppycock!

Will not.  I have already done the math.

If the pants of every liar in DC caught fire simultaneously the entire district along with the states of Virginia and Maryland would go up in flames.

(But, you say, if you are armed with this knowledge why don't you have your payers withhold larger amounts in the first place?  Yes, I could do that.  And how does that reduce my taxes?)

Ship of Gold #T

Captained by Commander William Lewis Herndon, she sailed from Colon, Panama on September 3, 1857 headed for New York. The SS Cental America, forever after known as the Ship of Gold , carried 578 passengers and crew and fifteen tons of gold being transported from the California mints to the country's seat of commerce.*

On September 9 off the coast of Carolina, the ship was caught in a category two hurricane. Her sails were shredded, the seals on the paddle wheels failed, the vessel took on water, the boiler fires went out. On September 12 in spite of all efforts to save her, the backside of the storm hit and the Central America sank. 153 people had made it to safety in lifeboats, but all the rest were lost.

In 1987, a search team found the vessel and recovered the gold which at that time was estimated to be worth upward of 150 million dollars. Naturally, the insurance companies that had paid off the loss a hundred years before sued for possesion of the treasure. A decade later, the issue was settled when the courts awarded approximately 92% of the gold to the finders.

*Numbers of persons and quantities of gold vary from one report to another. These seem to be the most reliable.

Image: thefullwiki.org

Green Stamps

BBBH baked cracklins in the cornbread which she prepared to serve with the navy beans for supper. I love cornbread and beans. But the cracklins in the pone was a whole new experience, sorta porky, one might say. It was okay, and I enjoyed the meal. But she can leave those little chips out next time, it'd be okay by me.

I had cleared and washed the dishes, wiped down the appliances and the spouse and I had just completed three hands of Rummikub^TM , which finds me down two games to one. The phone rings.

"Hello," I say, as is my wont.

"Hello."

"Hi, Kenny, what's happening.?

"No, no. No problem. Just something I wanted to ask you. Do you remember when I was five or six years old that Mom shopped at Marsh a lot, and she used to get some kind of little green stamps which she stuck into books?"

"Absolutely." I validated his memory. They were called S&H Green Stamps. They were distributed by a company called Sperry and Hutchinson and merchants passed them to customers as premiums for shopping with them. You got an S&H catalog and when you saved enough stamps you could redeem them for stuff."

"Right, right, and did you sometimes get Christmas gifts for the kids with them?"

"I don't actually remember, but that is not outside the realm of possibility."

There was a bit more conversation. I mean, after all, he had called me all the way from East Tennessee to ask his question. I was pleased both to talk with him and with the fact that in spite of the intervening forty years, we both had memories of a vignette in the life of our household.

Kenny's mother was an amazingly astute and cautious shopper, and indeed she had to be, in order to feed and clothe the two of us and the four kids on the paycheck I brought home in those days. Ken went ahead in our conversation to talk about the drawer in the pantry where he remembers Mother keeping the S&H booklets, and he was right, though I hadn't thought of that in ages.

A little web search after the visit revealed that S&H Green Stamps were introduced in 1896 and at one time Sperry and Hutchinson printed more stamps than the US Post Office did. Although the stamps have been discontinued, they have been replaced with Green Points. Electronic age, you know. If, however, you still have some stamp books lying around, they can still be redeemed, or traded for Green Points.

Stuff Ag Communities Don't Want to Think About

and the government won't.
Rapeseed and corn biodiesels were calculated to produce up to 70 per cent and 50 per cent more greenhouse gases respectively than fossil fuels.


Our excursion on Memorial Day took us past miles of rich farmland. There were a few fields of rape in bloom, lending a brilliant stripe here and there across the landscape.

A certain cultivar of rape is called "canola" and is used to provide the cooking oil in your kitchen cabinet. Other varieties are used for feed and for the production of biofuels, particularly biodiesel.

The major portion of biofuels are produced from rapeseed and from corn, the former largely in Europe, and the latter in North America.

Recent research has shown that aside from the addition of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere due to transportation of the product, the fuels themselves when used may be more damaging to the environment than are traditional petrofuels. Specifically, nitrogen oxide which is emitted, is 296 times more powerful as a greenhouse gas than is carbon dioxide. Recent scientific studies have shown that biofuels release twice as much N₂O as previously thought. These were done by respected scientists, including Nobelist Paul Crutzen.

Huge numbers of semi trucks rumble past my domicile in the fall on their way to the ethanol plant a few miles down the road. Do the math. And here, my math may be faulty, but it seems to me that the more corn turned into ethanol, the higher the cost of the bacon to go with my eggs. And I get to help pay for the biofuel whether or not I use it, thanks to the government subsidies!

Gotta Cell "Phone"?

T-Mobile hired a cute actress and has produced a bunch of cute commercials, most of which are making fun of AT&T. Enter deal-making in the telecommunications industry. T-Mobile's parent company has agreed to sell T-Mobile to AT&T for the modest sum of 39 billion dollars($39,000,000,000). This would make America's telecommunications industry basically a two-player complex, namely AT&T and Verizon. And there is the fly in the ointment, for the deal has to be approved by the Justice Department. (Is anyone out there old enough to remember the old AT&T, aka "Ma Bell"?) Will it fly? It will be fun to watch. If the deal falls through, AT&T must still pay three billion dollars to the holder of T-Mobile.

Now I observe that the commercials are still running.

Will there be an expanded AT&T with T-Mobile's infrastructure and spectra?
Will AT&T get the T-Mobile girl in the deal?
Will there be, alternatively, a T-Mobile ipo?
Who, ultimately will get the plum in this pudding? (If you are betting the consumer, I suspect you have a very limited view of the way the world works.)
Tra la.

Black Friday

Dozens, yea thousands, are in the malls and other stores as this article goes up on blogger. I am not one of them. I wish no one anything but the best, but the shopping mania known as "Black Friday" has zero appeal for me. May corporate America put their books in the "black". It is sincerely to be hoped. Yet, too, to be hoped, is that you don't put yourself into the red. Yet many of you will do so. I suppose that most people have to reach a "certain age" before grasping the rudiments of balance between things and relationships. Many never reach that point, and those of us who do, I suspect, are regarded as either weird or too old to be of any use to anyone.

Well, enjoy yourselves. Enjoy your things. Enjoy the juggling of the bills and the decision-making with regard to which things will enhance what relationships. For myself, I will enjoy the comfort and warmth of my home, probably read a bit, perhaps catch a few minutes of the madness via the tube, just so that I have a visual validation of my smug attitude toward the whole thing.

Marvelous Economics

There is no question that our country is experiencing difficult economic times. People are out of work; salaries and wages are frozen, or they are being cut. Yet in the face of these difficulties, it is business as usual for the creators of consumer products. Sticking it to the booboisie seems to be that usual business.
I eat half-dozen graham crackers every morning. Here they are. The amazing shrinking dollar value at your local store. This package contains ten percent less product by weight than did the previous package. In addition, the price at the checkout has increased by twenty percent. Arithmetic problem for you and the kiddies: What is the actual percentage increase in the price of these graham crackers? Hint: the answer is not thirty percent.

Be assured that any time you see new packaging or a new menu at your favorite restaurant that you will be paying higher prices than you were before.

The ice cream container shown here is the astounding three-pint half-gallon. In other words, it contains only 75% of the product contained in the previous packaging, even though it 'looks like' a half-gallon. Yet the cost to you is the same.

If I'm not mistaken, and I might be, this trend started years ago with the introduction of the thirteen ounce pound of coffee. Now everybody's doin' it.

Bon appetit.

Grrrowl!

So the AIG more-losses lead our gummint to the conclusion that more money must be infused into this mortally wounded giant because "it is too big to fail." (I'm not making this up, for those of you who, like Rip van Winkle, have just awakened from a twenty-year nap. No. You are not still asleep; no, this is reality, worse than a bad dream.) Too big to fail? What happened to brontosaurus and T-rex? Why are they not still around? Surely they were "too big to fail?" Oh, I get it. There was no Nutcaseville on the Potomac back then.

I'm frankly just too angry to be nice today.

God's Gifts

Sunday November 2, 2008

I Corinthians 16:1,2

Pastor Doug's sermon this morning was on stewardship which was defined as "the biblical subject of how well we care for the people and resources given to us." God has entrusted us with goods and blessed us with people in our lives. We will eventually give an account for our management of these gifts.

100% of our financial resources are God's. Discussion of 'tithing' or procedure is not the thrust.

Why has God given to us?

1) To meet our physical needs. 2) Maybe to bless past or present obedience. 3) God wants to reach others.

4) God wants to receive glory and honor.

God in His sovereignty doles out on three levels: much, less, a lot less. Be faithful with what you have.

In your current situation, what does God want to reveal about you and about Himself? God is less concerned with your "happiness" than he is about your joy, your gratitude, your thanksgiving.

Our giving reminds us that all we have is of God.

2 Corinthians 9:7 Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.

Fiscal Responsibility

Received my IRA statement for the third calendar quarter.
The graph looks like this:

]_*
]____*
]_______*
]__________*
]____________*
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]________________*
]_________________*
]__________________ *

So much for fiscal responsibility,