My 10 Year Old Gets It, Why Don't The Liberals?

I really can't remember how the subject came up, but on the way to dropping my son off at a friend's house for a sleepover, we got on the subject of taxes (what did you expect, we can't talk about Madden 11 all the time?) and he was quite surprised to hear that the more money you make, the higher percent you paid in income tax: it was plainly unfair to him, and he said,

"you did the work, you earned the money, shouldn't you get to decide how you spend it?"

I replied "as long as it's not illegal or immoral, I agree. If a rich person wants to buy a brand new pair of socks every day, I may think that's stupid, but it's their money."

I also let him know how proud I was that he understood something that many elected (and citizen) folks don't.

Happy New Year!

Yes, it's 2011, and I have no answer to the question: which is preferable, "twenty eleven" or "two thousand eleven," but don't hold that against me, ok?

Like much of the modern world, I'm using the calendar's turn to start hammering out goals and expectations for the future, short term and long term. First to fall was the "hey, maybe I'll not eat french fries." Next should be my decision today to limit myself to 2 Diet Cokes a day, but since I only have 2 here at work, I can keep that resolution for now and drink water and milk at home...or some of the egg nog we have left. I have gotten a couple of good resolutions jokes in, like "I'm gonna drink more coffee: one sip and I can check that one off" (I don't drink coffee). For me, simply replace "coffee" with "beer" or "booze," repeat the joke to the appropriate audience, and suddenly one joke becomes 3.

I did get a workout in last week and plan to keep it up, it totally kicked my butt. Serious jello legs. Now, I am a desk jockey and have been fairly sedentary for some time now, so of course I was winded and quaky! Here's what I did, and here's what I based it on (you may have to read that workout several times to figure it out, unfortunately; it's not a well written article!)


I did 4 moves in a row with essentially no rest between, then repeated that circuit. I thought i could do 3, but I was very wrong. A little embarrassing, frankly, but you have to start somewhere!
1.Pushups, 10 reps
2.Reverse lunges with a dumbell press,  10 reps each side
3. Partial pullups or static hangs as able (on one of those Stretching Station thingys,  10 reps all sketchy at best
4. Prisoner squats, 20 reps.

After this, I hit the treadmill for an interval, but not too fast: slow sections were 1.5 mph, fast ones varied from 3-4mph, about 25 minutes total. I kidded with my wife and daughter about puking, but I wasn't too far away from it, between you and me.

The article said do 5 reps of each exercise in a circuit and repeat for 10 minutes, so that's what I'll try this evening, replacing my feeble pullup attempts with the recommended Inverted Rows!


Onward and upward!

Niagra Falls!

I just wanted to keep this around, as I find it fascinating. Here's the story and a sample photo.

Niagra Falls Dry in 1969

as you can see, this is a copyrighted image, do not abuse or use without crediting Russ Glasson/Barcroft USA like I just did!

tax cuts? pomplamoose?

Totally random and not at all associated, so maybe I'll mess up some search engine optimization.

When are tax cuts not tax cuts? When not keeping the current tax rate will result in raising taxes. Simply put, Congress controls tax rates, and they chose to agree with Pres Bush that lowering them was a good idea, but in an act of tremendous political courage (psych!), figured a way to get some political coverage years down the road by making them "expire" which is hilarious since THEY CONTROL THE TAX RATES anyway and can raise and lower them whenever they damn well please.

So, by not voting to un-expire the current rates, somehow they aren't raising taxes? And these are tax cuts if they vote to maintain the current rates? No reasonable person could possibly believe this.

So, my question is this: are they liars or are they insane?


Totally unrelated, I've been really enjoying Pomplamoose these last few days, so go visit their youtube so they get lots of hits and stay successful!

thegraph.com

Well, conservative social media entrepreneur Brooks Bayne has launched thegraph.com and I think you should check it out! Now I need to write something to submit!

I have to say, I'm a little nervous about taking my family through the TSA screening this December, I don't really want:

A. to have my wife or daughter groped, much less either of my two boys,
B. to try to keep from asking very loudly "oh, this makes sense since so many terrorists have been white Methodist life-long residents of Ohio!"

Of course, it's very possible that like last time we flew (October, seriously, I should shut up, it's been a good year for travel for us), they'll be no issues at all, but still, that was before 'enhanced pat-downs' had entered the lexicon.

Let me be clear, I've always thought profiling was the way to go, even knowing folks that have been guilty of walking and/or driving "while black" it's the most effective. We know what to look for, and it ain't me.

Peace out, yo, gotta tuck a kid in.

Veteran's Day Post: an annual re-telling

Here's the post from last year or if you don't feel like clicking, here it is again:

I've told this many times, more than my Dad did, probably. He never told this to me, or any of his kids, to my knowledge, but it got back to us nonetheless (one of the hazards of him being a tavern owner: bar stories got re-told).

When Gordon was 15, he wanted to serve his country. He believed in the cause and probably needed the money and experience, but he was too young, so he did exactly what anyone would have done: "borrowed" his older brother's SSN and enlisted in the Army. (He also lied about his age at 10 so he could sell newspapers to help out the family's finances: you had to be 12, I believe. Walked downtown from Mt. Auburn to do it, too). It worked, and his Mother worked to get him out, but by the time she was successful, he'd completed basic training. He'd also turned 16, old enough to join the Merchant Marines! Off he went into the Pacific.

The stories are vague: evading a U-boat on the Euphrates, spending a few days in the water after a ship wasn't as fortunate, ending up recuperating in Egypt (his big regret was not getting to see the Pyramids when there) and while waiting for transportation home (resources were involved in some big offensive) he was injured by shrapnel while watching a firefight from a Venetian rooftop. By the time the boat got him home he was healed and 17, old enough for the Army, and re-enlist he did, skipping basic as he'd already done it, and was back to post-treaty Germany.

The one story I got out of the horse's mouth was when I was in the hospital recovering from my spleenectomy (4th grade sledding accident, if you must know) and he asked a nurse with a unique, but typically Cincinnati German last name if she was related to a war buddy of his: it was her father-in-law. He then regaled us (to entertain me, no doubt) with a story of their wartime experience as MPs at a military hospital in Germany. Seems the locals showed their gratitude by donating kegs of beer to the soldiers, but they had nothing to drink the beer out of, so they grabbed the closest things that resembled steins: handles? check. Vessel? check. You might be be guessing what in a hospital has a handle, can hold liquid, and is handy, indeed, pretty much one for every bed? Yep, they scrubbed the bed urinal thingys and drank the beer from those. Now you understand the picture!

He finished High School, stayed in for a while, and started a family, then law school, but didn't finish as he got a good job offer and the rest is his story, just not this one. I salute you, Gordon P. on this and every Veteran's Day, because now I know what it means, and I'm sorry I didn't get it when I was younger.

The MidTerm Elections Mean What?

Well, the votes are cast and most are counted, and I have this pithy oversimplified comment to say as of 2:42PM the day after:

America is a Center-Right country and the government hasn't been behaving Center-Right, so the voters said loudly and clearly, "we like some of our extreme lefties and righties, certainly, but y'all have been spending too much money, so we want new people representing us that said they'll spend less."

I'll have more to say, but that's too long for Twitter, so here it is.

"Drive-By Media" defined by Jon Stewart: didn't know he agreed with Rush!

In this New York Times article, the writer quotes Jon Stewart and observes:

“ 'The press can hold its magnifying glass up to our problems bringing them into focus, illuminating issues heretofore unseen or they can use that magnifying glass to light ants on fire and then perhaps host a week of shows on the sudden, unexpected dangerous, flaming ant epidemic,' he said, to roars of approval from the crowd."


This, my esteemed readers, is EXACTLY what Rush Limbaugh means when he refers to the drive-by media, and it warms the cockles of my heart to see that both the speaker and the audience seem to agree whole-heartedly.