There but by the grace of God go I – that was something I was taught as a young child.
But you know more than that – I really do feel that our society has become so self absorbed, so self obsessed that we literally do not see anything or anyone around us.
There has been a cancer growing on our society for quite awhile. And now that it is fashionable and chic to be the Mr. Potters of the world and not the George Baileys – it will only become worse.
But isn’t it nice to know the Pentagon’s budget will be increased – even when they have not asked for that increase.
It’s the kind of thoughts and actions that make life worth living.
As you all know, recently I’ve had an extra helping of challenges to deal with and many days I haven’t dealt well at all. Poor 6176 always gets the brunt of me, at my worst, before I’ve done more than react and dial his number. Sorry, 6176, and thank you too.
Yesterday my Mother’s wise words came to me. I know I’ve shared them with you before and I feel glad to have remembered them again! They would have come in handy a few times during the last month.
“Young lady! You can just get glad in those same shoes you got mad in!”
I can take any situation and make it better or worse depending on ME and my attitude.
The linked piece just provided hard numbers for what I’ve intuitively known for a substantial period of time. The author was a bit sloppy (the 50% maximum rate on earned income predated President Reagan by 10 years, for example, during the first Nixon administration). The points made are valid, nonetheless.
The debate is always income taxes at the federal and state levels, not the total tax burden as a percentage of income. The attempt to compare apples to apples (in the case of Germany) is the way the argument should be presented, i.e., what is the total cost of the bundle of services as a fraction of income, whether the government supplies all or the government supplies some and the individual supplies the remainder. Thus, my thought that not providing a single payer health “insurance” system harms, as opposed to helps, global competitiveness.
Speaking of taxes……I am the one in the household that does tax returns and I have for years. It’s really not that difficult with the current tax prep software programs.
Anyway – my husband and I always try to manage to have our withheld taxes come out relatively close to the actual tax owed – so we are either a little short or a little over in the actual outcome when we do our tax returns.
this year we are a little short on both federal and state. When I told my husband the amounts – he said, at least we are the lucky ones that have it in our bank to pay it.
Since our kids are grown and married – we have very little tax deduction and/or credits to take off our income tax returns. So, in the case of this year where it is less $400 (counting both federal and state) still owed – I consider this a good year.
you see, I could be the one without a job, or having been unemployed for 99 weeks and called ‘lazy’ by those who obviously do not have to worry about money.
Would I prefer not to pay an additional $400 in taxes – Sure,…
But I also realize that life could be a whole lot worse and we take things for granted in the good ol USA.
And it takes money to have a country that cares about its citizens – ALL its citizens, not just those who have the money and want to keep all their money while taking away from those who do pay taxes.
Well, boys and girls – sermon is over…..
Now is the time for me to write my checks and send those tax returns on their merry way.
You did notice that I waited until the last few days before the filing date? I don’t mine paying taxes to live in this great country – but I am also a realist – I can hold onto my money until I actually have to pay it.
Well, indy, as today is some kind of holiday in D.C., as I understand it, the due date for both federal and Kansas returns is Monday (if you want three days more “float”). 🙂
Yes, I remembered that ….Washington DC is celebrating Emancipation Day a day earlier – which is why today is considered a tax holiday.
I’ll probably mail the paper returns tonight – I want to be sure and get that timely postmark. You see, my plan is that with a paper check – it will take longer to process it and it won’t be back until next Friday which is my payday.
P.S. – why just think, when Republicans get their way and lay off thousands of IRS workers, the people will have it easy to NOT pay their taxes and get away with it for a long, long time.
But I still count myself lucky that we have the money in the bank for the additional taxes owed. I guess I could get a Paul Revere costume and staple some tea bags to my hat and go on some ranting and sreaming rallies…..
But, you know, reality is – if you want a good country, it takes money and that comes from its citizens.
Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction: AZ Birther Law Requires Candidates “To Describe Penis”
This is what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum:
They don’t call Arizona the “meth lab of Democracy” for nothing — where else could a lack of foreskin prove citizenship?
The Arizona Senate formally passed the “Birther Bill” today, but not in its original version.
Apparently, requiring presidential candidates to provide a long-form birth certificate before allowing their names on the ballot in Arizona — despite it already being a federal requirement to run for president — was a bit too much for a few GOP lawmakers. So they made some amendments: if you can’t find your birth certificate, and you have a penis, a document describing your lack (of) foreskin will suffice.
A circumcision certificate — a document given to the parents of a male Jewish child after his foreskin is snipped off during a circumcision ceremony — is not a legal document (see an example of one here) but if you have one, under the amended bill, it’s apparently enough to prove you’re a U.S. citizen and your name can be permitted on the ballot in Arizona.
Pulling out your penis in front of election officials, however, will not prove citizenship — and, in the worst case scenario, could get labeled a sex offender.
Do I really need to be the one to tell them that Muslims males get circumcised too? Oy. I guess we need to root out all those stealthy Scandinavians planning to run for president.
You have to laugh, if only to keep from pulling all your hair out in the face of such stupidity.
Wow – that may be a loaded question and one that our good friend Steven would be way more qualified to address.
My quess is this – because they have no life outside of being judgemental 24/7 or maybe they have that God’s right-hand-man syndrome.
You know, they will be the one next to God on Judgment Day telling God in which direction to throw those lightning bolts to send all of us heathens to Hell.
The more this birtherism movement gets media attention – the more Donald Trump and his flying monkeys will be relegated to the stature they deserve – to be the laughingstock of the world.
But you know, Trump let the cat out of the bag a few weeks back when he made the statement that there is something on Obama’s birth certificate that he does not want to be known.
In other words – he’s a secret Muslim?
This entire birterism nonsense is really not even about whether he was born in America or not – it is about his religion – is he a Muslim? Well, he does have that funny Muslim-sounding name, you know. And you know how those Muslims love to come to America and get themselves a white woman.
And isn’t that about the level of the sewer this birtherism is going?
I’ll beleive they are serious about the integrity of our elections when they make every white Republican male show his long-form birth certificate and also to investigate who his mother slept with. We can never be too careful, you know.
I just wonder how long this bill will be on the books (or will it even be enforfced) when the next white Republican makes it into the White House?
My youngest’s birth certificate does not have a place for “religion” to be noted. Now I admit that it’s the Certificate of Live Birth, complete with seal on the back, certifying that it is, indeed a legal paper, so it isn’t the “original,” whatever that is. That was 1989, so I suppose it’s possible that religion was dropped by that time. But my bc doesn’t list religion, either, and that was even before Obama was born. Neither birth certificate lists religion. Yes, I have two. I suppose that could mean that I was “born again.” 😉
The thing is, a child doesn’t officially have a religion until baptised. The parents can, but not the child. So all this b.s. is just that: B.S.. Not that any of the birthers care.
Dang, I had this vision of driving through Arizona, getting pulled over and not being able to prove my citizenship. As a last resort before deportation, I had to pull out Lil’ Willie as evidence that I was truly an American. This law brings us a new definition of “concealed carry.”
The backstory is that I was not born in a hospital, so I was not circumcised until after I was adopted, somewhere around age seven.
And, yes, I remember the surgery quite well, thank you.
Remembering is something I’ve always thought Jewish boys do. But then the latest I’ve heard is that the ids of circumcised males have been damaged and the memory of the pain is carried with them–subconsciously, of course–for the rest of their lives. That’s the latest, folks. Could this could go hand in hand with the pain-in-the-womb thing the pro-lifers are using?
If people would pay more attention to the things they say and do between birth and death, inside of worrying about the things before and after, this world might be a better place. I’m not holding my breath.
With the GOP making the determinations, you don’t have to wonder about women or members of the LGBT community, minorities, poor, old people — they’re worthless, of no concern to the GOP except as examples of who doesn’t belong.
See? Too many questions. Too many options, so I’m thinking the AZ officials haven’t even bothered to go there. 🙂
And just who is going to check out these men? Oh, the stories that are hatching in my brain. LOLOLOL
Do trannies get new birth certificates? You know, I’ve never given these things much thought. (And I don’t mean to be using ‘trannies’ in a derogatory way.) I know the mother of a male to female transsexual. My girls went to school with him. Another guy who was in #2 daughter’s class was apparently preparing for the surgery and was going by his “new” name, then…nothing. We have no idea what happened.
The Village Magician, he was there, he gave us all a laugh,
He pulled his foreskin over his head, and he vanished up his ass,
Singin’ balls to your partner, your ass against the wall,
If ya never been had on a Saturday night, ya never been had at all.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. The selection above was from, The Ball of Kerrymuir as sung by Jim Croce.
Canada to Trade Stephen Harper to US Republican Party
The country of Canada is sending Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the United States Republican Party for future considerations.
The trade will fill an immediate hole in the GOP’s leadership race, which, as it stands, is a cavalcade of grandstanding morons engaging in a daily carnival of ignorance and hypocrisy. Mr. Harper will bring some much needed gravitas to that race. He is a disciplined two-way player who has all the tools. He is authoritarian and secretive by nature. He is suspicious or contemptuous of democratic processes and evidence-based decision-making. His lips have sought out the rear end of every corporation in the land and formed a full-suction bond. Like most conservatives he’s demonstrated his fiscal bona fides by successfully managing a surplus into a deficit. He was one of only a handful of Canadians who was for the war in Iraq (and he’s fulfilled a boyhood dream by having a Canuck General lead the NATO kinetic military action in Libya). In five years, he’s turned Canada into a leader of the anti-environmentalism movement. He is a social visionary who has invested heavily in the prison system even in a time of reduced crime because he understands that the consequence of his policies will eventually increase crime by leaving most people no other option to make a decent living.
Most importantly for the GOP, Harper harkens back to a less psychotic Conservative voice. He offers a kind of blandly inoffensive and monotonously articulate public persona that doesn’t call attention to itself with overtly idiotic public performances. He won’t say he can see Russia from his backyard. He won’t go after Obama’s birth certificate. He’s had only one foreign policy position (WAR!) and one wife (and rumour is that he’s only had one “domestic policy position” with her – MISSIONARY!). Harper’s one weakness is that he lacks the authentic faux-populism of other great GOP leaders like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. When Harper sits down to play the piano or puts on a sweater or wears glasses he induces a bi-partisan gag-reflex and a national reverse peristaltic wave from Victoria, BC to St. John’s, Newfoundland. However, while many Canadians find his ideas range from amusingly distasteful to alarmingly repugnant, very few doubt whether he is actually sane. This may be useful to the Republican Party who could counter ridicule from the left by saying: “Harper may be evil, but he’s not stupid and he’s not crazy.” Donald Trump has recognized the usefulness of bringing Harper into the fold and has graciously offered to manufacture an American birth certificate for him while he is searching for Obama’s.
Canada is not looking for an immediate return on this trade, mostly because there are so few members of the current GOP who could even win a seat in rural Alberta. So, for now, the trade will be chalked up to foreign aid.
PrairiePopulistsAndProgressives.net 
This brought tears to my eyes. I’ll be thinking about it and what it means all day.
In the U.S., people would be screaming at him to get off the streets and get a job.
There but by the grace of God go I – that was something I was taught as a young child.
But you know more than that – I really do feel that our society has become so self absorbed, so self obsessed that we literally do not see anything or anyone around us.
There has been a cancer growing on our society for quite awhile. And now that it is fashionable and chic to be the Mr. Potters of the world and not the George Baileys – it will only become worse.
But isn’t it nice to know the Pentagon’s budget will be increased – even when they have not asked for that increase.
We live by the sword – we will die by the sword.
It’s the kind of thoughts and actions that make life worth living.
As you all know, recently I’ve had an extra helping of challenges to deal with and many days I haven’t dealt well at all. Poor 6176 always gets the brunt of me, at my worst, before I’ve done more than react and dial his number. Sorry, 6176, and thank you too.
Yesterday my Mother’s wise words came to me. I know I’ve shared them with you before and I feel glad to have remembered them again! They would have come in handy a few times during the last month.
“Young lady! You can just get glad in those same shoes you got mad in!”
I can take any situation and make it better or worse depending on ME and my attitude.
A co-worker had this saying on their computer screen for the longest time.
10 percent of what happens to me is life – the other 90 percent is how I react to that 10 percent.
.
I call it having a pity party
Even if you don’t like the article, you’ll grin at the picture! 🙂
9 Things The Rich Don’t Want You To Know About Taxes
http://www.wweek.com/portland/article-17350-9_things_the_rich_dont_want_you_to_know_about_taxes.html
The linked piece just provided hard numbers for what I’ve intuitively known for a substantial period of time. The author was a bit sloppy (the 50% maximum rate on earned income predated President Reagan by 10 years, for example, during the first Nixon administration). The points made are valid, nonetheless.
The debate is always income taxes at the federal and state levels, not the total tax burden as a percentage of income. The attempt to compare apples to apples (in the case of Germany) is the way the argument should be presented, i.e., what is the total cost of the bundle of services as a fraction of income, whether the government supplies all or the government supplies some and the individual supplies the remainder. Thus, my thought that not providing a single payer health “insurance” system harms, as opposed to helps, global competitiveness.
Time to get back to it.
Speaking of taxes……I am the one in the household that does tax returns and I have for years. It’s really not that difficult with the current tax prep software programs.
Anyway – my husband and I always try to manage to have our withheld taxes come out relatively close to the actual tax owed – so we are either a little short or a little over in the actual outcome when we do our tax returns.
this year we are a little short on both federal and state. When I told my husband the amounts – he said, at least we are the lucky ones that have it in our bank to pay it.
Since our kids are grown and married – we have very little tax deduction and/or credits to take off our income tax returns. So, in the case of this year where it is less $400 (counting both federal and state) still owed – I consider this a good year.
you see, I could be the one without a job, or having been unemployed for 99 weeks and called ‘lazy’ by those who obviously do not have to worry about money.
Would I prefer not to pay an additional $400 in taxes – Sure,…
But I also realize that life could be a whole lot worse and we take things for granted in the good ol USA.
And it takes money to have a country that cares about its citizens – ALL its citizens, not just those who have the money and want to keep all their money while taking away from those who do pay taxes.
Well, boys and girls – sermon is over…..
Now is the time for me to write my checks and send those tax returns on their merry way.
You did notice that I waited until the last few days before the filing date? I don’t mine paying taxes to live in this great country – but I am also a realist – I can hold onto my money until I actually have to pay it.
My momma didn’t raise a fool….
Well, indy, as today is some kind of holiday in D.C., as I understand it, the due date for both federal and Kansas returns is Monday (if you want three days more “float”). 🙂
Yes, I remembered that ….Washington DC is celebrating Emancipation Day a day earlier – which is why today is considered a tax holiday.
I’ll probably mail the paper returns tonight – I want to be sure and get that timely postmark. You see, my plan is that with a paper check – it will take longer to process it and it won’t be back until next Friday which is my payday.
Like I said – my momma did not raise a fool.
P.S. – why just think, when Republicans get their way and lay off thousands of IRS workers, the people will have it easy to NOT pay their taxes and get away with it for a long, long time.
But I still count myself lucky that we have the money in the bank for the additional taxes owed. I guess I could get a Paul Revere costume and staple some tea bags to my hat and go on some ranting and sreaming rallies…..
But, you know, reality is – if you want a good country, it takes money and that comes from its citizens.
Hey, the Govt holds onto its money, so why not hold onto yours down to the wire?
Truth Is Stranger Than Fiction: AZ Birther Law Requires Candidates “To Describe Penis”
This is what happens when you let the inmates run the asylum:
They don’t call Arizona the “meth lab of Democracy” for nothing — where else could a lack of foreskin prove citizenship?
The Arizona Senate formally passed the “Birther Bill” today, but not in its original version.
Apparently, requiring presidential candidates to provide a long-form birth certificate before allowing their names on the ballot in Arizona — despite it already being a federal requirement to run for president — was a bit too much for a few GOP lawmakers. So they made some amendments: if you can’t find your birth certificate, and you have a penis, a document describing your lack (of) foreskin will suffice.
A circumcision certificate — a document given to the parents of a male Jewish child after his foreskin is snipped off during a circumcision ceremony — is not a legal document (see an example of one here) but if you have one, under the amended bill, it’s apparently enough to prove you’re a U.S. citizen and your name can be permitted on the ballot in Arizona.
Pulling out your penis in front of election officials, however, will not prove citizenship — and, in the worst case scenario, could get labeled a sex offender.
Do I really need to be the one to tell them that Muslims males get circumcised too? Oy. I guess we need to root out all those stealthy Scandinavians planning to run for president.
You have to laugh, if only to keep from pulling all your hair out in the face of such stupidity.
http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/truth-stranger-fiction-az-birther-law
Why do you think the GOP has a preoccupation with genitals or areas of the reproductive parts of our bodies?
Wow – that may be a loaded question and one that our good friend Steven would be way more qualified to address.
My quess is this – because they have no life outside of being judgemental 24/7 or maybe they have that God’s right-hand-man syndrome.
You know, they will be the one next to God on Judgment Day telling God in which direction to throw those lightning bolts to send all of us heathens to Hell.
The more this birtherism movement gets media attention – the more Donald Trump and his flying monkeys will be relegated to the stature they deserve – to be the laughingstock of the world.
But you know, Trump let the cat out of the bag a few weeks back when he made the statement that there is something on Obama’s birth certificate that he does not want to be known.
In other words – he’s a secret Muslim?
This entire birterism nonsense is really not even about whether he was born in America or not – it is about his religion – is he a Muslim? Well, he does have that funny Muslim-sounding name, you know. And you know how those Muslims love to come to America and get themselves a white woman.
And isn’t that about the level of the sewer this birtherism is going?
I’ll beleive they are serious about the integrity of our elections when they make every white Republican male show his long-form birth certificate and also to investigate who his mother slept with. We can never be too careful, you know.
I just wonder how long this bill will be on the books (or will it even be enforfced) when the next white Republican makes it into the White House?
My youngest’s birth certificate does not have a place for “religion” to be noted. Now I admit that it’s the Certificate of Live Birth, complete with seal on the back, certifying that it is, indeed a legal paper, so it isn’t the “original,” whatever that is. That was 1989, so I suppose it’s possible that religion was dropped by that time. But my bc doesn’t list religion, either, and that was even before Obama was born. Neither birth certificate lists religion. Yes, I have two. I suppose that could mean that I was “born again.” 😉
The thing is, a child doesn’t officially have a religion until baptised. The parents can, but not the child. So all this b.s. is just that: B.S.. Not that any of the birthers care.
Mine doesn’t show religion, either. Does this mean I’m secretly a Muslim? /sarcasm
Dang, I had this vision of driving through Arizona, getting pulled over and not being able to prove my citizenship. As a last resort before deportation, I had to pull out Lil’ Willie as evidence that I was truly an American. This law brings us a new definition of “concealed carry.”
The backstory is that I was not born in a hospital, so I was not circumcised until after I was adopted, somewhere around age seven.
And, yes, I remember the surgery quite well, thank you.
During the Presidential Debates, do the candidates have to move out from behind the podium and ……………..
Ah, forget it. It’s just Arizona, the new Alabama.
Inquiring minds want to know: how do women prove their citizenship if a “long-form” birth certificate is not available?
Remembering is something I’ve always thought Jewish boys do. But then the latest I’ve heard is that the ids of circumcised males have been damaged and the memory of the pain is carried with them–subconsciously, of course–for the rest of their lives. That’s the latest, folks. Could this could go hand in hand with the pain-in-the-womb thing the pro-lifers are using?
If people would pay more attention to the things they say and do between birth and death, inside of worrying about the things before and after, this world might be a better place. I’m not holding my breath.
Women, 6176? What about transsexuals?
I am NOT going to share the questions that are coming to mind over that one. No way.
wicked, with or without surgery?
With the GOP making the determinations, you don’t have to wonder about women or members of the LGBT community, minorities, poor, old people — they’re worthless, of no concern to the GOP except as examples of who doesn’t belong.
See? Too many questions. Too many options, so I’m thinking the AZ officials haven’t even bothered to go there. 🙂
And just who is going to check out these men? Oh, the stories that are hatching in my brain. LOLOLOL
Do trannies get new birth certificates? You know, I’ve never given these things much thought. (And I don’t mean to be using ‘trannies’ in a derogatory way.) I know the mother of a male to female transsexual. My girls went to school with him. Another guy who was in #2 daughter’s class was apparently preparing for the surgery and was going by his “new” name, then…nothing. We have no idea what happened.
The Village Magician, he was there, he gave us all a laugh,
He pulled his foreskin over his head, and he vanished up his ass,
Singin’ balls to your partner, your ass against the wall,
If ya never been had on a Saturday night, ya never been had at all.
Sorry, couldn’t help myself. The selection above was from, The Ball of Kerrymuir as sung by Jim Croce.
We’re having fun today, glad you could add to it! 🙂
With the GOP around it’s so easy to find comedy… They’re actually a barrel of laughs.
Well, the current crop of GOP presidential wannabe’s are a bunch of circus clowns.
Thanks for that mental image!!
Canada to Trade Stephen Harper to US Republican Party
The country of Canada is sending Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the United States Republican Party for future considerations.
The trade will fill an immediate hole in the GOP’s leadership race, which, as it stands, is a cavalcade of grandstanding morons engaging in a daily carnival of ignorance and hypocrisy. Mr. Harper will bring some much needed gravitas to that race. He is a disciplined two-way player who has all the tools. He is authoritarian and secretive by nature. He is suspicious or contemptuous of democratic processes and evidence-based decision-making. His lips have sought out the rear end of every corporation in the land and formed a full-suction bond. Like most conservatives he’s demonstrated his fiscal bona fides by successfully managing a surplus into a deficit. He was one of only a handful of Canadians who was for the war in Iraq (and he’s fulfilled a boyhood dream by having a Canuck General lead the NATO kinetic military action in Libya). In five years, he’s turned Canada into a leader of the anti-environmentalism movement. He is a social visionary who has invested heavily in the prison system even in a time of reduced crime because he understands that the consequence of his policies will eventually increase crime by leaving most people no other option to make a decent living.
Most importantly for the GOP, Harper harkens back to a less psychotic Conservative voice. He offers a kind of blandly inoffensive and monotonously articulate public persona that doesn’t call attention to itself with overtly idiotic public performances. He won’t say he can see Russia from his backyard. He won’t go after Obama’s birth certificate. He’s had only one foreign policy position (WAR!) and one wife (and rumour is that he’s only had one “domestic policy position” with her – MISSIONARY!). Harper’s one weakness is that he lacks the authentic faux-populism of other great GOP leaders like George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. When Harper sits down to play the piano or puts on a sweater or wears glasses he induces a bi-partisan gag-reflex and a national reverse peristaltic wave from Victoria, BC to St. John’s, Newfoundland. However, while many Canadians find his ideas range from amusingly distasteful to alarmingly repugnant, very few doubt whether he is actually sane. This may be useful to the Republican Party who could counter ridicule from the left by saying: “Harper may be evil, but he’s not stupid and he’s not crazy.” Donald Trump has recognized the usefulness of bringing Harper into the fold and has graciously offered to manufacture an American birth certificate for him while he is searching for Obama’s.
Canada is not looking for an immediate return on this trade, mostly because there are so few members of the current GOP who could even win a seat in rural Alberta. So, for now, the trade will be chalked up to foreign aid.
http://manurelagoon.wordpress.com/2011/04/11/canada-to-trade-stephen-harper-to-us-republican-party/
I needed the chuckle. Thanks, fnord!