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Thursday, January 31, 2008

a lighter note

On a lighter note, I started reading the LL Cool J book yesterday and I just can't put it down. He really went through some stuff when he was growing up.

R.i.P. Harold "Mutt" Milhoan

Mom just told me tonight that Mutt passed away this morning. He had been battling health problems for a while and finally succumbed at the age of 92. He was an elder in the church I grew up in and whenever I think of an elder he will definetly be the first one who come to mind. I remember when I was just starting in adult church and every Sunday when he would have the communion pray he would say, "I was watching Bob Hope last night and when he was on stage everyone would give him a standing ovation, and think it is only right that we should give Jesus a standing ovation as we gather around this table." Every Sunday I think back to that because now everyone who prays just asks people to 'please stand for communion pray' but I bet there are a lot of people who are there that don't remember or never new what it was like before he changed how we worshipped during communion time. He was also a neighbor and I will attend the funeral on Saturday. He and Mildred had the same anniversery as me and Sophie. My deepest heart felt sympathies go out to the Milhoan family, sorry for your loss.

Farewell Aunt Emmy

It has been a rough week for our family, on Saturday we lost our Aunt Emmy. She was Sophie's great aunt and she was actually more like a grandmother to her. It was a small funeral on Wednesday and I was a paul bearer, which I was proud to do as I loved Aunt Emmy as well. She was a 20 year survivor of breast cancer, but in the last two months she had slid from remission in to a cancerous state again. She went into the hospital in December, and she never really came back. It is horrible to watch someone go through what she went through. The last time I saw her was right after Christmas and Sophie and gone to see her at least ever week while she was being moved around from the hospital to a nursing facility. They started to give her chemo again, but after they started she experienced a fairly swift decline. Her memory was slipping a little bit at the end of the year, but she still had that spunky aunt Emmy side that would come out and tell you how it was. Sophie said towards the end she was a lot less talkative and that final Saturday Sophie and her mom spent most of the day with her before we had to go to a birthday party. Needless to say we didn't feel much like a party, buy it was relatives from the other side of her family, so they really weren't experiencing the same thing. After the party we got 'the call' that she had passed. We were very sad, because aunt Emmy was always full of life and the kids really loved her. Sophie has pictures of her and Sampson putting puzzles together, that is what they did when she came to stay, they worked on puzzles. The kids didn't go to the funeral and it was a good idea because there weren't many people there and it was during the week and they didn't really understand. I feel bad that they never really got to see her, to kind of give her a good-bye, but when we broke the news to Sampson he really didn't understand. I think he kind of understands death, but how do you really explain that type of stuff to a 5 year old. My mom came to stay with them during Tuesday visitation and the service on Wednesday and someday when they want to say good-bye I will take them to the cemetary so they can say farewell. Farewell Aunt Emmy may you rest in peace, you will be missed.

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Thompson Out

Fred Thompson dropped out today, and I say right now that Mitt is the leader. The Media seems to be pushing McCain, but the battle will start in Florida when Rudy enters the race. I still think he waited too long, but as long as people keep dropping out he has a shot. What it depends on now is where people go after their candidate is out. I think Huck's about done, he is pulling out of Florida, which is a good idea. When the state is divided 3-ways it is hard to fight up from fourth and is probably better to let those 3 fight it out for the win while he gets an early start on Super Tuesday states. That will probably be Huck's last stand, but I still feel the general election will fall on the V.P.'s and not so much the nominees. Fred get ready to hit the road again, President your not, but maybe V.P. We shall see. I heard Hillary might select Even Biegh (sp?). Which could really hurt if she gets the nomination, but because of the rift between her and Obama now, I really don't think she could possibly pick him. Stranger things have happened though....

Fed Steps in Again

Well the Fed stepped in (it) again and lowered interest rates by 3 quarters of point, and at the meeting at the end of the month they are expecting them to lower the rate by another half. There is some debate on whether it is good or not, but I read an article that said what they are doing is reminiscent of what happened in the late 70's. High oil, continuously lowering the rate and then everything finally caught up in the early 80's and caused double digit inflation. And then a recession. Basically right now all they are trying to do is avoid a recession, but lowering the rate might not be the best answer. I think we are still suffering from what they did in 2001 right after 9/11 and they lowered the rate by a half point the next day. We are just prolonging the inevitable and eventually someone is going to have to man up and take the hit like Reagan did. Hey maybe Hillary will. . . (man up that is). Doubtful, she doesn't seem to do to well with confrontation. Hey if you can hang on until the market fully bottoms out, and you have a little cash left, you could pull some sweet financing deals. You know provided there are still jobs and what not.

Sampson the computer Guru

Sampson has really taken to the computer lately. He is addicted to Mahjong, just like his Maw and last night he made his first board. I made one called 'Whatchamacallit' and it is dang near impossible. Sampson's was pretty easy he named it "Sampson" because that's all he can type. We finally got his Webkinz on the internet too. It is a real stuffed animal and it has its own virtual identity with a room and you can buy it stuff like food or furniture. It is pure genius and it will probably cost me a lot of money in the end, but it is pretty neat. The web features come free with the toy, and you earn Webkinz money by playing games and basically spending all your time on the internet. But then you gotta feed it and stuff and take care of it and if you don't it will die and you get kicked out of Webkinz World. Or something to the that effect. Well I better hurry he wants to show what all he got today and I want to play too. Did I mention Sampson is 5 and a half. I remember reading an article when Sampson was little about a woman teaching her two year old how to get on the internet, but the kid would only connect to the internet and go to one place and play one game. I have tried to limit Sampson's early exposure to the computer so it didn't seem like some parlor trick when he wanted to use it and he would actually be able to do something once he got on there. Of course doing something can sometimes mean wiping out the memory on the Mahjong game, but he does pretty good. He also has computer lab at school. Which seems crazy because I don't think I saw a computer at school until I was in 5th grade or so and even then it was mostly just for games. It is definitely something you need to be able to do now though, even in pre-school I guess.

Saturday, January 19, 2008

Sophie's Dr. Visit

Well we went to the doctor yesterday morning for Sophie's neck and everything was OK. He told her he didn't need to see her for another year, so the thing on her neck must not worry him to much. He said he could go in and take it out, but it would be a real bloody mess and then he would have to fuse vertebrates in her neck afterwards and it really wasn't worth the risk and we agreed. So to help her back he suggested she do some McKenzie exercises. He said they look kind of "lude" like you were trying out for an adult film, but would help with the flexibility in her back. So I already reserved two books at the library for her, you know to help her back. Also doing stuff online with the library is awesome. I can sit in my PJ's and reserve everything from books about backs and LL Cool J, to CD's and even new release movies. And the best part is it is all free!! I have to say public libraries are probably one of the most underutilized services out there, which is unfortunate because of their awesomeness. At least Drew Carey understands.

Monday, January 14, 2008

Happy Birthday

Happy 40th Birthday LL Cool J.

Today is his birthday 1/14.

COLTS LOSE COLTS LOSE!

Well that outa teach 'em to not throw the game in the last week of the season. See if they would have beat the Titans, then Cleveland would have played San Diego. Cleveland would have won and then played the Cheatriots and the Colts would have played the Jags which they had beaten already and Cleveland would have rooted for the Colts, and they would have won and Cleveland would have avenged an earlier defeat and played the colts in the AFC Championship. Indy would have won and Manning Bowl I would have taken place, but now it is going to be Favre vs. Brady and in an ultimate farewell act Favre and the Packers win the Super Bowl and Bret wins the MVP. Well at least the Colts.

Power outage of aught eight

It was terrible, no computer, no t.v., no playstation, no books. Oh wait we had books and it was before noon so there was still light. So we played, wrestled around, threw the football, played cards. But let me tell you two more hours and we would have been tearing the legs off of chairs and using them to build a fire in the middle of the living room. Or at least we would of packed up for the night and headed towards Mom's.

Saturday, January 12, 2008

Republican Debates

Well the focus group in South Carolina afterwards thought that Fred Thompson was the winner and then they had a text vote and Ron Paul was winning by like 12%. I have some reservations about that vote though, as it was probably a bunch of liberals or something just voting for who they thought was the worst candidate. Anyway, I only caught a little bit of it an then the last 1/2 hour. I thought Mitt didn't look too bad, and my only concern with Thompson is the lack of a serious record - long term record. He was only a senator for 8 years and I am not voting for a senator, who hasn't even completed 2 terms, for President. Which leaves Ron Paul completely out because he was only a Rep. in Texas. I think you have to at least manage a state or be a senator for a while before you can be president. Which basically rules out all of the Democrats for me, Barrack, Hillary and John Edwards have only achieved Junior Senator status. The only trump card is that Hillary has spent 8 years 'around' the White House, but I question how much impact she had in the decision making process. I think we all know Bill was quite capable of going out on his own ;-). Then you look at Rudy and he was the Mayor of New York which has a larger population than most states, but my problems with Rudy are that he is Pro-choice and that his private life has kind of been in turmoil since he was elected mayor. He hasn't kept in touch with his son and he got divorced and stuff and it just seems like if you want to be president and run the country you have to first be able to run your own life (during this point in the blog there was a power outage so I kind of lost my train of thought). Well tomorrow is Michigan and the Media says that 'Romney has to win or else', but he did already win one state... 5 points to anyone with the correct answer. . . it was Wyoming. Not many delegates, but he is in the point lead now. I think Michigan will be between Mitt and John and South Carolina will go about the same way with maybe Thompson getting a little more recognition in the South. Rudi will come in towards the back of the pack in both states, but the way things are shaping up if Rudi doesn't win Florida he could be out by Super Tuesday. And I think Romney would stand to pick up more of the support than McCain. Once Huck goes out maybe after Florida, Mitt has a better shot. I kind of think that is how it is going to end up, sort of like the last two elections where you just vote for the person you hate the least. My real feeling though is that the general election will come down to the choice of V.P.'s for both of the primary winners. Well that is enough about this already it is only January!!!

Monday, January 07, 2008

why the fair tax won't work in America

This will become a pretty big topic as the election nears and I was kind of on the fence about it before, but now I don't think there is any real benefit. There are some benefits to the fair tax in that it would eliminate the problems with getting paid under the table or taking cash for services. Taking cash at work or an illegal alien it does not matter how you get the money it will only matter that you spend it. It could also eliminate the death tax by having people "work" for you and paying them their inheritance over a 1 week period. Say you have a $4 million dollar estate and you want to give to someone, just have them "work" for you for 2 days at the rate of $2 million per day. Plus it would get rid of the IRS.
The problems are that the infrastructure of the United States is supported by the current tax system and no matter how cumbersome it seems, with automation the process is getting simpler. Also if there is a wholesale change the actual revenue that is going to generated won't actually be known until the system is in place. I think you'll see people start buying things under the table, at local farms for food or some smaller stores that will sell you stuff with a wink and smile for a little cash. Hey, why pay the government 30% when you can just pay the vendor 10% extra and just walk out. The problems arise in that who is going to audit these vendors. People follow the rules now, for the most part, because they don't want to be audited and they fear the current system. By switching tax structures without any infrastructure to support it is like tearing down a steel bridge and replacing in with Popsicle sticks. Sure it sounds like it will work and it looks like it will work, but when it has to actually support something it will fall apart because the inner workings are too weak. Plus if the government is thinking that just upping the price of things 30% won't cause people to think twice about doing stuff, they are wrong. An extra dollar for a gallon of milk, we'll be drinking water thank you very much. Also you have to figure that the government has plugged all the variables into some little formula to spit out 30% as the number needed to replace all of the current income generated under the current system, which in all likelihood means they would need 70%. See if someone is making $10 million a year currently they would be paying in $3 million, but if you go to the fair tax they would have to spend all $10 million to get the same money. If they can "survive" by spending only a million dollars (plus 30%) then they get an extra 2.7 million that would have gone to the government. Sure eventually the money would get spent, but what if they buy their yacht from a foreign entity and have their car imported then what happens. Do you lower the tax on luxury item to keep people from buying them abroad? Then we are right back to the "unfair" tax system we have now. I think the only way you could implement the tax system is in stages. The first year is 2/3 income tax 1/3 federal sales tax, then 1/3 income tax then 2/3 sales tax, and then in the third year you go 100% sales tax. Provided that the first year shows you can actually pay for all of the programs you have if you increase the sales tax to 30%. If the first year shows that you would need a 40% sales tax then forget it and revert back to the old system. Also think of the people that would be out of work - All the IRS folks (although you are going to need someone to keep the new system in check), the people at H&R block, and all those people who work on the tax codes and developing software and stuff. I think the first step is to eliminate all of the state income taxes, some states already have eliminated it or never had income tax in the first place, and replace it with a state sales tax. Then you could work an overall tax and the state would get a certain percent and the federal government would get the rest.

Anyway I don't think the tax would work now, but maybe in a few years, but like I said it is going to have to be a real gradual change. Anyone who thinks they can just come in and have the system up and running in a year is making a huge mistake. The first thing we need to do is get the federal interest rate back up, then we can talk about changing the infrastructure. Right now the fed can't handle a huge upset, it is still struggling from 9/11 and the latest subprime bail out. Right now the low fed rate is falsely floating the economy but it isn't encouraging any real growth. The paybacks are low, and money is changing hands, but not in a real fruitful way, That is why the dollar is suffering so much and oil is over $100 a barrel. That's enough for tonight time to go watch the game and see who loses.

The Big Game

Well tonight is the big championship game #1 OSU vs. #2 LSU. I just wanted to say before the game who I though was going to win and barring some miracle four turnover game I think the tigers are going to win. I just don't think that Ohio played a strong enough schedule to be number one and I really don't see the scenario where they win other than LSU just giving the game away. Ohio is like Hawaii East, their strength of schedule was in the 60's, LSU in the 30's plus a extra conference game against a top 15 team. The toughest team Ohio played was #13 Illinois and they lost at home, LSU played Virginia Tech (which was #3 or #4 before being dismantled by Kansas) and beat them by what 30 or something. LSU also beat Florida and Tennessee and Auburn. Also this is like a home game for LSU and anyone who knows these schools know they are the center of their respective state, this would be like Ohio playing in Cleveland for the Championship. The other thing is that LSU lost 2 games, but in took 6 overtimes and 1 missed 2 point conversions. They're essential a touch down and a 2-point conversions from being 13-0. I think Tressel is good at game planning, but if he is off he is usually way off and they get beat bad. They gotta blitz, run the ball, keep the time of possession and go for it on 4th and short a couple of times. Don't be reckless, but if you are in LSU territory go for it, and keep the ball away from Holliday. I think that Perrilloux will take 20%-50% of the snaps and the game will be determined by how well OSU can contain him. Unless LSU turns the ball over a bunch I think they'll win. Sorry Ohio fans. But if Ohio wins then I'll delete all of this tomorrow.

Friday, January 04, 2008

2007 Bowl Season

Well this bowl season is about over and the best game so far has been the WVU game. Congrats to a team that was in turmoil without a coach, facing a team that didn't want to play them because they weren't good enough and they still whooped Oklahoma by 20. Both the Big 12 and ACC champs lost, and the Big East won. I think the Big East is the second best conference behind the SEC and the PAC 10 or Big 12 third, then the ACC then the BIG 10. Anyway I'm convinced that there will never be a playoff because of the Rose Bowl and the pigheaded Big Ten and Pac Ten. The only hope for any type of settling the championship on the field is the plus 1 game where the bowl games get played and then they either take another poll or seed the teams before you start, but as long as 1 doesn't play 2 in the first round then it really shouldn't matter. They argue that their can't be a playoff because of finals and stuff, which is totally bogus because the lower divisions have a playoff and they still attend class. Then they argue that it would take away from the regular season, because now Ohio State fans watched a WVU game or a Kansas game or something and before they would have never cared. I agree, but the last game of the season is usually a rivalry and anyone can win, unless Lou Holtz gives them a pep talk (that is the kiss of death for any team, ask Kansas), and people are interested because of the history and if teams have a good record and are playing for perfection then more people are gonna watch then normal anyway. If they just adopt the 'every conference gets a conference championship game' then that will solve most of the controversy.

President Sophie

Well Sophie doesn't think any of these candidates are any good. 'they're all liars'

President Huckabee - Crazy blogger say 'what'

Well the first part is in reference to Huckabee winning Iowa in the caucuses, or cauci whatever the plural form is, last night, and the second part is a Hanna Montana reference. Obama won on the democratic side, and why wouldn't he. They got all them corn stalks out there and you know they got a little reefer hiding amongst all that corn somewhere. Now I'm not saying that Iowa has a bunch of pot heads or anything, but there are at least 22% of people on the democratic side that are racist women haters. I mean how else do you explain John Edwards getting 22% of the vote. Anyway, I don't think this primary is the telling tale of what will happen, and Huck should enjoy this one for 4 more days until New Hampshire where the Republican primary is going to turn course. I think it was easier for him to get around the state, press the flesh and kind of do the anti-Rudy thing and focus on the early states, but I think he is going to run out of time during the next set of primaries. I think the other candidates have done more in other states that will wipe out the early advantage and come super Tuesday it is likely to see him slide back into that second tier. Iowa is like a marathon, there is lots of time leading up to it and you can hit all the big spots and really get your message out, but the rest of the primaries are like a sprint and it is one here one there until super Tuesday in February. I don't think Huck will win, but I don't think Rudy's strategy of waiting until the big states is going to pay off either. He wasn't even in the top 5 at Iowa and Huck and Mitt are gonna ride the wave of free press until they get to super Tuesday. By that point Rudy may be an after thought and even if he does win the nomination, he could lose a lot of states in the general election because he didn't want anything to do with them in the primary. I could be wrong, but I think you have to at least show up to the state where the primary is being held when they are this spread out time wise. By not showing up at Iowa and probably not New Hampshire he is going to lose a lot of steam and some people are going to start questioning whether he really wants the nomination or not. I think this strategy is going to backfire big time, but if it doesn't then no one will campaign in Iowa again. You know unless they like reefer and stuff.

Hey somebody check one of those corn fields for Tom Tancredo, whatever happened to that guy.