Anna Nicole Smith RIP

In a shocker for every dead pool out there, Anna Nicole Smith died today.

While I would like to be solemn about the ending of one's life, the fact is, Smith represented every thing that's wrong with our culture today. It's all about celebrity over substance; consumption over contribution; exhibition over class.

It's not ironic that she had to buy her only redeeming quality.

Unlike Hendrix, Joplin, Monroe, & Dean she was famous for simply being famous.

When someone like Smith dies, it always has me remember Princess Diana and Mother Teresa who died within months of each other.

Who had happier more fulfilling life? I would bet that on her death bed, Mother Teresa had a much more sense of peace, purpose, and accomplishment with a life spent surrounded by the worst poverty and squalor in the world, as opposed to Diana, who lived what most would think was a fairy tail of wealth and glamor.

I usually opt not to acknowledge people like Smith, T.O., O.J., Pete Rose, Bob Huggins, The Clintons, etc. because that's what they crave, the spotlight. They are the worst of the narcissists.

But maybe someone reading this blog today will get the message that the quality of your life will always be measured by what you give... not what you get. If one person gets that from her death, then Smith will not have died in vain.

iPod Ban?

The Nanny State rears it's ugly head again... in New York, of all places.

First it was cell phones in cars, then trans fats. Now, a new plan is on the table to ban gadget use while crossing city streets.

If you use them in the crosswalk, your favorite electronic devices could be in the crosshairs. Legislation will be introduced in Albany on Wednesday to lay a $100 fine on pedestrians succumbing to what State Sen. Carl Kruger calls iPod oblivion.

Bill Banning iPods

Freedom of the Press?

Many are probably unfamiliar with Josh Wolf, a San Francisco blogger who defied a court order to turn over a video of a demonstration in the city.

He now holds the dubious distinction of being jailed longer than any other journalist in history.

While libs want to hold up the constitution and scream "freedom of the press", the constitution never said that freedom of the press included immunity from court orders or immunity from government secrecy or treason laws. The freedom of the press was written into the constitution so that people could be critical of the government without being jailed... not the case here.

I'm against shield laws because it gives immunity to "journalists" above and beyond what the common citizen would get. I'm also against whistle blower immunity as well for the same reason.

Here's a concept for Mr. Wolf, turn over the tape or enjoy your bologna sandwiches.

Driving in snow

The drive in was good for me the roads seemed pretty clear in Maineville & Loveland

Of course the evening was complete with listening to "Cincinnatians don't know how to drive in the snow" from my NE Ohio girlfriend.

This is the thing I always point out to people. Their recollection of people driving in bad weather was 20-30 years ago when people drove with studded snow tires and chains on their tires. You can clean up a road pretty quick when people are chewing it up with those babies.

Unfortunately, these are now illegal. So we're forced to drive in this crap with all weather radials.

Anyway, it was 5 degrees coming in this morning. I'm still waiting on my damn global warming.

Cincinnati snow jobs

My drive in to downtown Cincinnati wasn't too bad this morning, Clermont Co, Montgomery, Loveland, etc., have done a great job.... but then I passed the Welcome to the City of Cincinnati sign near Norwood. From that point on into the city, the roads looked like they had never been plowed. I guess they're hoping the snow will melt off the highways? Or maybe the snow plow drivers left early with the rest of the city yesterday afternoon? Glad to see they're putting the 2.1% of my income they take to good use. Keep up the good work guys!

Time to toughen up!

What's happened to us? We can't handle a little snow and cold?

I always said I'd never start a sentence with the words "When I was a kid...", but I'm going to anyway. When I was a kid... I remember standing outside waiting for the bus with my ears feeling like they were going to fall off, my feet numb and the boogers in my nose frozen solid.

I'm no fan of the cold, I'd much rather be in St. Thomas right now. But even after all the "global warming" of the past couple decades, schools shutdown for an inch of snow or the sniffles and people head for their bunkers when the weather starts acting like it should in Ohio during February. And it's pretty obvious we don't have the guts to win a war anymore. There's too many wimps, sissies and cowards in charge these days.

Where's John Wayne (or John Galt)?

Naga RIP

My favorite animal at the Cincinnati Zoo died yesterday.

Naga, a 9 foot Komodo Dragon passed away of an abdominal infection. He was every bit the "hero" that Barbaro was. Let's hope the NY Times reports his life in the same manner.

By the way, it's 4 degrees outside, where the hell is my global warming? With Global Warming, lads like Naga could make Canada part of their habitation.

Mexican Tortilla Shortage

For those who love to help out the global warming alarmists by purchasing ethanol, please note, you may be starving a Mexican.

Why would that be? Because the US has increased production of ethanol brought on by more state requirements, the price of corn has shot up tremendously. As a result, tortillas, a staple in poor Mexican diets have become increasing expensive. So much so there are now riots in Mexico City protesting the prices of tortillas.

To make matters worse, it actually takes more energy to produce ethanol than we get from the use of the fuel. A scientist at Cal Berkeley (not exactly a conservative hot bed) has produced a study reporting the disparity.

It is now 5 degrees outside, where the hell is my global warming?

Question answer

My question last week regarding a family making a $120,000/yr.

First, note that this familial income puts you in the top 10% of all household incomes in the country. Congratulations, you are rich. So when some clown running for office talks about tax cuts for the rich they are talking about you.

Here's the tax breakdown

Federal tax $15,009
FICA tax $7,440
Medicare tax $1,740
State of Ohio tax $4,797
City of Cincinnati $2,520
Real estate taxes $3,000
Sales tax $1,192 ( per IRS table )
Total taxes paid $35,698

We now have $84,302 remaining which stills sounds like a lot but let's back out a mortgage of $2,200 a month, utilities & phone of $400.00/month, insurance $50.00/mo. a couple of car payments $800.00/mo., auto insurance $100.00/ month. groceries $700/month.

You now have $51,000 in annual expenses related just to home and car.

That leaves you with $33,302 to pay for retirement (401k), soccer fees, vacations, gas and oil, repairs & maintenance (car and home), cable, entertainment, clothing, appliances, day care/school tuition, gifts etc, etc, etc.

So in my mind if someone says "it's a tax cut for the rich" my response is "it's about damn time".

Da Bears

Rex Grossman sucks. The only thing keeping his quarterback rating above 0.0 is the fact there is no factor for fumbled snaps in the equation. To be an NFL quarterback it's assumed you can do that.

Maybe next year.

By the way, where the hell is that global warming.... it was -1 when I came into work today.

go Bears

I couldn't agree with Midas's post more on the boorishness of the Super Bowl (all rights reserved) pre game.

Regardless, By ten o'clock I expect to be doin' the Super Bowl Shuffle.

Of course this coming from the same guy that predicted the GOP would keep the House....

Super Bowel

Well, it's finally time for the Super Bowl (am I allowed to say "Super Bowl" or do I have to use the phrase "The Big Game"?). After two weeks of hype and endless analysis from the idiots at ESPN, it's finally time to actually play a football game. Let's just pray that it's a good game.

If I (Midas) could make some changes, I'd do the following:
1. Play the game on Saturday instead of Sunday.
2. Have only 1 week after the AFC and NFC championship games.
3. Blackout ESPN for the week leading up to the game.
4. Ban the lame and painfully long half-time shows.

The Super Bowl might be the greatest spectacle in sports. Good and bad.

The good?

It’s a day for football. It’s a day for friends and family. It’s a day to eat, drink and be merry. Maybe we should follow the lead of a few people who are lobbying to turn the day into a national holiday. Come on, would you really miss Presidents Day if we replaced it with Super Bowl Day?

The bad?

It’s one of the most disgusting displays of excess in sports. We’ve come to accept the hype that surrounds the game, but should we have to put up with the lunacy, blatant commercialism and hypocrisy it attracts?

Rick Taylor: It’s the underbelly of the Super Bowl that rubs me raw this week.

What Constitution?

"There they go again. House Democrats should at least provide variety in their venality. Last Wednesday, fresh from legislating new ethics regarding relations with lobbyists, they demonstrated that there are worse forms of corruption than those involving martinis and money.

They again voted to give the delegates to the House from Guam, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands and the District of Columbia, and the resident commissioner from Puerto Rico, the right to vote in the House when it is sitting as the "Committee of the Whole,'' which is how it sits almost all the time. It is in that status that almost all debate about and amending of legislation occur."

George Will: Voting Rights Chicanery

roads, police, fire

Here's an unbelievable story about the use of city funds. The young lady at the right has received over $350,000 for a job she has never done.

Daryl Parks of WLW fame has the complete story on his blog.

Money quote "I am not able to get the wheels of justice to move without your powerful assistance and attention. I am in need of your help to correct these injustices..."

police, fire, roads!!!!!!

Socialized medicine

I had a copy of the US Constitution out the other day ( I actually keep a copy in my car if you ever want to challenge me ) and it's funny... I never saw an article in there saying that US citizens had a right to "health care".

There's freedom of speech, right to bear arms, the right to not self incriminate, right to assemble, the right not to be exposed to double jeopardy but I cannot find that right to health care anywhere in the text. The Founding Fathers appeared to be pretty thorough after all, you cannot be convicted of a ex-post facto law.

But maybe they were not that smart. In my mind, here's a list of the most important things people need for survival

Water
Food
Shelter
Heat

So before we socialize medicine shouldn't we make sure everyone has these things first. Why should we pay for water (usually sold by the government no less) when it's an essential element of life. You know why the government doesn't provide it for free? Because they know we'll pay for it and we'll pay for it before beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, etc. and if we don't, they'll be out in our front yard to turn it off.

Next to global warming, the right to health care is the biggest joke around. The reason most people are not insured? Because they don't see it as an essential cost to live. I know from my own personal experience, when financial times got tough, the health insurance was one of the first things to go. You know what didn't go? Beer. I could have paid for my health insurance out of my monthly beer consumption but I saw beer as a larger need for myself than health care.

So before you go socializing health care, make sure that every man woman and child has their beer consumption covered.

Hillary for Prez

Hilary loves the oil companies. So much so she wants to take all their profits and "put those profits into a strategic energy fund".

I've got an idea for Hilary, how about all her buddies buy Exxon/Mobil and they can take all the profits and re invest in all the alternative fuel sources their hearts desire.

The whole thing would be laughable if we weren't witnessing more and more people thinking it's OK to steal or use someone else's property for some "benevolent" cause.

Let's eliminate smoking by not allowing your private businesses to have smoking areas. Let's confiscate that income you earn and use it for someone's health care. Let's take your home
and give it to a developer who'll put real nice condo's on the land.

Of course, "you" never have to worry about that because it all someone else's stuff you have no interest in.

They came for the Jews and I said nothing because I wasn't Jewish.......

LA musings

LOS ANGELES -- Out here in LA it's amazing how often cars and taxis are used. One would think that in a city that's known for it's environmental activist, people would be more "green" when it comes to their transportation of choice.

Ironically, a recent UCLA report found that "the Hollywood/LA film and television industry emits a whopping 140,000 tons a year of ozone and diesel particulate pollutant emissions from trucks, generators, special effects earthquakes and fires, demolition of sets with dynamite and other sources. "

I wished I'd had a camera with me on Monday when I walked by a black Hummer with the following license plate: 7 MPG. Parked right next to it, in it's shadows, was a Toyota Prias. Only in LA...

Married taxes

A couple of months ago, I threw out the challenge to tell me how much a single guy making a million would pay in taxes. Today, I throw out the challenge for a married couple.

Assume a married couple with two kids (ages 10 & 11), both work making $60,000/yr, they have $8,000/ a year in mortgage interest ( $123,000 x 6.5%) with $3,000 a year in real estate taxes.

Assuming no 401k contributions or other investment income

How much do they pay in all collective taxes?

Ohio Tax Commissioner

I've been to several conferences where representatives from the Ohio Dept. of Taxation have presented.

It has always bothered me that more often than not these representatives speak as advocates for higher taxes/increased budgets for the state.

I remember one quote from a rep when she said "I don't know how the state will be able to function if a sales tax repeal is passed".

My response..... IT'S NOT YOUR JOB TO WORRY ABOUT THAT!!!!

This is why we elect representatives, senators and governors....... this is their job.

The Ohio Dept of Taxation's sole job should be to collect the tax as outlined in the tax code by our elected officials, they should not be in the business of lobbying pro or con anything in the tax code unless those elected officials need their input related to the ability of the department to collect the various state taxes.

Here's the commissioner's comments about tax reform for the state.

There's another 10 jobs to the state of Kentucky

Jon Cary nevr stoppes

To think we were only one state away from this guy being president. Thank God the GOP stole Ohio.