April 2004 Archives

After thinking about it, I really want to do something big this summer. I have a job with Sports-Arts for 5 or 6 weeks, leaving me a lot of time to do something like travel. I really want to drive out west, see the Grand Canyon, go to Las Vegas, see some of California, visit Texas and see the Great Plains. That or go to Ireland. After evaluating my American travel experience, I've decided that there are a bunch of states that I still want to see but never have. Now only if I had a girlfriend with a driver’s license... Well I guess I still have a few months to look for one. Unless once I find one with a driver's license, she decides that she would rather go to Ireland than see the Grand Canyon. I have been to Ireland, and let me tell you, it ain't no grand canyon. If you do not know what I am talking about, just ignore it. Why go to a second-world European island nation when we could go and see one of the seven wonders of the world (I think it is one, isn't it?) created by God 6,000 years ago and carved out by God's genocidal flood which Noah and his family survived (duh!). So I'll put it to a comment vote. Those who favor a three-week road trip with camping and sleeping in the car can vote 'road trip!' and those who oppose this wonderful idea can vote 'Ireland'.

Ready? [Vote!]

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I've also visited all of these states, and I hope to get to the rest of them soon enough. See previous posting for information on how to make your own map.

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Found a neat site, thought I'd share where I've been. Hope to visit many more, so far I've been to 6% of all of the nations of the world, which is pretty good for someone who is only 21. If you want to do this yourself, go to [www.world66.com]. Enjoy!

I am reading the most interesting book called Perfectly Legal, written by NYT Tax Correspondent David Cay Johnston. It basically looks at how messed up the tax system is in the US, and how there are all these tax laws that help the ultra-rich get out of paying taxes and the middle class is the group who gets footed the bill. There was actually a law passed by (the Republican) Congress in 1997 that stopped the IRS from conducting audits based on lifestyles. They cannot audit somebody who reports a middle-class income on their taxes but has their own private jet. Think about it, who really benefits from this law? The person who actually makes a middle-class wage and cannot afford a private jet? Alternatively, does it help drug dealers, the mafia and other tax cheats? What about people who make a ton of money but only deal in cash that the IRS cannot easily trace, like strip-club owners. Now the IRS legally cannot audit a person because their assets are worth far more than their reported income.

Then there is the Bush tax cut, and I do not even want to get started on those. While on paper it may seem like the rich are paying a larger share of their income in taxes, but it is clearly not the case. With all sorts of deductions and loopholes, the American tax system is not progressive (as it should be); it is more of a flat tax, if not regressive.

I cannot wait to get to the part about the estate tax; that should be interesting to see how many Americans oppose a tax that will NEVER affect them (unless they suddenly become worth millions of dollars). I will write more as I learn more.

I just saw this quote, and everything fell into place...

"We've gone through tough times," said the author's husband, Jerry Bruckheimer, who's tight with the Pentagon after producing "Black Hawk Down" and "Top Gun." "But eventually we'll realize that we did the right thing by removing a brutal dictator. I know I'm in the minority, but I like Bush."
-- From an 11 April 2004 New York Daily News piece [Link]

If you didn't know, Bruckheimer is the man that continues to ruin summer movies. Bad Boys II, he produced that. Pearl Harbor, that too. Armageddon, yep. Remember the Titans, yes, even Disney's take on civil rights.

I think we all know that girl from Madison wasn't exactly kidnapped, and she wasn't exactly the brightest bulb, because the way she faked it was poorly done. Leave it to the good people of Fark to find the perp though...

When my battery died a couple weeks ago (after I left my lights on while going to a 'double feature' at the Oakwood) the radio has this stupid anti-theft code. My car is 12 years old, and the radio and speakers really are a POS. So I thought it would be simple enough to just look up what the code was or how to figure it out. There was one website on the whole internet that actually dealt with my question, and all they did was suggest that you call Hyundai. What's the point of the internet if you have to call someone to answer a question. So I called them up, they were very friendly and I didn't even have to wait on hold. I had to press a bunch of buttons to give her the code thing and then she told me what to type in. All in all it went well.

I'm supposed to be typing my Hobbes paper right now, talking about what he would think about the new Iraqi constitution, and I think the paper should be interesting. I really like Hobbes, he was very smart and I like the way his logic works. I think the one sentence summary that we get of the great political philosophers hardly do them justice at all. Here they are: Machiavelli said the ends justify the means (he never actually used this phrase, it was 'What the act accuses, the end excuses' and that was , Hobbes said humans are inherently bad and Locke said they're inherently good. What they don't say is that Machiavelli was very playful and The Prince is very misleading. Hobbes may have a dim view of humanity, but it is his reasoning that is the foundation for Liberalism today. I haven't read Locke yet, but I'm willing to bet that there is more to his philosophy than just that. Well, I may write more aboput him later.