They Want to Tax What?!!

Charles Durning in the "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas."

HAHAHA. How hard up for money do you think they are? Creative writing, I mean law writing, is going at on our state legislatures. They are floating ideas that really should be on the Colbert show or Jon Stewart.

The New York Times had an article on Struggling States to Look at Unorthodox Taxes. One of our very own, California Assemblyman Tom Ammiano wants to tax pot. You know, the illegal stuff. He says, and I quote, "We're all jonesing for money, and there's this enormous industry out there." I don't know where to begin on the whole pathetic quote. Jonesing? Puhleeze. Does he have a stash somewhere? Rolling papers? Bong and hookah pipe in his top desk drawer? Enormous industry? I wonder how enormous it would be once it is legal? I am for legalizing pot but not because I look at it as a revenue source but because it is insane to put people in jail for smoking pot. Maybe this goes along with the snack tax and the alcohol tax and fast food tax. When you get the munchies, you can now pay double the tax.

Nevada wants to tax brothels "based on the amount of activities." BWAHAHAHA. Oh my god. I want to help write those new tax laws. How much for the missionary position? What if she just lies there like a dead fish? No tax at all? Maybe she owes him money? What if they employ, you know, toys? Lots of "activity" there, man.

Why, oh why, don't they ever stop spending money? Even the new budget from Obama has NEW spending, increased spending. Most people I know would be happy just to have the same amount of money to spend as they had the year before much less get more money.

My grandson turns one today. Perhaps another tea party is in the making when he finds out what we have obligated him to pay to pay off crooks and incompetents.

Snark Attack

Mizwrite has a post on Heroes that I liked and got me to thinking. I said that I am pretty sick and tired of cynicism being thought of as sophisticated and difficult. I mean how hard is to be negative and mean? And if you write well you are probably a best seller.

But...I love a good snark. I love irony. To me that takes so much more brain cells firing than cynicism. I was reading the Washington Post blog, Achenblog, which I just discovered. What snarky fun it is. He is writing about something as mind numbingly boring as what is REALLY in the budget that the President submits? He said all the fun stuff is in the appendix. He talks about how NASA got an "extra $900 million more dollars than the Bush administration's last budget request, which by my calculation will allow it to fire three more satellites into the ocean every year." He has a story in the Washington Post about the satellite "orbiting earth at the bottom of the Indian Ocean."

Kathleen Parker is another snarky columnist as is Maureen Dowd and Michelle Malkin. Christopher Hitchens is probably snarky, too, but his writing is so, so....well, let us say I can read a sentence he has written and not be sure I am speaking the same language. I have seen him on TV though and he is hysterical, even if you don't agree with him. Anybody who can flip off the Bill Maher audience has got to be snarky.

Maybe that is the hallmark of good snark, humor and a quick wit. Jon Stewart leaps to mind here. I like when they pick on all politicians and all issues, not just cherry pick the ones they are against. Hollywood is liberal, so they make fun of conservatives and do a mighty fine job of it, but there is plenty of humor to be had at the expense of the liberal world. We have a fine new Democratic Attorney General, Eric Holder, who says Americans are cowards when it comes to discussing race, and yet they have a fine Democratic member of the senate, Robert Byrd, who was a member of the KKK. Grand Wizard I understand. Now tell me there isn't a good snark in there somewhere.

A good snark takes what you think you know and pushes it outside the box. Kind of the same thing a good reporter should do, but without the sarcasm.

Freaky Friday

Another Freaky Friday. This is making Happy Hour more like the Horrid Hour. If we have a depression coming, does that means drinks will be even cheaper at Happy Hour? Brother, can you spare a dime?

The headline is: "Economy Shrinks at Worst Pace in 25 Years." The taxpayers get a bigger share of Citigroup. Wells Fargo, swell guys that they are, are suspending bonuses for top executives. It makes you wonder what makes a top executive. I am sure I could run a Fortune 500 company into the ground as well as any Top Bozo. Or this headline: "New Home Sales at Record Low." "Fannie Mae: $25.2 Billion Loss." "FDIC: Number of Problem Banks Increases Sharply in Q4."

I figure I am going to be like the starfish in "Finding Nemo" and find a happy place. You know, relax, take a deep breath. Maybe I should learn to speak whale.

The Good Ship Lollipop Sinks

"Titanic"

Well, folks, it looks like the Good Ship Lollipop known as California is going down. The State of California is going to suspend tax refunds and welfare checks, grants to students, etc. You have to read the article from the Los Angeles Times.

"The payments to be frozen include nearly $2 billion in tax refunds; $300 million cash grants for needy families and the aged, blind, and disabled; and $13 million in grants for college students." (Evan Halper.)

Wow. I have been reading the economic websites and have seen this shipwreck happening in slow motion. It is scary to see it finally hit the iceberg. Trillions of dollars will be wasted trying to save the ship.

I cannot imagine what the next six months will look like.