Tag: stupid is as stupid does

As most regular readers of this blog know by now, I am a firm supporter of the FairTax proposal. Some of y’all have bought the book from the link in my left sidebar (thank you very much!). Below is my first participation in The FairTax Blogburst. It is a crosspost from the bklogburst producers, Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. See the foot of this post for ways you can be a part of this effort to raise awareness of The FairTax.

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You may have noted a story recently that H&R Block, the tax preparation giant, is in trouble for, guess what? — goofing on its own taxes.

Reuters, in a story dated February 23, says:

The company, which is in the middle of its make-or-break season preparing other people’s tax returns, said it had underestimated its own “state effective income tax rate” in previous quarters — meaning it owes another $32 million in back taxes.

As a result, H&R Block said it would restate previously reported earnings going all the way back to 2004.

While this story seems to revolve around state taxes, the Federal Tax Code certainly doesn’t make things any better. It is no secret that our Tax Code has gotten out of hand. As of 2003, the code comprised more than 55,000 pages of laws, regulations, and rulings. As of Tuesday, March 7, 2006, the IRS has 954 Forms and Publications available for download on its web site. This is up from 402 in 1990, and 526 in 2002. In addition to the common W-2, Form 1040-EZ, and others with which you might be familiar, some of the more interesting forms are:

Continue reading “FairTax Blogburst”

Ya wanna make something of it?

Sam, at The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns has offered Sam’s 10 Commandments Of Blogging, Angel, of Woman Honor Thyself has a thoughtful piece up about blogging, Can Anyone Write a Blog?, and lady Diane has posts and tons of comments about her woes blogging (hosting, servers, wonky reloads, etc.). so I figure it’s that time of year again, you know, when posts about blogging are in the air, like pollen.

So here goes, my own ten not-quite-commandments, more like “get-a-clues” about blogging. Something for everyone in here—the good, the bad and the execrably ugly—somewhere, although the ones for truly bad bloggers will never be seen, I trust, cos by now I think I’ve run most of them off screaming, to weep and wail and gnash their teeth in outer darkness. Or the upper reaches of TTLB’s inbred blog-game. Close.

Continue reading “The third world county “So, maybe they’re commandments and maybe not” of blogging”

No death for me?

Well, “confession’s good for the soul but bad for ther reputation,” right?

If the following lil ditty by W.H. Auden is true, then I might just never die:

“As poets have mournfully sung,
Death takes the innocent young.
The rolling in Money,
The screamingly funny
And those that are very well hung.”

OK, y’all quit snickering.

hanging my… head in shame at TMH’s Bacon Bits and Stuck on Stupid.

Yeh, Yeh. Blatant begging combined with an open trackbacks post for The Open Trackback Alliance (check the blogroll in my left sidebar).

Here’s the OTA and other Open Trackback stuff, but do stick around for my bleg, wouldja?

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at

Linkfest Haven.

OK, here’s the bleg: I am less than 200 unique visitors from my goal of reaching 50K unique visitors by the time my first year with Statcounter rolls around. That’s adding the stats from the Blogger TWC to the stats for this TWC. Now, I know lotsa folks like to count page loads and others like to count hits, but I’ve had well over 30,000 hits just here in the last three weeks, and so counting hits would be less cool, as I look at it. Your mileage may vary–different strokes and all that.

What I’m primarily interested in is unique eyeballs, as best as Statcounter can determine it, excluding my visits and search engines crawling, etc. 50K is still on the low end of unique visitors for a year with blogs that have the high quality links in I have been strangely blessed with, but at least it means those unique eyeballs are also of a higher quality than some really active blogs get.

(Rabbit trail: I am fequently both amazed and humbled by the fact that, although my comments sections aren’t full to overflowing like some blogs, the quality of the people posting is always a notch or two above my own posting. I like that.)

So, here’s the bleg: wouldya ask your readers to push me over the edge top in my search for 50K unique eyeball pairs by the end of this week? That’d nring me in at my lil goal about a half a month ahead of target.

It’s no biggie, cos stats are only a very minor indicator of, well, anything to me. My main goals remain: silence the voices in my head and (something that’s grown on me) appreciate the readers that come back for some reason. 🙂

Blegging at Basil’s, as soon as he gets the picnic basket ready for Wednesday where the ants are already on the march at the picnic, and at Diane’s Stuff as soon as she gets her OTA post up where Lady Diane “splains” an important feature of Windows… (SOOOOO glad you’ve got your blog back and running, Lady Diane!)

Seems this is my day for rants…

America’s Third World Countyâ„¢. Gotta love it.

Example: the local mom n pop “baling wire and chewing gum” telco that serves 2.5 communities with 2 exchanges (yeh, it’s long distance to call between the two exchanges, and “.5” cos one of the communities is so small it doesn’t even have a post office), has offered “DSL” service for a coupla years now. Really, it only offers ADSL, but who’s quibbling?

But catch this: the cable tv company I have basic tv service through (I qualify by about 150′–that much further west and I’d be “outside the service area”) offers broadband access as well. Here’s a brief rundown:

Continue reading “*shaking head in disbelief*”

“Thou shalt not suffer a fool gladly, for anst thou dost, he shall surely breed, and thou shalt find thyself up to thine *** in fools.”

Some of y’all read and responded to my post about a dipwad who was too lazy, stupid or just plain inconsiderate in his approach to leaving an email list he’d subscribed to.

That’s all over, now. But it did prick me to look at something I’ve not checked into for some time: Email etiquette “rules”.

As to what I refer to as “tough love–or maybe not so loving” emails, this lil excerpt from an article on the subject caught my eye:

Continue reading ““Ranting and raving and throwing of food…””

Link to this post and track back.

Here’s a short roundup of a few posts that are in the “must read” category:

Woody (Woody’s News and Views) pointed out Emperor Misha’s “We Need to Stop Playing at War“. Well, we do, and his post points out salient reasons why. Read it.

Wittingshire has “Boys and Bikinis“, of which Lovely Daughter said, “That post is beyond adorable! I agree with the boy.” I dunno about the “adorable” part. The boy referred to might not appreciate that, but she’s on target about the rest… 🙂

ItCouldWork.mp3

I’m very glad I don’t need The Evangelical Outpost’s advice on “How to Get Rid of a Stoner Son“… but if you do, I think It Could Work!

On a serious note, Blonde Sagacityâ„¢ writes about a major humanitarian problem directly related to illegal aliens in “A Rape Tree Grows Out West“. Read it, and let yourself experience some righteous anger.

Polemiken offers “Manifest?” Money quote, from Wafa Sultan:

Only the Muslims defend their beliefs by burning down churches, killing people, and destroying embassies. This path will not yield any results. The Muslims must ask themselves what they can do for humankind, before they demand that humankind respect them.

Romeocat has a powerful post at CatHouse Chat: Oh, Yes! Strong stuff, R’Cat. Strong.

Finally, turning to the absurd, once again I urge you to CLICK and contemplate the horror of Alien Cow Abductions. (No, not the abductions of alien cows, silly.)

Once again, this is an Open Trackbacks Post. Link to this post and track back.

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at

Linkfest Haven.

Notice the new animated graphic in my left sidebar? Beth, at Blue Star Chronicles has devised a way for anyone who so wishes to declare their support for the Danes in their quest to assert civilized values in the face of Islamic hissyfits.

Visit Beth’s site and sign up with the Sammenhold Blogroll if you want to show your support.

*Sammenhold is Danish for “solidarity”.

Oh, and Beth is moving Blue Star Chronicles. Please visit both her blogsites during the transition to make sure you catch her very solid blogging. Catch the link to her new site off the Sammenhold graphic or my blogroll. The “old” site is linked in this post, cos that’s where the Sammenhold post is, right now.

Her new site is also noted in last weekend’s Open Post, with a couple of trackbacks.

Today, it’s back to school on an important, much-neglected problem with our border security. And, of course, it’s Monday Open Trackbacks. So link to this post and trackback.

Now, on to Guard the Borders:

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Abolish The EOIR!
By Juan Mann

There is a dangerous misconception lurking in America’s growing public consciousness about immigration law enforcement. From the man on the street to the halls of Congress, the fatal error persists in the belief that if only current immigration laws were just enforced, the illegal alien invasion of these United States would be over for good.

All would be well if we put the legal mechanisms in place into effect . . . right?

Wrong.

Few Americans even recognize that there’s any problem at all with HOW the federal government goes about deporting illegal aliens and criminal alien residents. Securing the Arizona desert was a piece of cake in comparison—remember that the volunteer Minuteman Project showed the world that they could do it in a month!

So what’s the problem?

Continue reading “Guard the Borders/Monday Open Post”