Friday, October 31, 2008

Birthday Boy


WOW! I can't believe it's been six years sinceTy joined our family.


On the kids actual birthday we have a family meal with brownies. The birthday boy or girl gets to select the menu. While planning out my grocery shopping for October I asked Ty what he would like to have for his birthday supper. He said "What can I have?". I told him he could pick anything we had ever had before. He thought for a minute and decided he wanted steak. I asked him what he would like to have with the steak. His reply - "What can I have?" LOL
The birthday menu consisted of steak, mashed potatoes, homemade mac and cheese, green beans and brownies. Daddy grilled the steaks and they were fantastic!

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Tax cuts

I wanted to add that I did NOT write this. I came across it on another blog http://mommylife.net/ and it was from an unknown author.

Our tax system explained in terms of beer

A brilliant explanation of our tax system using actual percentages, the impact of a tax cut, and the public reaction that everyone should be able to understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.

The fifth would pay $1.

The sixth would pay $3.

The seventh would pay $7.

The eighth would pay $12.

The ninth would pay $18.

The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were
unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?'
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so -

The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings.

The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).

The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).

The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).

The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night the tenth man didn't show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

A Civics Lesson

Feudalism

You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.



Pure Socialism

You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you all the milk you need.



Bureaucratic Socialism

Your cows are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs the regulations say you should need.



Fascism

You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them, and sells you the milk.



Pure Communism

You have two cows. Your neighbours help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.



Real World Communism

You share two cows with your neighbours. You and your neighbours bicker about who has the most "ability" and who has the most "need". Meanwhile, no one works, no one gets any milk, and the cows drop dead of starvation.



Russian Communism

You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the black market.



Perestroika

You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the Mafia takes all the milk. You steal back as much milk as you can and sell it on the "free" market.



Cambodian Communism

You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.



Militarianism

You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.



Totalitarianism

You have two cows. The government takes them and denies they ever existed. Milk is banned.

Pure Democracy

You have two cows. Your neighbours decide who gets the milk.

Representative Democracy

You have two cows. Your neighbours pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

British Democracy

You have two cows. You feed them sheep's brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

Bureaucracy

You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

Pure Anarchy

You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbours try to take the cows and kill you.

Pure Capitalism

You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

Capitalism

You don't have any cows. The bank will not lend you money to buy cows, because you don't have any cows to put up as collateral.

Environmentalism

You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

Surrealism

You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

Enron Chicanerous Corporate Capitalism

You have two cows. You sell three of them to your publicly listed company, using letters of credit opened by your brother-in-law at the bank. He then executes a debt/equity swap with an associated general offer so that you get all four cows back, with a tax exemption for five cows. The milk rights of the six cows are transferred via an intermediary to a Cayman Island company secretly owned by your CFO who sells the rights to all seven cows back to your listed company. The annual report says the company owns eight cows, with an option on six more.Now do you see why a company with $62 billion in assets is declaring bankruptcy?

Happy Halloween

We don't do Halloween but I thought this was too funny not to share.




Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Football 102

Once the basics have been established, it's time to move on to team play. Running a play?
Yay team!!! Ben wanted to play so bad - he squealed and hollered the whole time. The football was just too big for him.
This time Griffin tackled Uncle Kirk ?


Football 101

Somehow Griffin missed out on the work aspect (he's good at that ;) ) and instead received football lessons from Uncle Kirk.

The first lesson involved throwing - I think he has potential.

Then comes running.

Is that a legal move? I don't think I've ever seen any of the "greats" pick up their opponents.

Any good player needs to learn to kick.



Monday, October 13, 2008

Working at the lot

We had a large shopping day (Sam's trip) and afterwards I took the kids by Daddy's lot to show off new boots. Of course, any unattended children will be put to work.