This is a book that I believe every American should read. Admittedly, it is about taxes and so may seem a bit dry, but it is chock full of details that will make your blood boil.

Did you know that the richest 1% of the population is about 5 times as rich as it was 20 years ago, but that the bottom 75% hasn't gone anywhere in terms of real income?

Do you know what payroll taxes are? They're the taxes you pay for Medicare and SS, 6.2% + 1.25% which are matched by your employer (a total of 15.3%). Once you make over about $87,000 you don't pay that anymore.

Do you know that for all of our progressive tax system (and oh-so-much complaining on behalf of the rich) the real tax rate for all Alericans is almost the same. Taking into account the payroll taxes we all end up paying somewhere around 20% (with both the megapoor and megarich paying less).

Do you know the IRS audits one of every 70 poor people claiming the Earned Income Credit (a social welfare program to slightly boost the working poor's income), but only one of every 200 or so people making over $100,000?

Do you know the IRS has just about zero ability to analyze (much less understand) the majority of complex tax shelters used by the megarich to hide their income from taxes?

Do you know what the so-called Death Tax is? Sounds scary right? Bush would say it's taking the family farm away from struggling farmers. But that would only be true in any sense if the farm was worth millions of dollars, the Estate tax (it's proper name) was for years before Bush a tax on income after death in excess of $1,000,000 (this year he's raised it to $2.5 million). That means the vast majority of us (unless we hit the lottery) will have zero need to worry about it.

Do you know that corporations just don't pay what they're supposed to? The corporate tax is a flat rate: 35%, but in the last five years 60-70% of corporations paid no tax (many even got refunds!!). [inlink]terry,182[/inlink] All you telling me that even with the internet boom these corporations just didn't make any money?

So anyways the book goes into detail about all of these subjects and more. You don't need to understand taxes to take away from it that the rich are getting richer at the expense of you and me. The tax burden has been and continues to shift onto those least able to carry it. It needs to be fixed. But first of all it needs to be at least basically understood by all Americans. Read this book!

[inlink]sqb,120[/inlink] I hope it really does some good.

We definately don't need anymore parking lots on Elmwood. My idea for the last couple years has been to completely remove cars. We should erect two massive parking garages on either side, say one around Tupper and another at Bird. Then we bring the trolley back (yes 100 years ago Elmwood was trollifyed ). You can park at either end and then walk/trolley to you destinations on Elmwood. Think how nice a car free Elmwood would be. No disgusting car smells/noises (especially the motorcycles), no backups during rush hour, no death-defying bike rides around cars and peds alike. Of course this is all pure fantasy. I can't expect Buffalo to ever do it, for any number of reasons, lack of cash being number one. But the dream sure is nice.

I have been called by my great country (and county) to serve. Since I have a federal job I guess technically I serve everyday I go into work (I am a civil servant ya' know). But this is different. A large part of someone's life may hang in the balance. I went to my first ever Jury Duty this morning. Mostly it involves lots of sitting so far. I sat for over an hour and then they called my name. Then I followed a group of similarly called people up to a courtroom where we all sat some more. We went to lunch. Then upon our return my name was called again. I had to answer some generic questions, to which my answers were apparently suffiicient. Now I am a juror. Well, to be honest, I am an alternate juror, which means that I will only have to do the actual deciding if something happens to someone else. I really hope that doesn't happen. By law, I can't go into details, but suffice it to say that the case involves the usual suspect comitting a (relatively) low level crime. We are not allowed to look into the case further than the law. If the law says it is a crime, that's it. We are not to decide if we think what the accused did was wrong. We were repeatedly told not to sympathize and also not to think of any eventual punishment that might follow a guilty verdict. So hopefully I won't have to worry about it, and I'll collect my paycheck (in full thanks to the sweetness of the Homeland) and watch the trial roll by. Wish me luck. Or rather, wish all the other jurors luck.

so i always need to have a scrolling meeage across my screen warning me of the ultra-hazardous pollen danger?

[size=m]Pollen count high in area!!!![/size]

My god, what next? Fungi spores? Extra-acidic soil indicators! Trees blowing dangerously to the left today!! Slight chance of mud on your shoes if you traverse the lawn!!!

Today we are all free to get us some big guns. The ban on assault weapons has officially sunset leaving Americans the opportunity to blow one another up all in the name of good sport. I am thinking of purchasing a Fabrique Nationale FN/FAL which is gas-operated and fires from the closed-bolt position in both the semi- and full-auto modes.



Can't wait to go at it with those deers in the fully automatic mode, I'm hoping to take an entire herd in under 3.5 minutes.

On a better note. I am shouting out my thanks to:

[size=l]Elaine M. Urban[/size]

She found my ID and bank cards where I left them at the beach. She then drove to my house and put them through the mail slot. Isn't that just the kind of good samaritanism that you think doesn't exist anymore? She is apparently a piano teacher so if you need any lessons please give her a call @ (716) 877-9531.

(e:soyeon) it has happened to me too. [inlink]soyeon,95[/inlink] Just about two months ago I went to look at one of my credit cards online and it said Access Denied and gave me a number to call. I called and they told me there was a freeze on my account. They asked me if I had spent $538.00 at Payless Shoe Store and $635.00 at a hotel. I hadn't been on any cheap shoe shopping sprees out of town and told them that. It really freaked me out. But, they cancelled the card and sent me some stuff to sign and about two weeks later it was all good as new. So don't worry it should turn out OK.

(e:robin) I thought you were a jackass last night honking at jaywalkers for no reason. I think I even called you a nasty name. Sorry, I guess. Next time maybe throw some kind of party favor at us instead. We didn't end up doing anything that night at all. We passed the party you might have gone too. Seemed jammin'. Saw (e:trisha) and (e:paulnotpaul) (though I'm not sure he still deserves hi (e:) since he hasn't written in months) and they said they were gonna tear the attic down around themselves. The walls were already listing. Hope you had a good time if you went.

Lastly, (e:floppydonkey) go spend some quality time with your girlfriend (e:maidencateyes) in the sun. You could always record the game and watch it this evening.

this has got to be short, I'm talking from atop a flailing seabeast. it's a blast. I hope my ass last. peace out mo-fo's.

I just finished training at work and will begin actually using my new skills today. I am not very confident in these skills, but my job is primarily bullshit, which I am very good at. We shall see. This weekend need to be wonderful. I am hoping to hop on someone's boat and go for a final last-call type swim. And there's Trisha's bachelorette which of course shall be blastastic.

Here are two websites I got from some magazine (either the Nation or Wired) about environmental issues. The first is the Environmental Working Group a Public Interest Watchdog which keeps an eye on environmental issues around the country. There latest cover-story regards Dupont's settlement of upwards of $300 million for Teflon pollution of water supplies.

The second is this really neat site for the European Pollutant Emission Register. You can click on a map of the entire EU (plus Norway and Hungary) or a list of pollutants and fine the amounts and locations of polluters. I tried it out and found all of the polluters (down to street address) for the city I lived in in Germary. It would be great to have one for the US. Anyone know if we do?

Russia has declared that it is ready to begin preemptive war against terrorists wherever they may be. "We will take any action to eliminate terrorist bases in any region of the world. But this does not mean we will carry out nuclear strikes," said Russia's Chief of Staff General Yuri Baluyeveski. I guess that little clause about nuclear weapons should make us feel better. It was only a matter of time before the other countries followed our lead (and Putin said definitively that his decision was modeled after George Bush's war on terror), and it won't be surprising when China, Pakistan, and whoever else jumps on board the worldwide terror war. This should make us all a little more shaky. Bad enough that we can declare war on anyone anywhere, now the rest of the world is free to do so as well. Fun.

Finally someone in this administration is officially being sanctioned for duping the country. Ex-Medicare chief, Tom Scully, is being asked to repay 7 months of his $145,000 annual salary after he was found guilty of threatening to fire Medicare's top actuary, Rick Foster,if he gave congressional staff information about his cost estimates of the controversial legislation strongly backed by President Bush. His estimates ended up being $134 billion higher than the $400 billion 10-year price tag from the Congressional Budget Office. If only some of this blame (add to that failure to find WMDs, prison abuse, failure to find Osama...) could ever "trickle-up" to those really in control.