Frequent readers of my blog will know that I am not exactly happy with the huge growth of government we’ve seen of late, so this post shouldn’t come as a big shock. This was inspired by listening to a recent episode of The Survival Podcast, a favorite podcast of mine that discusses various topics related to [...]
The wife and kids are out of town visiting family this week, so I decided it was time to let loose and get a little crazy. Yes, I and thousands of other rightwing extremists attended the Houston Tea Party protest yesterday! Unless you are watching Fox News or reading some blogs, you may not have [...]
I don’t consider myself to be a particularly lucky person, at least when it comes to contests and drawings. Until yesterday, my biggest win ever had been a baseball cap that said “The Advocate’s Fantasy Football” in a random drawing when I was 14 (note: I am referring to the Baton Rouge daily newspaper, not the [...]
Where will the insanity end? A proposal under consideration under the name ”Credit Score Enhancement Program“, the City of Houston would use surplus funds from a program to repair Hurricane Ike storm damage to pay off debts for first-time homebuyers to help raise their credit scores so they could better qualify for a mortgage. The program would have provided [...]
Attention campers! Your 2008 federal income tax return is due April 15, 2009. Start making your last minute preparations now!!! Think I’m a bit premature in this warning? I think not. Although your return may not be due for another five months, your window for making last minute moves to manage your tax burden for the [...]
Even though the payments haven’t quite made it to taxpayers yet, several companies are already jockeying to make sure that you spend the money with them. Several companies have already announced plans to allow customers to cash their stimulus check at their stores in exchange for discounted gift cards. Sears, KMart, Albertson’s, and Radio Shack [...]
Sorry, but this news story just set me off this morning. Rep. John Dingell of Michigan is proposing a 50 cent tax on every gallon of gas sold to discourage consumption with the idea that it will help cut greenhouse gas emissions. What a friggin’ moron! If the run-up in the price of gasoline has [...]
I finally got our income tax return done! Yippee! Thankfully this year we are getting about a $4,200 refund, as opposed to paying about $5,000 last year. Here are a few highlights of the return: We were able to substantially reduce our taxes this year by bunching deductions in before year-end for items we normally [...]
While most Americans have not even filed their tax returns for 2007 yet, our friends at the blood-sucking IRS have released the federal income tax brackets for 2008. Without further ado, here are the brackets for married filing jointly. For other filing status brackets, see the IRS bulletin here. TABLE 1 — Section 1(a). — [...]
Happy New Year, fellow cheap bastards! Everyone looks at the beginning of a new year as a new beginning of sorts, and it seems like everyone likes to put together their list of resolutions. I’ve never really liked the practice or the term, mainly because most people come up with stuff like “I want to [...]