13:04 – We spent all morning at the hospital for Barbara’s colonoscopy. Neither of us got much sleep last night, particularly Barbara. She’s supposed to take it easy for the next 24 hours, eat only soft, bland food, and not operate a main battle tank or other other heavy equipment.
Thursday, 14 April 2016
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The prep is always worse than the procedure.
The prep is to make the procedure easy.
Drove back from The Big Easy to the Land of Sugar yesterday. No massive traffic jams this time but it did take us 10 hours to drive 350+ miles with two long meal breaks to rest my weary bones. Some of the roads in Louisiana have actually been repaved in the last 2 or 3 years. Some roads were freaking horrible with massive wheel grooves with all of the trucks (every other vehicle in an 18 wheeler) heading from Jacksonville to Los Angeles or thereabout.
We (the USA) are sadly just maintaining our infrastructure and not adding much to it. Whereas, the population along the Gulf Coast is rising at 3% (SWAG) per year. At least the new I-10 bypass, I-14, will help with all that traffic somewhat at a cost of almost $10 billion. But I-10 itself needs to double the lanes from Alabama to Junction, Texas. The cost would probably be $20 billion, or more, with replacement of all the bridges across Louisiana. Of course, all of those bridges are approaching 100 years old.
I am at home today trying to get my taxes done for Uncle. He has a hard date due tomorrow where I XXX we must at least pay what is due. I have no idea so far if I owe or he owes me. I am hoping fervently that he owes me. I have been sadly remiss over the last year and just throwing my receipts into a three inch tall pile of paper.
Due date this year for taxes is the 18th.
Yeh, my state taxes are due tomorrow in a state that has no income tax. They have this nasty Hall Tax where dividends and interest that are not earned in a credit union are taxed. I get hit every year with the tax, mostly from dividends. Annoying as hell as it really penalizes those that live on dividends.
Of course this is the same state that has a sales tax of 9.75% on food which is really bad for low income people. A family of four, well off or poor, will eat about the same amount of food from the grocery store. If I make $5,000 a month and food is $1000 (round numbers for the math), then 10% on the $1K is only 2% of my income. However, if I make $2000 a month the tax on that same amount of food is 5% of my income. The poor are paying a higher effective tax rate.
Calif which is highly taxed in all regards does not tax food. The exception is prepared food. This results in a place like Subway having no tax on a cold sandwich but must tax you if they heat it.
Due date this year for taxes is the 18th.
https://www.irs.com/articles/tax-deadline-alert-2015-tax-returns-are-due-april-18-2016
What? This is freaking crazy as April 15 is on a Friday this year.
Oh well, I need to get this finished up today as the wife is unhappy. And when Momma is unhappy, everyone is unhappy.
I’ll confirm that @dkreck is correct about the 18th being the due date. That is because the gooberment normally celebrates Emancipation Day on the 16th, which is on a Saturday this year so it is celebrated (i.e. day off) on the 15th. If you live in Maine or Massachusetts you get until the 19th because of Patriots’ Day (I am surprised that they allow that to be celebrated anymore.
Here is the official stuff:
https://www.irs.com/articles/tax-deadline-alert-2015-tax-returns-are-due-april-18-2016
edit: I started typing before @Lynn, I’m just slower and more verbose.
Did they give you the video? They usually record it while they’re doing it. My BIL asked for the video and the doctor chuckled and gave him a CD-R with the vid file. Now, every time I’m at his house and there’s an awkward silence he asks, “So…. want to see my colonoscopy?”
I went in for my first physical after turning 40 (and the first physical I’d had in about 15 years). I was fully expecting a drop-and-cough, a prostate check, and a referral for a colonoscopy. They did none of that. She told me they no longer do drop-and-coughs unless you’re symptomatic for a hernia, the prostate checks now start at age 50 instead of 35, and the colonoscopies begin at 50 to 55 depending on the provider.
Same is true in Nebraska. Groceries like a gallon of milk, a pound of hamburger, or a loaf of bread are tax free. Restaurant food is always taxed. A bottle of soda is tax free, but a fountain drink is taxed. Take-n-bake pizza is tax free, but hot pizza is taxed.
Shit. That reminds me. I need to do my taxes.
Of course this is the same state that has a sales tax of 9.75% on food which is really bad for low income people. A family of four, well off or poor, will eat about the same amount of food from the grocery store. If I make $5,000 a month and food is $1000 (round numbers for the math), then 10% on the $1K is only 2% of my income. However, if I make $2000 a month the tax on that same amount of food is 5% of my income. The poor are paying a higher effective tax rate.
The Great State of Texas state sales tax is 6.25%. Most cities addon 1% and some cities addon another 1% for a total of 8.25%. The sales tax does not cover food unless sold in a restaurant.
There is no personal income tax in Texas. There is a business income tax called a franchise tax which is about 0.5% above $500,000 in gross income. There is no death tax.
I thought it made no sense that taxes are due on Monday the 18th. Then I realized that the Federal Government officially observes most holidays on a Monday. What’s the most special holiday of the year for the Federal Goverment and the FSA?
Our schools are off on Monday. Officially it’s an unneeded weather makeup day. Only a coincidence that it’s patriots day I guess.
n
WRT tax, we get a bunch back this year. Over withholding is hard to avoid with the way my wife is paid. When I moved to TX I immediately saved 9% of my federal tax bill, since TX doesn’t tax income, and that’s what CA was hitting me for.
We often get a deduction on federal for our state sales tax too, since most other states get a deduction for their state tax paid. Don’t know if we got it this year.
We do have a ‘use’ tax for stuff not sold here but used here, like if I built a tradeshow booth for an out of state customer, I wouldn’t charge sales tax, but if they bought it to use at a show here in TX I’d have to charge them the ‘use’ tax instead. We also have a ‘business personal property’ tax, where I get to pay a tax every year on all the things I bought for my business that I ALREADY paid tax on. That one chaps my a$$.
nick
Shenanigans-
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/first-silver-now-gold-deutsche-bank-admits-it-also-rigged-gold-prices-legal-settleme
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/case-closed-deutsche-bank-confirms-silver-market-manipulation-legal-settlement-agree
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/14-billion-april-junk-bond-defaults-push-monthly-total-highest-2014
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/hedge-funds-slammed-paul-tudor-jones-hit-1bn-outlow-nyc-pension-pull-15bn-marquee-na
More coming!!
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/more-energy-defaults-energy-xxi-files-chapter-11-gulf-keystone-delays-bond-payment
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-14/wells-fargo-has-problem-32-billion-junk-rated-energy-exposure
And it has impacts and symptoms in the real world too
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-13/stunning-photos-huge-oil-supertanker-lines-forming-worlds-biggest-traffic-jam
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-13/us-retail-sales-tumble-recession-territory-driven-auto-sales-plunge
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-04-12/rich-flee-crime-infested-hell-hole-chicago-amid-racial-strife-civil-unrest
Fun times ahead!
nick
Oops, too many links in my last comment— sent to moderation.
nick
On a completely unrelated note *cough*, anyone ever try freeze drieds from http://www.nuharvestfoods.com/ ?
They were advertising on Alex Jones and their web site looks good. BUT they don’t have any samplers. My feeling with the ‘survival food’ community is that if they don’t offer a way to try out their food in small quantities, they know you would never buy it if you tasted it. At least that’s my suspicion.
Any thoughts? hearsay?
nick
“…If you live in Maine or Massachusetts you get until the 19th because of Patriots’ Day (I am surprised that they allow that to be celebrated anymore.”
It remains a Holy Day of Obligation for MA residents because of the battles of Lexington and Concord, which are nowadays a MASSIVE tourista attraction for re-enactments and the associated literary and historical stuff in the area, and because that is when they run the Boston Marathon, which effectively shuts down the eastern half of the state for the day, between the two events. Since the terrorist hadji bombing, but I repeat myself, it’s even more of a de rigeur attendance thing. No one brings up the similarly massive police-state shutdown of the city, though.
Taxes: Need a 1099 for wife’s gig, nothing for me, because I was a goldbricking, lazy, layabout slacker son of a bitch all last year. We’ll file for an extension and then I’ll bring our paperwork to an Enrolled tax preparer and let her deal with it. At the rate we’re making monthly payments to these fuckers, and not making a dent in the principal, we’ll keep paying from our graves. Something has to be done as Mrs. OFD can’t keep slaving at back-to-back gigs all over the country at her age and we also need to pay bills and expenses here, plus Princess is still in college.
I’m doing what I can to bring in more revenue but at a certain point it becomes moot, because they just take it all in taxes and penalties anyway. Some days I really am tempted to persuade wifey to just sell out everything, take the minimum with us, and head for fucking Costa Rica in one direction or Labrador in the other.
Here in the Sunshine State, we have no personal income tax, and a state Constitution which explicitly prohibits same. And thanks to Jeb!, when he was Governor, the hated Intangibles Tax was eliminated. This was a levy on the value of stocks, bonds, securities, etc; especially galling on those of us who had wealth tied up in small businesses or who had invested the (post-tax) fruits of our labor.
Aunt Flo does impose a sales tax of 6%, on top of which cities and counties can add their own. However, necessary groceries and medical supplies are exempted. Buy a gallon of milk, a whole raw chicken, a 2 liter bottle of soda, and a roasted chicken from the deli, and the latter two will be taxed.
I wasn’t familiar with the I-14 proposal, but I-22 provides a case history on everything that can go wrong with large scale modern construction projects. Seriously, it’s FUBAR on a scale to rival the Big Dig Disaster in Boston. I will agree the the Atchafalaya Basin section of I-10 is really bad, but to truly appreciate how bad it is one must drive it in a vehicle that doesn’t have a good ride. In my case it was a 17′ moving van that wasn’t heavily loaded. I was impressed by the quality of I-10 through Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and even California east of Palm Springs. I already knew that I-10 in the states east of Louisiana is in decent shape.
I never trusted link shorteners and here is another reason:
http://gizmodo.com/link-shorteners-can-spy-on-you-1771081653
and
http://arstechnica.com/security/2016/04/guess-what-url-shorteners-short-circuit-cloud-security/
BTW, my engineering conference in New Orleans was kind of a wash. There was 2,500 people there in 2015, the number was around 1,500 in 2016. Mostly vendors, few operators. Killed off by our own success. But, we will be back when the country needs us again to supply the country’s needs.
We in the oil and gas industry are not going anywhere and the current estimates of 200 years of crude oil production and 1,000 years of natural gas production are still good. The USA is the wealthiest nation on the planet and for many more reasons than just our resources and our minds.
“The USA is the wealthiest nation on the planet and for many more reasons than just our resources and our minds.”
This is very true, and also the most wealthy and powerful nation in human history. But we are ruled by a criminal junta, in what is rapidly becoming a Latin American-style banana republic, probably before it all falls apart.
The centuries of oil and gas we have won’t amount to a hill of pinto beans by then. Our rulers are hell-bent on destroying the country and surviving as billionaire potentates inside their own fortress enclaves, either here or in palatial overseas estates. As we can see around us, the war declared on the middle class half a century ago is just about over, and now they’re busily beavering away at the rest, $200 trillion in debt that they’ll HAVE to default on, and then we’ll be like Brazil, only with nukes and FaceCrack bots floating among the pixels.
A horse, John Kerry, and OFD walk into a bar. The bartender turns to OFD and asks: “Why the long face?” 🙂
You left Sarah Jessica Parker out of that list.
WRT to URL shorteners: I don’t see the issue, other than if you sequentially try similar URLs (the apart after the domain name), you might find other stuff. Not surprising, and not a security risk, IMHO.
Unless you are putting confidential information in a URL that someone guesses. Or, maybe, if you have not set the permissions properly on a ‘cloud’ URL, for instance.
The only risk I see with shortened URLs is that you can’t see the ultimate location, although I believe there is a FF plugin that will ‘decode’ the shortened URL on a ‘hover’.
Unless I am missing something, whilst looking out the window here at a mostly blue sky and an eagle flying around on the air currents.
“A horse, John Kerry, and OFD walk into a bar.”
Not that far-fetched anymore; I found out fairly recently that he and I are (distantly) related, through the Forbes family, dating back to colonial times. Ain’t that swell. Me and Vinegar John.
“You left Sarah Jessica Parker out of that list.”
Another midget like her husband, too; they make actors and actresses look tall on tee-vee and in the movies but a lot of them are tiny. Meryl Streep is another midget, ditto Tom Cruise, haha, playing Jack Reacher, a character an inch or two taller than me!
“…an eagle flying around on the air currents.”
Dahk here now, but this past week I’ve seen golden eagles, bald eagles and a lone osprey; also a tree full of big fat ravens.
Another midget like her husband, too; they make actors and actresses look tall on tee-vee and in the movies
My brother worked on a movie where they did a long dolly shot of the hero and his wife walking and talking outdoors. They laid out the dolly track (pre-steadicam) and then dug a trench for the actress to walk in so she would be shorter than the hero. For indoor static shots they used a box for him to stand on.
If the ruling criminal junta really and truly wants this fugly pig for President, they must have something very large and evil for intentions:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/04/paul-craig-roberts/president-killary/
Hmmmm….sounds like more OFD paranoid and Eeyore claptrap:
https://www.lewrockwell.com/2016/04/jack-perry/end-not-near/
“NASA takes to Facebook to shut down climate change deniers in the most brutal way”
http://www.mirror.co.uk/science/nasa-takes-facebook-shut-down-7756979
Your tax dollars at work.
I will agree the the Atchafalaya Basin section of I-10 is really bad
Can you imagine what it took to build that 40 mile elevated road through that swamp back in the 1930s or 1940s? My parents drove it in 1961 when Hurricane Carla was coming in. The water was already an inch or two above the road and my parents were the last car allowed to cross. They were headed back to New Jersey from Freeport, TX with me in the back seat.
I believe that I-14 is more than a proposal, it is a plan. I really hope so for Houston and Texas’s sake.
http://www.chron.com/news/transportation/article/Interstate-14-on-its-way-across-Texas-6684403.php
All large projects are messed up the first time that they are built. The soil plan is always bad, the land grab is always contested, and the concrete pour is always less than perfect. The USA lives and dies on its infrastructure, we need more of it right now. More roads and more lanes.
You musta been California Dreamin’ when you drove I-10 in Texas. Absolutely horrible road that needs lots of tender loving care, especially between Houston and San Antonio.
And yes, I-10 in Alabama and Florida is an absolute dream.
@nick: General thoughts on free samplers is that (a) it’s kind of unfair to expect them to give away full portions of the standard product they sell, and (b) I wouldn’t trust specially packaged samplers to be representative of the standard product. In other words: buy an assortment, one of this, one of that, and try them. Paid samples, if you will. That way, you know it’s the same as the product you are thinking of buying.
I suppose I find the idea of free samples irritating, because of the experiences of my wife’s company. First, there are people who will abuse the “free” stuff they can get. Second, it isn’t free at all – the costs have to be covered, so they get tacked onto the sales price of the product – which is unfair to the people who don’t take the free stuff.
Granted, in her case it’s a whisky company, and you can imagine the kind of people a “free” whisky tasting might attract. Her solution, which I think is fair, is to charge enough to cover costs (room rent, food, whisky). Seems like that would be a good general principle for samplers, etc..
you can imagine the kind of people a “free” whisky tasting might attract
In Pigeon Forge TN there are a couple of places that allow free moonshine sampling. I have done it twice, never bought any of the product. Any time you go there people are waiting. They serve about 10 at a time. I watched for awhile and it seemed like 6 out of 10 would purchase some. Stuff is expensive as are most alcoholic products with a majority portion of that being state sales tax.
Yeah, see, free tastings attract people like Ray 😉
Just kidding, of course…
Seriously, I do see the point of free samples, but too many customers expect them, and then complain when the price of the product is higher than somewhere else that doesn’t offer free stuff. As a business, it’s best to just not go there. Having seen this from the business side, I now appreciate companies that are up-front about this. Sell me a sample at cost, sure. For free, nah…
I think he was talking about them not offering smaller sizes for sale, like #2.5 cans as well as #10 cans like Augason Farms offers.
@Brad, RBT,
Yep, I wasn’t talking about free. I’d pay for a bucket with one pouch of each item, no problem. $50 bucket of something I’ve never eaten? That’s ok if you don’t really think you will ever use it. Or if you are in the “when they get hungry enough they’ll eat it” school of thought.
I’m just suspicious of any company in that space that doesn’t have smaller packages so you can try before committing. Given that the vast majority won’t ever eat what you’re selling, there’s a temptation to fill the buckets with sawdust and be done (figuratively anyway.)
Maybe I should have said ‘variety pack.’
nick
@nick: Exactly, and that’s something they really ought to offer: a “one of each” selection. We’re in agreement.
Filling the packages with sawdust, now that is an evil thought. Just when you need your emergency supplies…
@brad, just started re-reading Matilda, by Roald Dahl, to my 6yo. In the “meet the parents” chapter, her crooked used car salesman father uses sawdust in the gearbox to “smooth out” the gears. Or in other words, he fills up the gaps in the worn out transmission with sawdust and oil. So it was on my mind 🙂
WRT freeze drieds, I’m mostly interested in the FD meats. I would like to store something besides ham, chicken chunks, and tuna. (and I do, but nothing good for more than a year or 2 without changes.)
nick
Yeah, see, free tastings attract people like Ray
Exactly, a bunch of drunk hillbillies toting FLASHLIGHTS.
nick, pemmican lasts a very long time, if kept out of sunlight and kept reasonably cool.
I think it’s expensive to buy, but I make my own. My oldest batch is about six years old, and I want to hang onto it until ten years before eating the last of it, as quality control.
The biggest downside is that most Americans probably won’t eat it until they’re starving. On the other hand, if you have rice or other grains, you can cook those and then stir the pemmican in, or heat the pemmican and then use the fat as part of cooking the grain.
Yes! Thank you! That woman is hideous. I saw a comment somewhere about SJP that went something like, “Sarah Jessica Parker is a woman that most men find repulsive and most women find beautiful.”
Al wrote:
“The prep is always worse than the procedure.”
It’s not nearly as bad as it used to be.
One of the lessons of Vietnam….
“Can America be defeated this way again? Unlikely. The all-voluntary military means that body bags will contain only elements of society that the ruling classes don’t care about. Wars now chiefly involve bombing enemies who have no way of fighting back. Reliance on drones means no casualties at all, and the use of robots in ground combat, long a pipe dream, is nearing reality. The media are under control. America still loses its wars in the sense of not getting what it wants, but the public doesn’t care and you cannot sap a drone’s will. Here is the lesson of Vietnam.”
http://fredoneverything.org/war-football-and-realism-if-any/
No, we won’t be defeated by a foreign power; we’re doing that all by ourselves, to ourselves. Collective national and civilization suicide.
ech wrote:
“My brother worked on a movie where they did a long dolly shot of the hero and his wife walking and talking outdoors. They laid out the dolly track (pre-steadicam) and then dug a trench for the actress to walk in so she would be shorter than the hero. For indoor static shots they used a box for him to stand on.”
He he he.
When Kylie Minogue “starred” in The Delinquents they specifically chose her partner, Charlie Schlatter, for his shortness, even a moderately tall guy would tower over her.
“Yes! Thank you! That woman is hideous.”
Ugh, I’d never heard of her so I went to Wikipedia. Wish I hadn’t, I can’t go to bed now until I’ve purged this from my memory…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Jessica_Parker#/media/File:Sarah_Jessica_Parker_3.jpg
Yeah, I don’t get it; millions evidently think she’s gorgeous; no accounting for taste, though; millions thought Cankles was hot, and likewise Empress Moochelle. They both make me gag and always have.
Us right-wingers have all the hotties.
You forgot to mention Chelsea and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Um. I guess “having all the hotties” doesn’t preclude those less than stunning:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Coulter#/media/File:Ann_Coulter_by_Gage_Skidmore_3.jpg
I’ve seen worse.
Anyone know if those boobs are real? They seem a bit out of proportion.
“You forgot to mention Chelsea and Eleanor Roosevelt.”
Naw, I just didn’t wanna bring them up and ruin somebody’s breakfast AND lunch. Both of them horrors.
Coulter isn’t my type but she’s not bad. Very tall and thin, and from what I’ve heard over the years from various parties who’ve dealt with her personally, she’s a genuine bitch-on-wheels, very nasty to people. And a lawyer by training.
“…she’s a genuine bitch-on-wheels, very nasty to people. And a lawyer by training.”
But you repeat yourself.
I know, sorry, bad habit, trying to break it. Difficult when discussing lawyers, politicians, banksters, financial speculators, criminal scum, oh crap, there I go again…
WRT actors, the opposite is true too.
In porn, the women are TINY so as to make the men look bigger.
n
(never having seen any, I have to take the interwebs as truth. *cough*)
(never having seen any, I have to take the interwebs as truth. *cough*)
That’s going in my “excuse book”. lol
MrsAtoz insisted we watch the Dumbocrat debate last night. We’re in Orem, UT off to Vegas tonight. The best part of the debate was Bernie constantly challenging Cankles to answer questions and stop dodging. At least one of the panel dogged her about releasing her Goldman Sachs speeches. She won’t unless everyone (including Redumblicans) release theirs. Typical libturd response. Just like taxes. “We need to raise taxes” OK, go to the IRS web site and pay more. “No, everybody has to or I’m not”
The flight from Seattle to SLC was one of the roughest I’ve been on in awhile. People were gasping and crying all over the plane. MrsAtoz was freaking out. She’s logged a million miles and has experience a lot. That’s how rough it was.
That must have been VERY rough; Mrs. OFD has a zillion air miles, too, but some of them, esp. over the lake here, have been rocky, lotta bouncing. She usually tries to help and calm down others, esp. kids. She says that having read the “Ask the Pilot” book, it helped her a lot to understand what the aircraft and pilots are doing.
http://www.askthepilot.com/
Patrick Smith is a longtime commercial airline pilot and last I knew, lives down in Somerville, MA.
I won’t watch any of the bogus tee-vee ‘debates’ or any other folderol about the so-called campaigns; they’re clearly total theater and lies. Field Marshal Rodham has long been The Annointed One by our rulers, for whatever reason, and she knows it. In a recent interview she laughed outright when someone asked her what she thought about the threat of being put in handcuffs. No fear whatsoever of any justice on this earth.