I find this quite Taxing

Life is complicated. I am on vacation this week, my laptop is screwed up and I am getting work related emails. I am trying to avoid them as much as possible but there are a few I feel compelled to answer. I guess we've reached the point where our time is never really our own. But that isn't what I am finding to be taxing.

This morning's news highlighted a group of unshaven, unwashed, uncivilized and, I am guessing, uneducated rabble in the UK marching (read that rioting) on the Bank Of Scotland screaming "down with money". The next time I come across one of these little anarchists on the street begging for some spare change, I think I'll introduce them to a couple penny loafers up their backside. The misunderstanding these mini-Stalins have about just about everything in the World today would take me a week and a half to write about. Don't worry, that isn't what I am finding to be taxing.

During the election campaign, in Dover, N.H., on Sept. 12, The ONE promised us, "I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes(emphasis added)." To be clear, I am sure most of his claims/promises regarding taxes were meant to be in the realm of payroll taxes but the preceding statement seems a bit more encompassing. It is this statement that I am finding to be quite taxing. It is taxing my psyche, my nerves, my sense of right and wrong and it will be taxing all of us soon.

The First African American President of the United States, a self-proclaimed cheating ex-smoker and an obvious crappy gifter, signed in to law a cigarette tax increase of nearly $0.62 a pack. Smokers encompass all income brackets but I believe statistics show that an inordinate amount of smokers come from lower tax brackets; well below those of the $250,000 a year crowd. The raising of a tax, self-imposed as it is, by nearly 62% sounds like an increase to me. I guess the rational here is you can quit smoking if you want to avoid this tax.

While not everyone smokes, I am pretty sure we are all going to die at some point and you smokers are probably at the front of the list. In the midst of keeping us safe from terrorist attacks for the past eight years, George W Bush's administration was able to sneak in a reduction of the "Death Tax" in 2010 to Zero. This meant when we finally took the express elevator to, hopefully, the top floor to see the ultimate Boss and laugh at the 27 Virgin crowd baking away further south that our assets would go where they rightfully belong; to our heirs (or in the case of Mrs Bald Man to some feline rescue and feeding house). An even sneakier Obama, in a footnote on page 127 of his budget, states the 2010 Estate Tax will remain at 2009 levels. That level, my living and breathing friends is 45%. My Catholic school education taught me that 45 is greater than 0 which means, again, this seems to be a tax increase. This is a tax on the amount of assets you have when you die, not your income. Most greatly affected by this are small business owners and farmers, many of whom have estates valued above the minimum exempted amounts. Now in fairness to The ONE, he did say you won't SEE your taxes go up. You won't, your surviving family members will; you'll be dead.

Finally, many in the country began receiving their bi-weekly tax reduction in the form of a reduction in your withholding. This government directed change in your withholding, aside from seemingly illegal to me, simply gives you more take home pay. It doesn't reduce the amount of tax you owe at the end of the year. Now, there is a credit in your withholding amount that basically is offset by this change. Supposedly it is a wash at tax time. Here's where you need to be very careful. If you are a married person filing jointly and both you and your spouse are working, you need to make sure that both of you have not had your withholding adjusted. You see, the big brains in DC told your employer to change your W-4 to reduce the amount withheld. However, this change does not take in to account your filing status. If both your and your spouse's employer adjusted your take home pay, you are going to find yourself owing the your greedy uncle next April. From experience, the cordial folks at the IRS will probably not be as forgiving to you, Joe Six-Pack, for an underpayment as they are to your average Obama Cabinet nominee who avoids $100,000 in taxes.

We are less than two weeks away from April 15, tax day; a day when the collective blood pressure of our country rises to dangerous levels. If you think it is bad this year, I think you will find the next few years becoming even more taxing.

S2

It is the thoughtlessnes that counts

What separates great from good is an attention to detail. The extra effort you put in to doing even the most mundane task shows character, desire and caring.

It was rumored that the magician Blackstone, Sr. would have cakes baked with coins in them and distributed around the theaters where he was performing so he could, while walking around, do an "impromptu" coin trick where a borrowed coin would vanish and reappear inside of a "cake that just happened to be there" at a local vendor. Everyone was amazed and the resultant word of mouth advertising virtually guaranteed a packed performance the next evening.

A few weeks ago I posted on how the Obama administration ticked off the Brits by returning a bust of Churchill that was loaned to GW Bush. I guess The ONE is a little behind on his reading of this blog as he didn't learn anything from that incisive and poignant review of his actions.

Just this week, the Prime Minister of the England, Gordon Brown and his wife, arrived in Washington for a meeting with the first African American President of the United States and his fashionable First African American First Lady wife.

I don't know if I've witnessed a Brit treated with such carelessness since Elizabeth Hurley was tossed aside for a two bit hooker by Hugh Grant. Then again, that was Brit on Brit disrespect. First, a press conference was cancelled due to snow. I guess Obama's protestations of a wimpy DC crowd regarding a little snow a few weeks ago was, like most of his statements, more "show than go".

Mr. Brown bestowed upon our fear inspiring leader gifts such as an ornamental desk pen holder made from the oak timbers of Victorian anti-slaver HMS Gannet, once named HMS President. The forethought of this gift became apparent when the holder was placed on the Oval Office's Resolute desk which just happened to have been carved from the salvaged timbers of Gannet's sister ship, HMS Resolute. Carrying the "theme" forward, the President was also bestowed the framed commission for HMS Resolute, a vessel that came to symbolise Anglo-US peace when it was saved from ice packs by Americans and given to Queen Victoria. Finally, Mr Brown gave Obama a first edition set of the seven-volume classic biography of Churchill by Sir Martin Gilbert.

In return, Barack tossed to Gordon a collection of 25 DVD movies he got from Roland Burris as a White Elephant gift at Governor Blago's house last year. I don't even think he wrapped them.

Mrs Brown didn't fair much better with America's top model of a First Lady. Sarah Brown gave Sasha and Malia Obama an outfit each from Topshop, which has just opened its first American store in New York. She also picked six children's books by British authors which are shortly to be published in America. What did Michelle offer in return? She handed over a toy replica of Marine One. British columnist Sarah Vine sums it up so well writing in the Times:

'These were gifts chosen in the true spirit of present-giving: to please the recipient, not the giver.'

Giving the Browns' two young boys a helicopter was 'fair enough'.

But she added:

'Marine One? It’s not as though anyone needs reminding that Barack Obama is President or that he has his own helicopter.

'Short of giving the boys Action Man models of her own husband smiting the evil forces of neoconservatism, Mrs Obama’s gesture could not have been more solipsistic or more inherently dismissive of Mrs Brown.

'Not only did she demonstrate that she spent approximately three seconds contemplating the needs of the Brown boys (having an aide pop to the White House gift shop for a piece of merchandising does not imply a great deal of thought), she appeared to show a most uncharacteristic lapse of judgement.'

Lapse of judgement seems to be a part of the Obama standard operating procedure. Britain, once we kicked her ass off this continent, has long been our closest ally. The simpatico between Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher was benefit for not just our two countries but for the world as a whole as these resolute leaders won the Cold War and free millions from Communism and the fear of the actions of Communists.

I only hope that, while Gordon Brown fattens up on popcorn watching his DVDs, Barack Obama pages through a few of those volumes of Churchill's life. There is little chance of that, I know.

S2