Monthly Archives: April 2010

April 17, 2010 · 10:23 am

Tea Party misses the real villains

http://www.alternet.org/story/146502/the_tea_party_crowd_needs_to_wake_up_to_who_the_real_villains_are

The Tea Party folk won’t wake up to the real issue. The don’t want to, and there are political elements, mostly tied to the Republican Party, but not exclusively, that don’t want the people, Tea Party or otherwise, to look behind the curtain, because these wizards (of Wall Street) won’t take you home; but they’ll take your home, and your car, and your bank account, and your credit rating. Nope, we’re definitely not in Kansas anymore. Unfortunately, the people of Kansas — and elsewhere — don’t seem to care. This curtain is not of cloth nor iron, but gold, and the shininess of greed is too hard to breach.

Post Script:
http://baselinescenario.com/2010/04/17/pecora-moment/
Further information as to who caused the problem.

Leave a comment

Filed under Kansas, politics, taxes, Tea Party, villains

Tagged as , , , ,

April 14, 2010 · 11:24 am

The “murder” of the English Language

It is a pity to live under a tax system where you must be smarter to figure out what you owe in taxes than the brain power it took to earn the money to begin with. I have a Master’s degree in English and have written for two small daily newspapers, two small national magazines, and have worked with scientists and engineers on technical documents and consumer documents, and the tax code is the worst cluster fubar of the English language that I have ever seen. It reads like it went through a meat grinder of politicians, lawyers (I know, any more using politician and lawyer in the same sentence is redundant), lobbyists (ubiquitous as cockroaches and also often lawyers) and bureaucrats, and what came out the other end would be suitable for use as secret code in any war. Nobody could decipher it. Not even us.

On top of that, you can get advise from an IRS representative, but it’s not legally binding.

I’m not a TEA party activist, but doing your taxes should not be an industry all to itself with preparers acting like the oracles at Delphi, or a chore, if done by yourself, relegated to the level of near madness.

Leave a comment

Filed under Random Access Thoughts, taxes, words, writing

Tagged as , ,

April 13, 2010 · 9:10 pm

“Guest Host” newsletter editor

A piece of my recent handiwork: http://www.oldnorthknoxville.org/newsletter/Jun2010/letter6_10.pdf. I was asked to help out, so over the weekend put this newsletter together, including creating the composite logo by blending the circle and the rooftops. Not too bad for a ham handed graphic arts attempt.

The previous newsletter editor was suddenly no longer available to do it, so the Old North Knoxville neighborhood president asked for my help. I had done the newsletter for four years from 2002 to 2006, so I knew most of the drill. She supplied a large share of the photos and copy, though there were also many of my photos (mostly of people at volunteer events) that I supplied along with the write ups.

I also converted the photos from color to black and white since the newsletter is going to be printed and mailed to about 800 households in the Old North Knoxville neighborhood. And I did the layout.

It’s not bad for a rush job. The neighborhood has not had a newsletter since November 2009 and they usually come out 6 times a year. That’s why this one was 8 pages instead of the normal six.

Leave a comment

Filed under Documentation, newsletter, Old North Knoxville, writing

Tagged as , ,

April 1, 2010 · 1:01 pm

So, you want to be a hero? Part III

A place to meet

Batman has his Batcave. Superman has his Fortress of Solitude. Do you and your family have a place to meet should there be a natural or man-made catastrophe and you are all in different places?

If you don’t, then you need to decide on at least one place where everybody would meet.

Assume that telephone communication is out, including cell phone. Where would you meet? Where would be your Fortress away from your home?

Unlike Batman or Superman, this will not be a place where you will stay (though I guess it could be), but a designated place you all know to go to should there be a calamity large enough to keep you from returning to your home.

You might also want to have a backup for this meeting place, in case this rendezvous point is also destroyed.

After all, the calamity might just happen when you are at work or school.

Leave a comment

Filed under CERT, certificate, hero, Random Access Thoughts, rendezvous, training

Tagged as , , , ,