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Movies
watched and recommendations are as follows:
Anchorman 2--Ron Burgundy is back! Ron gets the news crew back together for a new 24 hour news channel in New York. Per IMDB.com, "With the 70s behind him, San Diego's top rated newsman, Ron Burgundy, returns to take New York's first 24-hour news channel by storm." To be honest it was not as funny as the first one but it had many laughs nonetheless . Recommendation is 3 out of 5 Easter Eggs.
Ride Along--Starring Ice Cube and Kevin Hart.Per IMDB.com, "Security guard Ben (played by Hart) must prove himself to his girlfriend's brother, top cop James (played by Ice Cube). He rides along James on a 24-hour patrol of Atlanta." A great ode to the buddy-cop genre! Recommendation is 3 out of 5 Easter Eggs. Lots of action and laughs!
Politics...Pork Barrel Spending. With tax day this past week I felt it was a great opportunity for another inning of wasteful government spending. When examining these items we need to ask a few questions such as 'Can we afford this at this time?' and 'Could this money have been better spent or not spent at all?' and 'Is this a national priority or is this something benefiting a special interest?' and 'Does this fit the role of the federal government, as outlined in the U.S. Constitution?'. This week's entries:
- One federal agency has charged other offices and taxpayers $50 million to provide government reports that are largely available free of charge on the Internet. It is essentially the “let me Google that for you” office of the federal government. Home to more than three million records, the Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service (NTIS) collects “government-funded scientific, technical, engineering, and business-related information” and reports and sells them to other federal agencies. Only it turns out most of what it sells can also be found for free on the Internet with little effort. Established more than 60 years ago, NTIS is a vestige of the pre-Internet era when a lot of the reports the agency collects were not widely available; however, as times have changed agency has not. Required by law to be largely self-sustaining, NTIS charges other federal agencies to access its collection of reports. However, a November 2012 review of the office by GAO uncovered that about three-quarters of the reports in the NTIS archives were available from other public sources. Specifically, “GAO estimated that approximately 621,917, or about 74 percent, of the 841,502 reports were readily available from one of the other four publicly available sources GAO searched.”
- Here is a status update no one will “like” – one of America’s largest companies avoided paying federal or state income taxes, and is poised to do so again this year. In fact, they will likely receive a check from the federal government in the form of a tax refund. Despite bringing in more than $1 billion in U.S. pretax profits last year, the social-media giant Facebook reported a combined $429 million refund from their federal and state tax filings. Uncle Sam cut a check to Facebook for roughly $295 million in 2012, according to one analysis of the company’s 10-K filing. Facebook’s first annual 10-K report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission for 2012 details the company’s use of the employee stock option tax deduction, which lowered the company’s income taxes owed to federal and state authorities by $1.03 billion last year. By providing stock options as a major form of their compensation, to date, Facebook has claimed $3.2 billion in federal and state stock option deductions, $1.03 billion of which was used to offset their total U.S. pretax profit of $1.1 billion in 2012, and $429 million was refunded from its 2010 and 2011 tax bills. The remaining $2.17 billion in stock option tax deductions can now be carried forward by the company and used to offset future tax liabilities. This rollover, in addition to currently outstanding employee stock options, may once again make this year’s tax bill disappear.
- Sometimes working in the Senate is stressful and means staying up all night to get your projects done. Fortunately, overworked and under-slept staffers can take one of dozens of lifestyle coaching classes offered by the Senate to ensure they’re okay. The Senate Office of Education and Training offers Senate employees a wide variety of free courses on everything from the “Benefits of a Good Night’s Sleep” to “Pressure Point Therapy Workshop,” in which students are taught “how to locate and relieve active pressure. For its efforts, the office was provided $1.9 million in 2013 according to information provided by the office of the Senate Sergeant at Arms.
- When Americans borrow money from banks, they are usually also required to pay them back with money. When U.S. sugar producers borrow money from the taxpayer, however, they can pay it back with sugar. It’s all part of a convoluted, money-losing scheme to sweeten sugar producers’ bottom lines – known as the U.S. Sugar Program. In 2013 alone, the government lost $171.5 million because sugar companies could not pay back the government for money it borrowed. The 2008 Farm Bill created the Feedstock Flexibility Program (FFP) to increase the use of ethanol and biofuels. Under this program, the government is required, in times of surplus, to buy sugar from processors and to re-sell the sugar to ethanol plants. Since the 2012-2013 sugar harvest season is the first to yield a surplus, taxpayers are witnessing the program’s wastefulness for the first time. In August, the first use of the FFP, the USDA bought only 7,118 tons out of 100,000 tons of sugar offered for resale. USDA then sold this sugar to an ethanol maker at a $2.7 million loss.
3rd Inning.
Background Investigator with my current employer (Classified)...Information Booth attendant at the Reng Center (We gave directions, sold newspapers, and made popcorn), Arkansas State University...Picture framer assistant (Got to help frame some very cool items including some historical documents from before the Civil War)...Park Maintenance worker with the City of Grandview and also with the City of Leawood (I was the guy that got to hose out the park bathrooms where apparently toilets were optional and got to dump the trash cans full of maggoty meat from your weekend picnic)...
4th Inning.
American History Lesson...Income Tax. As another April 15th comes and goes and too many of us cross our fingers that we understood the tax forms and completed our returns correctly, do we know the origin of this infamous ritual? Per the Library of Congress, "The origin of the income tax on individuals is generally cited as the passage of the 16th Amendment, passed by Congress on July 2, 1909, and ratified February 3, 1913; however, its history actually goes back even further. During the Civil War Congress passed the Revenue Act of 1861 which included a tax on personal incomes to help pay war expenses. The tax was repealed ten years later. However, in 1894 Congress enacted a flat rate Federal income tax, which was ruled unconstitutional the following year by the U.S. Supreme Court because it was a direct tax not apportioned according to the population of each state. The 16th amendment, ratified in 1913, removed this objection by allowing the Federal government to tax the income of individuals without regard to the population of each State. April 15th has not always been the filing deadline. March 1st was the date specified by Congress in 1913, after the passage of the 16th amendment. In 1918 Congress pushed the date forward to March 15th, where it remained until the tax overhaul of 1954, when the date was again moved ahead to April 15th."
If you take a moment to study the history of this amendment and the chaos it has left in its path, as well as, the political football that gets thrown back and forth between the Democrats and Republicans over how "they are going to fix it" or how "they are going to make (enter political/socioeconomic class) pay their fair share" you should know the game is fixed. What we need is a replacement of the tax system. There are others out there and we should be able to do better than our current one. For more information on the history of the amendment you can click here. A good little video explaining the history of the income tax and what could be done or not done in today's society is below. Enjoy!
5th Inning.
Per Wikipedia, "A series of injuries nearly ended Supernaw's career after his first album's release. After recovering from a broken neck suffered while surfing, he was involved in a head-on car collision. Finally, he was hospitalized after a nearly-fatal case of food poisoning. Once he had recovered from the food poisoning, he recorded his second album for BNA, 1994's Deep Thoughts from a Shallow Mind. Of the album's three singles, only the Dennis Linde-penned "What'll You Do About Me" (previously a single in 1984 for Steve Earle, and in 1992 for The Forester Sisters) entered Top 40 on the country music charts."
6th Inning.
Articles of the week...
- REPEAL 16..."It is time for the FairTax and Flat Tax supporters to unite behind a plan to eliminate the IRS, repeal the 16th Amendment, and start over." I am a supporter of the Fair Tax and I believe we can do better than the current tax system.
- Prepping..."Water is the most crucial and diverse aspect of preparing for the breakdown of our society. Where do you get your water now? Is it from the city? Is it from an artesian well? A shallow well? Do you have lakes or streams near your house? Are those your sense of water security? Is your swimming pool an ever-available water backup? All of these pieces mesh into a fairly large body of possibilities, and points of failure." Just because I prep doesn't mean the aliens won't invade Earth...
- Unions on the Right Side..."A construction trades union is jumping into the 2014 midterms. While it isn't surprising when a union engages in politics, this particular union is going against the usual grain for union political expenditures by using its campaign dollars to threaten Democrats. The union is going after those who oppose the construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline." Now there has been much discussion in the media about the political infighting on the right between the Tea Party folks and the GOP establishment but let's not forget the left has its own internal mess.
- Tesla..."Governor Chris Christie’s administration blocked Tesla Motors Inc. (TSLA), the electric-car maker that doesn’t have franchised retail dealers, from direct auto sales in a move the company said could shutter its only two stores in New Jersey." I'm torn on this subject as I don't want the government picking winners and losers in the free market but come on you New Jersey idiots!
- Yelling 'Fire'..."Every time there’s a discussion about gun laws in the United States, someone invariably brings up the old line about how you “can’t yell fire in a crowded building” as the example of a reasonable restriction on rights. But where does that phrase come from? What does it mean? And what’s the appropriate parallel for gun rights in the United States? I’m no lawyer, but having read the applicable case law and possessing a modicum of common sense, I think I finally have a handle on this." A great piece on the 1st and 2nd Amendments.
- Movin' South..."In the past six months, three preeminent firearm manufacturers—Ruger, Beretta, and Remington—announced plans to build new gun factories, and it’s no coincidence that all three chose not to expand at current locations." I always wondered why some of the oldest and major firearm manufacturers still operate in some of the strictest gun control states...I am also amazed at how those same states are where the American Revolution began.
- Star-Hunters...A cool little pictorial on Hollywood stars that like to hit the outdoors and hunt!
- Searching for ballplayers..."Cam Perron was Googling himself (hey, we've all done it) when he came across an Internet article about the death of his friend, John Dawson. Though Perron is only 19, this happens every so often. He finds out another one of his pen pals or phone buddies is dead and gone, and he is reminded of the shelf life that accompanies his peculiar-yet-impactful passion for tracking down former Negro League players and learning about their history in the game." A very cool kid doing a very cool thing!
- Right to Bear Arms...A very cool national GIF image on the right-to-carry in every state since the 1980s!
7th Inning.
Firearms Corner...To follow up on the article above...As more and more people make their first firearm purchase with plans to get a conceal carry license, it is important to know how misrepresented the statistics are against those pro-2nd Amendment legislation and how much the scare tactics play a part in limiting our rights, especially when it comes to where/when we can take our concealed firearm. Dom Raso with NRA News has a good video to set things straight. You can check out more of his videos here or here.
8th Inning.
FFL Factoid...Top 8 Questions Asked by FFLs on the ATF website. #4: How do I add responsible persons to my FFL?
- Neither the Gun Control Act (GCA) nor its implementing regulations specifically define the term “responsible person.” ATF derives its interpretation of that term from 18 U.S.C. § 923(d)(1)(B), to mean an individual who has the power to direct the management and policies of the business entity for which the Federal firearms license is being applied. Reference the March 2006 FFL Newsletter: http://www.atf.gov/files/publications/newsletters/ffl/ffl-newsletter-2006–03.pdf.
- An existing responsible person (RP) under the applicable Federal firearms license must request the addition of the new RP in writing. Written correspondence can be addressed directly to the appropriate Federal Firearms Licensing Center (FFLC) examiner on letterhead or by email. The addition of a new RP does not have to be submitted on a Form 7. Photographs and fingerprint cards (FPC) must be submitted in addition to all required personal information. This required information includes full legal name, position, social security number, home address (including addresses the person has had for the last five years), country of citizenship (list more than one, if applicable), place of birth (City and State or Foreign Country), date of birth, race and ethnicity, sex, and home telephone number. If the RP being added to the license is currently an RP on an existing license, no new photographs, or FPCs need to be submitted, however a new background check must be completed before approval of the addition can occur.
- To find your FFLC examiner, please visit http://www.atf.gov/files/contact/service-centers/fflc-distribution-map.pdf. Corporate account examiners and a staff directory can be found at http://www.atf.gov/contact/service-centers/index.html.
- To delete an existing RP under the applicable license, each licensee must also request this deletion in writing to the FFLC.
Baseball Video...Royals top ten highlights over the years...This week's entry--Justin Maxwell Game-Walk Off Grand Slam 2013 to end the season's homestand...
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