spike TV

You know i really should stop watching spike TV. It has caused me to want to take martial art classes so i can become a ultimate fighter.

Now they want me to make my own diesel, and I think it is a great idea.

I want one.

FuelMeister

cube

What I am reading now

Notice a lot of posts lately? Yeah, 24 hours of duty with nothing to do but surf. Anyway, I am reading the last book of Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I wouldn't really recommend it, but I seem compelled to finish a series after I start it. I picked up the first few books from USO libraries in Iraq. And now I feel like I have invested so much time that I need to finish. I am waiting for amazon to deliver some Bukowski and then I will be a little bit happier.

The Rumblings of Big War

Check out this article. It helps to explain why Iran feels that it is in a position to oppose the west right now. America's forces are spread arguably thin, and they are now also within striking distance of Iran. That makes a full fledged attack unlikely, and small scale precision bombings impossible. Iran also controls enough oil to affect gas prices, especially if it is threatened with any embargoes. So right now Iran is feeling particularly fearful of any economic or military actions. And should they? With other Middle East countries like Pakistan and Israel already possessing nuclear weapons, how hard would it be to unite the UN to take decisive action against a country claiming to want only nuclear power? (ok, I don't believe that either but that is what they are saying)

Lost and Found and Friends

I recently joined myspace because I heard one of my old friends was on there. So far I met a guy that started an internet cult with me in 1997 and my best friend from 1994. We live on different continents now, and probably won't start hanging out any time soon, but it's still nice to see how people are doing. Moving around a lot sometimes gives the impression that past friends and aquantainces have just ceased to exist. Finding them sort of confirms your past. Hopefully in good ways. It's like your own personal VH1 Where are They Now special. That is definitely one of the better parts of the internet. And sometimes it works out. I found my buddy from basic training (three years ago) and he just came in to visit last week. It turns out that he was going to be passing through when I happened to be home. So quit reading this shit and look up some of your old friends.

Middle East and Perpetual War

I don't think there is much hope for the region in general. Iran continues to antagonize the countries making up the UN Security Council. Iraq and Afghanistan are still years away from being considered safe and secure countries. Look for tourism to pick up there around 2098. Now Palestinians have elected a terrorist organization for their government. I don't think the inhabitants of these places have any desire to use diplomacy. Could this region spark the next world war? Why not. There are deep seated religious and political conflicts. None of the various religious groups look ready to resolve issues between one another, and even those of the same religion are willing to fight based on differences in ethniticity. This area is currently not as violent as parts of Africa, but their links to the outside world are much more substantial. The area is too important to be ignored. It contains most of the world's oil, which is a necessary resource in just about every country. The US is already dug in, with hundreds of thousands of troops deployed. It is also Russia's backyard. Then you have Israel, which is always a concern of the UN since the country was created at the end of the last world war. Any conflict in the area will demand a response by the most powerful economic, political, and military organizations that the world has ever seen. Not to mention the global concern with international terrorism that seems to be centered there. The only question seems to be how long this situation can run before it explodes into a major war.

An important roundup

Recently, I have seen several high quality posts on the internet that give you lots of advice and knowledge about handgun and handgun calibers. So if you are looking for you first handgun, I estimate that these three posts will cut your search time down by quite a bit.

I present.

Picking your first defensive handgun
So, you wanna buy your first pistol?
Serious Chamberings, for Serious Purposes.

Good luck.

cube

24

Yea, yea, I am late...bite me. I was in Tulsa and drove back to memphis after monday night's show...and I have been real tired.

I hope you are watching 24 this season, the first 10 mins of the first show were most explosive of any show I have seen. The writers of 24 killed off 2 of the most beloved characters and seriously injuried another. Awsome.

The body count should be up sometime tommrow, because the last 10 mins of the 4th hour were so good I stopped counting and have to wait on a friend to send me his more complete TiVoed checked numbers.

Here are a few things that I have found on the internet about 24.

To be the man: "Who would win in a fight Jack Bauer or Chuck Norris?"
and from the same site....."When life gave Jack Bauer lemons, he used them to kill terrorists. Jack Bauer hates lemonade."

Clarified: "President dumbass, has, if that's even possible, seemed to have gotten dumber. The Bush administration must love this show, makes our President look like Mensa material."

The OX Rant: "Jack Bauer on privacy..."

cube

Historic Taxation

This post is the first post in a seris of posts on the federal tax system of america. I will be discussing many different areas of the american tax system. I hope this discussion will prove to be informative, useful as a reference tool, and, towards the end, provocative.

Importance of a Tax System

The issue of taxes are filled with econmic, social, and moral implications. Taxes have a large broad based effect on the American society. Every single person in america is affected by taxes, which means the effects will be complex and large in scope. Taxes affect consumer actions, pesonal finance decsions, and corparate strategies. The structure of a tax system helps determine the value of additonial work. The benefit of additional labor helps determine the amount indivudals work on average. The average amount a country works affects the unemployment rate, living standards, and social norms.

To further complicate matters, taxes have been used as a poltical tool to serve different social purposes. Some countires have used taxes to fund large social programs. Taxes have been used as a tool to even out social inequalities, such as wealth. In the past they have been used, injustly at times, to control indivdual's behavior, as in the poll taxes that black southerners paid.

Taxes repersent the taking an indivudals wealth. When the govemerment takes somthing from a person in America, it is generally understood that the govmerment gives what it has taken back. Wherther it be in social services or a strong national defense, people expect to recive somthing from the govmernt. In the wrong hands taxes can be used to limit freedom, in the right hands they can be used to fufill obligations that a goverment has.


Historic View of the Tax System

An excellent start to understanding the entire history of the American tax system can be found at the U.S. Treasury Department's website. I will give a short overview of what they have mentioned, and then provide some additional comments on the tax system.

The U.S. Treasury Deparment divides the history of the US tax system into 9 major parts: Colonial Times, the Post Revolutionary Era, the Civil War, World War I and the 1920's, World War II, developments after World War II, the Reagan Tax Cut, the Tax Reform Act of 1986, and the Bush Tax Cut. The also have short sections on the 16th Amendment and the Social Security Tax in chronicalogical order.

Until 1789 their was not a national tax. Under England the colonial government had limited need for revenue and under the Articles of Confederation the national goverment relied on "on donations from the States for its revenue". Both the indivdual colonies and the states where the ones with the revenue needs and were the ones who did the taxing.

A graphical repersentation of the decreaing progressive tax system can be found here

http://www.econ.nyu.edu/user/wolffe/LevyLivingStandardsMay2002.pdf
on page 28

Historic Rates of poverty

http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/poverty.html
http://www.census.gov/hhes/poverty/poverty03/graphs03.html

historic rates of the standard of living

Wikipedia article

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_of_living_in_the_United_States

funny Europeans

Don't ya think it is funny how the Europeans will not let their own people have guns but yet think it is ok for Iran to have nukes.

cube

Wal-Mart wants to make it's own bank

http://money.cnn.com/2006/01/04/news/companies/walmart_bank/index.htm?cnn=yes

I have not heard of this. Sounds interesting, apparently they just want the bank to handle their transaction s and are not interested in branch banking.

If Wal-Mart puts in a branch bank, it will be open 24 hours and only Mexicans will bank there. They also will be cheaper than all the other banks in town. Sounds cool to me.

If Wal-mart does this, they probably will be responsible for another percentage point worth of total GDP.

cube