Random Items

Too tired to write coherently on one topic.

Thoughts on the following topics:

Taxes:
Had the taxes done today. The guy made me sweat it out, but in the end I overpaid the goverment for the 7th year in a row. Thank you day care credit and deductable mortgage interest.

Super Bowl
I'm not excited at all for this game. I like Dungy, but I don't think he's going to win. The Colts gave up 375 yards rushing to the Jaguars and the Bears have 2 good running backs. The Colts' backs (Joseph Addai and Dominic Rhodes) have had their moments, but the Colts could sure use Edgerrin James about now. Plus, it's on grass.

Minnesota High School Wrestlers
The Minnesota State High School League shut down wrestling for the next eight days because of the herpes gladitorium outbreak among their ranks. The virus affects the neck and face and can, in some cases, lead to blindness if it infects the eyes. Wouldn't make sense to cover all of their skin? From what I understand, once you get this virus you have it for life. What do the future spouses of these wrestlers think about that? Will they be infected? How about future kids? If it's serious enough to stop all wrestling why not have the wrestlers cover up and avoid the skin contact as much as possible?

Global Warming
I didn't worry about Y2K. After 9/11 I didn't buy plastic and duct tape to seal up my house from a chemical attack. My basement does not have a radon detector. These predicted events never materialized (yet) and I didn't take them seriously or worry about them at the time. But global warming scares the crap out of me.

You hear people talk about the science. Is it to be believed? I believe Will Steger. The arctic sea ice is thinning. Antarctica has calved monstrous glaciers. What hurt the credibility of global warming is that the true effect is climate change. Some areas will cool, others will receive more rainfall, while others the opposite effects.

According to Steger, we can look forward to Minnesota becoming a Kansas-like climate. Picture mild winters and hot, dry summers. Precipitation decreases and our wetlands dry up.

The solution is to cut greenhouse gases. By doing so we have a win-win situation. We, hopefully, mitigate the effects of global warming while cutting our dependance on non-renewable energy sources (oil, coal, natural gas). Imagine what our foreign policy would be like if we did not import oil.

The existing renewable sources of energy can be expanded without too much of an economic impact on households, but what we need is a multi-directional assault on this problem. We need research and innovation from several branches of science to cut use of fossil fuels to a level that will be acceptable.

It isn't just the US that can solve this. If we never burned another drop of oil, coal, or natural gas would we be out of the woods? What about China's growing appetite for oil and coal? There are 300 million Americans and over 1 billion Chinese.

Imagine what the situation would be like now if our government had adopted the Kyoto Protocol 15 years ago.

Steve Forbes Would Make This Simpler

Tomorrow is tax day for us. We've been going to the same guy now for 5 or 6 years now. The first year I went he charged me $50. The second year he charged me $75 and said that he'll bump me up to $100 next year. We've been paying $75 ever since.

I like the guy. I heard about him from a retired friend from work. I asked if he knew anybody good around town and said, "I'll tell you what, Danny. You go to this guy. He's excellent and he hates the government."

I'm not sure about that (it doesn't come up at our annual meetings), but I do know that we pay a lot in taxes. I don't think about taxes when I get my check because it's not that dramatic of an amount to get too excited about. On the W-2 however, it's a different story. That amount + day care + interest on our mortgage = a helluva lot of money.

We could do the taxes ourselves (I'm told that people do that). I'd rather give myself a dental filling. Those limp gray tax forms you can pick up at the local library make my attention span revert to its 10th grade geometry class length.

I wonder what happened to Steve Forbes and his flat tax? Would you just have 17% taken out of your paycheck and be done. No deductions, breaks, penalties? No goverment officials sneaking tax ammendments into wildlife bills? This could be a new documentary: Who Killed the Flat Tax?