I would love to say that personal income taxes in the US are a joke, but it's no laughing matter. The US and individual state governments are serious enough about tax collection to put people in prison when they fail to file or pay their personal income taxes.
For the uninitiated, please read about OpenID at the source. For a quick and dirty lowdown, all you need to know is that OpenID is a centralized password system which is supposed to be secure.
At the end of my rant, I'll explain the reference to "Filipinos make me puke", which Art Bell never said or wrote anywhere.
Look closely at the little picture I've placed to your left. US Representative William Delahunt committed an act of treason against the country of the United States of America on June 26, 2008. The American Heritage dictionary defines treason as the "Violation of allegiance toward one's country or sovereign, especially the betrayal of one's country by waging war against it or by consciously and purposely acting to aid its enemies." Even if treason can't be proven, Delahunt has still committed a crime.
I wanted to wait to publish this until after it became November 11th in Arizona, USA, the place of my birth. I'm always 15 hours ahead of Arizona here in the Philippines, on the other side of the world. China, Japan and other Asian countries are literally at my back door.
As a military retiree and a veteran of foreign wars myself, I appreciate everything that those that went before me and those that followed after me have achieved. I'm not spouting any rhetoric about right or wrong; I'm simply remembering those that deserve to be remembered. November 11th is Veterans Day in the US and it's also Remembrance Day in Canada (also Australia and the UK), a fact I wasn't quite aware of until reading about the two minutes to remember.
My article about old habits dying hard was strangely appropriate for this time of year, albeit subconsciously. November 10th, the day before Veterans Day, is the birthday of the US Marine Corps. I am a retired US Marine, so both the birthday and Veterans Day are easy to remember.
Politicians don't seem to appreciate veterans the way "normal" people do and often use the day to publicize their propaganda. It's one of the reasons I think all veterans should invest in two or more of these:
My short, previous post, I Have To Stop Blogging…, was my attempt at subtle humor. I'm not that easily offended by anyone, especially faceless people thousands of miles away from me.
Little did I know when I went to sleep, that PUD (Philippine Utility Department) would cut power for the entire day. The first notification was this morning, after power had been cut — a neighbor heard it on the radio. They said they would be doing it for three days the same way, restoring power only at night. My mother-in-law returned from downtown this afternoon and said there were rumors they would be doing it for five days total. Perhaps they won't do it on Saturday and Sunday where days two and three would be Monday and Tuesday. I don't know how these government workers think, so I have no idea what the heck is going on.
Had I known I would be without power all day, I would have finished up everything I could before the power got cut and then went to sleep. As always, PUD never tells us about it until after the fact. What's really annoying about it all is they have no secondary power supply. It looks like I need to save up to buy a backup generator. I don't think it will help with the water (which also runs off the same power) so I'll probably have to save up for a gravity tank (similar to a bladder).
It's just another day in the life and times of RT Cunningham. I have so much catching up to do now, it's ridiculous. Forget about anything new unless I can manage to squeeze it in somehow.
MANILA, April 1 – An unidentified man is reported to have glued himself to the presidential chair in Malacañang Palace, the official residence of the President of the Philippines.
Raw footage from television crews being evacuated from the Heroes Hall where the incident is unfolding show a middle-aged male surrounded by bewildered security personnel and paramedics.
Preliminary reports indicate that he has handed a note with unspecified demands.
MORE HERE:
The fact that almost everyone hates to pay taxes is not open for debate. I'm here to remind you that without the necessary evil of taxation, none of us would enjoy the freedoms we've worked so hard to obtain.
While I can't list everything that taxes pay for, I can list a few so you can understand a little of what I'm talking about. Taxes pay for:
Those are only a few. If I was willing to think about it, I could probably come up with a hundred more. I think you get the point. All you have to do is leave the US for a short period of time and visit countries where taxes are not used in the same way and you'll see the difference. I do because I'm living in one of those countries.
Do I agree that taxes are portioned out fairly to Americans? No. Do I think people should refuse to pay taxes? No. What I think we need is a fairer system of tax collection and that's why the flat tax initiatives and the "Fair Tax" bill deserve more consideration than lip service by politicians when they're trying to drum up support for reelection.
Americans cheat on their taxes. It's a fact. It shouldn't make you wonder, though, because anyone in their right mind would want to keep as much of what they've earned as possible. I'm not saying I advocate cheating, I just understand it. Perhaps less Americans would cheat if they could actually see what their taxes are being used for. The state and federal governments are not exactly transparent in their liberal use of our tax money, to put it mildly.
In my own very humble opinion, the benefits of paying taxes far outweigh the non-benefits (as I mentioned in my article, Americans Own Nothing!).
I have a simple question for the anti-Bush crowd who believe he lied, etc. I've been sitting on the fence on this issue since the start of the war. I do not have all the facts and of course, neither do you. My question does not deal with lies or deception.
If Bush and company had been right about Iraq all along, but decided not to invade Iraq, what position would the US be in now, almost four years later?
Please limit your opinions to answers to the question. Comments outside that scope will be summarily deleted.
Sometimes, in my own anger at what I read and hear, I post articles which reflect my mood. Today, I took time to sit back and read some history, both of the US and the Philippines.
Both countries are guilty of atrocities in the past. More so in the US because of its age. The history of the US is littered with examples of inhumanity, including the continued slavery of Africans that started before the US even became a country. The emancipation of the slaves during the presidency of Abraham Lincoln in 1863 took more than a century to guarantee the rights of their descendants.
I'm not here to give a history lesson. The US did some really nasty things during the evolution of the country. The Philippines did so as well. The secret to maintaining a healthy relationship between the US and the Philippines is to forgive the past without forgetting what happened. Only then can we move forward in a sustained partnership.
Those who fail to remember the past are doomed to repeat it, or something like that.
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