April 15th, Tax Day - Losing Exemtions

Well, both Number One and Number Two daughters are no longer tax exemptions for us.

Last year, we had to pay $29 in additional Federal Income Tax.

This year, it's somewhat more than that, but not too bad.

Time to resubmit my W-4 at work with them taking out additional tax with every payday.

I'd rather have a little coming back to me than to have to pay, because in my life, it seems like there's always something, a car needing repair, home repairs, or other expense that needs doing around April 15th.

Makes it tough to pay taxes.

I have our taxes all filled out, and a check for what we owe in the envelope with the tax forms, and one of them already-been-licked stamps from the US Postal Service on the front, all ready to mail.

I'll drop it off at the Post Office sometime tonight.

Can't let the government have my money one more day than necessary.

Did you know that, if the Obama administration confiscated ALL income from those taxpayers making $75,000 per year or more, it still wouldn't be enough to cover the budget his administration submitted to Congress this year?

All income, from all tax payers who make $75,000 a year or more, isn't enough money to finance Obama's first budget.

The over $10,000 we paid in Federal Taxes this year isn't even a drop in the bucket for Obama, but it sure puts a hurt on us.

As a family, we have to live within what Lovely Wife and I net in our paychecks.

There's a dark day coming for America because of how all US presidents and Congresses have overspent.

Sword Fight! And Also Something Really Rare

Two men and a woman died as a result of two men fighting with swords in Indianapolis.

Rondeau and Adolf Stegbauer got into an argument at a home in the 5200 block of Raceway Road that escalated when one of the men grabbed a sword, prompting the other man to also brandish a sword.

Sword fighting is pretty rare these days.

Even more rare is the use of the word "brandish" in a sentence.

This reporter got a two-fer.

Cool.

Kudos to President Obama

I know that it would not be easy to give someone authority to kill another person, but when Somalian pirates took an American ship captain, Richard Phillips, captive, President Obama allowed the US Navy people on site make the decision to use force to rescue the American prisoner if they deemed the prisoner to be in imminent danger.

During tense negotiations, the Somali pirates were seen to have their AK-47s pointed at the kidnapped American ship captain.

From the nearby US Navy ship, snipers shot three pirates with guns pointed at their captive.

The captain was rescued by US Navy Seals.

Hats off to a gutsy call by President Obama to allow the Seals to do what they are trained to do.

Of course, now critics are whining and moaning and predicting a rise in violence, and indeed, the pirates still alive have promised to hurt American or French captives in the future, but they should understand that when you point a gun at someone, you have opened the door to having one used on yourself.

Can you imagine the skill of a person with a rifle who could pick off bad guys bobbing around on a boat, while themselves on a ship in the ocean?

There's no glory in killing someone, but when a terrorist kidnaps an innocent person and points a gun at this person, it's serious. In my opinion, by kidnapping and holding a gun on the kidnapped person, that man has opened the door to be killed himself.

I'm proud of our Navy, and I'm proud President Obama was able to make such a tough call.

Our Special Forces are heroes.

I think Obama and the US Navy did the right thing.

A Cool Place To Kill Some Time

Bored?

Tired of looking at the same old web sites?

Nothing good for sale on Ebay?

Like good photography?

Go over and see the archives at Life Magazine.

Their archive is searchable and there are millions of images there. You can look at everything from classic life photos up to present day images.

I personally tend to get a bigger emotional impact from the older stuff for some reason. (I have always loved National Geographic's photography too, except for articles on bugs and spiders.)

The site won't let you download anything, but you can link to photos.

Here are a few samples from WWII.

An Excellent Find

In the early 1980s, around 1983, I read a book called Long Voyage Back by Luke Rhinehart.

When I was growing up, my parents would go to the local paperback book exchange and take in at least two paper sacks of books they had read, and come home with a couple of sacks of books that needed reading.

It was pretty much a genetic given, that I would love to read.

I didn't read much for pleasure until after I got out of high school though. I began to read more and more around the first time I was in college.

I don't read a lot of non-fiction for pleasure. I have to read so much technical stuff for work, and I buy engineering texts to help keep current with technology changes for work, so when I read for pleasure, I tend to read fiction novels. (I do like to read non-fiction about physics and mathematics, however.)

In one of my parent's sacks of paperbacks, I found and read Long Voyage Back.

It was my first post-apocalyptic novel.

Something about the story just struck me, probably because I had always been intrigued by "marooned on desert island" or "last man on earth" type stories and movies.

The book has as it's background, and all-out nuclear conflict between America and the USSR, but never gets very close to the actual bomb sites.

The main character is a US Naval Academy graduate, Navy veteran, and current captain for hire on rich folk's sailboats.

As the story begins, he's coming into Chesapeake Bay to bring a man his sailboat, when a flash occurs to the north. Washington has been nuked.

The story follows this man, the boat's owner and son, and others as they flee fallout to the ocean and for months as they try to survive.

The book has a good, hopeful ending, which I'm a sucker for, and it just really stuck with me.

Over the years I've read many other post-apocalyptic novels, and some were more intricate and complex than Long Voyage Back, but that one always stayed in the back of my mind.

Several years ago, I thought about the book, but couldn't remember the name or author, but since Al Gore was nice enough to invent this here internet thingy, I did a search and found that folks have whole web sites on post-apocalyptic novels.

One site I found had a list of one man's favorite books in this genre, as well as a brief synopsis of each book. I read through his list, and sure enough, he mentioned this book and I was able to relearn the title and author.

I always wanted a copy of this book, but it's out of print, and paperback copies of it that I had seen, can be $15-$20, so I never bought one.

But a couple of weeks ago, I found a web store called Alibris, which has a huge network of book stores and I was able to locate a very good condition hardback version of Long Voyage Back, with dust jacket, for a mere $10.

I couldn't resist. So for less than $15 with shipping, I finally got a good copy of this old favorite of mine. (I'm one of those people who likes to reread books I really like every few years.)

So for me, this was a fun, inexpensive score.

It was great to reread the book.

Some good post apocalyptic novels that I've read:
Long Voyage Back by Luke Rhinehart
Swan Song by Robert McCammon
The Stand by Steven King
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Lucifer's Hammer by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

I Needed A Laugh

Frank J., founder and fount of incredibly funny wisdom, at IMAO, had a blog post about dubious things that Europeans do and say, and had this final remark:

I’m just glad there is an ocean between us and Europe. We should fill it with sea monsters (like Predator X) to be on the safe side, though.

That just cracked me up for some reason. I got a mental picture of old drawings of sea monsters and stuff, keeping us from being contaminated by European ways.

Picture Post, Sunday April 5, 2009

Cars And Guitars

Kowabunga, Dude!

Several shots of a custom Dodge in front of Ron Jon Surf Shop in Cocoa Beach, Florida. I'm no surfer (too old, too fat, don't care), but I'd be proud to drive this ride around.



This inexpensive copy of a Telecaster Thinline was my present from Santa this past Christmas. I suck too much as a player to plunk down $900 for a "real" one with the Fender logo, but this SX brand copy is easily as good as Fender's Squier range of guitars. And at a mere $150, easy on the wallet.

The bridge area of an SX brand Stratocaster copy that I've had for several years. I guarantee this is the best $100 guitar you will ever find. (Yes, literally, $99.99) And the pickups are surprisingly good; this thing has great tone.