The usual suspects are taking full advantage of the ignorance of the people

Politicians are screeching of the inherent evil of Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire. They act like Musk has a big, giant vault somewhere with piles and piles of cash in it and somehow he has cheated everyone out of paying his fair share of taxes.

That's bull$hit. 

"He isn't paying taxes on that money!" is a common gripe. 

What money? It's not like he was handed cash. The value of his stocks in SpaceX just went up.

What's even more interesting is that when Musk broke the trillionaire cap he created 4400 millionaires in the process. Employees that took advantage of SpaceX's stock options had their shares go up at the same rate Musk's shares increased and 4400 people became instant millionaires, some made tens of millions.

Umpteen years ago I won a company whatever and became the proud owner of $5K worth of company stocks which I simply sat on it a while paying no attention to it whatsoever. I had no tax liability because it wasn't income and had no negotiable value. 

Later on several years later there was a buyback from the company and I sold it back to the company for about $8K. Because I had cashed it out it had generated income and I paid taxes on the entire $8K. 

Meanwhile the usual suspects are screeching to their minions about a 'wealth tax' which would force the on paper rich to sell off assets to pay the taxes. Not only would this hurt the wealthy but it would hurt the rest of us in varying degrees.

Personally I'm a pretty spiteful kind of guy when I get riled up.

If they enacted a tax on unrealized capital gains I would sell it all, pay the taxes immediately and shift about $100 million cash offshore and retire someplace that has good weather. 

If Musk did this it's pretty likely that the stock market would take a very serious dive and throw us all into a recession. Fortunes would be lost, people would lose jobs and there would be sadness throughout the land.

Someone put it better than I did.

Musk is not sitting on a pile of cash.

His wealth is simply his part ownership in corporate assets of production.

Worse yet, his trillion dollar worth is not current cash.

He has to produce enough goods and services in the future to make the present value of those expected revenues come true,

which means making things people actually want,

instead of being taxed.

That is the essence of free market enterprise.

You only get income if people want to buy your goods and services of their own free will, not at gunpoint or the prospect of jail,

as with all government so-called services.

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Las Vegas and Johnny Weissmuller.

Back in the day Vegas used to do a few things out of both kindness and to attract business.

Johnny Weismuller, the definitive Tarzan, was scratching  his ass financially so the MGM Grand and Ceasar's Palace hired him to be a 'celebrity greeter' which I think was a cool thing to do.

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Net worth just went up.

One of the things I notice is that many people don't understand things. Take the rich. They think that a billionaire has a swimming pool full of cash because he has a high net worth. All they think of is cash.

Like most people, my biggest assets are my home and vehicles.

My home is currenty appreciating (even after being adjusted for inflation). My pickup is a depreciating asset. (Used pickups are insanely epensive these days. They depreciate slowly)

Before the brake problems it was worth about $4K. When the brakes started acting up its value dropped to about $2.5K. When I threw $3K at it for repairs and cosmetics it jumped to about $7-8K in value. As a depreciating asset it will depreciate from $8K instead of $2.5

Repairing it increased my paper wealth by over $3K.

Enter the idiot that looks confused and says "I don't see no cash."

That's because I have not liquidated it yet, fool.

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What if I run for office and take $1000 from someone that earned it

and gave $100 each to ten lazy bums?

I would lose one vote but gain ten.

Rinse, repeat.

And that's how it works.

===============================

I see whare Musk became a trillionaire and the left is pissing and moaning.

If the people that piss and moan about this were to stop yapping and start building things they could also get rich.

But it's easier to take it away from someone that earned it.

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Finally got a human telemarketer and (I think) a newbie

When you are retired and on Medicare then you get hassled by people wanting to sell you a supplementry package.

I got through the artificial intelligence introduction and actually got through to a real live human being. I got the introductory speil and then he asked me if I had Medicare Part A and Part B.

"I'm incarcerated. The state takes care of me," I said and he sounded shocked.

"But you have a telephone," he said.

"Yeah, I know but it can only take incoming calls." I said. "When the warden found out I was doing time for murdering a telemarketer he gave me the phone because he doesn't like telemarketers either."

I figured he's have hung up by now but either he was a newbie, a gutton for punishment or just pain bored.

"What did they give you?" he asked.

"I got a year less almost three months for time served. I'll be out in a couple of months." I said. "The judge doesn't like telemarketers, either. He tried to get the DA to reduce the charge to disorderly conduct and let me skate with a $25 fine."

"I'll put you on the do not call list," he said. 

"I'd appreciate it," I said and he hung up.

 

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X marks the spot

There is a movie in the background simply for noise but I heard a voice say "X marks the spot."

I do not know why but that popped out so I had to see what movie was playing.

It was Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade.

I ran a Google search on how may movie have contained that phrase and they basically said 'Thousands'.

It is attributed to Robert Lewis Stevenson's Treasure Island.

Good to know. 

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One thing Pete Hegseth should do

is recall Mark Kelly to active duty and assign him duty as mess officer to the most far flung remote outpost that has an American military presence.

Kelly, a commissioned officer has badmouthed his Commander in Chief. Fact.

Tristan da Cahuna comes to mind. It takes about a week on a mail boat to get there from South Africa.

====================================

For those of you that don't understand officer retirees are not retired in the traditional sense. 

You are simply released from active duty, placed on the retired list, subject to recall and subject to the UCMJ. Your First Amendment rights are limited in order to keep good order and discipline.

Article 88 (for officers) covers contempt for senior officers and Article 134 covers this for enlisted people.

If you don't want to be subject to the UCMJ anymore, you resign your commission. When you do that you lose your pension. If you resign you can simply go your merry way.

Kelly wants to have his cake and eat it. Dwight D. Eisenhower resigned his permanent fivee star commission to enable him to run for president. He did this to insure the CinC was a civilian as it is supposed to be.

When JFK was elected as a courtesy to Congress recommissioned him. 

There are no 'yeah, buts' no 'what ifs'... that's the way the system works. 

When an officer is given an order he is expected to execute that order to the best of his ability, period.

If the officer that has been given an order feels he can not comply with the order for personal reasons, he resigns. Plain and simple.

If you want to keep your pension you stay subject to the UCMJ. 

Recall is a very real thing. It can and does happen, mainly for two reasons, critical shortages of various specialists and to courts-martial someone that has gotten out of line.

For the record, the biggest recall was early on during WW2. It produced any number of complaints from recalled retirees that had been retired for a while. The biggest complaint was that a lot of recalled officers were subject to the orders of people that had been their subordinates when they were last on active duty.

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Piccolo jerks the chain of a Navy SEAL.

That I met at the city compost help yourself pile last spring.

He saw a dogtag on my keychan and asked me what service I was in and I told him I was in the Army and my career was in the Merchant marine. He replied he had served in the Navy. When I asked him what he did in the Navy he replied that before he had gone through OCS he had been a SEAL.

I laughed. "How did you make out at the bar with those credentials? That sounds like a pretty good chick magnet."

"Yeah, he admitted with a semi-embarrassed grin. "When you throw the SEAL credential down the women line up. I'm happily married and wanted to stay that way so I kept my mouth shut when I had a beer with my teammates. It's a real trump card with the ladies."

I was feeling mischiveous. I gave him a smug look.

"When the SEALs start playing the SEAL card all you have to do to cut them down to size is tell them you're an astronaut," I said. "Only astronaut recruited from the Merchant Marine!"

He laughed like hell. "That would probably do it if you could pull it off."

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One of the things I see is that a lot of leftists are outright immature.

One of the most entertaining (and unpresidential) things Trump does is trolls. He's a master.

I once told someone that I voted for Trump strictly for the entertainment value. At first they were appalled but after they thought about it they admitted that he's a Master Troll.

Someone told me that the best part of Trump's rolling is the indignant overreaction of the Democrats when Trump throws something out at them. They always seem to take the bait.

When Hakeem Jeffries got the sombrero stuck in his head by Trump he carried on like a little kid in a schoolyard that had been teased by his classmates. The whining and carrying on was very entertaining.

When Trump called Tim Walz (who belongs in jail) a retard the wailing, moaning and gnashing of teeth was epic. Again, he carried on like a teased schoolboy during recess. He sniveled his constituents were driving past his house shouting 'Retard!' (Unless he is outside I don't think he hears a whole lot of what's going on in the street.)

The right seems to handle schoolyard insults a lot better. 

When Hillary Clinton called Trump voters 'deplorables' they embraced it to the point that it may have very well cost her the election. Even today you occasionally hear a Trump supporter referring to themselves as being a 'deplorable'.

When the left hit JD Vance with the wolfman meme Vance took it in stride and threw it right back at them. He used the meme to design his Halloween costume. Hilarity ensued.

The immaturity of a lot of  the left has been quite a source of entertainment.

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The reflecting pool has been filled.

I can hardly wait to hear the screeching over this one.

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Seattle is not alone.

Exxon just left NJ, Smith and Wesson has left MA, and Morton Salt has left IL. This is just a very, very small sampling of what's happening.

Seattle ain't the Lone Ranger. It's happening all over.

Businesses are on the move looking for more business friendly places to operate out of. They are sick and tired of being treated like a cash cow by state and local governments.

When a business leaves it takes jobs and wealth with them and leaves behind unemloyment, empty factories and office buildings which so become abandoned eyesores. Nearby by businesses generally take a hit also.

It creates a downward spiral.

OTOH the new business location the company moves to gains jobs. The local businesses generally report an increase in business and the new location gains wealth.

That's what happens when you treat a business like a cash cow instead of a valuable asset.

Incidentally corporations don't really pay taxes. Consumers do. The corporations simply add the cost of taxes onto the price of the goods/services they sell to the public and the customer pays..

It would be interesting to find out what a $40K vehicle would cost before the tax man arrived and took his share.

One other BIG thing is that government should be a LOT more careful and responsible with our tax money. Some Muslim country in Africa does NOT need TV programming extolling the virtues of gay rights. If it doesn't directly effect Americans positively then the money should not be spent. Not to mention that any misappropriation of government money should land someone in jail for a lengthy sentence.

Update. The Berlin chip and pretzel factory just shut its doors. Wonder where it will go.

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Protip for buying a new car.

The truck I have was paid for in cash after I got a final price. I pulled out a bag full of Franklins, counted them out and went on my merry way.

When I whipped out cash they were somewhat upset and I won't do that again. Instead I will finance the truck and go through all of the paperwork and hoople that goes with it, making sure there is no penalty for early repayment.

You can get a better deal often because the finance company kicks back a small piece of the action to the dealership. That makes the dealership happy.

When the first payment is due you simply pay off the whole damned loan and get the hell out from under it.

Expect an angry/upset/dissappointed call from the dealer shortly after.

You can tell him innocently that you just came into money and cleaned up all your debts. If you have talent you can make up a good story about winning big in Vegas or having inheriting a sum of money from your favorite uncle or whatever suits your fancy.

"My great uncle lived in Chicago and worked for Al Capone and my mother was his favorite niece. On St. Valentine's Day 1929 he was one of the guys that ..."

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So tell me. What part of Lesbia are you from?

I read a pretty good rant the other day from a lesbian woman stationg that the vast majority of LGBT people just want to be left alone in peace.

She said she hates the groomers and the people trying to encourage young kids to TG and the rest of the crap that goes along with it. I'm 100% sure she's not alone.

Years ago I posted a 'Go in peace' post to the gay community and I still hold with it. In return I asked that they go about their lives without fanfare and bull$hit. 

The problem seems to lie with so-called LGB(TQRSTUV) 'leadership'. They are the people responsible for the ballyhoo. 

Who appointed these people as spokespeople for the community? 

It's time for the individuals  of the community to tell the self-appointed leadership to go piss up a rope. 

888888888888888888888888888888888888888

As for the title, over the years I have had a couple of women tell me that they are a lesbian.

I generally keep a straight face and ask they "What part of Lesbia are you from? Did you immigtate here legally?"

They generally express amusement once they figure out that there's no slight intended although much to my amusement I got a long winded explaination from one woman which I ended with "Than you're an American of Leasbian hetitage. I'm Irish."

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Mark Kelly ...someone else's take which is better than mine.

Jean F. Burleson

Dan Galligher

You are incorrect…

Kelly’s, mine, and every other retired regular (not Guard or Reserve) military officer’s freedom of speech has restrictions that civilians do not have, for the purpose of ensuring good order and discipline in the military.

Kelly’s comments were clearly intended to interfere with the military chain of command and negatively impacting good order and discipline by encouraging insubordination and refusal to obey the orders of the chain of command. As such, at a minimum, he violated Article 94 (Mutiny and Sedition) and Article 133 (Conduct Unbecoming) of the Uniform Code of Military Justice ((UCMJ) and, in addition, in concert with others (not subject to the UCMJ), Article 82 (Conspiracy).

Kelly should be recalled to active duty and court-martialed or, at a minimum, administratively reduced in rank/grade IAW Title 10, U.S. Code.

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Little guys.

When I can I like to do business with little guys that do side jobs for a number of reasons.

First they generally do a pretty good job because they know they are only as good as their last side job.

Second they don't have the overhead that established companies have and can afford to work for less than shop rate and still make more than they are getting paid at their regular job.

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Curiosity overwhelms me with Seattle.

People have built little blockades to reduce drive-bys over illegal activities. Katie wants them removed.

It won't be long before the locals start to organize neighborhood watches and start arming themselves to protect their homes and lives.

What's she going to do when that happens?

Double down. She will assign the police to go after the neighborhood watch types because she can't have the people taking care of themselves.

I guess she's going to have to have the police chase the neighborhood watches away. Of course that's not really much of an option because she seems to have defunded a lot of it and my guess is the police won't pay much attention to her.

If she had let the police do their job it would not have gotten to this stage.

The best thing she could do for Seattle is to find a loaded pistol and some privacy and do the right thing.

I wonder if Seattle is going to have a backlash and get some decent no nonsense leadership. Probably not. They'll just go looking for someone to blame and keep going downhill.

Eventually it will descend into anarchy and chaos and empty buildings as anyone with any sense just ups and leaves.

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Parts are trickling in.

The headlights arrived yesterday and floor mats are due in today. The old floor mats are worn through.

The wheelskins are already installed.

After the Great Emergency Brake Disaster my mechanic went through the truck with a fine toothed comb and declared it an 8 which is pretty damned good for a 17 year old truck.

A nearby shop said the emergency brake job alone would run in the neighborhood of $3K which I found insane.

I had a 'little guy' mechanic that has done work for me before take a look at things and when he declared it to be basically a good truck I stopped shopping for another ride and decided to run with the one I already have. 

A search for a replacement ride old me prices were insane. An exact clone of what I have with 40K miles on it is damned close to what I paid for this one back in 2009! That's insanity!

So far it looks like a good choice. $2K got me the emergency brake fixed AND a new rear bumper installed (the bumper was the only sign of rust on the entire rig. The bracket was in sad shape). On top of that he rustprooofed the usual places that draw rust.

This was a reasonable deal. 

There's a spot on the front bumper where it was mysteriously whacked a few years back. Charlie Chan is still trying to solve that mystery. Also after 17 years of sunlight and weather the headlight lenses are all fuzzy and probably should be replaced. New headlights have arrived. A bumper cover, touch up paint and a few other odds and ends are on the way. 

I gave the cab a really good cleaning and when it's done I'll have a pretty good looking and good running little truck that should last me.

 

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It just occurred to me that the day after I got out of the Army

is the anniversary of the day I went into the army.

Fifty three years ago today I headed out on active duty. 

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Fifty years ago today I was discharged from the army.

Forty four years ago my father died.

Makes for a bittersweet day.

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Some youngster posted that he was getting more girls than us old guys. My reply?

Beat it, Sonny boy.

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I wonder what would happen if someone was the victim of someone making them late.

You board an airplane and the usual suspects create a disturbance like start a fight or something. The police are summoned and the perps carted off after the cops spend even more time trying to deal with them peacefully...or semi peacefully. 

(What they shoud do is tell them once to turn around and put their hands behind their back and if they don't administer a hickory shampoo until they either do. Settle it in court.)

The flight is delayed and you miss your connection because of it.

Your connecting flight is the last one of the day and you have to overnight at your own expense.

So you sue the bastards knowing it's going to be difficult to actually get paid. Of course the trick here is to find a lawyer that is an attack dog aond offer him 75% of what he collects for you to keep him interested.

Of course the disturbance makers are jailed and released with a small fine and no real jail time which does little to discourage further poor behavior. The ensuing lawsuit will even if the award is small. It will tie them up in court and cost them time and money.

Imagine being Joe Hoodrat ten years later. You've laughed at the judgement for ten years because you had no above the table job. You buy a lottery ticket and BAM! You find out you have just won $50K. This can't be garnished but the brand new car you bought with the winnings can be seized and sold as an asset seizure.

Suing them and having an attack dog go after their income would probably make them think twice about their future behavior.

When the system doesn't work it's generally time for the people to step up to the plate and at least try to do something about it.

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General Tso

Someone was grabbing a package of General Tso chicken at the deli and turnedd to me asking rhetorically "Who was General Tso, anyway?"

"General Tso was a really interesting person," I replied. He was a peasant that joined the Chinese Red Army in 1937 as a private and shortly after enlistment his culinary talents were discovered and he was made a cook and shortly thereafter became a mess sergeant." 

"His talents in the culinaary arts and the logistics got him a commission and he was shortly thereafter promoted to colonel and then under orders of Mao Zedong was promoted to general and placed in charge of feeding the entire Chinese Army."

He created his famous chicken recipe in 1945 because immediately after the war there was a large number of American GIs in China and he thought there would be a market for the recipe he created. It was brought to the States by returning GIs."

"Huh," he replied. "I never heard of that."

I refrained from saying "Neither did I. I just pulled it out of my ass."

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I saw some kid get roughed up after taking a swing at a cop.

The parents are mad at the cop. They say "He's a good kid."

Bull$hit! Good kids don't punch police officers. The kid got off light in my book. 

What should have happened is the kid should have been beaten totally senseless and come to in in a daze in the hospital.

Not so much as settling the score but as an example to others. 

We seem to have let so much slide that returning to base values is going to require some serious horsepower to get there.

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I just had a pile of work done to my pickup for fairly short money.

The thing that made me need work done was the parking brake would not go free after it was set. I had to pump the brakes and sometimes have to rock the truck to get it to free up.

Estimates from a couple of shops ran upwards of and possibly over $3000. I figured the truck was worth a little more than that but not much. It's a 17 year old truck. I started looking for a brand new second hand low milage replacement. Prices were insane. 

So I went to a guy that I know that did some damned good reasonably prices body work for me several years ago to ask him if he knew a reasonable mechanic. 

When I explained the job he said he could tackle it. Seeing how fairly he had treated me years ago I simply gave him an open checkbook with orders to fix it.

I would up with a LOT more than I bargained for. 

When he was goiing through everything he called me and reported that the truck itself was in damned good shape with a few pre-rust spots that should be taken care of quickly. I told him to go ahead. He cleaned everything up and sprayed it with rust preventative.

He also said the rear bumper brackets were in terrible shape and that the easy and inexpensive route to go was an entire aftermarket bumper kit and told me where to get one. The inside of the bumper was heavily rusted. A check with eBay got me a damned good one, a complete kit for $165 delivered. 

As for the brake, all three cables, brackets and various smalls were replaced, the drums given a 'cleanup' turning. He went whole hog.

I'm back in business. The bill was $1535 plus my bumper purchase. I was floored. I handed him $1600 and told him to keep it. He was grateful.

Personally I consider the $65 I gave him to be an investment into the future. I often do things like this because practically every time I cast my bread on the water I get back poached eggs on toast.

I asked him about the other shop's estimate. He explained that a lot of places will just cut out a good part and replace it rather than reuse it because it's faster. In the shop world it's all a money grab and if it saves them time at customer's expense than so be it. Couple that with the current long waiting lists to get into the shop and that means many shops will take shortcuts.

Long waiting lists mean that there is no shortage of customers so enter the laws of supply and demand. When that happens shops go straight to 'The Gouger's Handbook'. 

 

 

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Come on, Seattle! You can do it!

Double down! 

With businesses leaving in droves double the taxes on the businesses that have not left!

When half of them leave, double down again and watch them leave!

Then double down on property taxes. 

With the jobs gone people will lose their homes to bank foreclosures and the banks will fail and there will be million dollar homes left vacant.

What a paradise on earth that will create! 

The now homeless can now live for free in abandoned water and electric free million dollar homes!

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Unbelieveable! TDS at its best.

Trump is scheduled to leave office in about 2.5 years.

This idiot is stuck for life with him. Imagine being 80 years old and STILL having the president back from when you were a 20 year old stuck in your head?

You can't make this stuff up!

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One of the things I hate is people that demand answers to questions I can't possibly answer.

and of course, a fair and honest "I don't know." is unacceptable.

Usually it's when something beyond my control is happening and when I say I don't know.

"How long is it going to take to fix the whatever?"

"I don't know. I don't even know what's wrong with it yet."

"When can I use it again?"

"After it gets fixed."

"And when will that be?"

"Sometime after I figure out what's wrong with it."

"After you figure it out how long will it take to fix it?"

"As long as it takes."

"How long will it take?"

"I'll know as soon as I figure it out."

"When will you have it figured out?"

Ad nauseum until I say that I can''t get to it until I stop answering questions, although sometimes that doesn't work.

They probably grew up saying "When are we going to beeee there?" on family road trips.

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I have a guy fixing my truck now

and he gave me a call asking me what to do with the stuff he pulled out from behind the seat. The truck us a single cab two door and behind the seat I have stuff stashed.

He said the stuff is currently in the bed which is fine by me.

He said he asked because some people want everything put back.

I told him to leave everything in the bed and not ruin my golden opportunity to go through it and probably get rid of much of it.

You should always take advantage of the small opportunities as they come along.

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I think today I will plant my annuals.

which will make the yard a little nicer.

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We as a people are losing our ability to think.

When you ask someone who is buried in Grant's tomb and they instantly reach for their phone it really makes me wonder.

==========================================

In other news someone was asing me why my cat jumps up on me when I flop out on the couch.

The answer is quite simple but almost nobody understands it. 

Because he is an orange cat and that's what orange cats do.

Yes, it really IS that simple.

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The morning after a teenage kegger.

I believe I was out of high school when this happened. I went to a kegger and got careless and got plastered. The kegger was in the middle of nowhere and calling home was not an option.

It was not a good idea to drive. I could have easily had an accident and even if I didn't I knew I'd get caught by Dad who would go through the roof. It took me a few seconds to come to the conclusion I was already screwed. I wasn't going to get out of this unscathed. Better to face the wrath for not coming home that night than compound it by drunk driving.

I opened the trunk and grabbed the sleeping bag and crashed out in the back seat. If I recall I woke before dawn and felt kind of cruddy so I figured in for a penny, in for a pound and rolled over and grabbed some extra shuteye. Then I got into the front seat and drove home.

Dad and Mom were in the kitchen. I walked in to an angry "Where the hell have you been?"

"If you let me explain the whole thing I'll tell you," I said.

"Pray tell,"Dad said. "Please do."

"I was at this kegger last night..." I started.

"But you're under age," Mom interrupted.

"Quiet!" Dad snapped. "Just listen. I've got this!"

"Anyway I was at a kegger last night and lost track of my drinking and got plastered. There was no phone around for at least a couple of miles so I couldn't call. I wasn't going to drive home drunk so I sacked out in the back seat. I'll take my lumps for being out all night. I can live with that but it's a lot better than drunk driving."

Dad held his hand up to silence Mom and thought a moment.

He turned to Mom and said, "We raised a dumbbell but we didn't raise an idiot. I think I'm going to sleep a little better now because he at least recognized he shouldn't be driving."

"But...he's underage."

"But nothing. You and I will talk about that later." He turned to me. Tell Mom about the Conway kid."

"Bill Conway was driving a little fast. I heard not even ten over. He probably wasn't even going to get a real ticket, Probably just a warning. When the cop tried to pull him over he panicked and punched it and tried to outrun a cruiser. He rolled it on a turn at 80 and spent so much time in the hospital he had to take his senior year over again. On the day he got out of the hospital he was handed a summons for speeding, attempting to elude, reckless driving and a few add ons. All that for simply for trying to avoid what probably would have been a crummy warning ticket."

Dad looked at me and said, "You owe us for worrying the hell out of the both of us." His voice changed into an evil tone. "I've got a little job for you when you wake up. Now get some more sleep."

When I woke up and ran into dad he simply said, "Go hoe out the crap can." It was a two minute job. I was expecting something like digging a 10 foot deep hole and filling it in.

Dad didn't litter. In the clunker he drove back and forth to work he'd toss things onto the passengers side floor. All I had to do was take the kitchen wastebasket out to the car and pick up whatever was on the floor. One time it got pretty full and he commented that it was time to hoe it out. I laughed and the term stuck. To hoe something out meant give something a quick cleanup.

When I was done he said he needed a hand with something. We hopped into the car and headed to the hardware store. I knew he just wanted to talk.

"You dealt yourself a pretty dumb hand, Kid, I'll tell you that. You should have cut way back on the beer but I guess you had to learn. Fact is you played that hand well. You wisely cut your losses instead of of just going for broke. Don't make a habit out of this." 

I think about a year later I was at a house party that was getting interesting. There was a phone so I called home. Mom answered so I told her to put Dad on. Dad answered.

"Hey I got a little problem. What if I came home in the morning?"

Dad asked me yes and no questions in case someone was listening to our conversation.

"Are you plastered?"

"Not really." 

"Close?"

"Yes."

"You probably shoulden't be driving. Sack out there...Son, thanks for calling. Better safe than sorry."

As I write this I remember that once I called home and simply said, "Pick me up at the Scituate town pier. I got a bad feeling. Don't ask."

"I'm on my way," he said. 

Fifteen minutes later we were headed home. When I got in he said, "I won't ask.  I trust your judgement."

About halfway home I simply stated that I didn't want to have to deal with acid heads and thanked him.

He said he figured it was something like that.

The Old man was a GENIUS. 

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Tax the poor!

40% of Americans pay no income tax aggording to a quick Google search.

The top 1.5% pay over 40% of the income taxes paid.

Let's start making the poor pay their fair share.

I just said that to someone that was babbling about taxing the rich ala NYC.

They replied that nobody needs all that money.

I agreed. Nobody needs over $40,000 a year to live.

They didn't like that very much even though it's true. You don't need, for example, a new car every ten years or so.

Screw the poor! Make them pay their fair share!

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I think I wil let you hear from the cat.

hyu[;pj'aws34/SDY6K,[[

He is an orange neutered male cat that is a royal pain mi the ass. 

He makes me laugh which is why I love him so much.

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I have something to do today.

I am going to help stock a pond with fish later this morning.

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I went to test finally. I had gotten my lerner's permit the day after I turned sixteen and was rarin' to go but Dad had some bad news. One of his customers was a registry cop and in passing dad had learned that it was best for a new licensee to wait at east a month or two before testing unless you had a previous license from another state. The cop told him the testers generally were over rigorious to young people that showed up the day after they got their permits. So we waited a couple of months. I still was Dad's chauffeur but now it included daylight hours so I generally drove him everywhere. The first time after I got my permit I drove Dad to the Harbor to the hardware/lumberyard to pick up some trim for a project. I don't think the ink had dried on my permit when I did that. A couple months later it was off to the testing place a couple of towns over. IIRC it was a first come, first served situation and we had to wait a while. Much to my consternation Dad jumped into the back seat and started to take a nap. What was that all about? A girl was walking out with the tester to their car. She was a giggly girl that looked as nervous as a whore in church.  The two of them got into the car and left. They were gone about ahalf hour and she got out of the car excited. She had passed. Generally speaking, parents were not allowed to ride along. Probably because if a kid failed some of the parents would raise hell. The tester came over to me and when he saw dad sleeping in the back seat he said, "Oh, hell. Let him sleep." We got in and off we went. He gave directions and I drove. Shortly thereafter he started giving me a lecture about safe driving and yada yada yada. Every kid has heard the same thing hundreds of time and it's annoying as hell. What really made it suck was I was captive. I HAD to listen to it. When he got to the drinking and driving part a sleepy voice from the back seat said, "He quit doing that two years ago." The tester went into schock and indignantly and pompously snapped "In the Commonwealth of Massachusetts you have to be sixteen years of age to operate a motor vehicle and twenty one years of age to buy liquor!" I calmly answered "In Montana you can get a driver's license at fourteen and drive at any age so long as a licensed driver is sitting next to you. It's rural there so Montana permits it." "What were you doing in Montana?" he asked. "I have an uncle that raises horses and I spend time with him," I replied. I did have an uncle that raised horses but he lived in Michigan. I never said my uncle lived in Montana. I just let him add 1+1 and get 3. "He said drinking and driving?" said the tester. "Oh, that. They don't have an open container law there.  One time the licensed driver handed me an almost empty beer and told me to finish it because he wanted to watch me embark on a life of crime. I did. Later in a discussion Dad told me that if I never did it again I could tell people I quit drinking and driving when I was fourteen. I think it would be pretty cool to be able to tell people that when I'm forty so I never did it again and I won't. It's too good of a story." He shook his head. "Well it's illegal here." I bit my tongue. What I wanted to say was 'So is cutting the little tags off of a pillow' but why pick a fight? I relaxed a bit and figured the lecture was over. It wasn't. He continued telling me about the importance of following all the traffic signs. A sleepy voice was heard from the back seat. Dad went in for a headshot. "That boy has been trained very well and be more than careful  to obey the rules and regulations because I pointed out that most felony arrests are initialted with a simple traffic stop." He didn't know what to say for a few seconds and then turned to me and simply said, "Listen to your father. He's right. Take us back to the office." I made a turn and started back. Dad was now seated upright. I spoke to the tester. "There's one thing. This car has an automatic transmission. The other car at home has a manual and I usually drive that one with Dad. I don't want to get a restricted license," I said. He asked why we had not taken the Falcon. dad responded. "Because his kid brother left a striper on the back seat floor and the car stayed sealed up all weekend," Dad said. "I'll drive it back and forth with the windows open for a few days and then we can retest if we have to." Actually my brother had left a striper on the floor whe he was bringing his fishing tackle back inside the house but had pickked it up a few minutes later. The car went unused all weekend. "It won't be necessary," he said. He turned to my father. "I'll take you at your word." I'm sure he had visions of being stuck in a car that smelled of rotting fish and that by just not checking a box he would dodge a bullet. The real reason we didn't take the Falcon was that it was a rat. A crap can, a clunker, a shitbox, a real puss bucket. The only thing on it that was reliable was the cigarette lighter. It has a manual choke and a prescribed litany to get it started. The shifter was sticky, so was the clutch and it rattled. It should have been sent to the boneyard long beforehand. It served only two legitimate purposes. It took Dad back and forth to work and it was perfect for teaching me to drive on. That was it. As we drove back to the office he was filling out my paperwork. dad and the tester found a connection. The tester had served as an airplane mechanic and dad had been a bombardier during the war. They chatted as I drove. When we got back the tester handed me my paperwork. The dreaded 'Automatic transmission only' box was unchecked. I was good to go. Ten years later. I had gotten out of the Army and was home. Dad and I were having a beer and out of nowhere he asked me about drinking and driving. I said I had quit when I was fourteen. "Really?" "Yeah, really," I said. "It's too good of a tale to ruin it over a lousy beer." He laughed like hell. "Remember the fliver?" I asked. More laughter. He almost snarfed. "There were a couple of times I could have gotten rid of that and replaced it for free but I decided to keep it," he said. "It was such a shitbox that it was the perfect car to teach you to drive on. I figured if you could drive it then you would be able to drive anything. Besides..." "Besides what?" "Besides I never saw anyone have so much just plain fun as you when you were driving the damned thing! It showed on your face. I don't think I ever saw anyone as happy as you behind the wheel of that of crapcan. " Five year later he was gone. He left us too soon.

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