Florida Governor RICK SCOTT taxes the POOR: AGAIN!!

 

“3. Florida
The poor in Florida pay taxes equal to 13.2% of their income, compared with just 2.3% for its wealthiest citizens. With no income tax and a 6% sales tax, Florida is among the more regressive of the states, and a recent increase in the exemption for business from corporate income tax adds to relative burden that the poor bear in the Sunshine State.”

This quote is from an article listing the 6 states that have the highest taxes on the poor. Florida is on the list. And now the Governor is getting ready to be regressive again: Internet sales tax. Oh, you say, what is wrong with collecting sales tax on internet sales? Probably not the poorest residents buy from the internet anyway. So what is the BIG DEAL?

Simple: Scott will sign into law a bill mandating collecting of internet sales tax ONLY IF the legislator makes it revenue neutral. REVENUE NEUTRAL!!! In other words, cut taxes somewhere else to balance the increase in sales tax collection. Which taxes? Most likely taxes that poor people don’t pay anyway. Most likely taxes that wealthy people pay. Most likely taxes that the cronies of the legislature and the governor pay. So the addition of more sales tax is regressive.

What a great big goddamn surprise. And from a Republican Governor, House and Senate. Who’da thought?

http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2013/04/21/these-6-states-tax-the-poor-the-hardest.aspx
Image: http://hipiseverything.com/hipblog/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/rick-scott-by-donkey-hotey.jpg

 

Ten Tors: Not an Outing for the Casual Walker

Ten Tors Team with Fin Godfrey (far left)

Tor: a rocky pinnacle; a peak of a bare or rocky mountain or hill. (1)

“Ten Tors is an annual weekend hike organised and run in early May for 2,400 young people by the British Army on Dartmoor.” So starts the Wikipedia entry on Ten Tors. For the past several years, my nephews have taken the challenge and hiked the rugged terrain of Dartmoor. Although a “spring” event, the weather in England in the spring runs from beautiful to worse than awful. From warm and dry to freezing cold and raining or snowing. The young prople who take on this challenge of 35, 45 or 55 miles train for months, then after a gear check and briefing, strike out on the hike. They carry all the food, tents, clothes, cooking gear and first aid gear they will need to meet the conditions on the open Moorland. They purify water as they go for drinking.

These are tough young men and women.

This year my nephew Fin will lead a team 45 miles from Tor to Tor until all ten have been reached. He was chosen because of his experience on previous outings, his ability to navigate in the wilderness and his personality. No better choice in my opinion. He will lead the group to success and the entire family is as proud as a proud family can be.

All there is left to say is “GO FIN AND GO TEAM!!!!!”

Image: Fin (left) and some others I don’t know, including the team members
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ten_Tors
1. Definition: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/tor

It is Certainly Terrorism

Boston not Damascus

Foreign or Domestic? The word as of 7:30 AM on Tuesday isn’t in. We don’t know. We don’t know exactly what happened in Boston.

What we do know is this: some sick assholes killed and maimed nearly 159 innocent people to make some unknown point. The key word is “UNKNOWN”. We don’t know who or why. Yet.

So I beg everybody to stop the mindless speculation and wait for the evidence to point to the purp or purps. Then let’s get the bastard(s) and kill them.

Image: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/boston-marathon-explosion-580.jpg

A Chapter Closes: Rainbow Farm is Sold.

Rainbow Farm has been sold. Officially as of today at 3:00PM. The trials, memories, fun, work and everything else are now behind us. All of us who may have shared a moment there. Sal and I will recycle memories for years about the Aussie parties, the weddings, the weeds, the dogs and cats, the steers and goat, the ponds and nuts. And more.
The new owners are a Church. No, not someone named “Church”, a real Church. The First Believers Christian Center will take title and use the house for a fellowship hall and day care center. The chapel will be built on the front lot. The stories of “fellowship” the old house could tell would make the congregation blush, probably, but philosophy aside, we are happy to have the property in good hands.
A chapter never seems to close until another is ready to open. We move on, they move in. And so it goes. We have no regrets, just some latent sadness. We spent 24 years there, and you just can’t cut that much time out of lives without a bit of sadness. So to the First Believers Christian Center we say “WELCOME”. We hope you have joy and fulfillment at Rainbow Farm as we did. And to our friends who remember, we say “THANK YOU” for sharing our lives and home.

Now we live at “Rainbow Rise” and are content. We also have “Rainbow Ridge” in Gulf Terrace. Between the two of those rainbows we will be busy for years to come. Then, another chapter will close. No worries mate.

Image: Rainbow Farm

Red, Yellow and Blue

Ah, Spring! It has finally arrived in some iteration and yesterday was the “day to get things done”. We mostly emptied the big fish pond (water feature for our “haute” friends [we don’t have any, BTW]), sucked the muck out of the deep end, replanted lots of plants and tossed many too. The weather was perfect, and as we sat with our coffee looking over the domain from the kitchen, the final evidence of Spring: A Cardinal, a Goldfinch and an Indigo Bunting all feeding on the same feeder. What a sight, even for little old colorblind me. You see, I can see yellow just fine, and in bright sunlight, Cardinal Red and Bunting Blue shines out to me. So it was breath taking to me and Sally.

What a TREAT!!!!

 Image Bunting: http://www.birdsofoklahoma.net/images/IndigoBunting431.jpg
Image Finch: http://sdakotabirds.com/species_photos/photos/american_goldfinch_10.jpg
Image Cardinal: http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/IMAGES/Illinois/NorthernCardinal2.jpg

Now it is Time to be Worried

Discussing, arguing, debating about this religious nut or that religious attempt at coercion has been a way of life in blogs and other venues for a long time. Now things are poised to take a dramatic turn. North Carolina (1) may adopt an official State Religion and challenge the U.S. Constitution to stop them. Who knows where this may lead, but I can tell you this: it is time to be worried.

This flies in the face, no, worse, this flings shit in the face of the Constitution and of the Founding Fathers that these conservative morons claim to love and venerate. If I were any religion other than Christian I would began making plans to evacuate the State of North Carolina. If I were a Christian I would be terribly embarrassed. If I were an American, I would be really pissed off. Wait. I AM an American, and this really, really pisses me off. How about you?

1. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/north-carolina-religion-bill_n_3003401.html

Image: http://profile.ak.fbcdn.net/hprofile-ak-ash3/41598_106460822743085_4789_n.jpg

Look at these STATS! Just DAMN COOL!

	Pageviews
United States	125
Germany	19
Poland	9
Australia	6
United Kingdom	5
South Korea	3
Netherlands	2
Russia	2
Brazil	1
Canada	1

 

The above are the pageviews from March 26 – April 2, 2013. I think this is so damn cool. Look at the range of locations where people took a look at my writings. Amazing. I wish some of the folks in these counrties would let me know who they are and what they think. I have some idea about the visits from the USA. And the UK, Australia and Canada are places where I know I have friends. But the rest? Wow. And these STATS are only for one week. Thanks all of you for checking out my Blog. I love it. Wheeee.

DO YOU EVEN GET IT?

 

Woman about to be beheaded.*. Sharia Law

Rep. Matt Salmon, from Arizona's 5th Congressional District, told 3TV that he loves his son and does not believe he chose to be gay, but that he has not "evolved" to the position that his son should be allowed to marry someone of the same sex.

"I don't support the gay marriage," Salmon says in the clip. "My son is by far one of the most important people in my life. I love him more than I can say. I'm just not there as far as believing in my heart that we should change 2,000 years of social policy in favor of a redefinition of the family. I'm not there."

You see, folks, this is what I am talking about. 2000 years of social policy? Not in the least. He is talking about the BIBLE. HIS social policy isn’t the WORLD’S social policy. By sticking to his interpretation of “social policy” he is shoving his RELIGIOUS VIEWS down everybody else’s throats. What if he were voting for SHARIA law and the 1400 years of social policy contained in it? Get it? Would you like it?

DO YOU EVEN GET IT??????

Image: http://www.conservapedia.com/images/thumb/2/22/Sharia.jpg/300px-Sharia.jpg
*I don't know what the offense was. Many offenses are "death penalty" offenses.

Warm Sun and an IPA. Perfect. Really?

Note: My family grows East Kent Goldings Hops

Sitting here in the sun, with an IPA, getting drowsy. Beautiful late afternoon in Northern Florida and the world is at war with itself. I am totally at peace, because in addition to the usual “He is Risen” which to some guarantees salvation, if not here than “there” if there is a there “there”, I am sanguine because the new Pope prayed for peace in his Easter address to the world. Never mind that every Pope for the last 200 years has prayed for peace, and it hasn’t happened yet. The Pope Prayed It. I Believe it. That’s the End of It. So goes the slightly altered line.

So, get ready for Peace, brothers and sisters. With the power on the side of the righteous, how can the world lose? How indeed.
(Is this cynical? Sarcastic? Ironic? Realistic? You tell me.?
Image: http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0sv5lBrAM1r6kfouo1_r1_500.png

For My Christian Friends: Not So Radical After All

This is the kind of Crap Nobody Needs.

I don’t go around saying Happy Easter and Happy Passover and Happy Kwanza and Happy Christmas any more than my conservative friends go around saying Happy Solstice and Happy Beltane. How come?  
Not because of lack of respect or some deep dark plot to eradicate a religion. Oh, maybe the conservative friends would like to eradicate Paganism once and for all. You know, get rid of those pesky witches and warlocks. And maybe get rid of the Jews too for good measure (but not the end timers. They need Israel to settle once and for all the end of mankind). Those eradications have been on the sometimes not-so-hidden agenda for millennia. But nobody I have ever heard of actually wants to get rid of the Christian faith in America. Islam, the real thing, doesn’t. Secularists don’t. Nobody does. They all just want to be left alone.
Oh, that’s it. Secularists! Why didn’t I think of that before? The growing secular population in America is getting tired of being preached to and at by the Christian Right. They are tired of having the “Bible” forced down their throat in the thinly veiled movements to pass a Christian agenda and make it the law of the land. So they are getting more and more vocal. And active. And at the same time the Republican Party is feeling the pressure to catch up with the world and leave the archaic ideas of their so-called base behind. Positions like opposing 100% of abortions; opposing any marriage not between “one man and one woman” (which flies directly in the face of the “Bible” they profess to love); insisting on the inclusion of prayers to their “God” at public events where many people are not believers.
These Bible Thumping folks are being manipulated once again by clever Republican operatives and worked up into frenzy about the “dechristianization of America”, as if America was a Christian country all along. In fact all the public religiosity you see around you on money, in the pledge of allegiance and inscribed on buildings is new to the country.

My Christian Friends, nobody who I know wants to take away your religion. We all just want you to stop shoving your spin on the world down our throats. That isn’t so radical, is it?

See for example this article: http://www.wisconsinchristiannews.com/view.php?sid=2750

Image: http://www.bookcrash.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/ERADICATE-web-large.jpg