Special Interest Group on CRAP

My proposal for tax reform is very simple. Make every senator and congressman do their own taxes. Only then would they understand the colossal mess they have created. In fact while we’re at it, give them pencil and paper and calculator and make them do it that way. We’d have tax reform so fast …

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I saw a news story today saying that the price of UC tuition might go as high as $20,000 to $25,000 per year. As distressing as that sounds, I’d like to remind people that universities typically offer a lot of financial aid to students from needy families. While nobody likes the idea of paying more [...]

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I was thinking today about President Obama meeting with silicon valley leaders in order to talk about jobs. I heard a podcast today that mentioned Apple has 30,000 employees in silicon valley, but 1,000,000 employees in China as contractors for the manufacturing of iPads, iPhones, laptops, and iPods. It caused me to wonder what it [...]

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I went through the election materials today for the upcoming election. The best strategy for all voter initiatives is to assume that you should vote no. The reason is pretty clear – they are almost always fronts for big money. The only one that appeals to me is the one to legalize marijuana in California. [...]

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I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none [...]

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I have to vote in an election coming up. This one is somehow more interesting than a lot of local elections, because it’s a california state senate seat. In case you don’t know, the California state legislature is fundamentally broken in the same way that the federal legislature is broken – they refuse to compromise. [...]

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Like many small investors, I have recently started thinking of the stock market as nothing more than a Ponzi scheme in which companies and financial services companies conspire to print lottery tickets. Many of us have mostly sat on the sidelines while the DOW went from 7,000 to 11,000, while financial services companies who received [...]

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Every year when I fill out my taxes, I am amazed at how screwed up our taxation system is. If you are an average wage earner, perhaps with a mortgage, then you end up with a really simple procedure for filing your taxes. If you have a business (sole proprietorship, partnership, etc) or if you [...]

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It’s odd that Facebook was blocking post of a link to this. For the humor impaired, this should be recognized as satire.

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I find myself fascinated by the California budget process. Much of the stuff I have read about blame for the crisis makes no sense at all to me, and has made me even more cynical about the state legislature. The shortfall in revenue this year amounts to about 10% of revenue. That doesn’t seem so [...]

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