Obama is not agnostic on taxes, he's a polytheist.

Obama said he's "agnostic" on taxes on the middle class. I'm betting that he's actually a polytheist when it comes to taxes on the middle class--he believes in the whole pantheon of taxes, he's just not admitting it.

Health Care Parody on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2scxJNXjMI

I'm scraping by financially. I don't want you to pay for my healthcare. In fact, I will refuse to take your money. I will, make arrangements to pay for any healthcare I receive. I will figure it out.

I also don't want any program enforced by the IRS or any taxing agency. I sold a motorcycle to a guy who didn't register it. The CA Franchise Tax Board then billed me for the registration. They took the money straight out of my bank account. Yes, I should have sent in the release form. But we all know how hard it is to straighten out a government mistake.

Some questions that I have:

If a government agency is given the responsibility for our health, and must take our money to do it, then could the agency which depends on tax dollars deny treatment to people who do not pay enough in taxes? Comments anyone?

Will the government eventually encourage or require the abortion of those that are "unfit" or genetically inferior?

Why is homeopathy or oriental medicine not in the health care bill?

Why are we required to buy anything? Is my life my own? Or, does it belong to the state? If it belongs to the state, then do I have any "rights" at all? Or do I only have revocable privileges that any administration may take as they wish? To me, that hardly seems like citizenship, but more like serfdom.

Haiti's quake survivors making due.

In this article on Yahoo a man has built a temporary shelter that's 8'x9'. A 40' container could be made into 4 such shelters that would be much more water proof. There are lots of empty containers in the US thanks to our trade deficit with China and others. These containers could be made into permanent shelters later on.

To paraphrase Jefferson, "If the people wait for the government to build their housing they'll be drowning in the rain"

Well Trained Dog

Financial Freedom

Friends and friends of friends have been bragging on Facebook about paying off credit cards.

I just got repaid some money I lent out and paid off a card myself.

Why can't our government quit borrowing, reduce expenditures, and pay down it's debt?

Freedom entails doing what you want to without hurting others. You can't be free if you're a slave to your credit card companies.

I've embarked on a journey to pay off my credit cards by the end of the year. I have approximately $25K on 3 cards. I have a rental with some equity, and that will pay off most of it, so it's up for sale. I will probably need to spend $500 on paint and landscaping (maybe more) and will need to put it on the Home Depot card. At least they offer interest free financing for 6 months on purchases over $299.

I am also selling off projects and collectibles around the house on Etsy, Ebay, and Craigslist. As I'm in the middle of a move, I wish I'd done more of this sooner. I need to be out by the 27th, so I'm not going to be able to sell a lot of it. Luckily the place has appliances, so I can sell my kitchen appliances.

It's a bit ironic that I started investing in real estate in order to give myself financial freedom. I now believe I did it the wrong way. Instead of leveraging, I should have paid off properties and used the income to buy one property at a time and pay it off as fast as possible. Then you just carry a really good insurance policy.

Corruption in Government

Maybe I'm biased, living in San Bernardino County, California, but I realize, and perhaps suspect, that politicians are even more likely to be dishonest or crooked than your average person. When you have power there is more opportunity to exercise your power for personal gain, or have people who need favors to frankly, try to bribe you. I was asked, as a building inspector, "what do we have to do to make this go easier?" to which I replied, "Comply with the building code."

There are a lot of scandals in SBC at the municipal and county levels. They are not hard to find if you use a search engine. In fact, it's a long running joke, that Louisiana is almost as corrupt as SBC, but has a better reputation for it.

Yet, people all over, hope that their government is a good one. The fact is that people are people all over the world and most of the government employees I know are looking for a secure long term job that they can't be fired from. Which is sort of an indicator that they doubt their own worth in a free market. Most of them talk about getting past probation and coasting for twenty years until they retire, with perhaps the exception of public school teachers who I don't envy at all. So, most public employees, are smart enough to see a good deal when they see it, and the public employees unions have made it so that any 'customer service' or notion of 'public service' or any concept of 'going the extra mile' for the people they supposedly work for has gone right out the window.

You can go to my real estate blog for a current example of incompetence here and here. I still have to take care of this. But, I'm always puzzled by the people who think that government involvement is going to make things better. There is a point to which the government is helpful, but I think our various levels of government are way past that.

The latest SBC scandal is with Bill Postmus, the former Assessor, being arrested again. Here's the link. Maybe, I'll start a "Wall of Shame" just for SBC.

Funny Pics

I've been moving and while I've had a lot on my mind, I haven't had the energy to blog. So here are some funny (or perhaps just thought provoking) pictures I've collected off the net.