Guard Dog

Gondor Has No King S—t is starting to get weird

The Trump legacy: a broken Republican Party

Watched Mystery Science Theater 3000 on Pluto almost all last night

OK that last bit, I’m stealing that!

Everyone who benefits from “society“ and the “social contract“ should participate in its upkeep. Like I said it’s equitable. But it doesn’t matter. We’re not going to do it so it’s irrelevant to discuss it. you can’t blame Hurlshot for my opinions. But you can blame Milton Friedman, Sowell, Williams, and Hayek. Most of my nutz ideas came from life experience, long hours of contemplation over fine bourbon while watching the stars from my porch, and of course the books I’ve read.

I spent most of the morning in the barn working on refurbishing that old woodstove. Yes still working on it a year later. Definitely bitten off more than I can chew on that one. But it’s cold, it’s starting to rain, and to hell with it. Came in the house to make a cuppa coffee and I think I’m just going to stay here and play fallout four. Just got to far Harbor for the first time. Looks pretty cool.

I have been a fan of flat tax. And it would apply to all individual income. No exceptions, no deductions, whatever you earn be at $100 a year or $100 million. tax is theft. No, do not freaking get started, it is theft. It’s money taken by force. If that isn’t theft call Websters. At least a flat tax would be equitable. But clearly flat tax or anything other than progressive tax is a nonstarter. We’re just not going to do it. So IDGAF anymore. One thing I would like is some consistency. Tell me what the rules are and then I’ll work out how to minimize my exposure to it. I really don’t care what Biden and Company are going to do going forward. My income is nothing to brag about. I’m a state employee on the second lowest rung of the pay scale. I probably earn less per year in income than most of you. The assets I have are generally exempted from taxation or texted a greatly reduced rate because of state rules and some federal rules. With the exception of my home of course. So my federal and State tax burden is as low as I can possibly make it. And you can’t fault anybody for doing likewise. If you love the government and the social contract so much there’s nothing stopping you from writing extra checks. Go ahead and send the IRS a check for $100 right now. They’ll cash it they won’t even ask why.

I know a lot of sports teams that would be tickled to death with that arrangement. Like all of them. Except the WNBA

I have only the vaguest notion of what QAnon is but every one keeps calling it a cult. If that’s the case do we have a mass suicide to look forward to? Just asking.

Right. Articles of impeachment against Biden on his second freaking day? That kind of tit for tat nonsense We can do without

I am a big fan of Quixotic gestures and lost causes. But I also think tilting at windmills is something best done on your own time.

Hank Aaron passed away today. He was 84. He was a living legend.

How much was seven chickens worth? Am I wealthy?

Matthew chapter 25 verse 40 is one of my favorites "The King will reply, 'Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'

Not at all. Material goods can be purchased by the government from private industry. We’re just adding a middleman. In fact middle men are very anti-communist you might say. Like I posted earlier if people need food assistance don’t give them money to buy food, give them food. In the form of prepackaged meals. How many adults in the house? How many children in the house? How many infants or children under two? OK here’s two weeks worth of food in two weeks you’ll get another shipment. This is one way to prevent things like selling EBT cards and taking cash back for use on things not food related. I’m not saying this is a workable idea. I’ve done zero research on it. Just throwing it out there to be noodled around.

I better not catch you anywhere near my donkeys and servants

Yep. All the more reason to change public assistance. Rather than give them money give them the material goods they need. If it IS cheaper to do that

I would agree with that too. Only I would draw the line at killing people and stealing things.

Oh I certainly agree with that. There are a number of charities I’m very fond of that I support regularly with a pretty decent amount of my present income. And of course I pay the taxes that fund the programs that supposed to help these people in need. How will they do that and whether or not they could be done better is certainly open for discussion. But there’s absolutely no virtue in paying taxes it’s something you have to do. Virtue comes from doing the things you don’t have to do like charity work.

That is about the size of it. But I do think the people who succeeded do not owe apologies to the ones who didn’t.

W I believe snap allows $20 per day. I know EBT does but I don’t know what the limit is

Or loopholes. They’re allowed to take cash back off of it also. So you go in the grocery store buy a 12 ounce soda and take back $20.

Well you completely lost me there. Telling people where to live is way too far into social engineering for my taste. Besides I live in a rulral area do you think I want a lot of people around me?

I’ve had this idea and I don’t remember if I brought it up here before. I probably have. Food stamps are food assistance but they’re really not. It’s just money. We are giving people money and then trusting them to use it for food. And healthy food at that. I think another way to go would be instead of giving them money we give them food.. I don’t know how it is today but when I was in the service the United States government paid about $.90 per meal for MREs. So we figure up what the cost per meal is of food assistance right now and decide if it would be less expensive to just give them food. Obviously this would require the government to make contracts with baby food or develop some type of baby food packaged meal or meals appropriate for kids. An MRE is designed for an adult after all. It probably would be wise to reduce their calorie count to because they are meant to be eaten by troops in the field. But U get the idea. Rather than giving them money which may or may not be properly used you give them literal food.

Oh I don’t have one outside some form of public assistance. And I wasn’t thinking our dark friend was being serious. That sounded a lot more like tongue-in-cheek to me because it is staking out a somewhat indefensible position. on a somewhat tangential note I’m sure you will recall ( not firsthand obviously) how home gardening was strongly encouraged during World War II. Too bad there isn’t some easy way to make that popular again. While that will certainly not solve anyone’s food shortage every little bit does help. There was another idea that some communities have latched onto and that’s community gardens in public spaces. I would be willing to donate the use of real estate to something like that as long as the municipality stepped up and took care of the insurance costs it would entail.