What is a Boy was written by an anonymous author and was published in The Nevada News of Prescott, Arkansas on January 25, 1951. It was recently resurrected by Jerry McKelvy in his Sandyland Chronicle and serves as the basis for this article.

My thoughts were turned to this subject with the SuperBowl commercial featuring Little Darth Vader (shown below). I suppose it hit home with me since both my son and grandson dressed up as Darth Vader on Halloweens many years apart. Darth Vader and, now, Volkswagen, will last in memory for a long, long time. (By the way VW, I loved my 1963 Beetle.)

Between the innocence of babyhood and the dignity of manhood we find a delightful creature called a boy. Boys come in assorted sizes, weights, and colors, but all boys have the same creed: To enjoy every second of every hour of every day and to protest with noise (their only weapon) when their last minute is finished and the adult males pack them off to bed at night.

Boys are found everywhere — on top of, underneath, inside of, climbing on, swinging from, running around, or jumping to. Mothers love them, little girls hate them, older sisters and brothers tolerate them, adults ignore them, and Heaven protects them. A boy is Truth with dirt on its face, and Beauty with a cut on its finger, Wisdom with bubble gum in its hair, and the Hope of the future with a frog in its pocket.

When you are busy, a boy is an inconsiderate, bothersome, intruding bundle of noise. When you want him to make a good impression, his brain turns to jelly or else he becomes a savage, sadistic jungle creature bent on destroying the world and himself with it.

A boy is a composite — he has the appetite of a horse, the digestion of a sword swallower, the energy of a pocket-size atomic bomb, the curiosity of a cat, the lungs of a dictator, the imagination of a Paul Bunyan, the shyness of a violet, the audacity of a steel trap, the enthusiasm of a firecracker, and when he makes something he has five thumbs on each hand.

Nobody else is so early to rise, or so late to supper. Nobody else gets so much fun out of trees, dogs, and breezes. Nobody else can cram into one pocket a rusty knife, a half-eaten apple, 3 feet of string, an empty Bull Durham sack, 2 gum drops, 6 cents, a sling shot, a chunk of unknown substance, and a genuine supersonic code ring with a secret compartment.

A boy is a magical creature — you can lock him out of your workshop, but you can’t lock him out of your heart. You can get him out of your study, but you can’t get him out of your mind. Might as well give up — he’s your captor, your jailor, your boss, and your master — a freckle-faced, pintsize, cat chasing bundle of noise. But when you come home at night with only shattered pieces of your hopes and dreams, he can mend them like new with the two magic words — "Hi Dad!"

—

Volkswagen captured the essence of a little boy being a little boy. Enjoy.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords has a friend in author Tom Zoellner. Tom has known Gabby for a decade and has even knocked on doors in the Arizona sun in support of her campaign. He knows a side of her all America would like to know.

Tom wrote, "I want her to be able to ride her motorcycle through the hills east of town that she loved, to pop in to the TTT Truck Stop for some pie à la mode, to talk to the person on the stool next to her about whatever they wanted to say, to take hummingbird sips of Negra Modela and pretend she was actually drinking, and to go on brightly in the E-kay of her voice about the ideas that were constantly occurring to her and the ways she would carry them out."

Education and Business Experience

After a distinguished educational track that includes a B.A. in Sociology and Latin American History from Scripps College in California, A Master of Regional Planning from Cornell University, a Fullbright Scholar in Chihuahua, Mexico and a fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard, she worked as an associate for regional economic development at Price Waterhouse in New York City until her father called and said help was needed at the family business in Tucson. In 1996 she became CEO of El Campo Tire Warehouses, a local chain founded by her grandfather. (continued below)

Public Service

Gabrielle Giffords was elected to the Arizona House of Representatives in 2000. Two years later she became the youngest woman elected to the Arizona Senate, a position she held until December 1, 2005, when she resigned to run for Congress. In late summer of that year, she was a volunteer in Houston, Texas, helping victims of Hurricane Katrina. She has been a member of the U. S. Congress since January, 2007.

Back in Houston

Gabby Giffords is now back in Houston. This time, however, it is not a trip from her beloved Arizona that she wanted to take. Having been shot in the head at point blank range on January 8 at a political event outside a Safeway grocery store in Casas Adobes, Arizona, a suburb of Tucson, she was taken to University Medical Center for treatment. Then, on January 21, she was flown to Houston’s Memorial Hermann Medical Center in Houston.

Today, January 25, she is to be transferred to The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research, known as TIRR Memorial Hermann. Her condition was upgraded from serious to good last night. Now begins the long process of rehabilitation therapies. A brain injury has many, many effects, most of which are not known at this time because Gabby has been unable to speak.

Has America Been Unable to Speak?

Are Americans so influenced by the fringe elements of political thinking that we are content to wallow in the inhumane shallows of political conversation? The Constitution of the United States contains words in its preamble that state one of government’s goals is to promote the general welfare. Recently, general welfare has taken on a new meaning, according to some, — socialism.

Those who promote the general welfare are called socialists. Unless that general welfare involves government programs like highways, police departments, fire departments, local health departments, etc.

Another goal of government stated in the Preamble is to insure domestic tranquility. Insuring peace at home, however, should not involve gun control of any kind, again — according to some.

We hear political leaders and those who are called political pundits defaming one another. We see the Mitch McConnell’s and the John Boehner’s and the Eric Me Too’s pledging to sacrifice the best interests of America for a political agenda. Why else would they not sit down and discuss a possible compromise of ideas? Is it because they, for so long now, have been wallowing in the inhumane shallows of political conversation?

Just last night Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, in her response to the President’s State of the Union speech, said the president should repeal his health care bill and let the free market take care of any problems that exist in the world’s best health care system but should also impose malpractice lawsuit limitations. I guess the free market cannot fix the malpractice problem.

We also heard Congressman express that one of his greatest concerns as a parent of three children, aged six, seven and eight, was the debt facing the United States government. Really? My wife and I had a lot of concerns during the growth years of our children, and I can honestly say that I had many, many concerns greater than the national debt. They rode bicycles; they played baseball, they fished in the lake not too far from our house; they visited friends; their friends visited our house; they attended daycare; they attended church. There were many, many things that generated concern for their health and well-being. The national debt? Not so much. Did you? That, to me, is wading in the shallow waters of political conversation.

Gabby Giffords will experience many things during rehabilitation, each of those things designed to help restore a portion of her life. One of those things will be speech therapy. Perhaps it is time for America to undergo speech therapy and turn away from the inhumane shallows of political conversation.

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Learn More About Brain Injury

Larry and Beth Jameson, authors of Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide, have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They maintain two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Job killing is the new buzzword being applied to any and every thing Republicans and their sponsors don’t like. Their sponsors? You betcha, to quote someone who knows how to raise the value of a personal bank account.

Job killing, used as a buzzword, does not need to be used accurately. It simply needs to be said over and over and over again. You know, like death panels and Obamacare. More importantly, though, it must be used to promote or protect the interests of legislative sponsors.

For instance, the Washington Post reports that Eric Cantor, Republican Congressman, received more than $6 million during the 2010 campaign from what the Post called corporate-linked donations. $2.4 million of that came from the finance, insurance and real estate industries.

Major healthcare firms contributed over $5 million the past two years, including $1.6 million that went to Cantor and fellow Republican Congressman John Boehner. Other sources report Cantor and Boehner received well over $2 million.

The Repealing the job-killing healthcare law act was passed by the Boehner/Cantor-led House of Representatives this past week. Last year, Republicans said the healthcare industry could not handle all the new patients because it would need something like 200,000 more doctors plus loads and loads of new healthcare workers. So, which is it? Is the healthcare bill bad because it will create hundreds of thousands, possibly millions, of new jobs OR is it bad because it kills jobs? (continued below)

Remember the Death Tax?

This tax, before there was an America, was paid to kings when property was transferred from one person to another. The United States adopted it as a way to help fund a government of the people, by the people and for the people but to apply this tax only to those individuals who had large estates. It was appropriately called the Estate Tax.

What did we hear about the Death Tax? There was outrage that you had to pay a tax when you died, even though over 99% of Americans would never pay such a tax. Where was the outrage when the gasoline tax was raised? Where was the outrage when the cigarette tax was raised? Those taxes are paid by far more Americans than pay the Estate Tax…far more. Way far more.

Do businesses pay an Estate Tax? No, it is paid by individuals. Do businesses pay a cigarette tax? No, it is paid by smokers. Do businesses pay a gasoline tax? You betcha! I want to see some outrage over the job-killing gasoline tax.

Related Articles

Check out the Independent’s Day Series of Articles.

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Brain injury is, perhaps, one of the most misunderstood of tragedies that can happen to a person. Because everyone’s brain is different prior to the injury, everyone’s brain injury is specific to the individual.

Gabby Giffords and her family face a recovering period not knowing at the moment what was lost and needs to be once again made a part of her life — or, if it can be fully restored to its functioning capacity prior to Saturday’s shooting.

Memory loss is a common effect of brain injury. Some of those lost memories can affect cognitive functioning. Beth Jameson lost her math skills. Think about that for a moment and decide how you would make change or pay for something that costs thirty-eight cents. Like Beth, you would probably hand paper money to the cashier, not knowing if you received the correct amount of change.

Congresswoman Giffords is fortunate to have had a crack medical team who were able to begin treatment immediately. Time is of the essence when treating brain injury. (continued below)

The bullet that wounded Gabby Giffords exited her frontal lobe on the left side. The frontal lobe is a busy part of the brain, contributing to so many of the brain’s functions. An injury can cause it to slow down. Word-finding is another common problem. Remembering names and faces is another. Calming emotions is yet another. Many brain injury victims find themselves becoming angry quite quickly and spouting obcenities before their brain can react.

It is my hope that the medical team in Arizona was able to minimize some of the brain injury effects. As we cling to hope and offer prayers, it is important to remember Gabby’s family. They will become her primary caregivers. They will live with whatever it is that affects her. And, it will affect them, too.

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

More About Brain Injury

Karen of Alberta, Canada tells how the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords reminded her of the day her 17-year old son suffered a traumatic brain injury and had a portion of his skull removed. You can read her story by clicking this link: Brain Injury in the News.

Find a wealth of information at Brain Injury Information.

Read about Beth Jameson’s recovery at Brain Injury Survivor’s Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head Saturday morning while hosting her first Congress On The Corner in Tucson. She remains in critical condition with a traumatic brain injury caused by a bullet that traversed the left side of her brain from back to front.

People died and others were wounded exercising a right guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States for which others have died establishing and protecting that document.

I hope Gabby’s story does not get lost in political rhetoric. She has a long, long, long rehabilitation period facing both her and her family…the results of which cannot be known at this time.

You will notice at the end of this article that friends of Uncle Brice include some brain injury sites. I encourage you to visit those sites and better acquaint yourselves with Gabby’s future. (continued below)

Pundits and Palin

There are many who have already ramped up the political rhetoric about gun control and hateful speech and Internet postings. Was Sarah Palin wrong to post a map targeting Democratic districts as potential Republican takeovers in the last election? No. Was she wrong in using gun sights on her map? Yes.

Is it wrong for elected officials and political pundits to call for second amendment remedies and for people to carry guns to political rallies? Certainly. The First Amendment guarantee of free speech and a free press does not guarantee that the speech be responsible. Common sense is not so common anymore.

President Barack Obama spoke Wednesday night at a memorial service held at the University of Arizona. He said, "But at a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized – at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do – it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds."

He summed up a need in America when talking about nine-year old victim Christina Taylor Green. "I want us to live up to her expectations. I want her democracy to be as good as she imagined it… We should do everything we can to make sure this country lives up to our children’s expectations."

This story is not about Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, Chris Matthews, Ed Schultz or any others who have chosen to politicize it. This story is about America. Will we remain divided according to selfish political policies, or will we come together to promote the common welfare of our nation?

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

United States Representative Gabrielle Giffords, Democrat from Arizona, was shot in the head Saturday morning while hosting her first Congress On The Corner in Tucson.

Giffords is a Blue Dog Democrat who supported the Health Care Act passed by the 111th Congress. On Thursday she introduced a bill to cut the salaries of members of Congress by 5%.

The Congresswoman’s Chief of State, Pia Carusone, issued a statement saying, "An unthinkable tragedy occurred at our Congress On Your Corner event today in Tucson. Our community has lost beloved friends and colleagues, and many more are injured. Our hearts and prayers go out to all of them and to those who are suffering the loss of treasured friends and family members.

Congresswoman Giffords is dedicated to serving the people of Southern Arizona. It was in this spirit that our office organized today’s event. We will make further statements as details become available. We offer thanks to the law enforcement, first responders, and medical personnel who work to save lives and mend the injured." (continued below)

Seventeen other persons were shot; six died. Among the dead are Gabe Zimmerman who served as Gifford’s director of community outreach, federal district judge John M. Roll, pastor Dorwin Stoddard, nine-year old Christina Greene, Dorthy Murray and Phyllis Scheck.

Twenty-two year old Jared Lee Loughner was tackled at the scene, arrested and is now in custody. A 9mm Glock with an extended clip that holds thirty rounds was recovered. The Washington Post reports that the gun was purchased legally on November 30, 2010. The manufacture of extended clips was banned in 1994 by the Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act. That law, however, expired in September of 2004 and Senator Diane Finstein’s effort to extend it was voted down in the Senate by a vote of 8 to 90.

The Public Safety and Recreational Firearms Use Protection Act was replaced in 2005 with the Bush Administration Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act which prevented manufacturers and dealers from being held liable for crimes committed with the products.

We can assume if the ban on extended clips had remained in effect when he made his legal purchase he would have had a gun with a ten-round clip. Eighteen people would not have been shot because he was tackled before he would have had time to reload.

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik stated, "When you look at unbalanced people, how they respond to the vitriol that comes out of certain mouths about tearing down the government. The anger, the hatred, the bigotry that goes on in this country is getting to be outrageous. And unfortunately, Arizona I think has become the capital. We have become the mecca for prejudice and bigotry."

This is a developing story. For now, we can only hold up the families of this tragedy in our thoughts and prayers.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

The United States government’s debt ceiling is not a normal topic of discussion around the office water cooler, or anywhere else for that matter. It is an arbitrary dollar figure that represents a simple premise: we will borrow up to this amount of money.

If the average American family operated using a self-imposed debt ceiling we might see the following scenario.

With a take-home pay of $6,000 per month, the family plans its spending. Money will be set aside for groceries, dining out, automobile expenses, automobile insurance, homeowner or renter’s insurance, investment or savings, gifts (birthday, Christmas, etc.), vacations, utility costs, personal property taxes, real estate taxes, clothing, shelter and children’s education, among others. Oh, and each family member must have a cell phone, and they must have one or two computers. Cell phones and computers have monthly costs, also known as monthly debt.

As life progresses, the family wants to buy a home and each family member wants a car. How much of a home (size and cost) and what kind of cars will be determined. Usually these items are determined by want rather than need, and that usually means money must be borrowed to make the purchase. Borrowed money requires monthly principal and interest payments.

The decision is made to spend no more than 40% of take-home pay on monthly debt. This would include all those insurance policies and taxes mentioned above, utilities, computer and cell phone charges, and monthly payments for the house and cars. (continued below)

Then, things over which the family has no control begin to happen. Insurance rates and utility rates are increased. Perhaps the family chose an adjustable rate mortgage so they could buy a larger house for less up-front money and lower payments. After all, by the time the monthly payments increase working family members will have received pay raises at work. The raises did not materialize but the payment increase did. So, the decision to spend no more than 40% of take-home pay on monthly debt is raised to 45%.

One or two family members must have a credit card for emergency purposes in case the car breaks down on the road, or something. The cards might also be used for normal items as long as the full amount of charges is paid monthly. Now the family has added groceries, dining out and clothing purchases to their monthly debt and decided to raise the percentage of take-home pay from 45% to 55%, another $600.

One of the wage-earners is laid off, and the family is facing a serious financial situation. The $6,000 take-home drops to $4,000, $3,300 of which had already been set aside for monthly debt payments. A decision is made to stop paying the credit cards in full each month and carry a balance until the laid off worker finds a new job. The debt ceiling must be raised. The alternative would be defaulting on the debts which would mean possibly losing the house. Vacations and savings plans no longer appear in the family budget.

U. S. Government Crisis

The United States government, because of past congressional action, finds itself in a similar situation. They have raised the debt ceiling 75 times since 1962. Now there are members of Congress who say they will not vote to raise the ceiling. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said he might vote for it if the retirement age for Social Security is raised to 70. Others want to tie their vote to spending cuts.

There is nothing wrong about making cuts in government spending, as long as they are true spending cuts. You see, the government borrowed money to begin a war in Afghanistan, then borrowed more money to fight a war in Iraq, then borrowed more money to reduce government revenue by giving tax cuts to everyone, then borrowed more money to provide prescription drug coverage through Medicare. And, of course, a financial crisis hit and more money was borrowed to prevent some major economic crashes.

Millions of Americans lost their jobs and the government lost more tax revenue because of it. Income is decreasing but the expenses are not going down. Yes, expenses must be cut. But, in order to protect the full faith and credit of the United States government, the debt ceiling must be raised. Simply put, expenses cannot be cut enough between now and March 31 to make a difference. The ceiling must still be raised.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced that the Pentagon would cut its budget by $78 billion over the next five years and shrink the size of the Army and Marine Corps. What that means is that Pentagon spending will only increase slightly each year through 2014 and then remain effectively frozen in 2015 and 2016. In other words, this is a budget cut that does not reduce spending.

The military budget is about 20% of the entire government budget. For next year, the military budget will be $553 billion NOT counting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. One program being cut by Gates is $15 billion for a Marine Corps amphibious landing craft known as the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle. I wonder how many amphibious landings are being done in the mountains and deserts of Afghanistan and Iraq. However, the military budget does include $30 billion for unexpected costs for fuel, health care and "other."

Another $70 billion of the military budget will be shifted to building other weapons systems, a new long-range bomber and a modernized Abrams tank. My question is this: could this not be delayed while America is facing a financial crisis? Of course, Republican Representative Howard P. McKeon of California said, "I will not stand idly by and watch the White House gut defense when Americans are deployed in harm’s way."

No, sadly, I’m not kidding. Do you now understand why America faces a crisis with its debt ceiling? As long as we have members of Congress like Rep. McKeon who don’t want to cut "vacations" in a time of financial crisis, you and I are in trouble.

You might also be interested in Understanding the Estate Tax.

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

TurboTax has been my income tax filing software of choice for a number of years. The reason is simple: the software is simple to use. Of course you have to have your records – just like you would if you used a tax professional.

My son summed it up better than anyone I’ve seen or heard. "Why should I pay someone else to type my information into a computer program when I can do it myself – much cheaper."

After all, your tax professional will ask you a lot of questions and ask for a lot of documentation. TurboTax asks those same questions, maybe even more. And TurboTax gives you information about how to answer the questions. Based on your answers, TurboTax will probably suggest others things for you to consider.

But I Want My Refund Fast

When I filed my 2009 tax returns in early 2010, I received an email from TurboTax telling me that my federal return had been accepted for processing on February 6 and my state return had been accepted for processing on February 9. My bank statement shows that I received a deposit of my state refund on February 11 and a deposit of my federal refund on February 19.

That was an almost unbelievable two day turn-around on my state tax and ten days on the federal. Why would you pay an exhorbitant fee to a tax professional for a Refund Anticipation Loan that might get your federal refund a few days faster?

TurboTax is the way to go. It definitely has the Uncle Brice seal of approval.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Leon Walker of Rochester Hills, Michigan, has come face-to-face with BIG government. Seriously, you cannot get much bigger than charging a husband for reading email on a computer he shares with his wife.

Evidently his wife has a friend in Oakland County Prosecutor Jessica Cooper. She described Walker as a skilled hacker. He is employed by Oakland County as a computer technician.

Just last night Aunt Brice told me she’d been logging into one of my Facebook accounts to "see what I was saying." Honey, your admission, freely given as you tickled your palate with some of Napa Valley’s finest, could put you in jail if we lived near Detroit. You see, Detroit doesn’t have much crime and prosecutors up there go out looking for criminals like you.

Of course there is more to the story – much, much more. You can continue reading below the ads, but be sure and come back to the ads so find out about other stuff or to buy something because these good folks help pay my bills.

Her Cheating Heart

Clara Walker, the aggrieved party according to the prosecutor who is now divorced from Leon, has three divorces on her resumè. Her email revealed that Clara was having an affair with her second husband, a man who had been arrested for beating her in front of her son from husband number one.

Leon, worried about further domestic violence from the man who was in flagrante delicto (fancy legal term commonly used to describe being caught in the act of having sexual intercourse), turned the email over to husband Number One who then filed for custody of the child.

Kudos to the Detroit Free Press

The Detroit Free Press broke this story on December 26, interviewing all parties involved except Clara Walker who, according to her attorney Michael McCulloch, declined the interview. L. L. Brasier is the staff writer at DFP. Click the link to read the entire article,
Is reading wife’s e-mail a crime? Rochester Hills man faces trial.

Brasier brings up another point at the close of his article. Attorney Deborah McKelvy asks, "What’s the difference between that and parents who get on their kids’ Facebook accounts?"

Prosecutor Cooper says Leon used his wonderful skills because of his high training to hack into his wife’s password-protected email account. Leon says his wife kept all of her passwords in a book beside the computer. Now I’ll admit that reading is a wonderful skill. Clara also says that in spite of the fact that Leon bought and used the laptop, it was hers alone.

Note: According to neighborhoodscout.com, crime in Detroit registers 525 crimes per square mile; the national average is 49.6.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.

Why is there such a ruckus about the estate tax? Less than 1% of wealthiest Americans pay it. The real estate bubble brought it to the forefront a few years ago. People who had bought a house for $30,000 in the 1960’s found that its value had risen in some parts of the country to about $1,000,000.

The $600,000 exemption still meant that had to pay estate taxes for whatever portion of that remaining $400,000 that couldn’t be reduced by other deductions.

A simple matter would have been to raise the exemption.

Here’s what the IRS says, "The Estate Tax is a tax on your right to transfer property at your death. It consists of an accounting of everything you own or have certain interests in at the date of death. The fair market value of these items is used, not necessarily what you paid for them or what their values were when you acquired them. The total of all of these items is your Gross Estate. The includible property may consist of cash and securities, real estate, insurance, trusts, annuities, business interests and other assets.

Once you have accounted for the Gross Estate, certain deductions (and in special circumstances, reductions to value) are allowed in arriving at your Taxable Estate. These deductions may include mortgages and other debts, estate administration expenses, property that passes to surviving spouses and qualified charities. The value of some operating business interests or farms may be reduced for estates that qualify.

After the net amount is computed, the value of lifetime taxable gifts (beginning with gifts made in 1977) is added to this number and the tax is computed. The tax is then reduced by the available unified credit. Presently, the amount of this credit reduces the computed tax so that only total taxable estates and lifetime gifts that exceed $1,000,000 will actually have to pay tax. In its current form, the estate tax only affects the wealthiest 2 percent of all Americans." (Source: http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=164871,00.html) – continued below

It only affects the wealthiest 2% of all Americans. Where have we heard that before? Let’s talk dollars for a moment and then we’ll talk sense.

There was no estate tax for the wealthiest 2% of Americans in 2010. This, of course, was part of the Bush Tax Cuts set to expire December 31, 2010.

Obama Proposal for the Estate Tax

The Obama Administration proposed raising the exemption to $3.5 million from what was once $600,000. The tax rate proposed was 45%, about 10% lower than the old days and the same rate the Bush tax cuts lowered it to for 2009.

Robert Ball Has a Suggestion

Robert Ball served as a Social Security Commissioner during the administrations of Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon. Ball proposed using the 2009 Bush estate tax plan and dedicating the revenue to the Social Security Trust Fund. Actuaries estimated that such an estate tax plan would close more than one-fourth of the Social Security shortfall over the next 75 years. (Source: Center on Budget and Policy Profiles)

Estate Tax Congressional Action

The United States House of Representatives passed the Obama proposal. Republicans in the Senate blocked it. Again I say, does that sound familiar?

The December 6, 2010 Compromise

The DEAL with the Republicans to move forward provides a two-year plan for the estate tax with an exemption of $5 million and a tax rate of 35%.

The Estate Tax America Needs

Please notice I did not use the word "want" in that heading. We the people need to begin looking at what we need more than what we want. We need, at a minimum, the estate tax proposed by the Obama Administration, and we need to dedicate it to the Social Security Trust Fund as proposed by Robert Ball.

This should be the first step before any measures aimed at reducing Social Security costs are undertaken. Add this footing to the program and let the actuaries then see what’s needed in the future.

Call to Action: Make sure your representatives in Congress know what they should do to protect America’s finances. You can also Stumble this article, Digg it, Tweet it or stick it on your Facebook page.

Uncle Brice Supporters

Say Hey to the Good Folks that make this blog possible:

Online Little Rock.com is where Uncle Brice got his start. There’s a ton of information on this site about Arkansas, Little Rock, dining, dancing, shopping (and shopping online). It’s also a high-trafficked Civil War information site. You can even find out stuff about all the colleges and universities of Arkansas.

Home Business Opportunities is a site that has never been more in demand. You can find legitimate ways to earn money from home as well as a lot of information about Internet marketing, writing, building traffic for your website, and more.

The owners of Online Little Rock have a mission in life to teach everyone about brain injury. They have two websites that have hundreds of pages of information, including visitor-submitted Brain Injury Stories. The sites are Brain Injury Online and Brain Injury Guide.

Beth’s Brain Injury Blog is a favorite in the brain injury community. She writes about the good, the bad and the ugly of brain injury and how you must maintain a sense of humor to live successfully whether you are the victim or a caregiver.