pay up

everyone knows that paying taxes is necessary in order for our government and society to function properly. but no one likes to pay them. including many federal employees and aides within the oval office.

the washington post has done some excellent investigative journalism and found that over 280,000 capitol hill employees owe $9.3 million in back taxes! and apparently $9 million is the general amount owed year to year, making it one of the few non-partisan agreements between the republican and democratic parties.






















you can check the sortable list of departments that owe taxes for yourself but heres some highlights:
** white house aides -- 41 people for $831,000
** house of representatives -- 421 people for $6.5 million
** senate -- 217 people for $2.7 million
** labor department -- 463 people for $7.4 million
** federal reserve -- 81 people for $1.0 million
** justice department -- 1971 people for $14.3 million
** homeland security -- 4856 people for $37 million
** health & human services -- 2841 people for $37.3 million

so ive been audited several times over the past few years and in a couple cases owed another $1000. yet the IRS cant seem to track down the federal employees who every year owe $9 million? a spokesman for the group taxpayers for common sense states in the article that since congress writes the tax laws that they need to be held to a higher standard in regards to paying their taxes. how about we begin with that they are held to the SAME standards as everyone else.

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9 years ago

september 11th will forever be one of those events from history that everyone remembers where they were when they first heard or saw the news about the world trade towers being attacked.

for me, i had recently been laid off and had a bunch of airline miles to use, so i went to visit a buddy in anchorage alaska. a trip that was supposed to be a week turned into a month; partially because i still didnt have a job and then partially because there was no air travel allowed. i remember sleeping on the couch when the phone rang. it was a friends mom who was calling to see if he was being recalled into the air force and whether the united states was going to war. we turned on the tv and basically stared at it for the next few days.

being in alaska on september 11th was surreal. you are so far away from "the lower 48" that you get the feeling you are in another country. i both wanted to be home but also somewhat glad that i was so far away at the same time. and the fact that the planes originated out of boston made it even more eerie. i started playing mind games about whether i could have been on one of those planes. what if my buddy lived in LA, the destination of the flights, instead of anchorage?

when flights finally resumed and i got back to boston it wasnt the boston that i had left. at the time i lived across the street from the coast guard station. it was now surrounded with sand bags and concrete barriers with security at checkpoints carrying automatic weapons. being without a job i wanted to just go to lower manhattan and volunteer in any way that i could. but by that point citizens were being asked to stay away so that professionals could do their jobs of trying to locate people and clear debris.

to this day i will not watch video of those planes hitting the towers and it strikes a still raw nerve seeing any photos. there have been discussions about making 9/11 a holiday and national day of remembrance. while at first this seemed like a good idea to me, i would hate to see it just become another three day weekend complete with car sale promotions and backyard barbeques.

nine years ago my cousin was having the time of his life in high school. now he is a marine serving in afghanistan. today i will be recalling the horrors of watching the news that fateful morning and praying for the safety of my cousin.

never forget.

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go hokies!

this weekend marks the start to the college football season including a big one monday night on espn -- #3 boise state versus #10 virginia tech. i believe that over the past few years, the argument that boise state should be considered in the national champions debate has become increasingly annoying. therefore, i would love to see virginia tech run all over them tonight.

i jumped on the boise state bandwagon with everyone else back in 2007 when boise state defeated oklahoma in the fiesta bowl using an exciting offensive game plan including several trick plays.



this was also the game that prompted one of the stars of the boise state team to propose to his cheerleader girlfriend on the sideline while on national television adding to the charm surrounding the team and school.

















but boise state going undefeated by beating up on teams in the weak western athletic conference is not enough for me to start considering them a college football powerhouse. in fact, boise state knows it too. starting in 2011 they decided to switch to the tougher mountain west conference so that they can gain more respect.

should boise state win handily tonight, they will get consideration in the national champions argument despite the fact that they only face one of two ranked opponents this year with the remainder of their games coming against the aforementioned weak conference teams. but should they lose tonight, there is little chance they will climb back into the top of the college football polls.

heres to the hokies helping end the "boise state should be the national champs" discussions tonight instead of letting it drag out all year.

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health care reform and mid-term elections

i saw this on politico recently and found it interesting. apparently the democrats are circulating a memo detailing how to talk to voters this fall about the passing of health care reform. most of the slides are fairly standard -- keep it simple, give personal stories, and say thats its not a perfect law but that its a good start.

the interesting part is the final bullet point of the final slide. listed under things not to do:

















but didnt the president among others say it WILL reduce the deficit?


so why should politicians stay away from mentioning it during the midterm elections? makes you wonder where the truth lies.

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larry king

larry king began his interviewing career in the late 1950s on the radio. but he will probably be most remembered for hosting "larry king live" on cnn starting in 1985. he has conducted thousands of interviews of the years and has become the go-to interviewer for anyone dealing with a media crisis mostly due to the fact that he asks softball questions and basically just allows his subject to say whatever they want without much follow-up questioning. and some of his comments and questions are so asinine you have to wonder how he has kept his job for so long.

so this week, the person dealing with a media firestorm was dr laura schlessinger for her on-air usage of "the n-word." heres some links to an audio recording and transcript of what she said on her radio show. in my opinion, dr laura was making a valid point albeit it in a clumsy, misguided way. but in a world where people like al sharpton roam just waiting in the shadows for anyone to say anything of near insensitivity, dr laura had to spend her week on an apology tour. aka, larry kings domain.

you only need to listen to first 25 seconds of the below video to understand why larry has lost his mojo. but heres a partial transcript:

KING: Before we get to the announcement, the one thing that you said was interesting. You said that on HBO, black comics use the N- word.

SCHLESSINGER: Rap music.

KING: But, Jewish comics can kid Jews, Hispanic comics, Josh Lopez, kids Hispanics all the time. Gay comics kid the gay situation. It's OK, isn't it? But not OK when the non-N-person (emphasis mine) uses it.

NON N-PERSON?!?! thats the best way for you to say that larry? good grief!

well, at least he announced that he is retiring from his cnn post which will be taken over by piers morgan of "americas got talent" fame. but maybe not any time soon enough.

British journalist and "America's Got Talent" judge Piers Morgan, who is widely thought to be King's replacement, is apparently having trouble obtaining a work visa, according to several sources...

As a British citizen, Morgan needs a special visa that will allow him to work full-time in the US -- and those types of visas are increasingly difficult to get, according to lawyers who specialize in the field.

so for better or worse, the larry king live unintentional comedy hour rolls on.

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let's go to the movies

after a year of filming around the streets of charlestown and right around my house, the trailers for ben afflecks new movie "the town" have started airing. perhaps im a little biased because it takes place in my neighborhood, but it looks like its going to be another good one from bennie. my question is about bens next film topic. he won critical acclaim for "gone baby gone" taking place in south boston. now "the town" features charlestown. which boston neighborhood is next?

heres the trailer:


on a personal note, a friend of ours (who i will refer to as Detective McMurty to conceal his identity) was able to get a small part in the film as well. in the trailer he played one of the gangsters firing a gun in the car while wearing a nun mask. and if youre into oddball, strangely funny short films you can check out more of his work here.

theres a part of me that wants to go see "the expendables" but you know its only going to be good in how bad it is. the volume of action stars crammed into one movie though is staggering: bruce willis, sly stallone, arnold, jason stratham, jet li, mickey rourke, steve austin, dolph lundgren, randy couture. wow! and YOU KNOW every one of them will have some sort of clever tag line as that terrorize and destroy. im sure california residents are just happy that arnold had some extra time in his schedule to film a movie as his state falls to shambles.

lastly, i finally got around to watching "crazy heart." i know im late to the game on this one, but if you havent seen it, you should. what a great movie. excellent acting. superb music from t. bone burnett once again on the soundtrack. who knew that jeff bridges and colin farrell(!) had such good singing voices? and for colin to morph into a american country western accent was impressive.

so make yourself some popcorn and settle into the couch or venture out to the theatre to escape the summer heat and get lost in the movies.

enjoy!!

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all over the place

it's the dog days of summer and there's no reason to be thinking too hard on a sunday. plus i feel like i've been away from making updates recently. so here's some ramblings and musings with no particular focus.

do you know where the phrase "dog days of summer" originated? i had always assumed that it simply meant that it was hot outside which would result in dogs lying around in the shade. nope, it has to do with the stars. canis major or "the big dog" is a constellation. sirius is the brightest star within this constellation and is sometimes called "the dog star." during the summer months, roughly july and august, the sun, earth and canis major are in alignment. so go download an app to your phone that allows you to find the canis major constellation.
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jersey shore is back! i didn't like the fact that the same cast was just being moved to miami. i wanted it to be a fresh batch of maniacs hanging out in seaside. now they all have some level of celebrity attached to them which taints the reality experiment. though i have to admit that there was something nice about seeing familiar faces and not having to get to know them. you can already predict some things for this season:
** sammi sweatheart and ronnie will get back together...
** ...though it will result in constant bickering and arguing.
** angelina will get punched in the face. probably by jwoww.
** the hot tub will get polluted

is there a drinking game for the jersey shore? there should be! theres so much you could incorporate.
** take a drink when:
> every time snooki whines
> angelina says "classy"
> the situation says "grenade"
> ronron juice is seen or discussed
** multiple drinks for:
> pauly d in the dj booth
> fights
> dance floor scenes that include beating back the beat
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why do they measure movies by box office dollars and not actual ticket sales? how do you compare movies between eras when obviously more recent movies obviously make more money because tickets cost more? the music industry uses album sales and not the money generated from album sales, so why can't the movie industry figure it out? for example: gone with the wind ranks #124 on worldwide box office sales but #1 when you adjust for ticket price inflation. in the reverse, avatar is #1 for sales yet #14 when adjusted.
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who is buying this?! and why?





















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speaking of beer. while on vacation i had the pleasure of stopping in two places that served cask beer. cask ale beer is the term for unfiltered beer served from a cask without additional nitrogen or carbon dioxide pressure. it may also be referred to as "real ale." it's difficult to describe how it tastes differently than beer with carbonation from a keg, but it just does. find one in your area.
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i feel like i'm late to the game but i can not stop playing "wagon wheel" by old crow medicine show. apparently portions of the song were written by bob dylan but never recorded then lyrics were added by OCMS. it appears that the band is in europe right now but keep an eye out for when they are in your area.
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that's it for now. hopefully that didn't tax the brain too much. labor day and the end of the summer is going to be here before you know it so go enjoy some sunshine, or go fishing, or float down a river, or play golf, or see some live music in an amphitheatre or just sit and relax.

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