Bush's Last Tax Cut

Bush's last tax cut just took effect at the beginning of this year. It doesn't apply to me, as I own no stock, and don't have the deductions to get under the earned income limit. If either of you know someone who has stock, this would be a good year to sell. The article didn't say, but I'd assume this only applies to long-term capital gains. Otherwise this would be a great time to dabble in some daytrading.

Side note: What percentage of people in this tax bracket do you suppose own stock? What percent do you suppose have a savings account? I'd guess more have a savings account, as should every American. So why does long-term capital gains get taxed at 0% whereas interest gets taxed at the normal rate? This to me, is a joke. Just like the reduced tax rate on dividends. Tax cuts for the top 10%!

Side side note: Why is bank interest taxed, anyway? The government should be promoting savings, rather than penalizing it. At the very most, interest should be taxed at the same rate as dividends, 15 percent. With the tax "rebate" and reduced interest rates, the government is telling us to take our money out of the bank and 'invest' it in $600 LCD TVs. Good for Wal-Mart, bad for Americans.

Week Two

Another week, another drop in weight. Although not as good as last week's loss of 2.4 pounds, this week still resulted in a loss which puts me closer to my goal. I idled around my previous weight most of the week. I managed to lose .4 pounds over the weekend. Oddly enough I think I need to consume more calories than I did last week. Many times I was well below 2,000 calories and the site recommends 2,650. This stopped my metabolsim and I think inhibited my weight loss. In the weight room I am making significant gains and my workout routine seems to be working and is easy to follow. I considered moving my weigh-in day to later in the week because Monday's can be pretty brutal at times. I decided not to, to help limit my intake on the weekends. This next Monday should be interesting being the day after the Super Bowl, but if nothing else it may keep me from super bloating myself. My goal for this week is to get below 215 pounds. My rate in weight loss has declined but I am still making progress and as I have learned before patience is weight-losses best friend.

Week Starting Weight: 216.2
Week Ending Weight: 215.8
Week +/-: -.4 pounds
Total +/-: -2.8 pounds

Jay Borschel

Jay Borschel, a high school friend of mine, has finally got the respect he deserves. After losing only one match his entire high school career he was recruited heavily but was still not even the best recruit in his Virginia Tech recruiting class. After Brands jumped ship for Iowa, so did his recruits. All of them lost a year of elgibility for the move. Now Jay, a third year Sophomore, is in his first season of collegiate wrestling attached to a university (the last two years he spent wrestling in collegiate tournaments unattached). After beating two wrestlers ranked in the top five at the National Duals the other weekend in Cedar Falls, Borschel has climbed up to 2nd in the nation. It was always fun watching Jay in high school prove his doubters wrong. When I would go to his house to play PS2 or plan something for our tailgating club his wall was covered with inspirational quotes and newspaper clippings of people who doubted him. Jay was not once ranked pre-season #1 in his weight class in high school. He proved everyone wrong winning 4 state titles at 103 lbs, 125 lbs, 152 lbs, and 171 lbs, the first to ever win four titles at four different weights. I am happy for Jay after the troubles he has faced between Virginia Tech and Iowa. Now that he is finally getting a chance to prove himself at the college level he is taking full advantage of it. How sweet would that be for him to add a National Championship title to his resume? Best of luck to Jay, the #2 ranked wrestler in the nation.

Week One

After one week my resolution is still intact. Even with using Monday as a marking point, I was still able to lose 2.4 pounds. My goal is to keep this pace up so that every 4 weeks I will lose 10 pounds. This would result in a loss of 20 pounds by Spring Break, not that I am going anywhere that will require less clothing than four shirts, long johns, a hat and mittens. However, 20 pounds is a nice "milestone" if you will and it would put be under 200 pounds for the first time in awhile. Cutting calories has been easier than I imagined. The website told me to shoot for 2,650 calories per day. I have been keeping it under 2,000 calories except for the weekend. I am pleased with week one's results after a weekend that included 50 cent draws, Hickory Park and Old Chicago. I will try to keep a weekly tab on my progress, not that anyone really cares.

Week One Start: 218.6
Week One End: 216.2
Week One +/-: -2.4 lbs
Total +/-: -2.4 lbs

Another reason why Time Warner sucks

Apparently, Time Warner wants to charge users for total data transmission. I'm not sure if this is in addition to the bandwidth rates they charge for now. In any case, they are trying to get their piece of the content-on-demand pie. Essentially, they are going to tax anything you don't get through their set-top box. (Assuming they offer video on demand)

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/time-warner-download-too-much-and-you-might-pay-30-a-movie/

Here's my comment,

Data networks are RATE limited. Therefore, providers current process of charging for Mbps is appropriate. Even at this, they are apparently over selling their bandwidth, because I've heard that cable companies do not provide the rates they advertise. This would contrast with power companies. They charge per kilowatt-hour because they have to input coal, natural gas, whatever to generate the electricity. Some of the charges are going to transmission costs, sure, but the majority is to the creation of energy. In essence, Time Warner is taxing content that they did not create - or even provide!

This is not the first questionable pricing scheme by TW. When looking into cable service, I was informed that TW would charge me $25 per outlet to have analog cable installed. I attempted to discover what this charge was for. Of course the sales rep did not know, but she switched my call to a technical service rep. She said that the charge was to "turn on" the service. I told her that I didn't think the service needed to be "turned on" for each outlet individually, that it needed to be hooked up at the box, then all my outlets would work. We didn't get anywhere, and I didn't get the TV service (I did, however, get cable internet). It turns out that the "installation" consisted of the technician making a coax cable and screwing one end into the wall and the other into your TV. That's something I probably could have handled.

New Year's Resolution to Look Like Zach Morris

Roughly five years ago I hit my pinnacly of obesity. Standing around 5'10 and weighing in at 25o pounds I was just about as wide as I was tall. I finally decided to put an end to it. Over the next year and a half or so I changed my lifestyle and transformed myself into a 6 ft tall 175 pound 21st century Zach Morris. I vowed to never get hefty again. Half-way through my third year in college I have once again turned into a chubster. Fully equipped with sugar tits, a flat tire and two chins, I have decided to change my lifestlye once again. Five years ago I didn't enjoy some of the greater pleasure life has to offer, namely Keystone Light and Jack Daniels. That is one more obstacle I am going to have to overcome this time. To help me in my quest to once again look like Zach Morris I found a site (Calorie-Count Plus) that keeps track of your daily allotment of calories taken in and calories burned. It gives you healthy alternatives for a variety of foods and also can serve as a poor man's facebook. It is my latest craze and hopefully it will last. To hold myself accountable I will try to keep updates of my progress.

Week One
Started January 14th
218.6 pounds

If done right I should lose approximately 1-2 pounds per week. I will use Monday's as my weighing date although I weigh myself daily. Wish me luck.

2008 Presidential Nomination Season Heating Up

A quick thought, isn't it interesting that all the candidates keep saying they are running for president. Technically, they are running for their party's nomination. It's hard to argue that we wouldn't be better off with more choices when it actually comes down to ballot box time, but the truth is there will be two presidential candidates: one representing the democrats, one representing the republicans. The current candidates seem to have forgotten this. One step at a time, and if one of the players (especially on the Democrat side) stepped up to say they wanted to lead their party, I think it would resonate with a lot of voters.

Well that wasn't that quick, at all. Here's what I wanted to include in the blog. USA Today has a Presidential Nomination Poll Tracker. It gives a neat look at where public opinion is headed and where it has been. Also, its about the only practical application of regression analysis I've ever seen.

Roger Clemens

Roger Clemens is slimy. The tape released at today's news conference reeks. McNamee seems like he's upset about something. Clemens sounds like he's acting. When Clemens says "I don't know who's on the line." He lies to him. Then Clemens talks about a press conference, but doesn't say that he's going to throw McNamee under the bus. McNamee starts breaking down at the end of the call and asks Clemens what he wants him to do. Clemens asks McNamee why he would tell everyone that he did steroids. Clemens didn't ask McNamee why he lied and McNamee didn't say that he lied. It sure sounds like McNamee is at the end of his rope. Someone who has everything to lose has nothing to gain by lying.

Clemens and his lawyers came across as pretty greasy, taping a phone call without the other person's knowledge and exposing that person's raw emotions to the world. If Clemens was really "pissed off" like he told Mike Wallace, why wasn't he screaming at McNamee, the person who started this whole thing?