Sharktopus concept art by Matt Leach

The Loen asked a potent question whilst watching Mike Rowe collect giraffe poo.

"I wonder if SyFy is going to make Giraffetopus?"

Using his Adam's Apple as a trigger,
Nidworth activated his Phlegm-Ray.

Yet another reason it ain't easy bein' green.




This blatant ripoff of John Kricfalusi hurts to watch. Some find John K to be an acquired taste, but this horror is like zombie Ren & Stimpy, or The Ripping Friends. All the life has been sucked out of the cartoon, with only slavish form remaining. Sadness.

I am relieved.
Balance is restored to the Universe.

I'm sorry. I was Googling Fair Tax stuff, and noticed a number of anti Fair Tax blogs out there. The all seem to revert to the tired old arguments, first referring to "the so-called Fair Tax". This is just kindergarten-level grumping, almost on the level of saying "Neal Boortz is a poopy-head".

"So-called". Yes. It is so-called, because it is called so. "Fair Tax" is the name of the plan. So? The effort to prejudice the reader before any substantive arguments are made is disingenuous and low. It is the sign of a weak argument."It is called the Fair Tax, but it's not REALLY fair, so nyahh nyaaaahhhh."

"We can't afford another so-called economic 'expansion' like the one from the last decade—what some call the 'lost decade,'" Obama explained in his State of Obama address. An expansion that had a max of 5.6% unemployment, heady halcyon days, compared to the 10% unemployment we currently enjoy.

So-called. Man up, people. Range your arguments. Get out of play school.

The FairTax has far more pros than cons. I have trouble dredging up even one con.
To date, all the objections to the FairTax I have heard are from people who haven't read up on it, or who have an axe to grind. Mrs. P once expressed a concern relative to her hubby's business, as I recall, and many people wax horrified when they contemplate that "I won't be able to deduct interest on my mortgage!!" We have all been schooled in the importance of taking advantage of ALL the legal outs so lovingly provided by our benevolent Uncle Sam. Thus, we quail when our favorite loophole is unaddressed or eliminated in discussion of the FairTax. I would have to say that ALL objections to the FairTax stem from a single misapprehension of the facts; not recognizing one salient point:

Under the FairTax, there will be NO I.R.S. Period.

The most important part of the FairTax is the repeal of the Sixteenth Amendment. There will be NO withholding, No FICA, no need for deductions. No I.R.S. No government bullies holding a gun to your head, robbing you of your pay to hand to some bureaucrat to disburse.

You will take home your entire paycheck. Your first check after the enactment of the FairTax will be like getting a raise.

You won't need deductions, because the government won't be taking your money.

"But Mr. Aardvark, sir, isn't the FairTax still a tax?"

Yes. Yes it is. But it is truly a voluntary tax.The FairTax is a national retail sales tax, a tax you pay when you purchase something at retail. If you buy a new car, 23% of the cost of that car is what you pay as FairTax. (NOT 23% added to the price of the car. It is a part of the sticker. The lying liars in Washington like to accuse the FairTax proponents of wanting to add 23% tax ON TOP OF all the current taxes. This is NOT TRUE.

Every can of beans, DVD, or automobile that you buy already has 22% of its price as tax. Each time a raw material is changed, at each level of manufacture, a tax is levied by the government, so that by the time it hits the shelf or the showroom, 22% of its price consists of tax. At the abolition of the I.R.S., all of those taxes will vanish in a puff of justice. The FairTax will then be made a part of the price of your beans. Your $1 can of beans will remain your $1 can of beans (it may go up a penny, but with the business cost of manufacturers' compliance with I.R.S. regs vanishing, their cost of doing business decreases dramatically, and they may choose to eat the penny. I would.)

Considering that your take-home pay has increased by a third or better, you could afford a penny on the dollar.

You will have no tax forms to fill out, no accountants or tax preparers to hire, no headaches. You pay your tax when you buy your beans, your steak, your new car.

Golly, Madge, let's go to Target and pay our tax!

You even get a check or credit at the first of each month, a prebate check, to cover whatever tax would be paid up to the poverty line, meaning that the poor will pay no tax on the necessities of life, and neither will you.

If you buy a used car, no national retail sales tax. Buy a used TV, no FairTax. Only new, retail sales will have the FairTax.

All this, and no I.R.S.

But what about the Flat Tax?
You will still have the I.R.S. You will still have to file. The Givemint will still be in your bidness.

Go HERE to read the basics of the FairTax, including answers to the most popular attacks used against it.

The FairTax will truly make April 15th just a pretty Spring day.

Iran is now a 'nuclear state' says Ahmadinejad

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1250127/Iran-Revolution-day-protests-Islamic-Republic-nuclear-state.html#ixzz0fFFqFd0h

Oooooooh, he gave us such a PINCH!

I shudder, I reel.

Big deal. This is news? We didn't know this was coming? If Mr. Ahmadinejad and the mullahs rattle their Aladdin swords a little too loudly, Israel will take the job and deal with it. All the US will have to do is wag our Big Finger at Israel and admonish them to never EVER do that again.

Bad Israel. You need a time-out.

And that will be that.At least until some Jafar wannabe mines the Strait and dams it with a supertanker or two. Start saving your pennies. You'll need it to buy gas to go to the store for milk, bread and eggs to tide you over during the Global Warming-generated snowstorms.

Mmmmmmm...snow day French Toast!
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Incidentally, Go to Flying Buffalo, and order Nuclear War. It is a HI-larious card game, great for whiling away those blizzard days.

OK, so I was listening to the talking heads at Faux News (I say "Faux News" because it is terribly chic to dump on FOX News, and I do so want to be terribly chic.), and someone began burbling about Social Security. Boortz has also been ranting on Social Security. There is no lock-box. No-one has "their own Soc. Sec. account". There is no money in Social Security, because the PEE-pul's honored representatives have plundered it for decades for pet porcine projects. Our kids, and their kids, will have to pay for Sen. Phogbound's roundabout back in Dogpatch. All of the money you pay in to Soc.Sec. is already gone. You lose.

Then, I was struck by A Thought. This being an unaccustomed sensation, I sat down and gathered my Thought.

Social Security was never about the money at all.

It is about Keeping Up With You. It is the pecuniary carrot to the Government's Big Stick. You have a number, and you are not a free man, Number 6.

Have a nice day.

Be Seeing You.