Mill Creek Blog

Do You Know Jack Schitt?

Mark — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 16:31:03 +0000

WHO IS JACK SCHITT

For some time many of us have wondered just who is Jack Schitt?

We find ourselves at a loss when someone says, ‘You don’t know Jack Schitt’!

Well, thanks to my genealogy efforts, you can now respond in an intellectual way.

Jack Schitt is the only son of Awe Schitt. Awe Schitt, the fertilizer magnate, who married O. Schitt, the owner of Needeep N. Schitt, Inc.

They had one son, Jack.

In turn, Jack Schitt married Noe Schitt. The deeply religious couple produced six children: Holie Schitt, Giva Schitt, Fulla Schitt, Bull Schitt, and the twins Deep Schitt and Dip Schitt.

Against her parents’ objections, Deep Schitt married Dumb Schitt, a high school dropout. After being married 15 years, Jack and Noe Schitt divorced. Noe Schitt later married Ted Sherlock, and because her kids were living with them, she wanted to keep her previous name. She was then known as Noe Schitt Sherlock.

Meanwhile, Dip Schitt married Loda Schitt, and they produced a son with a rather nervous disposition named Chicken Schitt. Two of the other six children, Fulla Schitt and Giva Schitt, were inseparable throughout childhood and subsequently married the Happens brothers in a dual ceremony. The wedding announcement in the newspaper announced the Schitt-Happens nuptials. The Schitt-Happens children were Dawg, Byrd, and Horse.

Bull Schitt, the prodigal son, left home to tour the world. He recently returned from Italy with his new Italian bride, Pisa Schitt.

Now when someone says, ‘You don’t know Jack Schitt’, you can correct them.

Sincerely,

Crock O. Schitt

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Bar Stool Economics

Mark — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 23:45:10 +0000

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that’s what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. ‘Since you are all such good customers, he said, ‘I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. Drinks for r the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free. But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share?’ They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)

The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead o f $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

‘I only got a dollar out of the $20,’declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,’ but he got $10!’

‘Yeah, that’s right,’ exclaimed the fifth man. ‘I only saved a dollar, too. It’s unfair that he got ten times more than I!’

‘That’s true!!’ shouted the seventh man. ‘Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!’

‘Wait a minute,’ yelled the first four men in unison. ‘We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!’

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

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Email Response From Governor Schwarzenegger

Mark — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:36:07 +0000

Hello Neighbors! I wanted to share with you the email response I received from Governor Schwarzenegger regarding his veto of AB2270 (the water softener bill)…

Thank you for writing to urge that I veto AB 2270. I appreciate your active participation in the democratic process, and I value your suggestions on how government can better serve the people of California.

I am pleased to inform you that I vetoed this bill after extensive consideration and thorough deliberation of arguments from both supporters and opponents of this issue. The provisions of this bill create a system that could unduly limit choices for consumers and small water systems and would have little positive impact given the limited contribution of water softeners to our salinity problems. My veto message for this legislation may be found on the Official California Legislative Information website: www.leginfo.ca.gov.

Again, I appreciate hearing your opinion on legislation that affects the future of our great state. Taking the time to communicate your views and offer suggestions is essential to good citizenship and good government.

Sincerely,

Arnold Schwarzenegger

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Obama’s 95% Illusion

Mark — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:14:04 +0000

I just knew it was a shell game. It depends on what the meaning of ‘tax cut’ is. He’s a greasy con artist that has the welfare crowd eating out of his hand. If he gets elected, I can just see all of the crying and whining when he doesn’t fulfill on his promises. This article was posted in the Wall Street Journal and is the best breakdown of the proposed Obama tax cuts I’ve seen…

One of Barack Obama’s most potent campaign claims is that he’ll cut taxes for no less than 95% of “working families.” He’s even promising to cut taxes enough that the government’s tax share of GDP will be no more than 18.2% — which is lower than it is today.

It’s a clever pitch, because it lets him pose as a middle-class tax cutter while disguising that he’s also proposing one of the largest tax increases ever on the other 5%. But how does he conjure this miracle, especially since more than a third of all Americans already pay no income taxes at all? There are several sleights of hand, but the most creative is to redefine the meaning of “tax cut.”

For the Obama Democrats, a tax cut is no longer letting you keep more of what you earn. In their lexicon, a tax cut includes tens of billions of dollars in government handouts that are disguised by the phrase “tax credit.” Mr. Obama is proposing to create or expand no fewer than seven such credits for individuals:

- A $500 tax credit ($1,000 a couple) to “make work pay” that phases out at income of $75,000 for individuals and $150,000 per couple.

- A $4,000 tax credit for college tuition.

- A 10% mortgage interest tax credit (on top of the existing mortgage interest deduction and other housing subsidies).

- A “savings” tax credit of 50% up to $1,000.

- An expansion of the earned-income tax credit that would allow single workers to receive as much as $555 a year, up from $175 now, and give these workers up to $1,110 if they are paying child support.

- A child care credit of 50% up to $6,000 of expenses a year.

- A “clean car” tax credit of up to $7,000 on the purchase of certain vehicles.

Here’s the political catch. All but the clean car credit would be “refundable,” which is Washington-speak for the fact that you can receive these checks even if you have no income-tax liability. In other words, they are an income transfer — a federal check — from taxpayers to nontaxpayers. Once upon a time we called this “welfare,” or in George McGovern’s 1972 campaign a “Demogrant.” Mr. Obama’s genius is to call it a tax cut.

The Tax Foundation estimates that under the Obama plan 63 million Americans, or 44% of all tax filers, would have no income tax liability and most of those would get a check from the IRS each year. The Heritage Foundation’s Center for Data Analysis estimates that by 2011, under the Obama plan, an additional 10 million filers would pay zero taxes while cashing checks from the IRS.

The total annual expenditures on refundable “tax credits” would rise over the next 10 years by $647 billion to $1.054 trillion, according to the Tax Policy Center. This means that the tax-credit welfare state would soon cost four times actual cash welfare. By redefining such income payments as “tax credits,” the Obama campaign also redefines them away as a tax share of GDP. Presto, the federal tax burden looks much smaller than it really is.

The political left defends “refundability” on grounds that these payments help to offset the payroll tax. And that was at least plausible when the only major refundable credit was the earned-income tax credit. Taken together, however, these tax credit payments would exceed payroll levies for most low-income workers.

It is also true that John McCain proposes a refundable tax credit — his $5,000 to help individuals buy health insurance. We’ve written before that we prefer a tax deduction for individual health care, rather than a credit. But the big difference with Mr. Obama is that Mr. McCain’s proposal replaces the tax subsidy for employer-sponsored health insurance that individuals don’t now receive if they buy on their own. It merely changes the nature of the tax subsidy; it doesn’t create a new one.

There’s another catch: Because Mr. Obama’s tax credits are phased out as incomes rise, they impose a huge “marginal” tax rate increase on low-income workers. The marginal tax rate refers to the rate on the next dollar of income earned. As the nearby chart illustrates, the marginal rate for millions of low- and middle-income workers would spike as they earn more income.

Some families with an income of $40,000 could lose up to 40 cents in vanishing credits for every additional dollar earned from working overtime or taking a new job. As public policy, this is contradictory. The tax credits are sold in the name of “making work pay,” but in practice they can be a disincentive to working harder, especially if you’re a lower-income couple getting raises of $1,000 or $2,000 a year. One mystery — among many — of the McCain campaign is why it has allowed Mr. Obama’s 95% illusion to go unanswered.

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Burning Down The House: What Caused Our Economic Crisis?

Mark — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 19:24:28 +0000

Great Video that sheds light on the subprime lending crisis. Obama and the Democrats sure want to distance themselves from this but even Bill Clinton admits that he had a hand in it. If only Pelosi, Dodd, Frank, etal. would admit their part. Oh, they would never again get reeelected.

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Halloween Party!

byromero — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:32:22 +0000

Hi All!

Blair and I along with Amee, Lily, Jen and the gang’s help are going to host the halloween the party.
Up at our place! 16244 Paradise Valley Ct. Yahoo can map us! 10/25 – 7pm to ??
Dress to kill! (Costumes!)
Sorry it’s last minute, hope you can all come!

Yumi

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Obama & ACORN Voter Fraud Exposed

Mark — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:50:29 +0000

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The Best Return On Your Investment

Mark — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 03:00:13 +0000

If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Delta Airlines one year ago, you will have $49.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in AIG one year ago, you will have $33.00 today.
If you had purchased $1,000 of shares in Lehman Brothers one year ago, you will have $0.00 today.

But, if you had purchased $1,000 worth of beer one year ago, had drunk all of the beer, then turned in the aluminum cans for a recycling refund, you would have received $214.00.

Based on the above figures, the best current investment plan is to drink heavily & recycle. It is called the 401-Keg.

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.
Another study found that Americans drink, on average, 22 gallons of alcohol a year.
That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!
Makes you proud to be an American!

-anonymous

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Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Vetoes AB 2270!

Mark — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 15:39:58 +0000

News Update: On September 30, 2008, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed bill AB 2270. In his veto statement, the Governor said that the legislation would “create a system that could unduly limit choices for consumers and small water systems, with potentially little positive impact given the relatively limited contribution of water softeners to our salinity problems.”

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Our Vacation Adventure to Cabo San Lucas Mexico – Day 1

admin — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 03:15:03 +0000

OK, I get it! We’ve only been planning this trip since the first of January. The earliest I’ve ever booked a vacation since I’m inherently a procrastonator. We booked the resort in January and our flight in March. Everything was set and we just forgot about it.

Well, Lily said to me a couple of weeks ago “is everything set? You have the passports, right?” I replied “yep. I have all of them in our room and mine is in my backpack. No problem.”

I spent the last few days getting all of our documents together and confirming our flight, frequent flier numbers for all of us and confirming the reservation at the resort. Dammit! I should have looked at those passports. We headed to the airport today, went through TSA hell, got on our flight — NO PROBLEM!
Once in Phoenix (we needed to change planes threre), our passports were checked again and we got the shocking news! Tia and Maya’s passports expired on July 29, 2008! We were told that Mexico will not let us in and we were immediately sent back to San Jose. However, if they had expired while we were out of the country, the USA would let us come back.

I’m writing this on my PDA on Saturday night in San Jose. We have a 10AM appointment at the passport office in San Francisco on Monday morning and then the airline is supposed to fly us back. We’ll see how that goes.
In the mean time, I’ll keep the blog informed about our exciting trip.

-mark

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