The Wandering Minstrel

I don’t know whose bright idea it was to move the pro Bowl out of Hawaii and to a time slot a week before the Superbowl. Way to go genius. Now the players in the Pro Bowl will be without the best players in the NFL, namely the members of the two Superbowl teams. How can they call it a showcase of the best NFL players when nobody playing tonight will be going to the big show?

I will miss the casual Hawaiian spirit and the bright Aloha prints worn by the coaching staff. I will miss the post-season atmosphere wherein all the best players came to participate. Tell me what you think by voting in the poll. Thanks.

A long time ago, my Dad and I went to a Pro Bowl when they were playing it in the Los Angeles Colliseum. It was after the season as I recall. Dad and I really enjoyed going.

Well, the tax bite isn’t as bad as I was led to believe when I groped my way through an initial cut at it last month. It turns out that we had enough withholding and deductions to come close to breaking even.

I try and plan things to break even and, up to the prior tax year, it generally worked out that I would owe the Feds and State a small amount. That’s the way I like it, not having to depend on a refund, especially from the Peoples Republik of Kalifornistan, who have trouble paying in actual money. They issue a ‘voucher’ in lieu of a check or credit - Monopoly money any way you look at it.

Things are different this time around since my status transitioned from employed to retired. I had no clear idea how things would work out. It turns out that I owe the usual small amount to the Fed but, unfortunately, the State is going to owe me some chump change.

If I do get a voucher, I believe that my credit union is buying them from members only at face value. They can better afford to deal with any delays that Brokefornia might have in making good on their IOUs.

We’ve been busy for a couple of months, so we finally got our ass in gear today. We packed up our stuff and headed to the range for some target practice. We brought our .45 caliber guns - “Fat Man,” my Glock 30 and “Miss Piggy,” the Better Half’s stainless Para Warthog. As usual, we brought our 12 and 20 gauge Remington 870 shotguns.

As we were just about ready to head into the range, the range officer told us that if we wanted to use our shotguns we could only shoot double-ought buckshot or slug rounds. He advised that smaller shot target loads had been bouncing off of the back stop toward the shooters. The range officer explained that the heavier mass rounds would stick and the lighter weight ones would bounce. Apparently, the recent ‘improvements’ to the range introduced this new phenomenon. Since we only brought target load cartridges, we had to buy some slug rounds for over a buck per cartridge. Moreover, they only had 12 gauge rounds, so the 20 gauge gun didn’t get used. I bought a couple of five round boxes.

This is the first time we’ve shot slug rounds. We put up a target and sent it down range at the seven yard mark and let “silhouette dude” have the few rounds we bought today. The video shows us shooting and the target after we finished with it. In several places, the slugs made some nice clean holes.

Well, all the forms have finally arrived and I can now start in on the 2009 income Tax Return. This time, the preparation will be as complex as it can be for us since the 2009 tax year was a hybrid of employment and retirement. I counted a half-dozen 1098 and 1099 forms in addition to the last W-2 form I expect to receive, hopefully, forever. The 2010 tax year should be a little less complicated.

I mentioned in a December post that I got a sneak preview of the 2009 liability which dulled my Christmas spirit somewhat. So, like Don Corleone, I insist on hearing bad news as soon as possible. I’m doing the Turbo Tax Interview stuff as I write this, so I should have a rough cut in a day or so. Then, if the news is really bad, I might file the Daschle/Geithner Alternative Tax form (not included with my copy of Turbo Tax as was the case with Tim Geithner’s copy).

More developments as they occur . . .

Original Flash™ animation by Minstrel. Broken Obamunism logo available from and courtesy of The Patriot Post.

Charles Krauthammer (center in the photo) regularly appears on the Fox Special Report, in the Fox All-Stars segment. The discussion turned to the Obamination’s declaration that he would rather be a “really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president.” Mr Krauthammer replied as to what an asinine statement it was:

Well, there is a third option he didn’t consider, which is that he could be a mediocre one-term president, and that’s what he has been thus far in his first year. And because mediocrity does not usually encourage the electorate to re-elect you, that might account for being a one-termer.

Mr. Krauthammer also elaborated on the outcome of the special election in Massachusetts for the People’s Senate Seat:

I think what’s even more astonishing than the result in Massachusetts last week was the Democrats’ response over the weekend in how they understood the election. It was a marvel of obliviousness, obtuseness, and unbelievably condescending arrogance. [more]

Via NRO.

UPDATE: Linoge points out that the expression “damn sight” is perhaps a bit too anachronistic for younger readers (see his comment below). In the context above, it means there is a significant effort remaining.

I got this poster today in an email from a former colleague, who correctly observes:

These were [created by] our parents. What in God’s name have we let happen?

I guess we are the last generation to see, or even remember anything like these [posters]? Whatever happened? Political correctness (or “re-education”) happened, lack of God’s name happened, lack of personal responsibility happened, lack of personal integrity and honesty happened, lack of respect and loyalty to our country happened, lack of being an American happened.

The Obamination and many in power in both houses of Congress seem to want the “Fight for America” and “Fight the Enemy” spirit to disappear. They demonstrate this by reading Miranda to terrorists, prosecuting men and women in the armed forces for “crimes,” and staging massive terror “circus trials” in order to demean the War on Terror.

Much of the WWII “get behind the troops” spirit seems to be gone.

(As an aside, note the venerable 1911 pistol the soldier in the poster is holding.)

Michael Goodwin offers the obvious in a NY Post column:

We the people of the United States owe Scott Brown’s supporters a huge debt of gratitude. They didn’t merely elect a senator. They ripped the façade off the Obama presidency.

Just as Dorothy and Toto exposed the ordinary man behind the curtain in “The Wizard of Oz,” the voters in Massachusetts revealed that, in this White House, there is no there there.

It’s all smoke and mirrors, bells and whistles, held together with glib talk, Chicago politics and an audacious sense of entitlement.

At the center is a young and talented celebrity whose worldview, we now know, is an incoherent jumble of poses and big-government instincts. His self-aggrandizing ambition exceeds his ability by so much that he is making a mess of everything he touches.

He never advances a practical idea. Every proposal overreaches and comes wrapped in ideology and a claim of moral superiority. He doesn’t listen to anybody who doesn’t agree with him.

Emphasis added.

Via NRO