Sept. 8  2009

Greetings my Dear Readers,

I come to you once again, at long last from the Land of Not.  A cold and frigid world of Ice and Snow where only the hardy survive.   A land where these hardy souls only survive by ensuring that ice water and only ice water, flows through their veins.

The sunny near tropical paradise I once called home is a quickly fading memory as I immerse myself in a land of little.

The last couple weeks have been pricey weeks full of complication as I struggle to get settled and get a foothold in this new world.  But these same weeks have also seen me thrust into a world of mindless evil that I had hoped to be well done with. But alas, a quiet, peaceful and sane world is not my destiny…

Mindless Evil

First off, not far from my new location a little girl barely two years old was abducted from her bed and taken outside and beaten half to death and left in a bloody heap thanks to a witness who rushed to aid the child, otherwise her abductor would have likely killed her.  Her would be abductor is now in police custody facing kidnapping and attempted murder charges.

Second, a long respected Pediatrician, again not far from my new location, was recently caught with thousands of images of hard core child porn and was sentenced to a mere 45 days in prison which he is serving on weekends,a mere slap on the wrist for one of the most vile violations of the law possible.  If a pediatrician gets busted for possession of this type of material what was he doing with the countless pediatric patients entrusted to his care of the years?  The mere thought is sheer terror for any parent who has ever had to take their child a hospital.

This is my new world.  Clearly the more things change, the more they stay the same.  I am as always, in a sick world of insanity…

Canada Screws Its Taxpayers... As Usual

Now now to some headlines that have caught my attention in the last week or so:

I know many Canadians who make extra money by selling old belongings or general junk on E-Bay, although I’ve never sold anything on E-Bay, when news of Revenue Canada actively moving against E-Bay sellers, it got my attention:

EBay sellers warned to pay taxes

CBC News 

Money earned online with auction sites such as eBay is taxable just like regular income, Canada's minister of national revenue said Thursday.

"Taxpayers should know that the tax laws that apply to traditional commerce apply in the same way to electronic commerce, like eBay selling,"Jean-Pierre Blackburn said Thursday.

"I strongly encourage eBay sellers, and for that matter, any taxpayer who has not already done so, to correct their tax affairs as soon as possible to avoid penalties or prosecution."

In 2007, a Federal Court of Canada decision required eBay Canada to provide tax officials with the full account information on their sellers, including their names, user IDs, mailing addresses, billing addresses, phone numbers and email addresses.

The Court of Appeal upheld that decision in April 2008 and as a result,in November eBay Canada began providing the Canada Revenue Agency with the names of eBay sellers who earned more than $1,000 a month for three straight months, as well as their contact information and sales records.

The tax agency can use the information to determine if eBay sellers properly reported the income they earned from sales. If the body determines that an individual or a business did not comply with the tax laws, it will take any necessary action, it warned.

In addition to paying any outstanding taxes, plus interest, consequences may include penalties, as well as legal actions that could result in fines and other imposed sanctions, the agency said in a release.

No penalty for voluntary disclosure

"To avoid paying these fines and penalties, taxpayers who have failed to file income tax returns for past years or who have not reported all their income can voluntarily correct their tax situation," Blackburn said.

Under the voluntary disclosures program, taxpayers who take the initiative to correct or disclose any information will not be penalized or prosecuted if they make a full disclosure before the CRA starts any audit or other compliance action.

The agency expects that the audits, based on the information received from eBay, will begin at the end of this summer.

They will then begin contacting eBay sellers to ensure they have filed all required returns and accurately represented the full scope of their business income.

Typical Canadian Government, determined to screw over the Canadian Tax Payer and take every dime they can away from us.  This is the only country in the world where the government actively works to penalize those who do well for themselves and crush any attempt for entrepenres to ever succeed.

But in Canada getting screwed by the Government isa fact of life.  We just learn to bendover a little more all the time.

American Musings

In listening to an outspoken American Talk host that shares many of the same views as I do here north of the border, I was alerted to the article below.

Although am not American, because we are flooded daily by American politics by TV and Radio I can’t help but find American Politics entertaining, as such I couldn’thelp but appreciate the following:

What has GOP done for workers?

Not too long ago, my wife and I attended a TV football party in south Tulsa.With a lopsided score, the conversation turned to a livelier subject —politics. The crowd was, of course, top-heavy with Republicans. With each point expressed their faces became more flushed, eyes bulging a little more and veins popping in their foreheads as they railed against the liberal programs.

Finally a lone, liberal voice asked: “Will you people name me one bill your party ever passed to help the working man of this country?” The question created much din and clamor, and someone sputtered, “Well, what have the Democrats done?”

The liberal responded with a few programs and was interrupted by howling and disdain. He noted that he had not promised they would like the programs and he  asked to complete his statement — a difficult task to ask of Republicans.

He spoke of Social Security; Medicare-Medicaid; Peace Corps; unemployment insurance; welfare (for the poor and corporate); civil rights; student grant and loan programs; safety laws (OSHA); environmental laws; prevailing wage laws; right to collective bargaining (which brought about paid medical insurance, paid vacations, pensions, etc.); workers’ compensation; Marshall Plan; flood-disaster insurance; School Lunch Program; women’s rights.

He spoke of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which established a minimum wage,instituted child labor laws, and set up time-and-a-half pay for over a 40-hour week.

He mentioned FHA-HUD with its public housing, urban renewal and 44 million residential homes (before WWII almost 70 percent of our nation were renters; by the 1970s this had been reversed).

And farm-conservation subsidies — USDA programs, Farmers Home Administration(the bankers didn’t want to make rural loans), small flood-control lakes (more than 3,000 in Oklahoma alone),rural water districts, rural electricity (REA).

The GI Bill was passed, which the Republicans at the time bitterly opposed.They were salivating over millions of returning veterans to hire as cheap labor. More than 8 million have used college benefits, creating millions of entrepreneurs; most of us had never dreamed of college. For the unemployed GI,there was $20 a week for 52 weeks to help get started (a lot of money in those days). The Veterans Administration provided more than 2 million home loans.

For the bankers at the football party, it was pointed out that the liberals saved their industry with the creation of FDIC and FSLIC, insuring their deposits, and saved Wall Street with the establishment of the Securities Exchange Commission.

The oil men came on bended knees to FDR at a time when East Texas oil was 4 cents a barrel and begged him to save their industry. He did; prorationing overturned the rule of capture and the days of flush productionwere over. Prorating has served this great industry (and nation) well.

And the list went on and on, but of course this group didn’t let him get halfway through. He noted they were weary, inattentive, so again he challenged them to offer up any Republican legislation examples.

“I’m sure your party has authored one or two comparable bills from time to time, but I can’t think of any, and apparently you can’t either. What it boils down to is this: the liberals dragged you into the 20th century scratching and screaming with your heels in the mud, fighting anything that’s progressive,everything that’s made this country great. You Republicans have never understood that the spending power of blue-collar workers, obtained through Democrats and unions, is what really made this country great. You really believe “The Good Life” was obtained from your own endeavors. You cloak your greed in religion and patriotism, railing against any form of tax, never comprehending that these programs have benefited all of us and our country.”

Well, I almost didn’t make it out of the house. My wife and I didn’t even get to see the end of the football game… pity.

Clint C. Gold is former mayor of Moore, OKand a retired savings and loan executive

Until next time,

From the Land of Not,

Your ColdHearted Bastard,

D.