$urprising…I think not

The above image should be all to familiar to everyone.  For a long period of time in 2008, it felt like going to pump for gas was like having to spend your life savings with each visit.  At one point oil per barrel reached a record high almost everyday and the news casters wasted no time to point this out to us, as if we needed the constant reminder.  With a record high at almost $150 a barrel, you just wonder how much money the crooks that are oil tycoons were making.

Today on yahoo, they felt that Exxon/Mobil having record high net profits of over $45.2 billion was news worthy.  It is as if they think we need the constant reminder of how badly oil companies are screwing us.  With oil at the price it once was, I am more shocked they didn’t report more net profit.  At $150 a barrel, these people should basically be walking on carpets made of $100 dollar bills.

It sickens me to think that these people feel they have control over the market and can raise and lower the price at their leisure; I beg to differ.  Why is it that we as consumers feel the need to give them such power over us?  In today’s world, gas isn’t even a choice anymore, it is a necessity, something it should never have become.  Gas is one of the worst things a person can invest in.

When consumed, gas creates emission, it is constantly wasting and is in dire need at all times, and what has it brought us?  When I read articles like this one by Yahoo!, it makes me sick to think Americans have come to accept $2-4 a gallon as the norm.  They should be selling us this stuff at much cheaper and seeing as to process a barrel of oil costs so little, why is it at $42 today?  Why was it ever at $150?  

You would think the U.S. would do something about it, instead, our credit card companies charge gas stations a 2% fee for each credit card transaction, forcing them to inflate the prices to try and make some form of profit.  It is as if no one cares and everyone has simply accepted it and learned to live with it.  

We should consider alternate sources of energy, and pursue these sources, as well as make them as affordable as possible.  Look I love the 400 horsepower car just as much as the next guy, but give me an efficient 100 horsepower car that runs on something other than gas, and I’ll probably be happier.

On a lighter note, oil today has continued to drop in the face of a drooping world economy.  I don’t know whether to smile at the price of oil, or frown at the sight of our frail economy.

Thank God!

“Gov. Rod Blagojevich was thrown out of office Thursday without a single lawmaker coming to his defense, brought down by a government-for-sale scandal that stretched from Chicago to Capitol Hill and turned the foul-mouthed politician into a national punchline.” – Yahoo

I think the title says it all.

Super Bowl Love….or lack thereof

Driving home last night listening to my favorite radio station, 790AM, I came across a piece of information I couldn’t pass on.  As we all know the Super Bowl is this weekend and already people are firing up their grills and stocking up on alcohol and chicken wings for what many call one of the greatest moments in sports.  Everyone knows the Super Bowl not only for its huge meaning in the world of sports, but also for the ridiculous commercials they play during the breaks.  Usually they are all funny, and most carry a price tag of somewhere in the range of $3 million for 30 seconds.  That is a whole lot of money for the average person if you ask me.  With $3 million dollars I can do a lot.  Invest in stocks, buy a car or two, donate some, help the family, take a trip around the world, spend it on a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl to help me find my soul mate, start a compan….wait what?

You heard right.  If you don’t believe me, take a quick trip over to http://www.superbowlsinglegirl.com, and witness what I am labeling stupidity.  I understand that their are people out their desparate to find that special someone with whom they want to spend the rest of their lives with, but seriously, raising $3 million  to advertise yourself on the day of football holiness, that is stupid.  If I raised $3 million I really wouldn’t care so much about finding my significant someone at that very moment, I would be more concerned on what to do with all that money.

Of course, you know me, I have to look at this from a tax perspective.  This woman is coming out on top.  Every amount she is given by anyone is considered a gift and is therefore not taxable to her.  The person giving the gift can’t take the gift as a charitable contribution to reduce income, and should they decide to give more than $12,000, they will be assessed a gift tax for having contributed such an amount, all the while this woman is assessed no taxes.  

I think the publicity she is receiving from her wonderful idea is exposure enough to get some men wanting to date her.  She may be better off like that anyway as most guys will have beer goggles on during the big game.  I can’t imagine what would happen if she did have the commercial.  What would happen to whatever phone number she posts, the amount of calls would be innumerable and most would probably have nothing to do with what she wants.  

Really all this shows is how far people will go to make fools of themselves for publicity.  What would be the epitome of stupidity is if she achieved her goal.  I think America at that point would reach a new level of stupidity.  I really don’t understand what it is drives people to make decisions like this and to publicize themselves on a large scale for the sake of nothing.  Does she honestly believe that she will get the money to actually do this?  Say she did, does she then honestly believe she will find that special someone?  Sorry, did I use to much logic?  

On a nicer note at least she is saying that should she not achieve her massive goal in the one week of the Super Bowl, she plans on donating the amount to the Boys and Girls Club.  Regardless, if you really want to donate to her, you should skip the idea, and go straight to donating to the Boys & Girls Club, at least that way you will get deduction for next years tax return.

I wonder what would happen if say all this came to pass and she ends up marrying some poor sap, what happens if they get a divorce years later?  Would she file a form to the IRS trying to justify why her divorce constitutes an ordinary loss to her income and that she should be allowed to take the loss against her income.  That would be awesome.  I would love to be the guy that writes back and tells her she is dumb.  I am such a cynic.  Dear Jesus, forgive me, I am a jerk.

Obama’s Tax Plan

So I have to say, inspite of the fact that I never was happy Obama became president, as a tax professional, I like where his plans are going for tax credits and the like.  Obviously their are two sides to the coin and what might be beneficial to you and I, may not be so beneficial to the reduction of our budget deficit of infinity trillions of dollars.

So everyone knows, I am majoring in accounting and plan on gettting a Masters in Taxation.  I work for a Liberty Tax Service, but consider myself to know more than the average tax professional.  To put it in other words, I spend my free time going on a tax forum at About.com and posting responses to people’s questions.  I also tend to read IRS publications and receive emails whenever tax laws are updated, yeah I am crazy.

Of course Obama’s tax laws are of the utmost importance to me, and recently doing some research on his latest act, The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (HR 598), I was actually pleased with what I saw.

I obviously don’t want to go into any major detail because I could sit here and go on and on, however, I wanted to highlight the major changes that I found important.

Among some of the changes included increases to credits like the Hope Tax Credit, the Earned Income Credit, the new Homeowners Credit, the Child Tax Credit, and a few other things as well.  I found these important as far as credits were concerned especially since one of them directly affects me.  Obama wants to change the Hope Tax Credit (which is one of the educational credits given), and allow students to include the cost of books as qualifying expenses for the purpose of calculating the credit, in addition, he also wants to increase the credit and make 40% of it refundable, which to me is huge as this credit is nonrefundable and generally only benefits a person if they have any tax liability after all deductions have been taken.

One of the major tax changes that I especially enjoyed was the Marking Work Pay Tax Credit.  With this credit, a person receives a $500 credit for the first 6.2% of earned income and this credit would either reduce the amount of FICA taxes withheld throughout the year, or appear as a refundable credit on the person’s tax return.  The wording may seem a bit deceiving, like most tax laws do, but it would greatly benefit most people, as its phaseout doesn’t start until your Adjusted Gross Income reaches $75,000.

Other things like the revised Net Operating Loss Carryback rules are a big help for  businesses.  The new law would allow businesses to carryback 2008 and 2009 losses 5 years, rather than the current 2 year limit.  What this does is allows companies that had profit in the years of 2003-2008, to reduce their previous profit with losses they may have seen as a result of the current economic downturn, which would in turn yield a refund to them, and a hefty one for most as the corporate tax brackets start at 15%.

 Granted these are just some of the credits, but you get the idea, most of the changes are just like he said, help the middle to lower classes.  Of course this is the positive side to the argument, because remember that every credit we receive is money the government doesn’t see in revenue, which you may not care to much about, however, that doesn’t help our deficit.  We’ll save that conversation for another day.  Below is the article with the information, in case you get bored… Oh and if anyone ever has any tax questions, I offer a free consultation if needed.

The cost of this new tax act you ask?  A mere 550 billion dollars….chump change if you ask GM, Ford and Chrysler….

Link

The Palm Pre: The phone dressed in a suit

The Palm Pre:  

“The Palm Pre smartphone took home both honors and became the first cell phone/smartphone to win the Best in Show since CNET started presenting the Best of CES awards in 2006″ – CNET

“The Palm Pre isn’t just Palm’s saving grace. This brand new smartphone for Sprint offers an innovative new WebOS that’s fully integrated with the internet.” – Laptop Magazine

“Palm, the creators of the PDA—and, you could argue, the smart phone—finally responded to the iPhone with a multitouch smartphone of its own” – Popular Mechanics

The Palm Pre: “A phone whose name will soon be covered in a myriad of law suits for its use of the Apple Patented Multi-touch platform” – Me

Wait what?  Where did that last quote come from?  Quote me now because you may hear about it later.  In a recent post made by Macrumors.com, Apple was awarded a patent on their application titled Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics, which in layman’s terms means that any phone that falls in that category that is currently out or in production may just see be covered in a suit, designed and created by the iLawyers themselves.  But their is more to this than what we might think.

Their are of course two sides to the coin as is true in every situation.  To Palm and other cell phone companies this might be a big set back on their future touch screen phones, to Apple, this would be the future CEO’s way of not letting Apple be pushed aside, and Apple’s way of protecting their investment.  To me and the rest of us iPhone users, this may actually be more bad than good.  

What do we care whether or not other multi-touch cell phones come out, we have our iPhones and if something comes out and is better, we’ll just switch.  I for one care a little more than the average user as I, like most Apple/Mac users, am part of the Apple Discipleship Church for a Healthier User Interface World.  Well we may not really care that other phones come out, however, if we love our iPhones and are die hard users, we should care if Apple has the ability to hinder or even restrict the production of cell phones just like it.

Without competition, features that are currently absent on iPhones, that are otherwise present on most other cell phones would take months to develop.  Those months wouldn’t translate into actual development time, but rather Apple taking their sweet time developing the features WE want when THEY want us to have it.  The consumer market just doesnt’ work that way.  Granted, Apple has worked this way for some time now, and let me say, what they do give us is far better than the competition, however, I wouldn’t mind a phone to come out to give the iPhone a run for its money, like that I might see better features sooner.

And if no other comparable phone is released, whose phone will I make fun of then?  I love my iPhone, I just hate your phone more…

Conspiracy Theory….I think not…

In today’s world, nothing should surprise you.  Expect almost anything from the general public and the Internet.  You could go onto google right now, type monkey goats jumping through hoops on fire and you just might find it.  Whatever the case, in today’s society nothing can be put past it.  What’s more is even the craziest theory or idea is easily excepted by some.  We may know some of these theories as Conspiracy Theories.  You know those wack-jobs who can see the apocalypse spelled out in a bowl of cheerios. (If you really want to know just read the bible, might find answers there)

Recently a friend of mine had asked me if I had seen the new Obama endorsementPepsi label.  I didn’t even know it had changed, I mean what could they possibly change?  It is a red and blue color scheme with a wavy white streak through the middle of a circle.  Looking at it now, it really hasn’t changed much, however, apparently the new Pepsi bottles and boxes all contain an omen for the future.  Apparently Pepsi does more than just eat away at your intestinal wall and clean your car battery.

Either Pepsi just went republican, Nostradamus purchased a controlling interest in PepsiCo, or people are just being ridiculous.  I may not be a fan of Obama, but this is stupid.  For those that don’t see it, apparently Pepsi upside down says “is ded” and the new Pepsi symbol looks a lot like Obama’s “change” symbol. 

Are people this gullible?  From a realist’s stand point, I would say this is pretty stupid, I mean, who would sit there and figure this garbage out!  Go outside! Read a book!  Don’t waste my time with upside down Pepsi logos and origami $20 bills that allude to 9-11.  And then they wonder why the rest of the world thinks we are retarded.

On a side not, if Pepsi wanted to catch the eye of the people it should start talking about changing its formula.  I hear that when the word change is used, people believe anything you say, no matter how little experience… oh c’mon, you knew it was coming, I haven’t said a word about the election.

So everyone knows, I do not like the fact Obama is president, however, I hope I am wrong about what I think of him, for the sake of our country I hope I am wrong.  He has my support, even though it hurts to say that….

P.S.

I know someone will try the flaming monkey goat search….it doesn’t exist, I looked, but it makes for a great hyperbole…

Can you hear me now?

I have to say that their are few things that really tick me off.  In general I try my best to be as calm as possible, granted I have my moments, but then again we all do.  If their is something, however, that just drives me insane, it has to be when a person answers a phone and feels the need to share the conversation with the world by putting the person on speaker so that everyone can hear the conversation.  Not only does it annoy the crap out of me, but it is probably the rudest thing a person can do.

What’s worse is I can never say anything.  I can’t join in on the conversation.  I should be able to though.  As a person present for the conversation and listening to it, because lets face it as much as I don’t want to listen I can’t help it when the person is blaring across the room for the world to listen, I should be allowed to speak and give my opinion.

Imagine what a reaction I would get.  Turning into my cuban self for a moment.  “Olle concorte que vola?, es Chris!  Y que como le va?”  I think that might freak some people out.  They are engaging in what they think is a private conversation only to hear someone else interject mid conversation and throw in some random jargon.  They could be talking about anything, because you know people with this lack of phone etiquette also have little self respect to care at all about what they tell the world. 

I say we should all be allowed to take part in any conversation held on speaker.  It’s how it works in the business world when you are having a meeting, and it should work the same when someone is uncivilized enough to hold an all out personal conversation for the world to hear.

The Fruits of Corruption…

 

I was having a great day today until I came across this on the web.  I know I said I would keep it to a minimum on the politics because of how pressed on time I have been with the tax season starting off, however, this picture made me want to swallow my own hand and proceed to beat my insides until I keeled over and died.

So let me see if I understand this correctly, a man who was impeached from office by a 114-1 vote, who was charged with conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud and solicitation of bribery, is a public celebrity.  So wait, all I need to do to get women and fame is to commit fraud to one of its highest degrees. 

See this is what I spoke of in an earlier post with the flaw of our law.  How is it that this man is not only making a case for himself and battling what he is truly guilty of, but is also acheiving celebrity like fame.  I don’t understand how people are so blind and stupid that they condone such behavior.

I think the only thing worse would be if I heard on the news that some giant philanthropist donated a large some of money to Bernie Madoff, I think that may be the only thing worse than this picture.

It was in the Cards…

As I am sure many of you who follow sports might know, the Arizona Cardinals are going to the Super Bowl.  Yes, for the first time, a 9-7 team hosted a conference championship and is now going to the Super Bowl.  Congrats to them! They truly deserved it. 

I think what I enjoy most about them is Kurt Warner.  He is truly an amazing person.  Going from grocery store clerk to Super Bowl Champion for the St. Louis Rams then going back to being tossed to now be going back for a chance to win a second Super Bowl; his story is amazing.

Talk about a man of faith, this guy never lost it for a second and the best part is he never once fails to thank God.  What is awesome is he has the numbers to back his feats.  He had a 4500+ yard season with 20+ TDs.  My applause to him. 

My prediction for the Super Bowl?  Well I would love to quickly say Cardinals, but they are playing one of the best defenses in the league.  The nice thing about the Steelers is their secondary isn’t the best so Kurt may have a good chance of getting some big plays with Larry Fitzgerald and Anquan Boldin, we will have to wait and see, but expect a little less from James, as the Steeler defense may just eat him up (One of the best rushing defenses).

Tennis started as well.  I haven’t actually sat down and read or watched anything concerning it, however, expect something on that.  I happen to be a big time tennis freak.

Aside from that I really have little to talk about, I mean I have plenty of stuff, however, given time, I haven’t had a chance to sit down and put some thought into what I want to talk about.  The most obvious topic would be the doom inauguration of our next president tomorrow.  I can’t tell you how excited I am, I get front row tickets to the utter demise of this nation.

Micronazi Windows 7

I think the picture speaks for itself.  Poor Microsoft, took them 5 years to release Vista, a massive failure, and 2 years later they realized that it was utter crap.  Now behind those cryptic $300 million commercials with Seinfield , commercials that decreased Microsoft’s market share,  we “learned” of Windows 7.

Hey, maybe they named it Windows 7 because of the 7 wasted years….