ATF Botches Another Sting Operation

After reading this article, I am amazed that anyone has faith in the current ATF.  This is the kind of bumbling that we laugh at in movies like "Police Academy" however, Hollywood in all of their imagination, has never come up with something so hilarious.

Or so serious.  Because this is real life.  That money being used to pay premium prices for guns that were bought from Gander Mountain, are your tax dollars.  The guns (including a REAL assault rifle, the fully automatic kind) they lost are also real and on the street.

And somehow, a new and improved background check for me is going to stop firearm crime.

Doing something isn't helping.  Maybe we should stop doing something...  

Please God, Let the Irish Win!

A significant amount of people think that God influences who wins sporting contests.

I hate to say that religious people are whackjobs, but at least the above poll indicates a minority of religious people are whackjobs.  Let's assume for a second that God plays favorites.  When Notre Dame plays TCU who is God's favorite? Obviously Notre Dame this year. But what about next year?  What if God's favorite team doesn't have fans that pray for victory...a la Notre Dame vs. Alabama - or was that just God punishing them for Manti Te'o's lie/not lie fake girlfriend?  This is really confusing.  Maybe Notre Dame is just really lucky and didn't play any teams that God likes.  And does God like all sports, or is there something like Gymnastics or Curling that we don't have to worry about being on the wrong side of God for?  I mean it, this is really confusing.  Lance Armstrong doped, but maybe God wanted him to win all those Tour de France's.  If not, then God doesn't care about cycling, otherwise God would have caused someone else to win.  Unless they were all doping and Lance was the least dopey doper.

Seriously, I will admit to saying a tongue in cheek prayer for my favorite team once in a while, but I look at it more as when an atheist says "Oh my God!"  It isn't tacit approval of the concept, it is merely an interjection. At first I thought there was no way this could be an actual poll, with actual results that reflect reality...but then I remembered that a similar amount of people believe in alien abductions and that Obamacare is going to reduce health care costs.

You can't win them all (unless God is on your side and you're praying to win them all!)

Stockpile, Cache, Armory, Arsenal

I read about these words a lot in the media.  I am not sure the writers know what they mean. A couple of guns?  A few guns?  500 rounds of ammunition?  Sorry if I don't get excited when you say some criminal's arsenal consists of a handgun, a shotgun, AND a rifle.  I know people who carry that when they go to a 3-gun match.  How did 3 guns get to be an "arsenal."

Then there are the large "cache's" of ammunition.  100 rounds.  200 rounds.  God forbid he has 1000 rounds!  Um, its small little bits not much larger than a nut.  Once again, I know of people who have this much ammunition on their person or in their vehicle on a daily basis.  I've had people pay me for rides to work using a couple hundred rounds of ammunition. It really doesn't take up that much space.

Let me put it in perspective a bit.  A box of 50 rounds of 9mm is approximately the size of a block of cream cheese.  That's it. And that includes an inordinate amount of packaging.  A 550 round box of .22 LR is about the size of a recipe card box (the 3x5 kind).  500 rounds of most rifle ammunition will fit into a box about the size of two Harry Potter books.  One round of 7.62x39 is about half the size of a sharpie marker cap. A pack of five 12 gauge shotgun shells is the size of a small point and shoot camera.  Do you have a visual image yet that ammunition just doesn't take up that much space?

I have at least 3 or 4 "stockpiles" around my house based on these definitions.  Heck, whenever I load magazines to go to the range, I have a new "stockpile".  I have, literally, thousands (as in X followed by at least three zeros) of rounds of ammunition.  I have a couple of friends who have in the neighborhood of 100,000 rounds or more.

Are we paranoid?  No more than you are for filling your gas tank when it gets near empty.  I have a 20 mile round trip commute to work.  I fill the entire tank up every time I stop for gas so that I only have to stop for gas once every three weeks (or about every 21 uses of my car) rather than every day by only putting in what I am going to use for the day. Likewise, I shoot around 500 rounds of ammunition for every time I go to the range.  To be comparable, whenever I top off on ammo buying, I should have 10,500 rounds.  So, no, it is no more paranoid than buying milk by the gallon instead of a half pint.

Most people who have "stockpiles" of ammo do so because they don't want to go to the store all the time.  Most criminals probably only have as much ammo as they can carry, but I am not sure that anyone has ever done a study on how much ammunition criminals "stockpile."  If news stories are an accurate representation, they stockpile a whole lot less than I do.  

Fireworks Safety in Iowa

Iowa is sort of a funny state when it comes to fireworks.  They only allow sparklers and snakes.  Now, snakes are completely worthless, but by restricting us to only sparklers, there is a limited market so you can buy 36 sparklers for about $3 every 4th of July.  It is a good thing that the people of Missouri have recognized this and have fireworks warehouses at the border on every highway coming out of Iowa. (I've noticed that Indiana does the same favor for Illinois.)

So, to give you an idea, this is considered safe by the State of Iowa:

That would be a 3 year old holding a sparkler which is burning at 1800 degrees about two feet away from her body. While, on the other hand, the below picture would be unsafe and therefore illegal to do in Iowa:

Those would be 3 fountains shooting the same 1800 degree sparks 5-10 feet in the air.  Notice that there are no children within 2 feet of the sparks (in fact they are at least 10-15 feet away). Now inspite of the illegal nature, on the 4th of July you can hear fireworks going off all over the city and throughout the county.  So if there is going to be no enforcement of the law, why bother with it?

One of the most interesting things about sparklers, is that you can make them into almost any other firework with a little ingenuity.  Bottle rockets, roman candles, fountains, even mortars.  Sure, you may not have all of the fancy colors, but it is all right there for you.  Good thing that Missouri sells sparklers for 50/ $1!

Sparklers by far are probably the most dangerous fireworks when it comes to children and injuries.  My guess is that they account for 90-95% of all injuries related to fireworks.  That doesn't mean that I am for banning them (certainly not anymore than I am for banning marshmallow roasting), but I am for some modicum of common sense in our laws and regulations.

Motivational Posters - Pregnant Wife Edition

Well, my wife hasn't been in the spotlight in a while, and while the pictures to create these are a few years old now, the inspiration from them is timeless.  First, while I recognize that there are people on both sides of the IWB or OWB debate, this one might be a little more controversial.

In the late 90s and early 00s, cell phones were getting skinnier.  Since we don't have one and everything had a cell phone pocket, I thought up a new use for them.

Be sure to come back for more, I'll need to get my wife set up for another photo shoot!

Christmas Ammunition

Someone commented to me that they didn't think my Christmas present of ammunition was very ... Christmassy (you know, that peace, love, good will towards men thing). So, see if you can guess which is the correct response:

a) Don't worry, it was full metal jacket stuff and I only use that for target practice, hollow point is the preferred type for perforating bad people.

b) The Son of God only used a whip to clean the temple because a Glock would have been too messy and a 1911 only carries 7+1 rounds (besides the fact that they hadn't been invented yet).

c) It's OK, it was Winchester White Box, made in the USA. All of the materials (lead, copper, and brass) are fully recycleable or (in the case of gunpowder) completely organic/natural/not harmful to the environment.

d) The Barrett .50 BMG wouldn't fit in the stocking.

Romney's Taxes vs. my taxes

Since tax season is coming up, I felt inspired to post this bit I had previously posted on Facebook.

I was thinking about how "awful" it is from the revelation that a) Mitt Romney makes millions of dollars a year, and b) he has an effective tax rate of less than 15% (because almost all of his income is from Capital Gains/Dividends not ordinary income). So I decided to take a look at my own finances, what is my effective tax rate?

To begin, let me iterate that I fall into the top 15% of wage earners based on reported AGI in table 488 ofhttp://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/2012/tables/12s0488.pdf . Lest you think that makes me a millionaire, the top 3% make $200,000 or more (so I wouldn't even fit Pres. Obama's definition of millionaire). So I have admitted that I make less than $200K. Now going back on my tax returns to 2001, I averaged my federal taxes (income and payroll), state taxes, and charitable contributions.

Why include payroll taxes (SS and Medicare)? Because in the end it is money going to the federal government to finance our nation. Mr. Romney probably pays nothing into SS and Medicare because (if you look at his return) he has no ordinary income (line 7 Wages, salaries, and tips). At 7.65% (5.65% currently), this is by far the biggest tax bite that workers in America pay (and if you include the employer portion, you can double that number to 15%). So, without refundable credits, you are automatically paying an effective tax rate of 7.65% if your income is primarily derived from ordinary income.

Anyway, my effective federal tax rate remained around 12% from 2001 to 2007. In 2008, it dropped to 7% (this would have been under Bush II). And then in 2009 and 2010 it was down to 6%. So, not only does Mr. Romney pay 2.5X an effective tax rate as me, he also pays about $3 million more than me. Can't say I have anything to complain about there. Besides, my tax return is only about 20 pages, not the 200 that Mr. Romney has to do. And I still do my own taxes, so I am not paying an accountant a few grand.

My state tax (when I lived in a state that has an income tax) has remained fairly stable at 4.5%. I have no desire to try and figure out what Mr. Romney's rate is. Nobody seems to care. They only care about his Buffet rate.

As for charitable contributions, mine have remained between 10% and 15%. This is right in-line with the 13.7% that Mitt donates to charity. So, maybe I should like Romney after all.

Having done my own taxes for my entire life, I would guess that the only people who are paying more than a 15% effective tax rate are those that fall into the 1% (according to IRS statistics those with income of about $350K) that the Occupy movement rails against. The exception would be single or married with two incomes who make between $100K and $350K. But even then, we are still talking about less than 7% of the population. If you make less than $100K and are paying an effective tax rate of more than 15%, you haven't figured out how to do your taxes. Get some advice from an accountant, and follow it.

So, have you ever bothered to figure out what your effective tax rate is? (Hint: It is not as easy as taking your paycheck withholding and dividing it by your income.)

Progress - It's Why We're Here Today!

Another great news article. JC Penney will finally follow the lead of lots of other stores and eliminate (mostly) their check out clerks replacing them with self serve kiosks. Naturally, some people are concerned that this is going to cost people jobs.

Yes. By golly gee willikers it will! And that is what JC Penney needs to do to survive. Cut out the expensive employees, so they can make money again. Because if they aren't making money and have no forseeable chance of making money in the future, then they might as well shut down.

People happen to be a BIG expense. Take the phone system. We used to employ thousands of operators to direct calls all over the country. Then the computer came about and pretty soon we were able to place calls all over the world and all of those (or most of them) operators lost their jobs.

And it was GREAT! Not because they lost their jobs, but because we were able to remove thinking humans from a mundane task that can be satisfactorily performed by a computer at a fraction of the cost. This has two benefits. #1 the customer can call anywhere for a whole lot cheaper (phone calls now cost a fraction of what they did just 25 years ago and we make far more of them) and #2 that thinking human has the option to use their brain for more creative/inventive/entrepreneurial work (like figuring out how a computer can get rid of the next mundane task).

This is called progress, we have been doing it for about 10,000 years since our hunter/gatherer forebears figured out they could produce a lot more through agriculture and husbandry. Of course, if you still want to make toothpicks by hand, be my guest. I happen to like my spare time to play video games (you know, those things thinking humans invented for our entertainment).

JC Penney, welcome to the 21st Century!

Cursive Writing

Yeah, I didn't like it much when I learned it in elementary school. I do remember my elementary teachers hammering it into my head that in high school and college all of my papers would need to be written in cursive. They were wrong (no fault of their own - they just didn't see the computer revolution that was imminent).

So is it worth it to still be teaching cursive? Look at it from a foreign language standpoint. My teachers also beat it into me that learning a foreign language was the doorway to the rest of the world. Really? As I have grown up, I found out no, it isn't - not being afraid to go to a foreign country and ask for help is.

I have been to Canada, England, Germany, India, Japan, and Taiwan. I learned German in high school but never used it. I speak Mandarin which was useful in Taiwan, but I was with native friends so would have survived without knowing any (my wife did fine and she doesn't speak it). Japan, everyone speaks English. India, most people you interact with speak English and the chauffeur I had didn't speak it but we got along fine with sign language and pointing at things.

Had I "listened" to my teachers I would have had to spend years learning German, Mandarin, Japanese, French, Hindi, and Tamil to enjoy the places I have been. I'm glad I didn't. I found English speakers and enjoyed those places anyway. We are fortunate to live in a country where the primary language is English. The rest of the world has adopted English as the de facto language of the world. Which means we don't necessarily have to learn theirs.

Does that mean we shouldn't learn another language? No, but it also means we shouldn't force it on people. One of the great conundrums of the modern world is there is so much knowledge it is impossible to try and gain it all. Leonardo Da Vinci would be flabbergasted by how much a sixth grader has learned. Which means it is more important than ever to prioritize what you are going to learn with your time.

For me, things like 19th century bonnet literature (i.e. Jane Austen) have ZERO value. I am not interested. I think the stories are dull. Unfortunately, my English teachers had different ideas. Good for them. I'm a grown up now and I don't need to waste my time reading "Pride and Prejudice." Would understanding that stuff add value to my life? Probably. My guess is that there are plenty of allusions to "great" 19th century literature throughout life that I miss.

So what? I am not interested. I have chosen to dump that crap from my mind and replace it with scientific knowledge that I like. So, when I read an article on the Higgs-Boson, I see all sorts of nuances that are satisfying and enjoyable to understand. I once spent a two hour meal talking with a stranger about the nuclear fuel process. She seemed genuinely interested and I was happy to impart the knowledge that I had. Do some people do the same with F. Scott Fitzgerald? Absolutely, just not me.

What does this have to do with cursive? Well, it is no longer a necessary skill for the vast majority of written communication. We have computers and Ipads for that. It will always be around in historical documents, but like foreign languages, learning American cursive has its limits. There are plenty of people who have learned the cursive writing styles of 18th century Germans.

Learning to read cursive nowadays is akin to learning juggling. It is a neat skill to have, but very limited practical applications. If you are going to be a clown in the circus, by all means juggling becomes a necessary skill. For someone like me, it is just a trick I do to entertain my kids. Likewise, reading and writing cursive is a must for historians and genealogists. For the rest of us it is a parlor trick to decipher hidden codes. Juggling and cursive writing are rather easy skills to acquire. It probably takes less than a month of a little practice each day to become proficient (I learned juggling over the course of a month in New Jersey, maybe a half hour of practice a day). My wife taught my daughter cursive in about the same amount of time.

So, no, we shouldn't force everyone to learn cursive anymore than we should force them all to learn juggling. Even though it takes minimal time to learn, our schools shouldn't fill up their time with "useless" skills that take minimal time. Let's all recognize that cursive's time has come and gone. But if your kids want to learn cursive, or you want to teach them this curiosity on your time, by all means do it!

Some People Aren't Obese

With recent reports that 1/3 of Mississippi is obese and obesity being "epidemic" throughout the US, I can understand the First Lady promoting healthy eating. But there are a couple of people who do not need to be told they can't eat junk food.

 
#1 President Obama. At the Iowa State Fair he said Michelle wouldn't allow him to have a fried twinkie. Why not? Fried twinkies at the Iowa fair are good, I've had one. Its not like our President is out of shape. He looks to be in very good shape. Quitting smoking is about the only bad habit I see him having, and that even probably helps keep his weight normal. So, President Obama, tell you're wife you are going to indulge. Your campaigning schedule is rather grueling and you are in no danger of gaining weight.

#2 Gabby Douglas. On Leno just after the Olympics, Michelle jokingly ribbed her for having a Egg McMuffin to celebrate, particularly that it should be on a whole wheat bun. Gabby can eat whatever she wants. She has finished all of her competitions, her metabolism is sky high, and an Egg McMuffin is not going to balloon her like a blimp. In actuality, I am a little disappointed in Gabby. An Egg McMuffin is not something that is traditionally considered unhealthy. It has eggs, bread, meat and cheese. Couple it with an orange juice and you have all four food groups.

In 1984, Sharlene Wells consumed a half pound of fudge just hours before appearing in the Miss America swimsuit competition on national TV. Next time Gabby, when you are in England go with a Treacle tart and clotted cream. And there is no reason if you are satisfied with your body, to apologize to anyone for what you are eating. If you are not satisfied with your body, the only one you have to apologize to is yourself.

And just so you all know, I had a scoop of Haagen Daas ice cream on a cone last night and it was delicious. I felt no guilt, and my pants fit just fine this morning.