Archie Kobain

Hello My Peeps…
People who read my stuff even when I go off on misguided rants.
Yes. It must be you…because… Here you are. 
I guess everyone has to be somewhere? 

So, last week, I said that someone had asked how I could possibly be pro-choice and yet be “OK” with gay marriage.  Of course, I went off on a rant about how those things aren’t related, other than maybe through religious beliefs, and religion is supposed to stay out of lawmaking.  Well, I stand by my rant and everything I said at the time.  However, a few days after posting it, I woke up, somewhere in Atlantic Ocean, near Martha’s Vineyard, and realized that, most pro-choice people ARE OK with gay marriage.  The same religious goofballs who want to pass anti-abortion laws, want to define marriage exclusively as the legal union between a man and a woman.  So, WTF dude?  In the words of Ozzy, “Sharon… I’m so confused.”

Doesn’t matter.  I stick by my thoughts on personal freedom.
Your results may vary!

And that brings us to this week’s musical guest.  In exchange for Christina Perri, one of my F-POPs put me onto Michelle Featherstone earlier this week.  She’s got some good stuff.

I really liked this song…

Lawyers, Guns & Money
No it’s not Warren Zevon… unfortunately, he’s passed.  Warren Buffett, on the other hand, is alive and well and pulled a clever publicity stunt this week by writing an op-ed article in the New York Times saying that he and his super-rich friends should be paying a lot more taxes.

Well, I’m not sure what is stopping Mr. Buffett from contributing more.  I’m thinking that if you can get yourself published in the New York Times, you should also be able to find this link…

http://www.fms.treas.gov/faq/moretopics_gifts.html

But even better is this CNN article from two years ago…

http://money.cnn.com/2009/11/11/news/economy/national_debt/

That’s right. Our government has a special account where YOU can make tax deductable contributions to help pay down the national debt.  So why doesn’t WB just write a big check?

The reality is that the idea of levying big taxes on the super-rich is a very popular idea.  After all, most people aren’t super-rich.  The non-super-rich totally outweigh the super-rich. We can totally kick the super-rich’s collective asses.  I mean… the average person doesn’t understand what it’s like to make $1M per year and can’t even begin to imagine making over $10M per year.  So, naturally, we would want to painfully tax those lucky bastards, right?

But remember if you make $100K and paid 15% in taxes, you’d have to pay $15,000 but a person making $1M would have to pay $150,000 at the same 15% rate.  Well, last I checked, 150 was a lot more than 15, so… the rich ARE paying more already.  $150K is a lot of cheese.  And yes, they also have a lot more left over than you do…but that’s just the way the cookie crumbles, as they say. 

Now granted…  If you carefully read Mr. Buffett’s article, and were to follow his suggestions, we might generate an extra $35 billion dollars in taxes each year or $350 billion over 10 years.  Hey, every little bit helps, but it is important to point out that this is a drop in the bucket.  It’s OK to do but it’s not the basis for bringing down our nation’s debt.  We need to do a lot more.

At the end of the day, this was a publicity stunt.  The republicans have been getting a lot of press lately as they’ve been traveling around bashing the way thing are currently being done in Washington and this was nothing but a clever way to give Obama something to point at and say, “see…even the really welathy people think we should tax them more”. 

Yeah…whatever.  It’s a drop in the bucket.  I’m not drinking the cool-aid. 

You wanna tax the mega-wealthy go ahead. But take a lesson from basic supply & demand economics…  High demand can cause prices to rise but lowering prices can create a higher demand.  My point is that you can make a lot more by getting a little bit from everyone than from trying to get huge dollars from the few.  Of course, no one wants higher taxes (not even Warren).  So what do we do?

The answer is to put money to work. In business, lowering expenses is always good but you can only lower them so much. The bigger payoff comes from investing in the right resources and bringing in more revenue, while keeping expenses under control.  This is the same thing.  Instead of taxing everyone more, let’s see how we can put more money in everyone’s paycheck. Then, percentage-wise, they will automatically generate more tax dollars…and everyone will be happy.

I realize it isn’t easy to be POTUS.  I respect the office, even when I don’t agree with his politics.  But we need a strong leader, not a politician.  We need someone who will put politics aside and do what’s right. 

“Make it so, Number One”  – Jean Luc Picard

In the meantime, listen to this guy, I think he nailed it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/44080879
Sorry…if you have to watch an advertisement first.

Other than that, I’m done for the day.
My apologies if I seem rushed…but I’m rushed.
I can sense a glass of Santo Tomas Sauvignon Blanc from Ensenada, BC is somewhere in my future.  One of my favorite white wines, from one of my favorite places on Earth.

 .

 I poured my booze all down the kitchen drain
And watched my bad habits get flushed away

 .

Wait…  Who said anything about pouring booze down the drain?
I’m sure she didn’t mean to include my Sauvignon Blanc in that.

“Barnsley…  Where’s the Santo Tomas?”

[No answer.]

Alrighty then,  I have to go look for Barnsley and my wine.
Remember, keep up the fight…

And by the way, I never check my email, but you can try to contact me at:

Archie.Kobain@gmail.com

You should also like my Facebook Page at:

 http://www.facebook.com/pages/Archie-Kobain/106676292751097
I’m working on a shorter URL – freakin’ Facebook.

Gotta Run.
Love yous

– Arch