Commentary

IRS Online Payments

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Intuit Online Payroll service periodically sends out an email, as required by the IRS, to encourage customers to enroll in the federal government’s Electronic Federal Tax Payment System® (EFTPS).

Once enrolled, you can make any payments due the IRS via this online service instead of writing a paper check and mailing it. I like electronic bill paying, so went to the EFTPS website to enroll.

Two things that piqued my interest in the “What You Need To Know” box:

  • “…After your information is validated with the IRS, you will receive a personal identification number (PIN) via U.S. Mail in five to seven business days.”

  • “This EFTPS® tax payment service Web site supports Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows and Mozilla Firefox for Windows.”

Rather ironic that the IRS wants to respond to your enrollment in an online service by sending you a piece of paper via regular mail. What do you want to bet that the envelope will also include a notice about the Paperwork Reduction Act?

The EFTPS programmers might want to check their visitor stats, where they are quite likely to find that a large majority of enrollees are using Chrome or Safari as their browser, with Firefox and Internet Explorer way down the list (and IEx is about to be dropped by Microsoft).

To the credit of the IRS/US Treasury Dept., the actual online enrollment process was easy to navigate and well done.

Bumper Sticker Patriots

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What is it with people who drive a foreign made car plastered with bumper stickers like “God Bless America” and US Flags?

If they were really as patriotic as they want you think they are, wouldn’t you think they’d own an American made car and stop buying cheap Made In China stuff from Walmart?

Dealing with the death of a teen’s friend

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What do you say when one of your teenager’s friends has been killed in a car accident?

My youngest son is a high school senior. In my email Inbox today was a message from the high school e-news person, letting parents know that one of the school’s students had been killed in a car accident over the weekend.

The name of the kid was a little familiar, so after school today I asked my son if he knew that boy.

Yes, he did:  Classmate, something of a friend, someone he’d known and got along with for the past few years. My boy doesn’t have a large social circle, so I sensed right away this might  hit him pretty hard.

I struggled a bit with how to keep the conversation going (the school email noted it was important to help students deal with the tragedy). I’m a bit impressed that my guy said he was annoyed that the official school news didn’t include the fact that the friend’s girlfriend was in the hospital, critically injured in the crash

This son, more than most his age, has learned that the actions one takes on the spur of the moment, or the choices that others make, have a huge impact on the future of many people.

I am ever so thankful that my son wasn’t in that accident. I’m ever so thankful that my son recognizes that an instant of poor judgement can result in tragic loss.

My son might not believe it, but I was a teenager once, too. I had a car. And yes, once or twice I did something pretty stupid, and reckless, as a driver. Perhaps it was only sheer luck that none of those lapses resulted in tragedy.

But in the meantime, I have a kid who needs to deal with an important loss, and whose world of fun, video games and hanging out with friends has been interrupted by a tragic event.

What advice do you have for teens, and their parents, when something like this happens?

 

 

Income Inequality

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Political writer Mollie Reilly has a good article on Huffington Post about the recent popularity of books on income inequality and the shrinking of the middle class. The article points out that three of the current top five sellers at Amazon.com have something to do with this issue.

Isn’t it interesting that people who care about this are buying the books through corporate giant Amazon, helping to make one of the wealthiest men in the United States even richer? If those buyers are sincerely concerned about the demise of the middle class, why don’t they buy their books from their local independent bookstore?

Clueless Wall Street Investors

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More proof that a huge number of people who invest in stocks don’t know what they’re doing. According to this story on www.BusinessInsider.com, the stock in a company with the ticker MYRA surged 900% immediately after President Obama’s announcement of the MyRA retirement savings program. This is despite the fact that Myriad Entertainment & Resorts (MYRA) has absolutely nothing to do with the President’s new program. Did any of those investors even bother to research their buy? Unlikely, as MYRA was delisted from stock exchanges four years ago.

As the Business Insider story points out, this is not the first time clueless investors have rushed to buy into a company based solely on their stock market ticker.

This would be laughable were it not for the fact that there are now huge numbers of poorly informed investors and they can have a very big, and very negative, impact on our economy with their impulsive moves to buy and sell.

Why did the chicken cross the ocean?

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Did you read that the US Dept. of Agriculture now says it’s okay for American chicken farming operations to kill the birds here in the US, then ship them to China for processing, and then bring them back to the US to sell in local grocery stores?

Truly amazing. Hard to fathom that this makes sense even economically. I guess that the cost of labor in China is so much lower than in the US that it will create bigger profit for big agribusiness despite the shipping cost and delay in getting the product to market.

Beyond that, however, is certainly the question of food safety. Transit time from slaughterhouse to grocery store shelves? More than a few days, I’d think. And I don’t like to seem like a xenophobe, but Chinese food processors don’t have the best record. Tainted infant formula and dog food come to mind?

And guess what?  That package of international chicken at Walmart won’t have to be labeled with where it came from.

Here’s more about it: http://shine.yahoo.com/healthy-living/usda-allow-china-process-chickens-ship-back-u-214500281.html 

More than ever, it’s a good idea to buy your chicken from a local store that gets it’s poultry from local farmers.

What do you think? 

God bless…

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Saw a bumper sticker the other day:

God Bless Our Troops. Especially Our Snipers.

Obviously the driver of the big SUV is a true patriot. Probably also considers himself a good Christian.  Must not be familiar with God’s Ten Commandments, at least the one that says “Thou Shalt Not Kill”.

A better bumper sticker:  God Bless Everyone. No Exceptions.

Why aren’t US automakers doing better on gas mileage?

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One of my favorite magazines arrived in the mail a few days ago with a back page ad for the 2013 Ford Explorer.  Nice looking car.

The tag line on the ad reads “EcoBoost fuel economy and 365 horsepower*”

The fine print at the bottom says EPA-estimated rating of 16 city/22 hwy/18 combined mpg. This is for a 3.5 liter engine and 4 wheel drive.

Until very recently, I drove a 1995 GMC Safari (essentially the same as a Chevrolet Astro), that was rated at 16 city/21 hwy for the AWD model, and this was with a 4.3 liter engine.

How is it that in almost 20 years of automotive technology advances a brand new passenger crossover SUV gets the same mileage as a hulking 1/2-ton utility van? That just ain’t right.

The fine print also notes that the advertised horsepower rating of 365 is for 93 octane premium fuel. When was the last time you saw premium at your gas station for anything more than 91-92 octane?

I don’t mean to pick on Ford here in particular, and I come from a family that bought and drove Fords for generations, But all of the automakers are pulling the same BS and greenwashing their new cars, and they need to be called on this. Do you agree?

 

Sunday Night in Spring

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It is after 7:30pm on Sunday night, on the first weekend of official Spring, and one of those rare early spring evenings in the Pacific Northwest where it’s actually comfortable to sit outside in the yard and enjoy the fact that there is both still light in the sky at this time of day and it’s warm enough to enjoy being outside in the evening without multiple layers of insulating poly clothing.

My neighbor has just finished mowing his ¼ acre with a gas-powered lawn mower and is now finishing up the job with a power leaf blower. I use similar machines myself, and know that I am disturbing the peace of my neighborhood whenever I do, so I try to use them only at mid-day. I am torn between admiring my neighbors energy, feeling like I should be out doing the same, and wishing that I could just sit here and enjoy quiet and calm of the evening.

Should I post this on my Facebook page?  My neighbor is one of my Facebook “Friends” and we are generally on good terms. If I posted this, might he take it as antagonistic?