I don't own a Miata or a Kindle yet and if history is any guide, I likely won't for some time. I did call the guy about the Miata. I wanted to know it's mileage, because it is two years old. I don't want to buy a used car that someone drove the bejeezus out of. It has 29,500 miles. I made the mistake of mentioning that we bought a car from them once before and now they are calling me about scheduling a test drive. Salesmen!! A funny thing is happening on the way to taxing the crap out of the rich. I don't know if you remember things the way I do, but I was lead to believe that no one making under $250,000 would see a tax increase while President Obama was in office. I guess it depends on the definition of tx increase. Has anyone seen the Democrat idea to tax employer-provided health care benefits? I have to say that I'm not crazy about that idea. The guys at Tedious systems claim that they pay $7000 a year subsidizing my health insurance. That's 7 grand that some jackasses in Congress think I need to pay taxes on. For a guy like me, that translates into $1750 more a year in taxes. The idea behind this bogus idea is that people getting employer-provided health care benefits drive up the cost of health care for everyone, because they use it too much. The President, was against this swell idea when his was a candidate, but now he seems like he's wavering. And it isn't just the sluggos in Congress that are thinking of ways to stick it to the little people. Here in Hooterville, the City Council chickened out on the 2% renters tax, as predicted by me. Instead they are adding a new 2% tax on electricity, telephone services, gym memberships, tanning salons and some other stuff. The cost to pick up our garbage is going up a couple of bucks a month and the cost of water is too. In the meantime, our super swell new City Manager, sent two of the mean and nasty old City Manager's trusted lieutenants to work for some quasi-private development company, with the citizens of Hooterville picking up their salaries. This will only cost us $200,000 per year, plus benefits. Then, he hire a new guy for $140,000 to replace one of them and promoted three of his people, with generous raises. One of his underlings is our former police chief, who "retired" and was hired in the City Manager's office. A classic double-dipper. I'm sure he is imminently qualified. Things in this blog represented to be fact, may or may not actually be true. The writer is frequently wrong, sometimes just full of it, but always judgmental and cranky