Happy 233rd Birthday to the Green Side!

I'm a little late with these pictures but still wanted to post them on my blog.

Happy Birthday Dear

Happy Birthday to my dear wife Joanne. I will not tell you her age because then I might not see my next birthday. We went out to dinner with the kids and grandkids and my sister. Then Joanne and I went north to the Little River Casino in Manistee Michigan for the weekend. I think she had a great birthday. Love you dear.

Almost Thanksgiving Day

Well, I made it through Veterans Day and I did attend the dinner in Eau Clair. It was quite a shindig and well represented by all branches of the service. This is a fine example of small towns clinging to their guns and religion. They treat the Veterans the way they should be treated. It made me feel proud to be an American Veteran. There were a few tears but I got through it okay. My wife had to go to a meeting so I went with my sister. She also enjoyed the evening.

Joanne and I just got back from a weekend in Manistee, MI celebrating Joanne’s birthday at Little River Casino. I will not say which birthday we celebrated but it was traumatic for her. We came out about even for the weekend and had a great time. It started snowing heavily on the way back but the further south we got the better the driving conditions.

Went to Battle Creek VA last week to have me hip checked out. Guess it is doing okay according to the doctor. That leg is one quarter inch longer than the other is and my limp does cause a few problems with the hip. He said it will take time and that I should not be concerned with some pain. Only be concerned about a lot of pain continuously. I do not have the patience to wait. I want it better now.

The Benton Harbor VA is now officially a full fledge VA facility and not run by a contractor. I do not know if that is good or bad. We will wait and see. The one individual that I liked is not staying with the VA. Paul really seemed to care and I thought he was very good at his job. They have replaced him with a doctor via video conference. I do not think it is right for a physician to be able to analyze you via a TV monitor. Not sure how long this will go on with the TV. Maybe they will find an on-site individual.

Getting ready for Thanksgiving and then it will be time to start thinking about putting up trees for Christmas. Time sure is flying by.

Long Time, No Post

Long time, no post. Well…I have been very busy moving my sister up to Michigan from Georgia. My wife and I drove down to Atlanta and helped my sister pack up all the dishes and glass. We rented a 26-foot U-Haul truck and hired Two Men and a Truck guys to load the truck. It is best to let the professionals load a truck because they can really pack it tight. As far as we know, nothing got broken on our 14-hour trip north.

26 feet was not large enough for everything so some things had to be left behind. The realtor will try to sell a few things and the rest will be given to charity groups. Some of the stuff we talked her out of bringing to Michigan. I would have loved to brought everything with us but there wasn’t the room. It would have been better to have a garage sale up here rather than leave it behind but you do what you have to do.

I believe she really likes the new house she bought “sight un seen”. Her large furniture fit nicely and looks homey in the house. She did go out and buy a few things to fill in a few places such as a smaller kitchen table and another chair for living room rather than a large couch.

It has been a tough couple of weeks for me with all the activity but I am slowly getting back to normal and mentally calming down. Dealing with all that activity and being out of my safe zone was stressful but I got thru it without too much anxiety. Now that I am back in my basement office, I feel much more secure and relaxed. Every Thursday, I can go visit my sister for lunch after Group Therapy. I think that will be fun and I am sure she will enjoy that also.

I had a few flashbacks during that period but I believe that the physical activity of packing and getting ready to move helped a little to relieve the stress of being out of my safe zone. We have a new member to our Group Therapy and I have only been to one meeting while he was their. New members tend to change the dynamics of a group so we will see how it does. My initial reaction was that he probably was not a good soldier and tends to hate the military and its rules. However, first impressions can be deceiving so I will wait and see how he turns out.

Big Veterans Day activities coming up in the area but I am not sure if I will partake. Stuff like that brings back memories that I try to forget. A couple of the guys in the group told me to try it so maybe I will. One of the activities includes a free dinner for two with a military program. Betty Bennett is a speaker and I have heard her speak before and really enjoyed what she had to say. She was a Wave Code Breaker in Washington D.C. during WWII. It was amazing what she had to go thru to keep her activities a secret during that time and she had to sign a paper not to reveal for 25 years what she had been doing. She confirms that Roosevelt knew about the attack at Pearl Harbor 4 days before the Japanese hit. I may go just to hear her talk.

Coming Out of the Dark

A couple more excellent videos dealing with PTSD.

PTSD Video

If you are a Nam Vet, be careful when you watch this video. It may bring back some bad memories or reactions.

Tax Plans

This is a VERY simple way to understand the tax laws. Let's put tax cuts in terms everyone can understand.

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner. The bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this.

The first four men, the poorest would pay nothing; the fifth would pay $1; the sixth would pay $3; the seventh $7; the eighth $12; the ninth $18; and the tenth man, the richest, would pay $59.

That's what they decided to do. The ten men ate dinner in the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day; the owner threw them a curve (in tax language a tax cut).

"Since you are all such good customers," he said, "I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily meal by $20." So now dinner for the ten only cost $80.00.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes. So the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six, the paying customers? How could they divvy up the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his "fair share?"

The six men realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would end up being PAID to eat their meal. So the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.

So the fifth man paid nothing, the sixth pitched in $2, the seventh paid $5, the eighth paid $9, the ninth paid $12; leaving the tenth man with a bill of $52 instead of his earlier $59.

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free.

But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings. "I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man, but he, pointing to the tenth. "But he got $7!" "Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man, "I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got seven times more than me!" That's true!" shouted the seventh man, why should he get $7 back when I got only $2? The wealthy get all the breaks!" Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison, "we didn't get anything at
all. The system exploits the poor!"

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next night he didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and ate without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered, a little late what was very important.

They were FIFTY-TWO DOLLARS short of paying the bill! Imagine that!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college instructors, is how the tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up at the table anymore.

Where would that leave the rest? Unfortunately, most taxing authorities anywhere cannot seem to grasp this rather straightforward logic!

T. Davies Professor of Accounting & Chair, Division of Accounting and
Business Law
the University of South Dakota