I just finished reading Barack Obama's most recent book,
The Audacity of Hope. I won't give a review here, for that check out my
book review blog. I did want to point out a few things that I found interesting though.
- After Bush's tax cuts, Warren Buffett pays a lower tax rate than his receptionist or most average Americans. Copying the quote from my book review blog:
"(p. 190 - Opportunity, Obama recounting a conversation with Warren Buffet) "I did a calculation the other day," he said as we sat down in his office. "Though I've never used tax shelters or had a tax planner, after including the payroll taxes we play, I'll pay a lower effective tax rate this year than my receptionist. In fact, I'm pretty sure I pay a lower rate than the average American. And if the President has his way, I'll be paying even less."
- I don't actually remember the other items. Oh well. I'll just keep going with other random tidbits.
- In the Colley Rankings (used in the BCS calculations, not to be confused with Austin [shoot your mouth off] Collie), the Utes are the #1 team in America (due to their incredible win over perennial powerhouse UNLV). If the season ended today, Utah would be playing Wisconsin for the Colley National Title.
- According to the Massey Ratings (another one of the 6 computer algorithms used in the BCS rankings), Utah is just a little behind USC for first place. Regardless, if the season ended today, those two teams would be playing for the Massey Title.
- Are we really sure the season needs to continue? Playing Weber State isn't going to help those rankings...
- There's been a wootoff the last few days. While I didn't score a bag of crap (I tried though. The crappy servers were too bogged down) I bought my parents a computer and I got a cheap bluetooth headset.
- YouTube broke when I was watching a video earlier today. You should really check it out. Really, I mean that.
- I've been working late the last couple of evenings helping my boss finish a big project. No sweat though, I still love my job.
5 comments:
Finally, I got this in Google Reader before you posted it. Anyways, I didn't participate in the Woot Off this time because it is a huge waste of time. Checking every two minutes just to get some crap...
Hopefully your wife still likes your job. :). Oh yeah, I hear you're getting your butt kicked in fantasy football. No wonder you're not writing about that.
That youtube video was cool. How do people come up with this stuff? It's just like they sit around and think, "Hey, maybe I could do this."
I think that your quotation about taxes may be a little misleading to the average Joe (like me) who doesn't know much about finances. Maybe everyone else understands this, but I had to look it up for clarification. Tax Rate is often defined as the amount of taxes paid for each $1000 of assessed value of property (source: google "define: tax rate"). It should be no surprise to anyone who understands mainstream Republican ideology that the rich receive tax incentives to spur investment and spending (and whatever other reasoning, like it or not).
On another note, Go Utes!
Warren Buffett paid over $8,000,000 in personal taxes while his secretary's tax assessment was $18,000, and s/he was eligible to itemize and receive education, child care, moving, and other tax credits. I'm sure s/he did not end up paying $18,000.
I don't have a problem with his lower tax rate. My big hang up is with tax shelters. I applaud Warren Buffett for not using them and believe that the loopholes should be closed.
I also like the idea of a flat tax although I don't know how that change would ever come about.
My biggest disagreement with Obama is about taxes. He wants to create tons of government programs to help the poor. As a Chicago resident, I have seen first hand the waste and corruption in many of these programs. On the flip side Obama donated less then 1% of his personal income to charity.
Personally, I would rather donate directly to a charity then have the government waste my tax dollars in some bureaucratic mess.
Cheers!
If the Utes can beat Oregon State at home the way BYU beat UCLA at home then I will be a believer that the Utes are a national title contender. GO COUGARS!!!!!
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