Tax Cuts, Homes, and Wedding Rings
Today is the first payday that is affected by the recently enacted tax cuts. My boss came into the office today and told me the difference between my witholdings now and what they would be if I was married, all other things being equal. It would amount to $130 more per paycheck, instead of the $13 increase in take-home pay I saw today. He’s done the same thing before, noting that I need to buy a house so I can increase my witholding allowance.
Sigh.
I want to get married and buy a house, and apparently everyone else wants me to as well. But can I please do it on God’s schedule? Please?
FLATEOTM: Functional Lifelike Android Trained for Efficient Observation and Terran Mathematics
And now for a new feature, the quote of the month:
“We sleep safely in our beds because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would do us harm.” — George Orwell
Gays, the Courts, and Moral Relativism
The Supremes are on a roll this week. First we had the split on Affirmative Action, and now, Lawrence v. Texas. Gay people are now allowed to have sex in Texas, but the dissents by Scalia and Thomas are much more interesting reading than the ruling. For one, it cites Roe v. Wade numerous times. For another, Scalia’s dissent points out the inconsistencies between this and a previous ruling that the majority cited frequently.
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Bagged-ad Bob?
There are unconfirmed reports that Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, a.k.a. Baghdad Bob, a.k.a. Comical Ali, has been captured by Allied Forces at a roadblock in Iraq. This guy just can’t seem to keep out of the headlines, and with this DVD, he stakes his claim in American pop culture between Survivor and American Idol. 
It appears that this story is from the British Daily Mirror, which is sort of like saying it’s from the National Enquirer. Oops. Well, at least we have the DVD.
I’m sure this post will get me banned in China, but …
Of the three founding members of the Axis of Evil, only two remain: Iran & North Korea. Now that Iraq has been forcibly removed from the Axis one wonders who will take its place. There are several candidates, the chief ones I’ll cover here. We’ll probably deal with Iran & North Korea first, but the sinful nature of man means that there will always be a “target rich environment”.
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I saw The Matrix Reloaded yesterday with my friend Andrew. It was much more vulgar and much more complex than it needed to be. Unless the third movie comes to the rescue for this series, I don’t think I will buy the boxed set of DVDs. Spoilers below.
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A Lesson From Pfc. Lynch
This Washington Post article is a good bit of reporting on the Jessica Lynch story. About midway down the page you find this interesting paragraph:
In the hours after the ambush, Arabic-speaking interpreters at the National Security Agency, reviewing intercepted Iraqi communications from either hand-held radios or cellular phones, heard references to “an American female soldier with blond hair who was very brave and fought against them,” according to a senior military officer who read the top-secret intelligence report when it came in. An intelligence source cited reports from Iraqis at the scene, saying she had fired all her ammunition.
…
These intelligence reports, and the one bit of eavesdropping, created the story of the war.
If you read the rest of the article you find that Pfc. Lynch’s weapon jammed, which prevented her from firing her ammunition. The article makes clear a very important lesson in war: if your attacks on the enemies communications are going well, be careful of what intelligence you gather from them. It may be corrupted by your previous efforts.
In civilian terms, don’t believe everything you hear or read, only the good stuff.
Tanned, Rested, & Ready
Well, I’m back from vacation. I had a great time, and got practically nothing done, so all went according to plan. I caught one catfish, dined on shark, took a 13 mile bike ride, got semi-tanned, and generally enjoyed myself to the fullest. I’m going to shake down Dan V. for the pics he took, then post a longer vacation summary (with pics) later.
Meanwhile, its back to the salt mines and dealing with tech support, e-mail, and a mountain of help articles that need to be created/edited/rewritten. I’m feeling really good right now, despite being inundated with a backlog of catch-up work.
