Snowpocalypse crafting!

I have to admit something here on the blog that's a little embarrassing. I'm hanging my head in shame as I type this. Okay, here goes…

We don't own a sled. 

I know. I know. How can this be? We live near a mountain and have a six-year old boy. Having a lad and no sled is just this side of neglectful, really. We can't possibly expect him to grow up to be a fully functioning member of society WITHOUT A FRICKIN' SLED!

Our glaring lack in parental responsibility was made all the clearer when our next door neighbor dropped by to ask if she could borrow ours. That look, the one she gave me when I informed her that our household was minus a sled, I don't know if I'll ever be able to live that down.

But hey, I still had an internet connection and, by God, there had to be others who found themselves in similar situations. What if I could remedy this with old-fashioned cardboard crafting? Perhaps there would be instructions online? My search commenced and less than a second after typing "how to make your own sled youtube," I had my answer.

A quick check confirmed we had the necessary supplies - cardboard, garbage bag (or in our case a sturdy LEGO plastic bag with Yoda on it. Yeah, YODA, people.), and packing tape.

This is what we crafted for sledding…

This is what it looked like on the trial run by the condo-building-house. If it looks as if Hen isn't moving real fast it's because he's actually not moving at all.

Here's the sled in action…
SnowpocalypseSledding from Christie Glynn on Vimeo.

And since this is a crafting post, I'll include a picture of the cardboard igloo fort we made yesterday.

Holy crap, I fell while holding my kid

Last night, while transferring Hen back to his bed, I fell while carrying him across the condo. I guess tripped and subsequently fell is more accurate. It all happened so fast. I tripped over the cord plugged into my laptop. The magnetic cord that is specifically designed to break away when pulled so that the computer won't be damaged*. It did indeed break away but this happened too late to prevent my falling. I was already on my way down. Initially, I thought I had slammed Hen's poor head into the granite counter by the phone. Turns out his chin caught something but it was my head or rather the side of my nose that took the brunt of that hit. But, wait, we aren't at the floor yet. To avoid smooshing my poor Bean, I somehow angled my body so that my left side absorbed the impact. I don't remember doing this, I couldn't begin to tell you how I did it. But injuries I sustained and Hen did not tell me this is what happened. I somehow came down on my side, with my elbow and knee taking the impact. My hand cushioned the blow to the back of Hen's head. I landed in a crouch position on that side. Darr wasn't home from the game yet so I had to rebound quickly. I was sure Hen's face had been permanently damaged and that he had suffered internal injuries. But once inspected and questioned, it became clear his chin bruise, and the horrific long-term memory of the event, were the only things he took away from the fall. Not a millisecond after I reached up to touch my own nose, the color drained from my face - the last time this happened, I was giving birth and the time before that, I broke my back - and I felt as if I was going to pass out. I did not. Hen and I were up and hanging out in bed when Darr got home, Hen was even in good spirits. I, on the other hand, can't put any pressure on my elbow, can't bend my knee without burning pain, see a slight indent in my nose, can't feel the tips of my ring and pinky fingers, and have a slight burn on my ankle where the cord rubbed my flesh off. Ouch.

*The computer is fine.

Mitt Romney's tax rate is a lower percentage than the average tip at Denny's.

Wisdom.

He's a 14 Percenter!

"The returns show Romney paid a smaller proportion of his income in tax than most Americans because his income is from investments from his $200m-plus fortune, which attract a lower rate than earned income.

In 2010, Romney earned more than $21m and paid $3m in tax, a rate of less than 14%. He expects to pay $3.2m in taxes on his 2011 income, a rate of 15.4%."

Hat tip: The Guardian 

"The former Massachusetts governor shelled out approximately $3 million in federal income taxes on $21.7 million in income that year.

Because Romney gave about $3 million to charity — about half of which went to the Mormon Church — his tax rate was lowered to a meager 14%.

Romney hasn't drawn a real salary in years, and the numbers confirm what most analysts believed: The bulk of his income comes from investment gains.

Because capital gains are taxed at a much lower rate — 15% — than the levy on the salaries of the wealthiest Americans — 35% — Romney has an annual income in the top 1% of Americans paired with a relatively low tax rate."

Hat tip: The New York Daily News

"Romney's tax rate is below that of most wage-earning Americans because most of his income, as outlined in more than 500 pages of tax documents, flows from capital gains on investments."

Hat tip: The Huffington Post

Therein lies the problem - WE NEED TO CHANGE THE WAY INCOME IS DEFINED. You should no longer get a preferred tax rate because you invest. 

Listen at NPR for a quick overview of the numbers. Also, did you realize Gingrich is calling for a 15% flat tax rate and he wants to eliminate all taxes on capital gains. This would mean Romney would pay almost nothing at all in taxes. Holy fuck.

Sense of proportion

For me, this pretty much sums up how ridiculous it is to gripe and complain about any mess the protestors allegedly cause. I have many more thoughts on the Occupy movement but no time to blog about 'em now.

That's what they are trying to tell you!

HT: Doghouse

Read Paul Krugman

Panic of the Plutocrats

The way to understand all of this is to realize that it’s part of a broader syndrome, in which wealthy Americans who benefit hugely from a system rigged in their favor react with hysteria to anyone who points out just how rigged the system is.

Please, please please read Paul Krugman

F*ck the Poor!

Tax the rich?! Fox News says that's class warfare. Instead, we should tax the 50% of Americans who pay no federal income tax. Frickin' moochers. I mean, the poor may pay Federal payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare. The poor may pay state income taxes and sales taxes and other excise taxes like gasoline. That bottom 50% may only control 2.5% of our nation's wealth, but HECK YEAH, let's do it! I mean, it's basic fairness right? You can't just raise taxes on the top 1% who control 42% of all the wealth in America because, well, because that's just not fair.

God these Fox assholes piss me off.

First, you must watch Jon Stewart -- and both clips.

Then, if you like, Media Matters has some background on the absolute crass evil nihilistic falsehoods of Fox News. Punks.

---

UPDATE:
Scott Neuman, reporting for NPR:

In a sign of just how much the economy is hurting its traditional customer base, Walmart finds itself going head-to-head with Target for middle-income customers just as its lower-income clientele is being lured away by an even cheaper option — the dollar store.

“If you go to the dollar stores, they’ve done a much better job of offering food to the consumers,” Sozzi said, adding that a lot of people who used to shop at Walmart “don’t have the money” to shop there anymore.

But those lucky duckies who can’t afford to shop at Walmart don’t pay any federal income tax. Unfair.

If you happened to be in Bridgeport theatre 10 at 8pm

You might have heard some crazy lady loudly asking another member of the crowd to please turn off whatever device was playing and disrupting the movie. You might have even caught a snippet of sound from said device. But what you don't know is that I was both the crazy lady yelling and the member of the audience with a device that was playing. My apologies, folks. I left the iPod Touch in the car but forgot that I had taken the iPod Nano from Hen when we arrived at the pizza place. At some point on our way from the car to our seats in the theatre I must have hit the device in such a way to start it, so as the beginning of Harry Potter came onto the screen, if you listened closely, you could hear the movie Bolt. And, yeah, that was coming from me.