My accountant wants to help me shirk my civic responsiblities

"0% Capital Gains Rate? The Tax Cut and Jobs Act passed at the very end of 2017 created a lot of new tax planning opportunities.  Are you aware that the Act included an often overlooked section which section provides taxpayers with an incentive for investing capital in opportunity zones across the country. Under the program, taxpayers may reinvest capital gains from other investments into an Opportunity Zone. This investment provides temporary deferral or permanent exclusion of the capital gains tax if the investment remains in a Zone for a required period of time."

Capital gains already receive favorable tax rates. But did you catch it? "temporary deferral or permanent exclusion of the capital gains tax"

If you can reinvest your capital in a specific zone for a certain amount of time, you can get out of paying any capital gains tax.

It's pretty clear who this benefits. Those with money can legally shield their gains so they don't pay any tax. This is bullshit.

India post #2: Otherwise known as I Finally Get Around to Editing our Photos

Marina Beach - Chennai

I'm finally (about damn time!) getting around to editing our photos from India.

Story 1

We arrived in India really late - or early if that's how you feel about 2:30 in the morning. I had arranged for a ride through the hotel and our driver was on time, but there was a communication breakdown about payment and before I knew it, he pulled to the side of the road, motioned for Darren to follow, and Hen and I were left in the car. 

I watched from the backseat as Darren and our driver rounded the corner into a very sketchy looking alley. And then they were gone. 

The keys were in the ignition, the car was running, and Hen and I were strapped in the back. Darren and the driver were no longer visible and I had no idea what they were doing. They certainly weren't at a bank with an ATM so what else could be going on? The mind wanders at 3am in the morning after traveling for umpteen hours, so I told Hen that in the event someone hopped in and tried to drive off, we'd undo our seatbelts and jump out the side door. 

And then Darren and the driver came back around the corner, got in the car, and we were on our way. The driver had taken Darr to a place - some random place where a guy exchanges currency at all hours of the day - and Darren now had Indian rupees. It all turned out to be unnecessary, though, because our the ride was billed by our hotel and we didn't even need the cash on hand. 

This was our welcome to India. 

Squeaky clean reading

Brought to you by the makers of Oy Vey Moments: 

"For all the hubbub, Jared and Kirsten Maughan, the couple who founded Clean Reader, say the app began innocuously enough. Their daughter had returned from school one day upset with the language in a book she was reading for class."

The nosy neighbor in me wants to know the book this girl was reading and the language that she found objectionable. 

I think this app is horrible. Squeaky clean reading. Oy vey.

Christmas cards ordered (almost)

I have to figure out what is happening with the color.

See what I mean? While selecting the design and during the ordering process, I only saw the brighter red color with black text. When I got the pdf proof, it had the muted red color with gray text. The shirt and skin tone look nearly identical, it's the text color that significantly changed. Does this mean my pdf reader color profile is different? Hmmm…In the morning I shall view using Adobe Reader and see if that makes a difference.

Money is speech

What the hell are they thinking?

F---ing Roberts.

Dave sums it up best with this comment:
"I don't even have $2600 to give to a single candidate much less $1 million to toss around to dozens of candidates. All I have is a measly vote, which seems to count for less and less these days."

Although A.P. was pretty spot on, too:
"One nation, under the dollar."

Puarau said:
"Free Speech has become an oxymoron. Without millions in my bank account, who is going to listen to me?"

Hobby Lobby, a.k.a. My head keeps feeling like it is going to explode

The Daily Show
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Gross

I just learned that such a thing as vegenaise exists, and it made me throw up in my mouth a little bit.

Blech.

A morning bobble and jig

Background info: Hen's school is having a talent show and Hen has requested to do Taekwondo for his talent.

Setting the scene: He's in the process of dressing for school when he runs to the dining room still wearing his red and white striped with green trim pajama shirt and nothing else.

The event: He starts practicing his mad skills for the cat watching disinterestedly from her perch by her food bowl, but gets distracted by his bits flapping around and goes immediately into what can only be described as a morning penis dance.

Conclusion: This is the kind of thing one can expect to find at my house the mornings before school.

Healthcare costs run amok in the U.S.

Canine cancer

Beauty the Wonder Dog has cancer.

2013, you've really kicked us in the crotch with this one. Fuck you.

Newtown

When I learned about the Newtown shooting earlier this morning, the media was reporting 18 children dead. This is the same number of children in Hen's preschool class. It's hard to wrap your brain around that.

This evening our preschool had its holiday party. Many were on the fence about going, many weren't sure if a festive night could overcome such a heart wrenching and sobering day. Many of us were surprised by how therapeutic it was to gather and celebrate with each other.

What's that Ben Franklin quote?

"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin

I've been scanning the headlines about the shooting at the theatre in Aurora, CO, today and was horrified* when I came across this lady's quote:

“Americans have yet to understand the threats to their safety, and regard security as an intrusion into their privacy,” says Rachel Ehrenfeld, director of the American Center for Democracy, a New York-based research group.

“In Israel,” she says via e-mail, “well-trained security personnel monitor the entrance to every public building, even supermarkets, and public awareness has stopped many terror attacks and saved many lives.”

Here's my response to that:

1. I understand the threats and accept that those threats are part of the risk associated with living in a free country.
2. Security measures are an intrusion into my privacy. The Fourth Amendment guards against unreasonable searches and seizures, and requires that any warrant has to come from a judge and be supported by probable cause. It's part of due process. We should tread lightly when stomping all over the Constitution under the guise of making us "safer".
3. If I wanted to live in Israel, where every public entrance is monitored, I would move there. 
4. You can obtain public awareness without monitoring the movements of every person entering a public building.†
5. But most importantly, you cannot prevent every tragedy. I do not blame the theatre for this act of violence. I do not blame the crowd for not noticing there was a person wanting to do harm. I do not blame Hollywood for making a Batman film. It was awful. It happened. There will be future tragedies. We must not let our fear override our common sense.

*I was more horrified about the shooting.

†How many well-trained personnel would it take to monitor every public building in the United States?

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.

Obama vs the stupid state of Arizona

"The birthers are back, baby. Oh you might have thought that President Obama's producing his long form birth certificate last spring might have been the proverbial stake through the heart of birtherism (the belief that the president is ineligible for his office because he was not born in the United States of America), but staking only kills vampires, and the birthers are more aptly compared to zombies: implacably shuffling forward no matter how many holes you shoot in (in this case) their theories."

For the rest of the story, click here. Oy mother fucking vey, people.

Bridge construction

The city has given the construction company working on the Sellwood Bridge a noise ordinance waiver for the next few weeks while they do some very noisy work getting the poles in the water for the temporary bridge that will be used during the bridge renovation. (Apparently, creating the second bridge drastically reduces the time needed to fix the original bridge.) What I've noticed so far is that it seems as if the construction is very, very quiet during the day and that the noise disturbances pick up around 9p.m. at night. Sometimes these disturbances continue until well after 2a.m., when I finally manage to drift off to sleep. I'm wondering, would it be that difficult to wait half a day so they could get on the schedule where they are doing the really loud work during the day and the less noisy work at night? Pretty please?

Sh*t Darr sends me

- http://www.thedailyshow.com/videos/tag/Supreme%20Court Scroll down and watch "Tom Goldstein extended interview" parts 1 and 2. Remember Albert Florence? He was the guy who, on an erroneous warrant for which he had proof he had taken care of at the time of arrest, was held for six days and strip searched twice. The courts sided with correctional institutions. Five justices, in their wisdom, think it is entirely plausible and likely that those of us stopped for non-criminal offenses are driving/walking/skipping/jumping around with weapons and/or drugs stuffed in our private parts just in case we are arrested. 

- What is it about this song? 

The birthers move on to Romney

Do they not have anything better to do?

Birther suit questions Romney eligibility

Give us your password

I read a recent article that discussed a new trend amongst employers interviewing prospective employees, they request your username and password in order to access your Facebook and email accounts. Wtf? I imagine if you're hard up for employment, it is pretty difficult to turn down that request since what hangs in the balance is your potential job. I want to take this moment to thank Sen. Richard Blementhal, D-CT, who is currently working on a draft of legislation that would make it illegal for employers to ask for your login information. If companies are able to search and find stuff out on their own, more power to them. But if I go to the trouble to set my privacy settings so that they aren't public, you can assume my comments aren't meant for the public.

The dog needs a bath

Dang. I totally sat down at the table with my laptop to type out my monthly letter to the kid but the smell of the dog is so overpowering in a so-horrifically-bad-I-must-leave-the-room type of way that I have to leave the room. Oy vey. I am booking a bath at the dog salon for this beast tomorrow. I just hope our family doesn't succumb to the smell and die tonight while we sleep.