I'm not the only one who's ticked off by the "health impact fee."

Pawlenty was on Hewitt last night (Not like I listened. Good thing, too, otherwise I would have called in and reamed them both.) and Hewitt backed up Pawlenty and said:

{...}You know, I actually have no problem with that. I don't care what the anti-tax hard core says, I believe in taxing the heck out of cigarettes because of externalities and [unintelligible]. It's good economics.

Good economics? GOOD economics? What the hell is the matter with you, Hugh? You're advocating taxing the hell out of tobacco products to cover up a budgetary shortfall. How, precisely, do you plan on doing that when people will either quit or will buy their cigarettes online, thereby shortcircuiting your tax. How, exactly, is that action going to bring revenue in? And, do remember, Hugh you're trying to balance a budget here. You have to bring in income because you didn't cut or reduce spending and this is your chosen method of balancing the books. You might want to make sure it's guaranteed before you call it "Good Economics." Because it most assuredly ain't good economics to let the State of Minnesota's checks bounce.

Pawlenty then went on to confirm the reasoning I laid out in this post:

{...}Well, you know, I don't, I'm not a big fan of growing revenues through new mechanisms like this as I hope I've proven as governor but the bottom line was we had a historic government shutdown we had to find common ground and compared to the alternatives of the Democrats wanting to tax everything including income and business taxes and a variety of other things. This was the least offensive. And the good news is other states have done it and smoking has decreased dramatically, and so this has a health benefit as well.{...}

Yep. Let's not piss off big business or raise income taxes or even---GASP!---cut or reduce spending. Let's go with the path of least resistance, shall we? Let's raise taxes on nasty people who do things that disagree with our delicate noses---and yes, Tim, it's a tax. Smoking may be voluntary, but the paying of said "health impact fee" most assuredly isn't---because that's the easy way out. Furthermore, let's claim that we didn't raise taxes when we did! It's PERFECT!

As far as the "health benefit" is concerned, well, geez, Tim, I helped to elect you Governor. I didn't elect you to be my freakin' nanny. If I want to pollute my lungs that's my choice. Not yours. Furthermore I shouldn't be taxed to hell and back to make up for your shortcomings as a negotiator.

King Banian of SCSU Scholars has a fantastic post on this. Money quote:

{...}Last, if the budget deficit was as small as Hugh figures out -- and he's right -- why do both of these smart conservatives go right past the other solution, the one the tax pledge was supposed to produce: REDUCE SPENDING. In a $31 billion budget, you couldn't find $400 million of cuts? Why accept the level of spending as fixed??? And they're not cuts, they are simply reductions in the rate of increase in spending. This budget is for $30.5 billion (to be precise); the 2004-05 budget was for $28.2.{...}

Go read King's entire post. It's well worth your time.

Oh, and Lileks, you're on my shitlist, too, for agreeing with Hewitt.

{...}JL: As much as I like the anti-tax pledgers there are some times when you have to bend and if you want to stomp your feet and run away and read your Ayn Rand again, I mean that's fine, but politics is not about purity sometimes it's about getting things done.{...}

Oh, yes, where's my copy of Atlas Shrugged? It must be around here somewhere. Perhaps there's a chapter in there that I missed about "getting things done" rather than letting the state tax me further up the wazoo when the wazoo is pretty darn deep as it is.

Chad knocks some sense into Hewitt, who seems to believe "I mean...it's normal. You have to tax something, tax smoke"

{...}Not only is raising taxes "normal", we really have no choice because, according to Hugh, "you got to tax something." We do? Why exactly is raising taxes the only possible solution? God forbid if we could possibly have gotten by without increasing spending as much as we did. What would happen to the schools if we didn't pour an additional $800 some million dollars into them? A cynic might ask exactly what this additional educational largesse is really going to get us, but it's all "about the children" so it would be rude and unseemly to demand to see reforms or results, wouldn't it?

I'm trying to think of what other things it would be "normal" to tax at higher rates. You know, things that are voluntary and may have negative externalities. Things like, well I don't know, maybe snack foods. How about a Cheeto tax Hugh? Or a Diet Coke tax? A Docker's tax? The burden would fall chiefly on white, middle-aged men, so why not? How about a tax on crappy folk music? Talk about negative externalities.{...}

Negative externalities, indeed. It's a "fee" when it doesn't affect you. When it does affect you, it's a "tax" and geez, THEN, by golly, they've crossed the line.

The Republic of Kathyland---where I, Kathy, would serve as benevolent dictator for life---is sounding better and better every damn day I live in this state.

Oh, and we've already decided that the ciggies will be duty free in Kathyland.

Posted by: Kathy at 04:23 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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The mother in law is in town and will be over for lunch in a couple of hours.

Which means I must forsake blogging for the wondrous activity of cleaning the bathroom which she will, undoubtedly, not use while she's here.

I'm tempted to not clean it. But I know the minute I don't, she'll use it and I'll have points removed from the "good daughter-in-law" column.

Sigh.

UPDATE: Helpful Household Tip For the Day:

The new dishwasher is stainless steel. I didn't have anything in the house to keep it looking nice---everything leaves streaks galore. I was about to go to the store to find some specialty stainless steel cleaner, but I happened to read in a Southern Living that club soda works just as well as some fancy-schmancy cleaner. I was skeptical to say the least, but considering we always have the stuff in the house, I was more than willing to give it a shot.

You know what? It works perfectly. WooT! You'll need to use something, ahem, a wee bit stronger if you get a splatter, but use the club soda to remove all the streaks, etc. Yippeee. I have no more room under the counter for one more specialty cleaning product. I just don't. So it's doubly nice that this is something that's a. already on hand and b. costs $0.79 for a liter.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:54 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The Kid has been anxiously awaiting the new Harry Potter book.

So, she'll get a kick out of this, being the hawk that she is.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:50 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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For me, when I read a brilliant piece of summation, it feels like I've slipped into a warm bubble bath after a day of mucking about in the mire. All the dirt and the confusion just slips from my body and my brain is much eased because of it.

Thanks to Martini Boy, I just had that experience. He gently hands Sully a brown paper bag to hyperventilate into:

I read earlier this week that, at 42, Andrew has now spent exactly half of his life in America. Maybe by the time he's 63, he'll get it. What I mean is, this is how America once was, and how America is, and how - I hope - America will always be. Let me quote from Walter Russell Mead's "The Jacksonian Tradition":

Indeed, of all the major currents in American society, Jacksonians have the least regard for international law and international institutions. They prefer the rule of custom to the written law, and that is as true in the international sphere as it is in personal relations at home. Jacksonians believe that there is an honor code in international life — as there was in clan warfare in the borderlands of England — and those who live by the code will be treated under it. But those who violate the code — who commit terrorist acts in peacetime, for example — forfeit its protection and deserve no consideration.

You don't have to be a native-born American of Scots-Irish descent to be a Jacksonian American - although it probably helps. However, being a Cambridge-educated Briton living on the East Coast is almost certainly a hindrance. Sully just doesn't get it.

I don't begrudge Sullivan his opinion. It's his, and I've watched him ably create and defend it. However, when he claims that our rough treatment of rough characters "is not the America it once was," he's displaying an almost-willful misunderstanding of America's wartime mores. In WWII, German POWs were accorded proper respect. Those few Japanese who surrendered were largely not.

Why the difference? Germany declared war on us before attacking; Japan didn't. When a German soldier showed the white flag, he usually meant it; a Japanese solider usually didn't. Germany treated American POWs according to the Geneva Conventions. Japan treated American POWs to the Bataan Death March.

Today we're faced with an enemy who never signed onto the Geneva Conventions. An enemy who hides in plain clothes among civilians, who wages war against civilians, and who began this war with a surprise attack. {...}

Martini Boy's right: Sully just doesn't get it. I've often thought that dear Andrew was a bit wrapped up in the romantic notion that is America and is often afraid to look at the hard reality which allows the romantic notions of America to exist: that we are not afraid to defend what is ours when attacked, and we'll do it by any means necessary. Play fair with us, and you'll likely receive the same. Don't play fair, and we won't either. Sully doesn't get that. He just seems to assume, for some strange reason, that America and her soldiers have some obligation to take what's dished out because we're bigger and better than everyone else. It's like we're the rich taxpayer who keeps getting nailed by the IRS: we're expected to pay up and to hand over the cash with a smile on our face. Problem is, this time the IRS isn't just coming to audit us, he's coming to kill us and, if he has his way, our entire way of life, which Sully holds dear, will go the way of the Dodo. Sully, while well-meaning, seems to think that by holding fast to the principles this nation was founded on will alone ensure our victory.

Ummm, no.

That's a nice romantic notion, and I would like to believe it's possible, but it wasn't the thought of "All Men Are Created Equal" that got the besieged 101st Airborne through the Battle of the Bulge. That lovely notion didn't give those men sustenance while they were having the shit shelled out of them in the Ardenne forest. It was the thought that once the weather cleared and they got supplies in, they could go and get the guys who were shelling the shit out of them. See the difference? It's a big difference. Sully would not have us dirty our hands in defense of our nation. He would have us be the bigger, nobler man each and every time and it's not going to work. Sometimes you have to fight fire with fire and, when you do, you can't spend the majority of your time worrying about if you're going to get burned. It's like the enemy is some abstract concept for him, while the concrete is America's principles.

Go read the whole thing. Twice.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:31 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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The shutdown is over. The legislation has been signed.

And Tim Pawlenty is going down.

Because he's a liar.

No new taxes---oops, it's a "Health Impact Fee." My bad---my ass. What's even better is that he admits he's a liar. Of course, though, it's in the fine print.

Pawlenty also proclaimed the budget package that was completed Wednesday a balanced, bipartisan compromise, saying that "the process was ugly, but the product is good."

He claimed victory in a dozen areas, handing out a checklist of achievements led by "Don't raise taxes" and a status box that listed it as "Done." It also had a footnote in which Pawlenty noted the controversy surrounding the health impact fee.

"Some people call it a tax, some call it a fee, I call it a solution," he told reporters.

{my emphasis}

So, here's what I'd like to know Monsieur Pawlenty---who I consider to be so bad he's practically French---if smokers can't, you know, smoke anywhere in the Twin Cities metropolitan area because smoking's been banned in bars and restaurants, how exactly are you going to fund all these WONDERFUL programs with tobacco taxes?

Hmmmm?

Don't you think that you and your cronies---and yes, I include you in their company because you lobbied to take the entire state smoke-free---sort of pulled the rug out from under yourselves on this one? Because, if you want us to buy cigarettes, we have to have places to smoke. You have to keep us hooked, otherwise, geez, you won't have any state funding.

Whoops! That thar's one heck of a "solution," Tim.

I cannot stand politicians who lie and then try to get away with it. I know this includes pretty much all of them, but you'd think the guy would at least have some shame about fibbing so blatantly. But he doesn't. Not one ounce of burning, red shame for lying. He's covering himself with semantics and he's completely unrepentant about it. He didn't have the guts to cut spending, or even to whip the legislature into the least modicum of shape, and the smokers---because we're bad, bad people---are the ones who have to pay for his laziness and inefficiency. He couldn't get a deal and keep everyone happy, so he opted for the "safe" people to tax. The people he didn't think he'd lose with by taxing them. He didn't want to lose support from big taxpayers, like corporations or people with fat wallets, so he taxed the people he just assumed wouldn't vote for him anyway, if they voted at all. Because, let's face it, most smokers are living on the poverty line: they probably vote a straight DFL ticket anyway.

Interesting how one gets pegged because of one's activities, isn't it?

I hate to say this, but at this stage of the game, I want Jesse back. At least he cared.

Posted by: Kathy at 12:12 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I watched The Great Escape again tonight.

Why is it that every single time I see this movie I,

a. Come in late. I've seen it at least twenty times and I've NEVER seen the beginning of the stupid movie.

b. Always think that Steve McQueen is going to make it over the fence and ride off into Switzerland. I mean, I know he doesn't make it. Yet, every single, solitary time I see this movie, I get to thinking that maybe, just maybe this time HE'S GOING TO MAKE IT! No, no, the Nazi's won't catch him this time. Really, they won't. He's going to make it past those fields of clover and into Switzerland. He's going to jump the second border fence just as beautifully as he did the first and...

...of course it doesn't happen. He winds up in the barbed wire, crashed bike straddled between his legs, with gasoline from the bike soaking his pantleg.

It's just bloody disappointing.

Could someone explain these two things to me? I'd appreciate it.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:25 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Holy Cow! You guys are wonderful!

Through the RAISE MOOLAH FOR JAMES' WALK WEEK we've managed to raise {insert drumroll here} $345.00 so far!

Thank you so very much, you wonderfully generous people! James will appreciate it! As my sister said on the donation page, James is always amazed at how many people show up for the walk. It blows his mind that so many people want his disease to be cured. So, it's going to doubly blow his mind that people he's never met before---people who live all over America and the world----and who would not have known about him without the internet or the blogosphere would help him free himself from this disease. We, truly, live in an age of wonder and it's so nice to be able to make good things happen because of it!

But...

Just like a pledge drive on Public TV, we're not done yet. If you haven't had the opportunity to donate and would like to support James, you can go here and make a donation. No amount is too small and, believe me, every dime is appreciated!

I should probably add that we've had a wee bit of an issue with overseas donations. If you are, perhaps, in the UK, Canada, Australia---or any other country for that matter---and would like to donate, but are having issues with JDRF's American-centric donation page, please email me. There is a solution to the problem. Email me and I'll let you in on it.

Finally, I would like to thank these fine bloggers for helping me spread the word, and for adding wonderful words of their own to help the cause.

Go and tell them what really cool people they are. They deserve it.

Posted by: Kathy at 04:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Is there anything better than a camp song in the summertime? I didn't think so. Remind me sometime to write out the words to "Magalena Hagalena" one day. I still have that sucker rolling around in my head.

Anyway...

Good Morning Ladies and Gents. It is, of course, Thursday, which means it's Demystifying Divas Day. Our topic this week: the best ways to avoid rejection and to deal with it.

Ahhh. The joys of dating. Another reason why I'm very glad I'm not single. I've often told Mr. H., after listening to his stories of singleton life, that I am ever so thankful I'll never have to deal with the dating world EVER again. And other than the fact that men, apparently, expect different things in bed these days than they did when I was single, rejection is the main reason I don't ever want to be single again.

Because it's not fun, is it? Someone judging you by some completely arbitrary set of standards that you, upon first or second glance, do not meet. I got this a lot when I was single. You want to know the main reason men did not flit my way? The fact that I'm nearsighted and wear glasses. Yep. They're really that shallow. Until their own set of spectacles---ones that magically appeared after a few pitchers of beer---got slapped on. Then, evidently, men really do make passes at women who wear glasses. Then I was fair game.

Now, I moaned and whined about this a bit to my friends and they offered a simple solution: get contacts. No one can see your eyes with those things they said. You look so much better without them they said. Ok, that's fine and dandy. I do look better without them. But, and herein lies the problem: I can't bloody well see without them. I need them. And, at that point in time, with the astigmatism in my left eye, contacts would not have been fun. (Hard lenses---yeesh!) Besides, I have this thing about sticking my finger into my eye. That's gross. So, I decided I'd just have to learn how to deal with the rejection. Because the rejection was plentiful. But there were times when I wasn't rejected because I was nearsighted. There were times when I was walked home by a guy whom I considered to be nice, friendly, and attractive...

...and there were times when I dished out my own form of rejection.

There's this thing that some guys did that drove me absolutely insane and I had a rule about it: if you, a man, decided to take my glasses off when you moved in for the goodnight kiss, you would automatically be rejected. Some guys thought removing my glasses was romantic, that this is what Bogie did in the movies---instant makeover time---so, of course, I would appreciate it. BZZZZZZZZZZT! Wrong! What parting gifts do we have for contestant number one, Bob? Well, we've got a long, lonely walk home without having received a damn thing, Fred! See, the thing is, these guys did not realize they were BLINDING me. They were putting me in a position where I had to trust them, quite literally, with my life and limb right off the bat. So, I generally grabbed my glasses right out of their hands and walked myself home. I didn't feel the need to explain. It was obvious I wasn't good enough, as I was, to them because they removed the one thing I'm very much dependent upon in this lifetime. For me it was the equivalent of taking a wheelchair away from someone who is handicapped, and telling them they'd be ever so much more attractive if only they weren't stuck in that silly chair! Would you want to be with someone who did that to you? I didn't think so.

And therein lies the solution---for lack of a better term---to rejection: for every person that rejects you, you're going to reject someone else. It all comes out in the wash. Hence, I don't think you can go out, looking for a potential mate, thinking if you've got everything under control, no one will reject you. There is always going to be something about you that does not ring right with someone else. Sometimes you will be rejected because you deserve to be rejected (like if you have a big hunk of spinach stuck in your teeth, or you have really bad breath or b.o.) sometimes, you'll be rejected for no particular reason that you can ascertain other than that, apparently, you didn't fit someone's idea of a dream companion. Once you take that into account, and adjust yourself to the idea, well, it makes it a. very easy to find the people with whom you'll probably get along and b. it doesn't sting so very much when you are rejected.

And that's all there is, folks. Now run along and see what the other Oh-So-Fine Demystifying Divas have on offer this morning. The blog kid is up at bat in the Guest Diva game today, so make sure to go over and read what Phoenix has to say. Then, when you're done with that, well, flip the coin and see what the Marvy Men's Club---comprised of Stiggy, Phin, The Wiz, and Our Beloved Maximum Leader---have coughed up.

Posted by: Kathy at 09:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The NHL Lockout has ended!

Posted by: Kathy at 02:35 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Go watch it.

{Humongous Kudos to Stiggy for pointing that one out!)

Posted by: Kathy at 09:56 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Because someone is outgeeking you!

Go read the article and be amazed, once again, at what people will do to fill the hours.

Posted by: Kathy at 08:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...that's choking on the splinters.

No, don't worry. There will not be some overblown bit of discussion about whether Beck is a musical viruoso or if he's just a skinny dork who's managed to con us all into spending money on his records.

I just really like that line.

Carry on. There's nothing to see here.

Posted by: Kathy at 05:09 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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We're having a bit of a heatwave here in the Cities currently.

Today it hit 85 degrees before noon.

When I was a kid, 85 degrees before noon meant we would have only a half-day. This was when schools didn't automatically come with air conditioners.

This was, of course, the first thing I thought of when I looked at the thermometer.

I have no idea why I still have that little factoid running around in my head.

Posted by: Kathy at 01:05 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This is just disgusting.

From the outside, Ruth Knueven's Mount Vernon home has real charm: a verdant lawn, manicured hedges, flowers blossoming from fresh mulch beds and, near the front door, a garden ornament depicting two playful cats.

But police said that what lurked inside Knueven's two-story home was hardly so delightful. Hidden behind that garden ornament was a house bursting with real cats.

Animal control officers removed 273 creatures -- 86 of them dead -- after neighbors complained vehemently of odors Friday. Cats were still being plucked from the house yesterday, extracted from the walls and from deep within the brick chimney. Traps were set.

"I don't know how they got in there," Fairfax County police officer Richard Henry said of the hidden cats.

Before leaving, officials slapped a bright-orange sticker on the front door, condemning the dwelling on Ludgate Drive that they said was overflowing with feline feces and urine. Knueven, 82, and her husband and daughter were ordered to leave.

Last night, police said, Knueven returned to the house and ripped down the condemnation order. Animal-control officers found her inside trying to smuggle an additional 30 cats out of the home, bringing the total last night to 303. The animals were confiscated, and more traps were set.{...}

Why on Earth would anyone think this is the kind thing to do?

Disclaimer: I've never had pets. The Cake Eater Parents just didn't go for them. Rumor has it we had two cats before I was born, but they didn't make it past day two. (The cats, reportedly, had a love of cars and traffic.) And forget about owning dogs: my ex-farmboy father thinks it's cruel to keep dogs anywhere other than a place with a field attached.

So, while I will admit I have very little experience with pets, I nonetheless have a REALLY hard time understanding why anyone would be so incredibly freakin' selfish as to keep THREE HUNDRED AND THREE cats in their house. And let's face it: this comes right down to human selfishness. This woman, obviously, wasn't worried about the cats as over eighty of them were found dead. She was thinking about herself as some noble rescuer of unwanted beasts even though she did not have the capacity to take care of them properly. I think it should be a big freakin' clue that when you can't keep up with the kitty litter---and the neighbors are complaining about the smell---you probably have too many cats.

I am very tired of people treating animals like they were human beings. Yes, love your dog or your housecat, or your gerbil or whatever sort of pet you have. These are not the animals/people I'm talking about. I'm talking about people who claim to be serious animal lovers, who will do anything necessary to ensure their survival, yet get in over their heads and don't realize it because they're too busy being righteous about their love of animals. A online community I used to frequent had a sort of virtual church attached to the community: people would go there and post about their problems. It was a wonderful place where they could find support because we were an exceedingly friendly bunch of people. (We had no trolls. It was wonderful.) One time one woman posted about how she'd moved cross country to be with this man, who, as it turned out, was abusing her. She would not remove herself from this dangerous situation---even after the bastard put her in the hospital a few times---because she couldn't afford to cart her horse or her five dogs, three cats and god only knows how many small rodents back from whence she came. She was afraid of what her abuser might do to them if she left. So she stayed until she could afford to move all of them, and, of course, she wound up in the hospital one more time because of her refusal to abandon them. She had plenty of friends who wanted her to leave the guy and who offered to shelter these animals, but she refused them: she didn't want to leave without her pets because "her life wouldn't be complete without them." Ooooookay. They're animals not human beings. You are a human being who's having the crap beaten out of her on a regular basis by another human being. Your best option is to leave. You have to leave or YOU MIGHT DIE and you put the animals first? WTF? It made no sense to me then, and it still doesn't make any sense to me now. It was selfish. And what made it even more selfish on her part is that she refused to invoke her right to self-preservation because, apparently, she was willing to martyr herself for her pets.

Now, that's selfish, my friends. And what was worse about the whole situation was that she kept posting about all of this and people agreed with her. They offered her "support to get matters taken care of so she could leave." One other woman and I were absolutely flabbergasted at how her supporters had absolutely no common sense where this woman was concerned. Furthermore, we were verbally slapped at when we told her to just pack up and leave, the animals be damned. Her life was the one that counted. Animals were animals; a human being was entirely something else. But she didn't get it and neither did her supporters. Fortunately, she got away from her abuser, but what would have happened if she hadn't? Would the local media have told her story as one of a devoted animal lover who wouldn't leave without her horse, implying that she'd made the correct, albeit deadly, decision?

It's just wrong to think that because you love your pets their lives have the same meaning as yours---a living, breathing, human being---does. Animals can be wonderful, I will admit, but when you're willling to give your life for theirs, when you're willing to adjust your life around theirs, something is seriously wrong with the way you think. You may claim to be a lover of nature and animals and all that jazz, but you have forgotten about Nature---with a capital "N"---and how Nature doesn't really make allowances for your sort of love.

{Hat tip: Victorino at the Galley Slaves, who has some fun with puns.}

*the husband is deathly allergic to cats and hates them accordingly. To his way of thinking, they hated him first by making it impossible to breathe when they're around so fair's fair.

Posted by: Kathy at 11:48 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Make sure to visit the Cotillion Ball before midnight or you, just like Cinderella's coach, might turn into a pumpkin.

This weeks gracious hostesses are:

Posted by: Kathy at 10:56 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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...around here sometime soon. The polka festival ended with a bang yesterday. The folks are now safe and sound back in Omaha. The sheets have been stripped, washed and put back on the bed. The Cake Eater Pad is straightened up. And I had one mother of a nap this afternoon. (Which was lovely, in case you were wondering.)

So, either tonight or tomorrow, or whenever the spirit moves me, life should get back to normal...until the next set of family arrives.

Which would be my mother-in-law, who is sitting over at the airport right now waiting for her daughter to come pick her up. Then my sister and her family show up at the end of next week.

July's turning out to be a busy month, no?

Posted by: Kathy at 06:25 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I sincerely hope the Llamas redesign doesn't suddenly mean I have to kiss their rings.

Because, despite the fact I'm Catholic and have kissed those of clerical poobahs before, the whole ring kissing thing just doesn't sit quite right with me.

But I don't really want the end product of a horse decapitation in my bed, either, ya dig?

(I should also note that the new Llama site design is courtesy of my good pals Phin and Sadie, who have joined forces in the best Wondertwin fashion to form Apothegm Designs. Wanna spare yourself some CSS hell? Well, then HIRE THEM!)

Posted by: Kathy at 09:32 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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1 just a test post to see if comments are working

Posted by: Kathy at July 11, 2005 09:38 AM (QKvIa)

2 Will the role of "Moe Green" be played by INDCBill in this version?

Posted by: Russ from Winterset at July 11, 2005 10:32 AM (ywZa8)

3 yay! ......Wondertwin powers ACTIVATE! My comments are finally normal again, and we are free to use such outlandish language as "..." It's very freeing.

Posted by: sadie at July 12, 2005 03:07 AM (7SNDe)

4 wished she'd stop invoking the Wondertwin powers. The spandex outfit is starting to chafe; I'm thinking it's time for a Wondertwin outfit redesign.

Posted by: phin at July 12, 2005 12:38 PM (Xvpen)

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Tim Pawlenty just lost my vote.

I remember his 2002 campaign for Governor. I remember promises about cutting government spending. I remember promises about no new taxes. I remember these things. I voted for the man. These things were attractive to me then, just as much as they are now.

So, you know, when he can't get the damn DFL'ers (and the Republicans are to blame here, too) in the legislature to stop spending because he's too much of a pussy to strongarm them into cutting spending, what's, apparently, his only course of action?

To raise taxes. Not on corporations. Not on individual income. No, he chooses to raise taxes by raising the cigarette tax by $0.75.

He's calling it a "health impact fee." So it's not a "tax" in his book. It's a "fee."

Despite the fact that the State of Minnesota and Blue Cross Blue Shield settled a lawsuit against the tobacco companies for SIX BILLION---WITH A 'B'---DOLLARS. They sued because of "increased health care costs due to smokers." The problem with this scenario? The legislature can't touch that cash. Why? Because, after they paid off Blue Cross Blue Shield and these guys, the remaining cash is earmarked for SMOKING PREVENTION PROGRAMS. Meaning the legislature can't spend dime one of the settlement. That's gotta sting, don't you think? All that money and they can't spend it. Sheesh. Talk about hell for legislators, eh? Sort of like Paul Simon being stuck in an elevator for all of eternity being forced to listen to Mrs. Robinson on Muzak.

So, there's a budget shortfall. They need cash to make up the difference. And, let's face it, kids, where do you think they're going to go? Why, to the smokers! Tally-freakin-ho! Smoking is eeeevil. People who smoke are pariahs. Why shouldn't they pick up the tab? After all, they're perfectly willing to pay x amount of dollars now...they'll keep paying it. They're addicted. Of course they will. So, you see, we smokers are easy targets. We're---apparently---asking to take it up the ass. And, boy, when state government CAN'T GET ITS SHIT TOGETHER, we're the ones who, of course, have to pay for it all.

So, my devoted Cake Eater Readers, despite the fact I'm a registered Republican, you will perhaps understand why I am henceforth declaring war on Tim Pawlenty. You will understand why I will do everything in my power to mock, ridicule and, in general, screw the man over as much as he's screwing me over because he hasn't the balls to keep the promises he made when he ran for election.

UPDATE: And Pawlenty, reportedly, likes Bloggers so much he invited a bunch of MOB'ers to the Governor's Mansion. I wonder if I'll get invited sometime in the near future. One can only hope!

Posted by: Kathy at 12:22 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes: the car wreck you just can't stop yourself from looking at.

{Hat tip: Jonathan}

Posted by: Kathy at 08:39 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Go read. Really and truly. It's required.

Posted by: Kathy at 08:32 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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