Back from the self imposed exile from the Xangaing and goings on!

This past weekend my Parents and Sisters family came up for Easter.  Lynn cooked an amazing feast for the whole fam!  Pot roast, garlic mash potato’s, carrots, all was prepared to perfection.  The Thuma’s are doing fine; the McCleary’s are doing great as well.  I Love to see my Sisters Kids.  I just want to know who, what, how, when, and where, my sister turned into my mother times 10, and when Easter became Christmas.  Technically, Christmas being the celebration of the first time Christ was born, and Easter is about the whole rising from the dead, so why not buy lavish gifts for the kids and tell them that it comes from a 6 ft humanoid fluffy Rabbit who has come to symbolized both the rising of Christ from the dead and retail sales gains.

I Love my sister and the whole family, I think they are the greatest, but the gifts they got on Easter rivaled many “normal” kids Christmas.   Sister and husband dropped large $ on presents that they joyously opened like X-mas morning. Lynn said, “Easter Bunny sure must have ramped up production since I was little”   All the gifts and how they got there were explained away by saying they left a note for the Bunny.  First of all, I have never known Bunnies to read, Second they only do one thing fast (I know I raised one) 3^rd Most Bunnies would just hop along to the next house.  As if what the parents bought them was not enough,  The grand Parents bought some stuff for them to, and to top it off my, thoughtful, wife got the kids some candy in a basket with a couple trinkets.  ALL HAIL THE RETAIL!!!

  The spending spree for the kids began a few weeks ago; they bought a LaborDoodle dog for $1500.00 pure bread with papers.  Now usually I side with the under dog, and go with a mutt!  And thought that 1.5 large is excessive for a dog.   I only spent $300.00 on my first car (to which all things purchased are rated) they brought Oliver (LaborDoodle) with them.  After spending a day ½ with the dog I think that if I had the $ I would buy 2.  His disposition was unlike I have ever seen in a puppy.  Madie could carry him around like a rag doll and he loved it!  They were dressing him in shirts from Old Navy and he lapped it up!  When it came time to play he understood and did just that.  Keep in mind this dog is only 10 wks old.  Oliver did not bark at all and is hypo allergenic.  This dog is perfect!  Going to be 40 to 50 lbs (not a little sissy 5pounder toy dog) and is loving, calm, and fun!

  Lynn and I have been tossing around the whole getting a dog idea for a while.  She wants CatDogs that weight nothing, do nothing, and could not protect themselves from, well themselves.  I, of course, want a manly dog that is playful yet calm, manly yet not offensive or has the potential to save my wife or I should the neighborhood pit bull be off his leash, and can swim.  That is not that much to ask of man’s best friend.  This brings me to my next point.  MAN’s best friend, not woman’s.   Do I not deserve dog of manliness?  My wife has 3 female cats, which I lovingly adopted and get along with great.  Even Moxy has warmed up to my belly for warmth!  These are creatures that despite their reputations are not independent.  Moxy needs attention and food at all times, Peyote needs attention at all times, Kita needs to go outside and drink from the faucet at all times.  Point being,  getting a little dog that is more a female companion than a male one would off set the pet balance in the house.  We need a manly dog to off set the balance of pet estrogen.  I am not talking about a Mastiff or St. Barnard.. a good 40 50lb dog would do fine.

What do you think fellow blogers?

ALL GASSED UP ABOUT GAS PRICES

Have you been noticing the gas prices coming down?  Convenient that just after the CEO's of the Nations largest oil Co's were called before US Congress.  They did not even have to swear in!  Why were they called before Congress, you say, Something to do about record profits, or as one article put it, Historical profits.  The oil Co's , all of them, made more profit this past quarter than any other time in the history of trading oil.  THE HISTORY of TRADING OIL.  WTF!! People.  Everyone wants to blame the war, or the people who have the oil, sure they are rich, but its the oil Co. capitalizing on the war, or natural disasters.  It is not the taxes imposed on the oil, not the refining, or shipping, or the oil market, its the CEO of Exxon who makes 19 million a year pushing the price up and up until the bubble breaks.  They made historic profits in what is the worst economy since 1980, the worst string of natural disasters, and in the middle of a war over the shit.  Who should we be fighting, the ones with it under their land or the ones in control of Distribution/Production.

As the prices are coming down I have been looking at this site http://www.gasbuddy.com/ it shows with varying degrees of accuracy, the gas prices around most towns.  Why would there be a 40 cent difference in 10 miles?  Can someone explain this.  Why in Brentwood gas was 2.39 and on same day in the hood of east Nashville be 2.03 at the same named gas station.  This is price fixing !  Indianapolis was at 2.09 2 weeks before Nashville.  We were choking on the 2.29 while 20 miles away was 1.97.  there is no rhyme or reason for such fluctuations it gas Co's and gas station owners using current events to pad there pockets.  This does not help the economy recover.  Nor does it help reduce our dependency on the stuff. ( Reducing our dependency on oil is obviously the best solution, but I blogger that before)  Dare I say Government regulation!  They did it to the phone Co.  the only one we had, split them up so that the individual Co. can multiply , diversify and eventually start buying each other up to become one company again while in the process making zillions of dollars ....(ok bad example)

They did take the cereal co's to court for price fixing ...I say take Shell, and Exxon, and BP, Marathon to court for price gauging !  Have a Greenspan type guy dictate the cap on the price, so that the Oil co's. can not use current events to pay for their yacht in Belize.  If gas prices were more stable we could account better for its use.  i.e. trucking co's, individuals traveling or just simply budgeting for cost during the week going to work.  When it swings 20- 40 70 cents day to day who can account for that.  Not that I am on a fixed income, but I know people who are, and the price thing is simply unfair to the American people.  Yes I know , the world is unfair, and no one actually promised me a rose garden, however I do believe that it would go a long way in improving the economy.

and with the $ I save going to the cheapest gas stations , I'll make my own rose garden.

The Monkey has spoken

O' the joys of a 3rd world country.

Do NOT get me Wrong My wife and I had a great time in Puerto Rico and on the isle of Vieques.  So many things were wonderful about them both. (to much to list in one post- and the pics will be on Lynns site )  The bio-Luminescent bay was by far my favorite, oh yeah and the wedding on the beach did not suck either. 

 I am talking about the conditions.  PR and more so Vieques, were poor.  More poor than I have ever seen.  Like a run down trailer park in TN, only with bright happy colors.  There must be some kind of city ordinance that says " One can dwell in a hovel, yet it must be painted some bright happy pastel color."  The streets (if you can call them streets) were strewn with animals of all types, chickens , goats, sheep, horses, drunks(and all of their ...well ....waste by products ).  The streets were not even streets.  They were a suggestion as to which way to go, and road signs, if there were any, just might be covered in lush greenery.  The pot holes make Detroit roads look smooth, and the drivers there WOW , if you can not hang in Chicago or Detroit driving then just take a taxi!!

We had a great time driving around and getting lost looking at the sites.  I noted that not one car was with out some sort of dent , and most would not be allowed on the roads in the US proper.  Just one look around and you knew that these were people of little means.  The economy is solely on service economy (big surprise )  There were a hand full of absolutely great restaurants, and a few bars that catered to the tourist.(it was the last couple weeks during the off season )  I liked the little place called "El Patio" small , quaint and good food - not a very touristy place , but fun.  The grocery stores were, well horrible.  small , hot little places that had little produce and some weird scary looking local meat products.  My suggestion is to stick with the fish.  Oh yeah and the way they date the eggs is from packaging date...not expiration date.  Which took one a minute upon first look.  "Like wow there selling eggs 4 weeks past the date"

I guess the point I am getting to , is that , the people were so nice, and helpful.  They spoke more English than we did Spanish, they took us to local bars (the un-tourist places)  and  suggested things to do or eat. So in this island (s) paradise the completely ironic thing is ,how they seem to have little or nothing , yet have it all. 

"But the Carnival deal has come under particular scrutiny. Not only are questions being raised over the contract's cost, but congressional investigators are examining the company's tax status. Carnival, which is headquartered in Miami but incorporated for tax purposes in Panama, paid just $3 million in income tax benefits on $1.9 billion in pretax income last year, according to company documents. "That's not even a tip," said Robert S. McIntyre of Citizens for Tax Justice. U.S. companies in general pay an effective income tax rate of about 25 percent, analysts say. That would have left Carnival with a $475 million tax bill.

Carnival's public records boast "that substantially all of our income in fiscal 2004, 2003 and 2002 . . . is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes," largely because it maintains that its operations are not in the United States but on the high seas.

‘Special treatment’
Carnival does not want to see that tax status jeopardized just because three major ships are clearly operating in the United States. After it won the FEMA bid, Carnival appealed to Treasury Secretary John W. Snow for a waiver of U.S. taxes. "We do not want to jeopardize our tax exemption, nor do we want to interrupt our relief efforts for failure to secure this assurance from the Treasury Department," wrote Howard Frank, Carnival's chief operating officer.

Cruise line council President Crye said the company will reduce its billings under the contract by the amount of income taxes forgiven. The waiver would spare Carnival and its employees the paperwork of filing tax returns."

*http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9507503/

WHAT!!  Here is the heart of our Governments problem! above is small piece taken from an article about a cruise line getting fat contract from Government for relief efforts for Katrina....forget the contract,  look at how they dodge taxes incorporating in Panama, while most of the Corp is in Miami?  and then ask the Gov for  tax waiver while parked in LA.

Many huge companies do this. Co. that ARE based in the US and incorporate elsewhere to dodge taxes, while at the same time moving call centers and other ops of the business to some other country.  Sure some of these Co create jobs, jobs that people pay taxes on!  and more than 25%  Lilly is prime example, sure they sell all over the world , but since they are inc. in Ireland they pay less %  in taxes (based on sales in us ) then we do........

These Co. are based here, doing business here, using resources here, they should be paying taxes here.  I understand that you want big Co. to land in the Country, state or county. to provide jobs that spurs economy and all that shit, but where does the buck stop?  when do we draw the line on tax incentives to large Co...  The large Co. are not making up the bulk of the tax burden, we are. 

Apparently I do not make enough $ to hide behind some shelter so that close to 30% of my $ goes back into my pocket.  I have a Great Idea, THUMACO. INC. and I am going to incorporate in Belize!  I will ramp up the IDEA FACTORY. (wholly own subsidiary) with the multitude of products under dev (A.K.A. Sitting on the Beach drinking Mai-Tai's ideas) all products ofcorse will be made in some sweat shop in China or India.  I will sell them here in the US and defer all taxes ....

Restaurant Chainification:

The great American dream, Capitalism.  Come up with a product or service and franchise the heck out of it across the US.  When Lynn and I moved down here Indianapolis had already succumbed to the Chainification.  Every restaurant chain is in Indy 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 fold over.  It was refreshing to see that most of the places to eat were locally owned and operated, or Ma & Pa shops.  I saw an ad today for The Cheesecake factory going to open in the Green Hills area.  I have seen similar ads for other prominent cookie-cutter / build-it-and-they-will-come places as well.  This concerns me for the future food culture of Nashville.  Do we want Chainification down here?  Do we want the marketing machines to take over our favorite little spots? 

This comes after having a great experience at a Chain restaurant called PF Changs.  The  waitress really did not know the ins and outs of waitressing.  For example, when our friends ordered Mimosas she brought a split of champagne and a glass of oj with ice?  We all had a good laugh and Justin remedied things by going to the bar after the failed straw trick.  I had ordered the sweet & sour pork.  When my meal came it looked more like pepper steak.   I asked the lady if this was what I ordered and she said yes at first , then explained that it was the “ new Pork”  “ es a new pork” she said. (Keep in mind this was a Chinese woman with the stereo typical accent)  I did try it and it was very tasty! So I said ok I eat the new “pork” knowing full well it was pepper steak!  (Which happens to be the dish I mostly get when going to Chinese restaurants.)  She came back later and Justin started the conversation all over again, and we got the goods now, She said they were out of the sweet & sour pork and this was sceshwan pork “es a new deesh”  We all had a laugh and good food.  The experience was not lessoned by the comedy of errors and I will be back, and probably sit in that ladies section again , if possible, just to see what happens next.

But I digress, back to the Chainification.  Good chains, and bad chains aside, it feels somewhat cheaper to have nothing but chains to choose from.  Like there is no individuality of the city.  Food has always been regional since the dawn of food.  We go to Memphis for bar-be-que , Louisiana for there special French, Cajun style, Chicago even has its own type of fare.  California definitely has its own, and if you have ever been to Maine you will remember the crab and the lobster for sure.  If I have been to one PF Changs, haven’t I been to them all?  Why bother going to another one in another city?  I would surely rather go to some local place to try their fare. 

I have a little knowledge on this subject, since I ran a couple of chain restaurants.  The concept being that if you have a great product you want the most people to experience it and make $.  This is done by consistency.  McDonalds, believe it or not, is the most consistent, say what you want about the product…it is consistent.  Down to the avg. number of seeds on the bun and size of the pickles. That and a host of automated machinery so that you need less people.  A quarter pounder in New York is exactly like one in Montana.  There is something to be said about that.  Knowing what to expect for you hard earned $.  That is fast food, the dinner house segment, the most bastardized segment, is harder.  There is more human element in this.  Servers, bartenders, cooks and less automated machinery.  More chances to foul up.  I have been to some really good Chili’s, and I have been to some really poor ones.  Outback in my opinion does this the best.  The General Manager has to “buy” into the concept with 25 or 50 thousand $$$ and in return gets a % of the profits.  This method instills owner ship into a concept that was not his/hers.  The end result is most Outback’s are very consistent because the “Owners” care more about what they are doing. 

 That is my point, ownership and caring is what you sense from most locally owned places down here in Nashville.  I have yet to have a bad experience at any Ma-Pa place. 

I will continue to support the local economy , while praying for a Trader Joes (Chain store) and the Cheesecake factory to open …(Cheesecake is really, really good!!)