Tuesday

My RCL is back in Europe.  So I have the substitute gal for the next couple of weeks.  She's very good, and there's no drop-off in performance.  I learned of the switcheroo last week when I came home on Tuesday for lunch and unexpectedly found the substitute hard at it.  My regular day is Wednesday, but the sub has a conflict, so its Tuesday for her.  Which is fine by me.  I'm just interested in results.

Looks like the FAA is making a statement with the furloughing of air traffic controllers.  Let's create some delays and support the White House's blame game on the dirty GOP for failing to raise your taxes!  I wonder how bad I will get caught in the mess heading to LGA this weekend?

The Senate is looking at a bill that would allow states to collect sales taxes on Internet sales.  I actually have taxation of Internet transactions as part of my fundamental U.S. tax code reform package.  The cornerstone of my tax reform proposal is in fact a National sales tax, including taxes on Internet sales.  Of course, eBay and Overstock are opponents of Internet taxation, but why give a tax holiday to these types of businesses?  (Amazon has mostly conceded the issue.)

I actually think that the states taxing Internet sales is a stickier wicket.  Enforcement will always be a problem for the individual state regulators, and the sales companies will have an exponential increase in their internal accounting requirements.  People on all sides will be lost in data.  Maybe a new government agency can be created, or a new division designed by the IRS.  Now that's a scary thought!

They played Major League Baseball in Denver today with temps in the 20's.  Why?  Note the snow in the center field home run area.  Yeah, I wish I was there today.  Let's play two!

The flood on the Illinois side, the Rock River is a record setter.  The lay of the land once you get over the hills on the Illinois side of the Mississippi really flattens out, and the water just spreads over thousands of acres of the low lands.  Those fields will be nothing but mud for months.

So Tom Cruise successfully opened another action movie, Oblivion, last weekend. At age 50.  I've never been a huge Cruise fan (Penelope Cruz excepted), but he's put a lot of butts in seats since Risky Business.  How long can he play the action-hero?  Please tell him to stop before he gets Sylvester Stallone over-the-hill disease.

Tip 'o the hat to Patrick for taking notice.  If you get back to Ioway this Summer, you need to stop by Maplecrest for a cold one.

Make it a Good Wednesday.

BCOT