Friday afternoon beer blogging

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Friday March 02, 2012 · 3:47 PM PST

2012/03/02 · 15:47

I'm posting this entirely without permission from any kind of beer blogging authorities!

The theme is the new high quality canned specialty beers. I've only had a couple, but the samples Dale's Pale Ale and Brew Free or Die IPA), but they both rival my own, which I think is a good thing.

Take a shot and sink under the table for more--

pdknz

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Wednesday July 27, 2011 · 2:58 PM PDT

2011/07/27 · 14:58

In my honest opinion, that's what the Debt crisis is about. We have a two class system where some people have a lot of money and are above the law, while everyone else supports the system.

The social security tax is a regressive tax. It applies only to the first $106,800 of annual income. Above that, it doesn't exist.

The federal income tax, on the other hand, is theoretically progressive. That is, it not only applies to all income, but the tax rate increases with higher levels of income.

If we could run the country on just SS taxes, the effective tax rate for upper income "taxpayers" would be a flat rate of $4,485.60 per year for employees, plus $6,621.60 for employers. Self employed people pay both sides, of course, but you see my point. Low pay employees are taxed at 10.4 percent or less, but higher paid employees have a tax rate that rapidly approaches zero.

Oddly enough, the people who want to cut or eliminate the social security system, medicare and medicaid don't talk about reducing the taxes that support them--just the benefits. It's those OTHER taxes that need to be cut. The progressive ones. Just those.

I can think of a lot of other ways rich people are above the law these days. It's easy if you can buy politicians, pay lawyers, own the news media, and fly in private planes.

It's not just the money, it's the principle--the principle that rich people are above the law. And don't forget it, if you know what's good for you.

Trail Report--a day in interior Alaska

pdknz

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Monday March 02, 2009 · 1:23 PM PST

2009/03/02 · 13:23

It was about zero most of the day yesterday, clear and beautiful after days of wind and fresh snow. We've had maybe two feet of snow in the last couple of weeks, and it has made the trails pretty challenging, to the point that you can't really walk without snow shoes anywhere there isn't an established trail. For anyone who recalls my occasional attempt to describe the so-called "eighty words for snow", it's mostly punchy snow now. That means it's almost dense enough to support your weight, but not quite--if you step off the trail, or off a parked snowgo, you are pretty much up to your waist, if not deeper.

pdknz

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Sunday March 04, 2007 · 3:26 PM PST

2007/03/04 · 15:26

A few weeks ago, I contributed a comment to the WAYWO thread, and fell into a brief but friendly email exchange with emeraldmaiden because I mentioned blacksmithing. She was kind enough to suggest a diary on the subject instead of tucking it into what was essentially a fiber arts get-together. More recently, I sent her a draft of this entry, and she kindly offered to let me host this week. I'm really flattered.

Smithing is kind of like the story about the blind men and the elephant, because what it is depends on your point of view. There are farriers (horse shoeing specialists), artist and ornamental blacksmiths, knife makers, re-enactors and demonstration smiths, folk art schools, hobby smiths, and tool makers, just to name a few. Last time I tried to write about smithing, I got bogged down in the practical details—safety warnings, how to find a forge and anvil, and how to manage a coal fire. This time I want to do more of an essay about the magic and mysticism of iron work.

pdknz

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Wednesday November 01, 2006 · 9:13 AM PST

2006/11/01 · 09:13

As we have moved around over the decades, I have been "represented" in Congress by Dick Cheney (Wyoming), Bob Dole (Kansas), and now by Ted Stevens, Lisa Murkowski, and Don Young (Alaska). Is it any wonder I'm a Democrat? These people are such arrogant idiots that I don't even want to hear them talk, let alone have people think that they are saying something I would ever support. Don Young set me off this morning, with articles in both the Fairbanks Daily News Miner and the Anchorage Daily News.
Read More

Wherein I explain why we should not open ANWR--yet

pdknz

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Friday April 28, 2006 · 4:11 PM PDT

2006/04/28 · 16:11

I live in bush Alaska. From my house, it's about 300 miles by air to Fairbanks, and there isn't any road for most of that distance. All of our fuel comes by barge down the Yukon River during the summer months when it isn't frozen solid. Gasoline cost about $4.50 at the pump, or $3.89 in bulk, and the prices will go up radically as soon as the first barge arrives next June. Without diesel this summer, we won't have electricity next winter. The opinions about ANWR seem to be divided between two extremes--

Dollar signs--more oil is cheaper oil, and
Treehuggers--no development nowhere, especially in the wilderness.

Personally I don't agree with either one. Read More

It takes me back

pdknz

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Monday August 22, 2005 · 12:05 PM PDT

2005/08/22 · 12:05

I have been thinking more all the time of my college days when the Vietnam war was in full flow--trying to figure out how much different this war really is. If you don't want to read more about Iraq war, now is the time to bail out.

We are probably at a slightly different stage in the process--Circa 1968-1972 was what, 7 years or more after the US got involved in Vietnam. The troop levels were higher, the body counts were higher, there was a draft and an active anti-war movement going on. It was "communists" that threatened the world then instead of "terrusts" (yeah, I know it's misspelled). Like this war, there were really two stages of folly; getting involved in the first place, then staying involved because there really isn't any good way out. The tar-baby phenomenon. As soon as you touch it, you are stuck to it.

Friday afternoon beer blogging

Regressive taxation and the two-class system

Trail Report--a day in interior Alaska

WAYWO--What Are You Working On? Black Arts Edition

It's embarrassing (AK-AL)

Wherein I explain why we should not open ANWR--yet

It takes me back