Sunday, March 29, 2009

Offerings

I am so proud of my son, Rusty. Today, while preparing his tithing, and since it is Fast Sunday, Marie and I explained the process of Fast Offerings. We explained how the bishop of our ward would use that money to help those who could not afford food or rent. After this, Rusty was given the choice to pay this offering or not. He promptly went into his room and retrieved his last $5 bill and brought it out to add to his tithing as a Fast Offering, and even used that money for the Humanitarian Aid and Temple Construction as well. It is such a pleasure to see the Holy Ghost move in a child's life!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

WE Want OUR Money Back!

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/03/19/20090319aig-outrage0319-ON.html?&wired

Headline: House passes bill taxing AIG and other bonuses

"We want our money back and we want our money back now for the taxpayers," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.

Well, WE WANT OUR MONEY BACK Speaker Pelosi! Unfortunately, the way the liberal mind works, they are doing us a favor by giving our hard-earned money to other countries, both domestic and foreign businesses, and people who just...don't...work! Do we get to pass a special tax over the Democratically-controlled Congress to tax them into oblivion to get our money back? Why is it that AIG, Citigroup, and the like, get millions, nay, billions of our needed money? What about my business? Isn't it worth something?

Truly, if ever there were a definition of the Gadianton Robbers (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadianton_robbers), Congress has just filled it. They are a not-so-secret criminal organization that is operating right under America's nose.

It was only a couple hundred years ago when we Americans had the Boston Tea Party for, what was it...oh yes, Taxation without Representation. Isn't that what is happening now. America is being taxed to death and they don't even know it. Where are these trillions of dollars going to come from? Certainly, you can't borrow money without repaying it. Yep, you guessed it, the next four generations are going to be paying for these decisions.

But wait, isn't there a problem with this "special legislation" that Congress is enacting? Could it be a violation of the very core of the Constitution? Aren't all laws supposed to be enacted for the good of ALL Americans, not a select few? And how does a special tax work? When in history have special taxes ever worked? Let's review, the Sheriff of Nottingham? Hitler? Rome? Nope. I don't see it ever working.

Once again, the American people have been robbed!

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

Glendale Charges the Little Guy, Gives the Big Guy a Pass

http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2009/03/04/20090304gl-coyotes0304-ON.html

Headline: No penalty for Coyotes' missing payments to Glendale

The Phoenix Coyotes won't have to pay any penalties to Glendale for missing eight months of rent and other charges at Jobing.com Arena. Glendale's contract with the team doesn't stipulate any fines for late payments. The Coyotes have an "unlimited" amount of time to repay or rectify any missed payments, the contract reads, as long as the team "commences to cure such breach within 30 days after the team's receipt of such notice."

So what does 8 months of payments look like? The NHL team shells out $42,708 each month to Glendale for rent at the city-owned ice hockey arena, as well as a percentage of parking fees, sales taxes, security costs and repairs. That's $341,664.00 in rent alone, not counting the "other fees" Glendale is not getting. Mind you, this total continues to increase when another month is not paid.

So what happens when you or I miss our monthly water payment, that is around $75.00? We get disconnected! Let's look at this. We'll assume 1,000 Glendale utility customers don't pay their monthly bill of $75.00 and they get disconnected two weeks later. That comes to: $75,000.00 due. Now factor in that an employee of Glendale must make physical contact with each address to disconnect the water, so now we're adding in gas, trip time, employee wages, printing of the little piece of paper they hang on the door to say your service was disconnected, and finally, maintenance on a fleet of vehicles to do all of this. And let's not forget the multiple mailers with paper, envelopes, postage, and the person who now assembles everything. Now they are losing money. Have no fear, if they can't get YOUR money for the $75.00 bill, which now adds a disconnect/reconnect fee, adding another what, $50.00, they go after the rental landlords (see http://www.azcentral.com/community/glendale/articles/2009/01/30/20090130gl-rental0130-ON.html, "Glendale wants landlords to pay tenants' overdue utility bills"), if there is one, now incurring legal and court fees, attorney's fees, and who knows what else. Now the deficit is probably hovering over $140,000.00, or more, to collect those 1,000 customer's due.

Wow! That's amazing! All that for a thousand customers in default. For the Coyotes, they send a well-worded letter that costs maybe a buck total to produce and then just wait...and wait....and wait...and WAIT.

Have no fear, though, if the Coyotes ever leave Glendale "early" we are entitled to a $750 million penalty. Of course, if the Coyotes ever leave, it'll probably be because no one is attending their games and they are bankrupt. You see, those same 1,000 customers who can't pay their measly $75.00 water bill can't afford the $15.00 to $300.00 dollar tickets, plus parking, plus the heavily taxed food and beverages, and any memorabilia, that, oh wait, the Coyotes aren't giving to Glendale anyways.

Explain to me again how Glendale made a good choice to bring the Coyotes here.