pull another rabbit out of your hat

So I was just checking mint.com and saw that I had exceeded my entertainment budget for the month by $400. I knew that wasn't right at all.

So I checked my bank account and lo and behold, there were 4 different charges I don't remember making. All to itunes. One $200, one $100, and two $50.

I know that I didn't get anything at all through itunes. I just tried to log into itunes using my normal logins for places and nothing worked. I didn't think I had an itunes account and apparently I was correct. I don't even have itunes on this computer.

My husband and I both still have our debit cards so they weren't stolen. I don't know how this could have happened.

What do I do to fix this? This isn't just a $5 mistake, its $400.

all right, i think these designs fill all your requests...please do enjoy! 


angela full size - i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/chrissy32323/angelapfull.jpg
andy full size - i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/chrissy32323/andypfullsize.jpg
kevn full size - i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/chrissy32323/kevpfull.jpg
casino night full size - i65.photobucket.com/albums/h202/chrissy32323/CNkisspumpkin.jpg

I couldn't find anything in the memories in relation to this. Since the 94 was scheduled to be closed today to repaint the lines after they reopened the 35W, I decided to see if I could find any traffic cams to check out the progress.

Traffic Cams!

I thought this site could be useful to anyone else who would like to see what the freeways are doing around Minneapolis. :)

-glych

Very awesome!!!!  Water your lawn for free!!  (Rain barrels can get quite expensive, so $62 is really a deal.)

http://www.co.hennepin.mn.us/portal/site/HCInternet/menuitem.3f94db53874f9b6f68ce1e10b1466498/?vgnextoid=400d999f8a123110VgnVCM1000000f094689RCRD

Visit the above page for information, availability, cost, etc.  For Hennepin County residents only (or if you can get a friend to buy one for you... but I didn't say that, nosirree).

Most of the official polls give both candidates approx 50/50 +- 10%. 
Poll #1277231 US Election
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All

if election was today who whould you vote for?

But out of all my friends 80% are going to pick Obama. On streets of New York in the shop windows I see Obama's campaign.
I just want to run my poll to satisfy my selfishness and see; is it me or media give us "fixed” picture?  

The UK government has bought into UK banks, the US will do also,europeans think it a bloody good idea, bankers think thank fuck it will get us out of this hole even though we will take fewer millions home.
Tooth and claw capitalism has ended. REJOICE

BBC:  McCain in 'hatred' war of words.  "John McCain has become embroiled in a war of words with racial undertones after clashing with a civil rights icon. John Lewis accused Mr McCain's campaign of 'sowing hatred' against opponent Barack Obama and said he was reminded of 1960s segregationist George Wallace."

I don't have a dog in this fight, but it's stuff like this that really makes me hope Obama loses.  You may say that Obama doesn't play the race card (anymore), and that's true, but then he doesn't have to because everyone else does it for him.

Lewis goes on to say, "As one who was a victim of violence and hate during the height of the Civil Rights Movement, I am deeply disturbed by the negative tone of the McCain-Palin campaign. What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history."  I've Google'd my heart out and can't find any remarks by Lewis that specifically say how McCain or Palin are similar to George Wallace, but I guess it was too much to hope for that he'd actually qualify his statements.

Have McCain and Palin been running a politics-as-usual campaign against Obama?  Yes.  Have they been racist?  No.  Does this help the Obama campaign?  Perhaps with the people who only rely on dirty headlines and email chain letters, but those people aren't likely to actually show up to vote, anyway.  As an undecided, this really rubs me the wrong way -- the fact that the Obama campaign only half-heartedly condemned the remarks speaks volumes.

Hi domestics,
A while ago someone posted a link for a website that carries discontinued skincare - or was it about fragrances? I visited L'Occitane today, and it turns out they discontinued my favorite moisturizer, Ultra Moisturizing Care SPF 15. The one they have instead has SPF 20, smells differently, and has slightly different texture. Argggghhhh, this is so frustrating. Why do they have to discontinue their best products? If I only knew, I would buy at least a dozen while it was still available.
Anyway, any help or advice of where can I find this product are appreciated.

P.S. Couple of websites has it listed with "Available 11/2/2008" notice. Does this mean that it really is going to be available after this date, or is it some marketing ploy to get me come back to the website and order the replacement item?

NBC has posted the episode synopsis for the November 6th episode. Beware the spoils...

( You've been cuckolded by a stronger, smarter male. )

Hi folks. I've reviewed the 'Etiquette/manners' posts and couldn't locate anything on this particular subject but please feel free to point me in the right direction if this question has been asked and answered in the past.

Next week I am finally getting a new washer/dryer delivered (after 3 years of no dryer and the washer just barely working).  Needless to say I am quite happy about this new arrival, even though it means I have to clean out my laundry room.

I purchased the appliance from Sears, and am assuming that it will be delivered by Sears delivery guys (I realize though that the delivery could be independant from Sears).  They are also going to be removing my old applicances (apartment-size washer and dryer). I am paying an extra $20 for this haul-away service. 
Is it correct to tip the delivery guys, and if so, what would be an appropriate amount?  I'm guessing there will be 2 - 3, max, and was thinking $5.00 each, or is that too cheap?

Thanks for the help! 

New Deal Editorial Cartoon - Circa 1937

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fletcher_v._Peck

It is what it is. And it's mostly still good law. If you think about it long enough, you wouldn't have it any other way. There's a pretty large figure in American History who destroyed large swaths of the Contracts Clause, stole ALL of the gold from the American people by executive decree, making it illegal to own, despite Constitutional intent to opposite view to the contrary and in doing so made mincemeat of 5th and 14th amendment due process, while radically reinterpreting the Commerce Clause to extend previously puny Federal Power to cover everything under the sun, dramatically holding individuals under the tyranny of the Federal Government. He used the New Deal powers to create what would have been the heretofore unconstitutional Fannie Mae (which Austrian economists incidentally warned at the time would lead to inevitable financial catastrophe). And in aid of getting the Supreme Court to uphold this, he threatened to Pack the Supreme Court with his Justices by increasing their number to 15, also through executive decree, in order to "uphold" the constitutionality of minimum wage laws after striking them down the first time around. Much of the Constitution largely died that year. Freedom assuredly did. And the Imperial Presidency was born. Three guesses as to who my least favorite President is, and the first two don't count.

The New Deal was the worst thing that ever happened to the Constitution and individual rights guaranteed by the founders. A harsh battle was joined, and through great tyranny, threats, and imperial fiat, freedom lost. The battle is so long past that the current generation assumes that it is the way of the world, even now as the ongoing New Deal has led us to financial ruin caused by socialism pushing the costs of comfort and poorly conceived welfare onto future generations (meaning us). Oh, and you know who turned the IRS into the Big Brother that knows every last intimate detail of your financial life, forcing employers to automatically withhold income instead of relying on the honor and good word of the American people? The first two guesses don't count there either. Before then, people had little contact with Federal government.

Congress enacted into law the Victory Tax Act of 1942, which included automatic wage withholding for the first time, on the fine advice of Milton Friedman, who at the time was a Keynesian (he would repudiate that view later in life). The Victory Tax was a direct tax on income. Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution requires that direct taxes be apportioned to the several states, not citizens directly, and therefore it was unconstitutional. The government attempted to legitimize these new laws by citing Article 1, Section 5, Clause 2 of the Constitution: "To support Armies but no apportionment for money to that use shall be a longer term than 2 years." I'm looking at my calendar. We're 64 years overdue for automatic withholding's repeal, and counting. Aren't you glad your employer is still withholding your "Victory Tax" to fund World War II? In 1941, a full 11% of the electorate paid income taxes, thanks to the unenforceability inherent in Article I and the reasoning of the pre-FDR Supreme Court. Afterwards? Try not paying your April 15th taxes today.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN SPENDS 20 YEARS OF HER LIFETIME WORKING WAGES TO PAY INCOME TAXES TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT. Show of hands. WHAT KIND OF IDIOT DO YOU HAVE TO BE TO THINK THIS IS A GRAND IDEA? I can think of a lot of more awesome that I'd rather be doing with twenty years of wages. Before the Sixteenth Amendment? Zero. Right after the Sixteenth Amendment? Um. three months. Roads to hell and all that.

Ask yourself, what would the founding fathers, or even the pre-WWII citizens of 1940 have thought about the tyranny of the modern day IRS compared to oh so unfair taxation and tariffs of King George across the pond? I guarantee you, they'd be thinking REVOLUTION. King George the III had nothing on New Deal Democrats. The crown didn't even have an income tax in 1776. The income tax was 1% on the income of the richest 3% of voters in 1913, when it became Constitutional for the first time (and with that 1% on the top 3% taxing all income over $1000, the US Federal government brought in more revenue in 1913 than 1787-1912 combined). People were terrified that it might someday be raised to 10%, and were laughed at for their paranoia. By the time FDR got around to implementing the New Deal after his threat of court packing shenanigans, he'd raised the highest income tax bracket to 79%. And lest you think this was a New Deal aberration, under the Truman administration it was 94%, and under Carter 70%. Thinking it had reached unimaginable heights, neoconservative Reagan (back when the term meant former Democrats) reduced it to 38.5%.

The New Deal and the imperial presidency got so out of control that after his death, so repulsed was the legislature that the Democratic Congress passed an amendment with approval of 3/4ths several States, that no President should ever be in office for greater than two terms ever again.

Do I think a New New Deal is potentially the worst thing that could happen to America the nation, and America the idea? You betcha. It slightly concerns me when supposedly formally trained instructors of Constitutional Law think FDR was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and worse yet, cite him as a shining example of how you'd run your Presidency. And if you think the Victory Tax was an intrusion? A certain Senator from Illinois wants the IRS to know your financial history in such specific detail, that he plans to have your tax forms pre-filled for you so you can file your taxes "in five minutes". In Soviet America, taxes do you!

Roosevelt has been invoked repeatedly in the current election. It's a desire for the expansion of tyranny. People have forgotten what it means to have individual rights, to live life without the heavy hand of Federal government pervading every aspect of personal life. And like Ron Paul, I grieve for the country that once was. And grieve further that the brainwashed, blissfully ignorant masses who think they desire the greater tyranny it will be. If you want to spend MORE of your life in indentured servitude to the US Federal Government, it's your affair. Please leave the rest of us out of it.

P.S. You know how your employer is going to pay higher taxes? That's a tax on you too. Shhhhhh. That's what "they" think you're too dumb to know.
P.P.S. If Roe v. Wade (actually Casey v. Planned Parenthood) is overturned, you know that simply means the States decide, right? Very few states have anything to worry about.
P.P.P.S. Four of the countries with the five largest conventional oil reserves share the Iraqi border. These countries are all within the Iranian missile range. Most of the factions within these countries have hated each other for more than 1400 years. Iranian and Israeli leadership talk about going to war with each other every single day. Iran likes to brag about how Saudi Fields and Western Civilization are now inside their missile range. How is Afghanistan more important again?

The Death of the Constitution, a chronological tale in pictures


A brand new car


Road Closed


The Great Emancipator




After 147 years

( Read more... )


Form W-4, 1942 edition

Form W-4, 2008 (PDF)

Fifteen year old news, but. . .

Hauser's Law

What happens if we instead raise tax rates? Economists of all persuasions accept that a tax rate hike will reduce GDP, in which case Hauser's Law says it will also lower tax revenue. That's a highly inconvenient truth for redistributive tax policy, and it flies in the face of deeply felt beliefs about social justice. It would surely be unpopular today with those presidential candidates who plan to raise tax rates on the rich – if they knew about it.



Really, it doesn't get any plainer than that.

• 23:58 watching the office, doing my nails... i think i am ready to get back into twittering! #

the end.

It feels like I have lost this fight.
They say that I am staying down.
But I'm not giving up tonight -
Tonight, the wall is coming down.

I am stronger than my fears.
This is the mountain that I climb.
Got one hundred steps to go;
Tonight I'll make it ninety-nine.

One more, go one more.
Don't stop now, go one more.

I have everything to lose
By not getting up to fight.
I might get used to giving up
So I am showing up tonight.

I am my own enemy,
The battle fought within my mind.
If I can overcome step one,
I can face the ninety nine.
- Superchick, "One More"

( What's been going on )

More later, hopefully.

- Tracie

I've made a beef stew using some Guinness Stout (I cooked it down with some beef stock).  It still has a slight bitter taste.  Not unappetizing, but not ideal. 

Are there any tricks to fixing a soup that's a bit bitter? 

EDIT:  I ended up adding some Worcheshire sauce (the acidity and add flavor helped), a little bit of sugar, and some sea salt. Altogether it came out pretty well.  As per the comments below, I'll try using one of the recommended beers next time.  Thanks!