Two Important Points

from our recent correspondence:

… two points seem important to me:

First, as Van Jones points out, anyone actually wanting to cut taxes would start with the big stuff, by making the bailout recipients pay back what they got, quick march, before they take any more of those infuriating bonuses; and also stop the subsidies to big corporations and tax breaks to the rich.  And then, re-evaluate those two wars, in which our brave soldiers are sent to kill and be killed for reasons yet to be explained to anyone’s satisfaction, and civilians die, countries are ruined, and only the war profiteers (aka M-I complex) profit — and which are costing us millions a day (maybe more; I don’t have the figure but I’m sure someone does).

These are governors of states, and members of state legislatures, not national figures, you may argue. They have to deal with state finances. But like-minded governors of states could band together to get those bigger things done, and work with their elected colleagues in both the Executive and the Legislative branches to do so (every state has two senators and a group of representatives in Congress; and groups of state governors have met with Presidents before now, to get their points across and work together to a common goal).  That they don’t now, tells us something.

Real tax-burden champions wouldn’t start by worrying about the small but necessary potatoes of social and civil services. Those services are pieces of the necessary infrastructure, which are — think about it — of no consequence to the rich, who can afford to pay for whatever they want and need, whenever they want and need it, but vital to the rest of us, and they are irreplaceable once gone.

Teachers, nurses, along with police, fire, and paramedics, our first responders (those heroes of 9/11, never let it be forgotten), do you want them ready and able to do the job or not?  Well-trained, up-to-date, ready to do their vital work, using the best and best-maintained equipment, ready to roll?

I do. So why, I’ve been asking for a long time, are so many people who are not super-rich marching to the tune and agenda of those who are?

Second, another Van Jones point, we’re not a poor country, despite attempts from all sides to make us feel and act as though we are!  We’re being drained by the bailouts (the collapse came on September 15, 2008, under Bush, please remember, and the big bailout was pushed through, still under Bush, on October 3, 2008) and subsidies and tax breaks to the rich and, not least, by two wars, at least one of which had no cause whatever (no WMDs).   Yes, but further cutting already pared-down  services that more of us need more than ever, thanks to eight years of job losses running into the millions under the Bush regime, and wrecking the infrastructure of the countryby neglect, is not the way to do it, no matter who you are.

I want to say to them: Get real.  Grow up.  Go get the actual job done you keep talking about — finding ways to pay for what we need, and not pay for what we don’t — or pipe down…

Mo Ra Bata Titun* — Redux

This has been a busy few weeks — OK, months, if you want to look at it that way.

I found I really needed a new pair of shoes, and bought some from Zappos.com, a totally pleasant experience.  A nice delivered-right-to-my-door present to myself, and much needed.  Comfy, too.

Then, in December, just to make a change, I rearranged my kitchen.  Unless you’re into very heavy lifting or total remodeling, there isn’t much you can casually rearrange in a kitchen — but I changed where my table and my cutting-board-topped movable island were standing.  Not least, I found a place for everything that had been sitting around the kitchen on counters and tables and stowed it all. I liked the whole kitchen a lot better.

Then, in January, I found the need to streamline my diet and myself and accomplish a few other goals along the way, and my rearranged kitchen came into its own, all streamlined itself and ready to rock, everything at hand, well-stowed when not.

Then, this month, two new, no-plunger-needed toilets were installed in the house.  My decades-old original-equipment antiques, ones I’ve been coaxing and fixing and plunging for all the years I’ve lived here, broke in the most extremely inconvenient way, and when the handle snapped so did my patience, and two new wonderful swallows-everything-without-a-ripple toilets (low water usage and all) are now in place.

Then, last Thursday, a new window wall I had ordered a while back was put in. I was fortunate to find a 60 F. day without rain (in February!) for the installation — the weather prediction had held.

Then, two days ago (Monday) I visited my CPA to get my taxes finalized. I had already entered the preliminary data online and uploaded electronic copies of all documentation, an activity that had kept me out of trouble while the windows were going in (and, since that visit, my taxes are ready to file).

Then yesterday I noticed that one of my tires seemed soft. Since my car is low-mileage and my tires tend to age out rather than wear out, and it had been quite a while since I had new ones put on, I suspected strongly that new tires would be needed, whatever the diagnosis on the particular tire that looked soft. I took it in to my local Firestone service center to have the tires checked for aging and tiny tell-tale cracks (and change the oil, please, while you’ve got it on the lift).  The outcome: an oil change plus an entire set of new tires, the old ones being completely superannuated (universal astonishment behind the counter that they had lasted all those years).  My car is a great car — its non-flashy but solid make  and small size having nothing to say about its quality — and it deserves nothing but the best.

I felt great! And I still feel great! No, I didn’t go there trying to spend money, but the new tires were necessary, they are good ones reasonably priced, and my car really needed a new pair of shoes — just the way I had when this whole series of  unrelated but transforming events began.

* Look here.

Flushed With Pride

I am ridiculously pleased this morning: yesterday afternoon two new American Standard Champion 4 toilets were installed in my house, replacing 30-year-old porcelain veterans.  (Yes, I know you really didn’t want to read about toilets with your morning coffee or afternoon tea, but I’ll try to make it interesting.)

I don’t usually puff particular brands and models in my writing, both my readers are now pointing out, so why this time? And, really, why this subject?

Because if there’s one thing in your house you want to have working absolutely right, it’s the toilet.  I don’t mean just getting along OK most of the time, or requiring the occasional assist from the rubber plunger, or using way too much water to get only mediocre results.  I don’t mean something that has to be kept going by plumbing life-support, replacing floats and gaskets and flusher handles and everything else turn and turn about. I don’t mean having to become savvy yourself at keeping toilets from running off at the tank.

No, I mean, works right, and works right the first time, and works right with very little water usage.

And has a surface that’s a dream to keep clean, not one that stains up over time permanently and irrevocably, not one that requires a choice between the use of harsh chemicals (not always effective, but always harmful to the environment) and looking at offensive and ugly stains.

And is quiet and sturdily built. One high enough off the floor for a grownup, even a tall one, to sit on it comfortably. That does one thing and does it very well.

A toilet that can truly boast, along with its new owner, “I am flushed with pride.”