Fair share?!?

I just shouldn't go to CNN anymore.  I don't know why I bother.  I never really blog about politics, so this is just more of a vent, which I had to do for my own sanity after reading that Hilary Clinton says the rich aren't paying their fair share.  Seriously?  Okay, let's just take the most cursory of glances, done by simply Googling "tax bracket by income."

Taxable income from 34,000 to 82,400: 25%.  82,400 to 171,850: 28%.  171,850 to 373,650: 33%.  373,650 and up: 35%.  I'm not sure where her fictional "rich" cutoff is, but it's clear that the rich are paying substantially more than their fair share.  Even with a flat tax, the rich would pay far more than lower earners.  But with the current graduated rate of taxes, they pay exorbitantly more: a higher percentage of their income, and much, much more in total dollars.  Where is the fairness here?

And they don't get anything extra for these dollars.  It's not like there are high income bracket roads, or 35% tax rate public schools.  At least when you pay more for a good airline seat you get a faster check in line.  Her assertion is asinine.  Many wealthy people willingly choose to help those less fortunate than them.  It's called charity.  Clinton's blathering goes on to cite Brazil as an example to strive for.  Really?  Here are a few facts about this nation she wants the US to emulate:

* Brazil is not in the top half dozen nations in the world in GDP.

* Their biggest industry, by far, is oil and gas operations, to the tune of nearly five times the revenue of their next biggest industry, which happens to be mining.  How does this jibe with Clinton's environmental beliefs, I wonder?

* The 2010 Brazilian minimum wage is $510 reals per month, with an additional half month's salary in June and December.  This is the equivalent of around $300 US.  Per month.  Are we going to knock the US minimum wage down to $2 an hour in our pursuit of a Brazilian economy?

* Brazilian tax rates: 27.5% for everyone who earns over 43K reals (about 25,000 US).  Corporations get hit to the tune of 34%.

I'm looking for any part of this that looks appealing and I'm not seeing it.  How about we stop giving out mortgages to people that can't afford them, pass a flat tax, abolish the IRS, continue with a little free market system called "capitalism" that actually rewards success, and see how that works out for a while?

30 years?!?

It’s hard to believe that it has been thirty years since The Empire Strikes Back came out. Going to see it on opening night was one of the defining film-going moments of my childhood…and we didn’t even get in.

I was nine years old and we lived in Bolton, Massachusetts, a small suburban town without a movie theatre. Dad loaded up the whole family and we drove in to Boston to catch an evening show. There were certainly closer theatres we could have hit—Acton, Leominster, and Worcester were three of our usual go-tos at the time—but dad clearly knew that this was “An Event.” We parked in a big garage, walked to a busy downtown theatre…and got shut out about half a dozen spots before we were due to get our tickets. For some reason I don’t even remember being crushed about it, although I’m sure I was at the time. I’m not even positive when I finally did catch the movie, though I’m guessing it was on Saturday at one of those other theatres. But what I do remember is that Dad took me to Boston to see what ended up being one of the most important movies of my life.

My dad and I certainly have different movie-watching tastes. He is more discerning, and I’d guess that at this point he makes it out to a theatre maybe once a year. But he was a huge part of turning me into a movie fan as a kid, and I have vivid memories of many dad-related film experiences. We got a VCR very early on, and dad rented an additional one from the store on the same day that he came home with “Star Wars” and “Superman.” It was my first video piracy experience and nothing could have made me happier than having those two flicks at my disposal any time I wanted. This was shortly after our first video store rental experience: Dad came home with the classic (and recently reimagined) “Clash of the Titans.” My son A.J. is only three, and not quite ready for the full-on splash into big time action flicks yet, but I only hope that when the day comes he enjoys watching those kinds of movies with his dad as much as I did.

Random Fives

Let's wrap up the week with some completely random lists of five.

Five TV Shows I Am Perfectly Happy To Have Never Seen
1. Glee
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Any televised dancing show
4. Any show where some woman talks to ghosts or dead people
5. Ugly Betty

Five Great TV Shows I Watch That Deserve More Attention Than They Are Getting
1. Community
2. Parks & Rec
3. Party Down
4. Parenthood
5. Chuck

Five Bands That Are Apparently Cool That I Heard At Least One Song From and Didn't Like At All
1. MGMT
2. Wilco
3. Arctic Monkeys
4. Vampire Weekend
5. Phoenix

Five Singers/Bands I Do Like (might surprise some people)
1. Taylor Swift
2. Ke$ha
3. Katy Perry
4. Fergie
5. Paramore

Five Guys Currently Really Underachieving on my Fantasy Team
1. Raul Ibanez
2. Wandy Rodriguez
3. Clayton Kershaw
4. Hideki Okajima
5. Victor Martinez...hopefully the bomb last night is the start of something

Five Teams I Will Always Hate, No Matter What*
1. New York Yankees
2. Los Angeles Lakers
3. New York Jets
4. New York Knicks
5. University of Arizona Wildcats
* Unless A.J. ended up playing for one of them. Which is a blog for another day.

Red Sox Panic

The Boston Red Sox are cooked. They're a fourth place team that cannot compete with the athleticism of the Tampa Bay Rays or the big budget, loaded top-to-bottom roster of the New York Yankees. The offense is anemic, the rotation is overrated, the bullpen is a mess, and the much-ballyhooed defense is a disaster.

I don't believe any of these things. But it seems like I'm in the minority, as one or all of the above thoughts are the prevailing view of the Olde Towne Team at the moment. Have they played badly? Absolutely. But the grand proclamations that the very composition of this team was a mistake seem really premature to me. We're not even 30 games into the season, and the Sox have played a huge chunk of the schedule so far without their starting left and center fielders. They are getting sub-Buddy Biancalana production from the DH spot. Ace starting pitchers that are notorious slow starters have--shocker--started slowly! I'm not ready to flip the panic switch yet about any or all of these issues. Every team has concerns, and a few bad losses early magnify them.

Take, for instance, a club that looks, in some ways, a little bit like this one on paper. The team in question had three of their five rotation members post ERAs over 4.00, including two at 4.87 and 5.42. The top two set up men were each overworked to the tune of 70+ games with ERAs north of 4.00. The defense was so bad that a mid-season trade was required to stabilize the fielding at two infield spots. That one probably gives it away, but in case it doesn't, I'm talking about...the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox.

I know that the two iterations of the club actually have very little in common. The point I'm making is that it is easy to cherry pick stats to make just about any argument you want to, and it's even easier less than 20% into a season. Beckett and Lester are going to be fine. The DH production will improve, whether it's Big Papi hitting more or sitting more. The defense is the most troubling thing to me, because Adrian Beltre and Marco Scutaro have not shored up the left side of the infield like I thought they would, and since they are two guys I haven't actually watched a ton before this season, there is every possibility that they simply aren't the stellar fielders that their reputations had us think they were. The fact that Fenway's infield is horrible is certainly part of the issue. There's an old baseball cliche that defense doesn't slump but I disagree. I hope that it does, and that's what we've seen so far.

And they won 17-8 last night. You'd think after two championships in the last decade everyone could just relax a little bit. That's what I'm going to do.

Summer of '10 - stuff I'm looking forward to

There's lots of great stuff on the way this summer. Here are a few things I'm psyched about.

May 7 - Iron Man 2. Okay, so May 7 isn't even really summer yet, but the release of this sequel is definitely the start of summer movie season and I'm beyond excited about this one. I loved Iron Man, and everything great about the first one looks like it has been ramped up for the sequel. I couldn't be more in. I plan on catching it in IMAX.

May 18 - Red Dead Redemption for PlayStation3. An open world, first person game set in the dying days of the Old West from the makers of Grand Theft Auto. I've checked out some videos of the game play and this one looks absolutely amazing. I don't have time to play video games as much as I used to--sad and shocking, I know--but I will find some time to give this one a good run. My hopes are high.

May 23 - The Lost finale. I have no idea how it is going to end, aside from knowing that they have to bridge the island and flash-sideways worlds together somehow. I do know that there is no way they can answer every last lingering question or tie up all the loose ends. It's impossible. But it will be really entertaining to see exactly what they do and how they do it.

June 18 - Toy Story 3. First theatrical movie experience for AJ? Could be. I think he might still be a little young, so I may hold off until '11 for Kung Fu Panda 2 or Cars 2. But this might work.

June 27 - Entourage season premiere on HBO. Last season was pretty sub par and it could be the beginning of the end, but I don't care. I'll watch this every week until it's done. If that makes me a little douchey by default, so be it.

Mid-July - Family trip to Cape Cod. This is definitely a highlight of the year. Last year we drove, and the trip up was surprisingly painless. The boy was phenomenal in the car, and also did well staying in hotels for the first time. But this time, just like with anything else we try to do now, the degree of difficulty will increase exponentially with two kids instead of one. Courtney is adorable, but she can also turn into a little demon at the drop of a hat. However, at the time we leave she'll be almost eight months old instead of the five-ish she is now, and those few months could make a huge difference. Or maybe I'm just deluding myself, and it will be two days of sheer hell. But I really hate air travel at this point, and anything else seems like a better option.

August - The Red Sox move into first place in the AL East. This one looks wildly optimistic right now, so what better time to make a bold prediction?