Is the Arkansas tax code archaic or draconian?

As usual, I'm hopping mad.

That happens regularly, of course, but I'm angrier than normal. Dig this.

A few weeks ago, we bought my wife a new Toyota Sienna minivan. Rather than finance the sales tax on the thing, we decided to go ahead and just pay it.

This week, then, we wrote a check for $1,900 to cover the taxes on the thing. Had we not been able to deduct the value of the trade in (a 2000 Saturn that my wife has driven to death), we would have paid $2,900 in sales taxes.


So, just what the hell is going on here? Why in God's name are sales taxes on new vehicles so high in Arkansas?

Before I tackle all of that, let me mention a couple of things. The maximum sales tax on a new vehicle in this state is 11.5 percent, meaning Arkansas might be one of the poorest states in the country, yet buying a new car here costs more than it does in most other parts of the nation.

Figuring out which state has the highest tax rate can get a bit confusing as it is fairly common to find a low tax rate -- or no tax at all -- on vehicles, but registration fees might be high. In Arizona, for example, you get the worst of both worlds -- a maximum sales tax of 10.73 percent and a registration fee of $568. In Arkansas, at least it only costs $34 a year to register my wife's van.

Regardless, there are a lot of states that choose low registration fees and low sales taxes. That, it seems, is the wise approach to take when you're dealing with a struggling economy. If it is urgent to convince people to run out and buy things like new vehicles, why on earth would you choose to tax the heck out of them?

And, folks, this new sales tax is very recent and came about as the result of the shell game that all politicians just love to play. About a decade ago, a serious movement was afoot to get rid of the sales tax on food in Arkansas.

Gov. Mike Beebe, when he was running for office back in 2006, promised to cut the sales tax on groceries. He kept his promise and cut it down to 3 percent. Of course, the governor and our legislators crowed about how great that all was.

What they weren't so vocal about was that the tax was simply shifted to other things. Therefore, taxes on new cars went through the roof, meaning that sales tax on groceries doesn't benefit you one whit if you run out and buy a new car (we charge sales tax on used cars here, too, but that's another story).

I'm not sure if cutting taxes in one area and jacking them up in others is a tax break at all. It's more of a con, really, but none of us should be surprised. The government is great at stealing our money, but not too keen on cutting us a bit of slack when times are tough.

That's just how things go here in Arkansas. Here's another example of how screwed up taxes are here. As part of my job, I'm in charge of my organization's trade magazine. We've printed that thing in Missouri for years.

Why? Because we don't have to pay sales tax in Missouri, but we do have to pay it if we're dealing with a printer based in Arkansas. Would we like to go with a local printer? Of course we would. However, we're also very interested on finding a printer that will produce a quality magazine at the lowest price possible (that's just good business).

We've solicited bids for years from Arkansas printers, but they simply can't compete in terms of price. It's odd that this state would be so hostile toward its own companies, but that's the reality that printers -- and most businesses -- functioning in this state have to deal with on a daily basis.

It's worth mentioning that we have found an Arkansas printer to take over our magazine, but that company had to cut its quote to the bone and I'm certain it won't realize much of a profit out of our contract. I'm certain, however, that particular company is thrilled to help support a state government that is downright hostile toward it.

Bum-rush the site!

Bloggers, of course, want traffic, but what's a good way to get it?

My favorite way to drive traffic to the li'l ole blog is Entrecard -- a site that has brought a lot of visitors here to The Natural State Hawg and enabled me to easily wade through the garbage and find some great bloggers.

Of course, it's a good idea to search around for some other sites that will drive traffic your way. A pretty good one I've found is EasyHits4U, a site that gives you credits for visiting sites. Those credits can be assigned to your blog or blogs so that you get traffic.

The site works pretty well and I got a ton of traffic after messing with the site for about an hour. That's not bad at all.

There are a couple of problems with EasyHits4U, however. For one thing, members over there seem to burn through their credits by the end of the day, so finding sites to surf on and earn credits gets difficult when only one or two hours is remaining before midnight.

Second, some of us participating in traffic exchanges hope to find some good blogs to read while we're working to attract visitors. There are far too many sites at EasyHits4U that promote those blasted get "rich quick schemes" that are annoyingly common on the Internet.

Are some of them legitimate? Perhaps, but you'll quit trying to figure that out in a hurry because the chances of getting ripped off are far too great. For example, let's say you run across a site with a blurb like this:

I'm not one of those "get rich quick" Internet guys. No, I'm just a normal cat like you. But I've got a system -- a system that anyone can use to make $100,000 a week for just 10 seconds a day of work on the Internet! I'm not just blowing smoke here or promising you something that's too good to be true. It really works! Since developing my system, I've bought a Jaguar, a mansion in a neighborhood so exclusive the Pope can't even visit and I've had a ridiculously beautiful android wife built who keeps my house clean, does what she's told, cooks my dinner and ... other things (ah, yeah!)

Do you want what I have? Do you want that Jaguar, mansion in a Pope-free neighborhood and sex toy of an android wife? Do you want to work only 10 seconds a day so you have time to enjoy those things? Fill out the below form and I'll show you how to get it all for the low, low price of $19.95. WHAT??? That's pocket change! How can I offer my system for such a low price? Am I insane? Maybe, but I'm also rich and I don't care.

Seriously, after reading a couple of those how likely are you to pay attention to the third one that comes along?

The problem with EasyHits4U is a lack of blogs that people actually want to read, interact with and visit regularly. Sure, there are a few of them over there, but not nearly enough of them.

That's where you, happy blogger, come in. Want to get some more traffic and give poor slobs like me something interesting to read? Then click right here, sign up and get busy.

Bum-rush the site, kids! Get after it...

A warning!

According to Sheila over at The Ad Master, getting involved with EasyHits4U might be enough to get someone banned from Google Adsense. Frankly, I don't care if I get booted off Adsense or not because those ads get clicked maybe 10 times a week, anyway. It's no great loss as far as I can see.

However, I do want to pass on Sheila's warning. It's certainly something for people who find Adsense beneficial to consider.

Watch Dog? More like Watch Hawg!

Folks, I had a heck of a time today -- I was a Watch Dog at my daughter's school.

Don't we look happy in the photo? Doesn't she look like the kind of little girl who could talk her daddy into anything? Brenda is able to talk me into all sorts of things, indeed, so it didn't take much pleading to get me to sign up as a Watch Dog.

Now, I preferred to think of myself as a Watch Hawg today, but that doesn't really matter much. Here's what does matter -- my eight-year-old daughter had a great time and will remember my being a Watch Dog (or Hawg) at her school for quite some time.

So, what is a Watch Dog? You can find out a ton of information about that national program right here. If you'd rather not wade through all those details, I'll just mention that the Watch D.O.G.S. (Dads of Great Students) was designed so that fathers could volunteer a day to hang around their kids' schools and help out where they can.

In my case, that meant I spent all day roaming around the school, helping kids read, talking a bit about my public relations job (which, as it turns out, is pretty boring as far as kids are concerned) and being climbed on at recess.

Recess is what killed me. My daughter started climbing on me. Her friends followed her lead and starting climbing on me, too. I wound up giving out some piggy back rides, pushing girls on swings and generally being used as a jungle gym for a good part of the day.

My daughter, by the way, said one teacher told the kids to "quit climbing on the Watch Dog" when they lined up to go back into the school after one recess. Apparently, that order didn't take.

The whole thing was tiring. In fact, being in a school full of energetic kids all day is tiring. I've always thought teachers should be paid more and now I'm convinced than ever that they do deserve raises. I don't know how many of you have been to an elementary school lately, but the threat of anarchy is everywhere and those teachers manage to keep everything running smoothly. Those teachers work hard and deserve more cash than they get.

Frankly, I'll be glad to get back to my office in the morning -- sitting at my desk, dealing with the phone and sipping coffee will be relaxing compared to toting kids around and contending with insane energy levels.

Regardless, I'm glad I volunteered a day to be a Watch Dog at Caldwell Elementary. I came away impressed with the work those teachers are doing with my daughter and was pleased to learn that my daughter has made some pretty good friends there.

Who watches the Watch Hawg?

Apparently, my daughter is a bit of a discipline problem. She's always getting notes home from school that, essentially, paint a picture of a charming little girl who just has trouble following the rules. It became clear to me today that I may be at fault.

Why? There's this elevator, see. The kids aren't supposed to ride on the elevator at school. My daughter mentioned that rule doesn't apply to Watch Dogs, so I took her on an elevator ride. One of her friends wanted to ride on the elevator, so I thought, "Why not?"

By the end of the day, my daughter and two other girls would talk me into riding on the elevator every time I got close to it. They thought it was great and I enjoyed the "fun dad" status.

And, folks, I got ratted out. That's right. Some kid tattled on me. I didn't get in any trouble, of course, but I started wondering what would happen if a teacher decided I needed some discipline. Would they call my wife?

"Mrs. Nobles," the teacher might say. "Your husband is being a problem. You need to come up here and get him."

That would seem almost like old times. Yes, I was in trouble a lot back when I was in school. The most trouble I got into was when I was in the third, fourth or fifth grade (I can't remember for sure) and we were at a Valentine's Day play.

This little girl started reading a poem. "Will you be my Valentine?" she asked.

"No!" I yelled from the back of the auditorium.

The kids thought it was funny. I didn't. I got jerked out of the auditorium, got a paddling (I got a lot of those) and wound up having to write an essay on why what I did was wrong (truth be told, I wasn't a bit sorry -- nothing is too mean if it's funny enough, right?)

I was, indeed, a lovable rascal in school. I think my daughter might be walking in my footsteps there.

Musical Monday -- Public Image Ltd.

Johnny Rotten did some great stuff after leaving the Sex Pistols, huh?

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Daylight savings time makes me hate the government even more

Yes, daylight savings time was inflicted on us a week ago and I still can't get used to it.

It's the same thing every year. We're directed to "spring forward" and I wind up with headaches, insomnia and exhaustion for a couple of weeks. Daylight savings time messes with me something fierce and I hate everything about it.

I hate waking up when it's still dark outside. I hate feeling wide awake when I should be in bed and dog tired when it's time to get up in the morning and head to work. I hate sleeping until about noon on the weekends because my sleep schedule has been ruined.

And daylight savings time has given me -- and a lot of other Americans, I'm sure -- another reason to dislike George W. Bush. That man pushed for extending daylight savings time so as to save energy, so we've got more weeks do deal with it.

Bush, on some level, has managed to either annoy or infuriate most of us. I hope we Republicans actually nominate an honest-to-goodness conservative in 2012. Conservatives tend to work toward limiting the power of the federal government rather than finding ways to use it to annoy and anger people. Leave that kind of nonsense to the Democrats.

Big changes!

Folks, it's been a busy week around here.

I haven't posted as much on this here blog or kept up my Entrecard drops as much as I should because I've been extremely busy this week. In fact, I may slow down on blogging a bit because of the events of this week, but I'll get to that later.

First of all, I headed to the northeastern part of Arkansas on Wednesday as I was invited to be the keynote speaker cat at a meeting of the Jonesboro Young Professionals Network. As I've mentioned a time or two here, I'm a public relations guy in the real estate industry and was asked to come visit with the group about what's going on in the residential market.

I even got a plaque for my efforts (dig my reflection in that) and had a heck of a time. It was a bit of a sobering experience, however, as I'm pushing 40-years-old and there wasn't a person in that group past the ripe old age of 35. I do hope they got something out of my presentation.

So, there was a day of blogging missed there. I also missed out on Tuesday and most of Monday as I was finishing up a freelancing editing/writing job that I do about four times a year. And, speaking of freelancing, I got a hell of a gig this week that pays well and is a lot of fun -- writing real estate stories for The Daily Record in Little Rock.

I'm excited as can be about that gig because I've been asked to write three stories a week indefinitely. I view that arrangement as the best of both worlds, actually.

Why? I enjoy public relations as it does allow me some creativity and pays quite well. However, I also miss being a reporter and have for some time. Through the Daily Record deal, then, I get to do some honest-to-goodness reporting and still keep my full-time job in the public relations field. And I'll pick up some extra money for doing something that I absolutely love.

Not bad, huh?

Ah, but there's a point to all this. A couple, in fact. First of all, I've noticed that journalism is like anything else these days -- a rotten economy means that a lot of newspapers out there are struggling with finances. So, a good number of papers are reducing editorial staffs and are looking for skilled freelancers to pick up the slack.

For those of you bloggers out there who have thought about entering the great field of journalism, this is a great time to start checking into freelancing for local publications. Give it a shot if you're so inclined. For those of us who like to write, there are few things more satisfying then getting paid for following local news and reporting it.

Second, journalism is changing quite a bit, what with the easy availability of reliable information on the Internet at all. Regardless, there will always be a demand for news and people will be needed to report it. I truly doubt Americans will be content with simply relying on "official sources" for their news.

There is something to be said for people who legitimately attempt to report the facts of matter impartially and I do believe there will always be a market for journalists. How will the news be delivered five or ten years from now? Who knows? But you'd better believe journalism won't drop dead as a field in spite of some predictions about that happening.

Of course, I'll be doing my freelancing on my own time as my employer likely won't appreciate my writing a bunch of stories on their dime. With a full time job and kids, I am fairly busy and those free hours are few and far between. So far, I've filled up a lot of those hours with posting nonsense on this here blog. Now, I'll spend a lot of time filling up those hours with my freelancing gig.

Something will, obviously, have to give somewhere. In order to keep up with the freelancing stuff and do a good job of it, I may slow down on blogging a bit. In other words, I figure on updating things here every other day or so instead of daily.

Now, there's one more thing to mention. There's been a lot of talk about throwing caution to the wind and spending money like maniacs in order to help the economy recover.

To hell with that. I've done my part by picking up a new Toyota Sienna for my wife last month, buying a house a mere three years ago and purchasing a Toyota Matrix a few years ago. I'm keeping my mitts on that freelancing money by sticking it in a savings account in case things absolutely tank and I need a nest egg.

Now, of course, I might run out and pick up some new, snazzy saddle shoes from time to time, but I'm more than a bit suspicious of a government that believes that it -- and all of us -- can spend every dime we can get our hands own, borrow more cash and magically wind up with a strong economy. Isn't that the kind of thinking that got us in this mess in the first place?

Congratulations, Crotchety!

Folks, a milestone worthy of being celebrated has been reached -- the Crotchety Old Man has posted over 500 pearls of wisdom!

We at the Natural State Hawg are thrilled that Crotchety has stuck it out this long and is still going strong.

Actually, I should say that I am proud that Crotchety has stuck it out this long as is still going strong as this blog is a one-man show. However, "we" just sounds better, doesn't it?

At any rate, I feel compelled to mention that I've only been blogging away since July. Crotchety runs one of the first blogs I ran across that caused me to keep visiting. Why? He's a hoot, that's why. And he's OK for a Yankee.

He's so OK, in fact, that he holds down the New Jersey Division of the All Arkie Army. He's so OK that I'd be proud to treat him to a dandy slice of pie at the famed Ed & Kay's here in Benton, Ark., if he ever gets down this way.

He's so OK that some of the visitors over at the All Arkie Army had some nice things to say about Crotchety when I mentioned his upcoming milestone over there. The always glib Don from Beyond Left Field simply sends his congratulations -- perhaps he knows that little more needs to be said about such an acclaimed fellow blogger.

Meanwhile, Patricia Rockwell from both Subjective Soup and Communications Exchange was a bit less concise, but eloquent as ever.

"Hey, I am a fan of Crotchety and all the things he yells at," she said. "Including cars!"

Lot 2 Learn from "I will have the...," "Did I miss something?" et al ran across Crotchety in much the same way that I did.

"I found Crotchety when I first joined blogcatalog about a year ago, and since then I have not missed a post," he said. "I love his take on life, and his outlook on everyday events. Great job, Crotchety!"

As for me, all I can say is that anyone who checks out blogs regularly and doesn't visit Crotchety at least once a day (he's a prolific fellow) is really missing out on something. If he's not posting his dandy "caption this picture" feature on Wednesdays he's describing the fine ways he treats Mrs. Crotchety, talking common sense politics, taking swipes at things he hates and generally just being as entertaining as an evening of shooting rats down at the dump.

So, I extend my congratulations to Crotchety, too, and hope he keeps yelling at those cars for years to come. Go pay him a visit, huh?

Musical Monday -- the Gunbunnies!

Here's a video from a band that formed up the road in Little Rock, relocated to Memphis, released one album (The Paw Paw Patch) in 1990 on Virgin records then quickly vanished.

I apologize in advance for the shaky video quality, but this thing is a bit hard to find. The music is great, however, and it's fun to hear the band's unique brand of Southern, alternative pop. Enjoy!

By the way, make sure to click right here to help me collect some comments to acknowledge the Crotchety Old Man's greatness in time for his 500th post! He's one of the finest bloggers around, so let's honor the boy, huh? Oh, and please click right here to go to RafterJumpOn and give my stuff a thumbs up if you have a minute.

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

Why I like the heck out of paid posting

It seems like the longer I hang around the Internet, the more complaining I hear about paid posting.

I like the heck out of the stuff, frankly. Why? Because I'm just about to the point on Blogvertise where I can buy a very dandy toy and won't feel guilty about it all.

Anyone who is a parent knows what I mean when I talk about the guilt associated with spending money on stuff. No matter how much money I make, I steel feel rotten when I buy myself something instead of purchasing things for the kids.

I do believe parents are genetically inclined to feel such guilt -- otherwise, our kids would wind up in horrible shape as we adults spent everything on having fun. When I got a fat raise at work, that was money used to take care of the family. I just got a nice, long term freelancing gig with a newspaper and that cash will go to (you guessed it) support my family.

Ah, but the money I make off of this here little blog is different! I can spend the hell out of that stuff with no guilt at all. The best thing, of course, is the money I make through taking paid posts heads right to my PayPal account and just sits there until I find something to do with it.

And I've found something to buy, indeed. When I was a kid, I had the best bicycle in the world -- a Schwinn Mag Scrambler that my parents bought me in about 1978. That thing was the Cadillac of BMX bikes and cost a hefty $200 back then (that was back when Schwinn's were top quality and made in the U.S. -- they're all mass produced in China now). Mine was gun metal gray with red mags and my friends and I ruled the neighborhoods on our bikes.

Those were the days, folks, and I've started thinking about getting a bicycle to tool around on in my neighborhood. Yes, my wife could get one, too, and I could well imagine us getting healthy by riding down to Ed & Kay's, a local restaurant here in Benton, Ark., and getting some of that pie with the meringue that's about a foot thick. I know that doesn't promote a healthy lifestyle, but it's better than heading down to Ed & Kay's in a car, isn't it?

So I'm going to buy a bicycle with some of that "blog money." I'll probably head over to the Chainwheel in Little Rock to see what they have on hand, but I've really got my eye set on the Nirve Night Owl that's posted at the top of this post and is a steal at $349.99 with shipping included from Amazon.com.

When you run across paid posts here, then, please bear in mind that they're for a good cause -- money for The Hawg to burn.

Shameless plug!

I went and applied to be a rafter so I can wax poetic about various things. If you have a minute, click right here and give my stuff a thumbs up and leave a comment if you want. Thanks!

A new sink!

One of the things that stinks about owning a house is that things break and the happy homeowner gets to fix them.

Yes, back in the old days, I could always pick up the phone and call the landlord when things went wrong. They magically got fixed and I didn't have to spend a dime or lift a finger.

Those were the days, but things have changed. Just yesterday, tragedy struck at Casa de Hawg -- the faucet in the kitchen sink started leaking and needed to be replaced.

Now, my kitchen sink is evil. Yes, I've fought with it before and I'm sure it has more nastiness in store for your old friend, The Hawg. But, that's beside the point.

The problem with my sink -- other than it being evil -- was that it had a leaky faucet (as I've said) and leaky faucets lead to mold, mildew and rotten walls (which I'm just now saying). Yes, the evil sink had caused the faucet to leak all over the place into the below cabinet.

Now, I could have done the smart thing and called a plumber to take care of the faucet. But I'm too cheap to do something like that, so I decided to replace the faucet myself.

Surprisingly, I was able to replace the faucet with little trouble. My wife, when shopping for faucets, started looking at double-basin sinks to replace the evil one we have. One of these days I might feel adventurous enough to replace the sink and remove that evil from my house.

For today, however, I'm proud to have replaced the faucet with no trouble. I learned how a basin wrench works, that it's not much fun to have water dripping in your face while messing around with a faucet and I may have developed a couple of new cuss words, besides.

Still, I do feel a sense of accomplishment. I'm reminded of when a bunch of us went camping back when I was 22-years-old. For some reason, all of us men took it upon ourselves to run out and find wood to burn while the women stayed back at the campsite.

So we came back with a bunch of firewood declaring, "Look! Look what the men have done! The men have brought wood!"

We didn't impress anyone but ourselves. Sad but true.

Is another revolution on the horizon?

Back in the early days of home computing, hardware was the thing that determined what software someone could run.

I well remember the fierce competition between the likes of Apple, Atari, Commodore, Radio Shack and Texas Instruments. If you bought an Apple 2, the hardware was extremely proprietary -- you could only use software that worked with that specific brand of computer.

Even back in those old eight-bit days, we saw the emergence of something that was subtle yet extremely revolutionary. Companies started to pop up that made computers specifically designed to work with the CP/M operating system. It didn't matter who made the hardware -- the CP/M operating system was sold by Digital Research and any computer that met a certain hardware profile could run that OS. People didn't care if their computers were made by Zenith or Bob's House of Techy Stuff -- they just wanted the operating system in order to take advantage of the software available for it.

Bill Gates over at Microsoft was sharp enough to see what was going on and he took advantage of it. Remember the old IBM-PC? The folks at IBM entered the personal computer market with the old notions that the hardware was what mattered. IBM contracted with Microsoft to provide an operating system, but Microsoft got very lucky in the deal. Why? Because IBM didn't retain the rights to the operating system.

We all know what happened next, right? Clone PCs showed up all over the place. The IBM-PC quickly became the industry standard, but a lot of non-IBM computers were manufactured that could run Microsoft's DOS, thus turning IBM into just one more competitor in an industry it created. You'll notice that IBM has all but vanished from the personal computer industry while Microsoft has just grown.

Frankly, I believe we're seeing another revolution in the works. For years, we've seen operating systems compete for users. The clear winner in that fight has been Microsoft for years because just about everything works with Windows and that's the OS people want. The Apple Macintosh has had some success, of course, and even Linux has attracted a loyal group of users.

However, I'd argue that even what operating system a person uses won't matter much in a few years. Here's what I mean. For the past few years, the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA) has sold a program through which Realtors can prepare all forms necessary to a real estate transaction. That program has always run under Windows. Got a Macintosh or a Linux machine? Well, that was just too bad -- get Windows or the software just won't run.

This year, the ARA has rolled out an Internet-based program for form preparation, meaning that anyone with an Internet connection can buy a subscription to that service and generate their real estate forms all day long. It doesn't matter if someone has a Windows box, a Macintosh or prefers Linux.

We're seeing the same thing happening with office suites. Go take a look at Google Docs, for example. Want to put together a word processing document, spreadsheet or presentation? If you've got an Internet connection and a modern computer, you can do all of that through Google Docs. You'll find the same wonderful platform independence through one of my favorite services, Evernote. I can take notes all day long at work on my Windows machine and can access them at home on my computer here or through the Internet browser on my wife's iPod Touch.

That, folks, is convenience. When you combine that platform independence with the ability to access your work from any computer or (in some cases) device with an Internet connection, you've got something that could result in a day where we don't automatically run out and buy Windows because it's the only thing that will run the software we want.

That's certainly good news, huh?

Rat terrier? More like 'brat' terrier.

Here's a picture of my miniature rat terrier, Cobb.

He's a 13-pound menace.

Why is Cobb a menace? Over the past week, he has twice used a new, pesky way to wake me up -- by sticking his damned nose in my ear at about 5 a.m.

Here's the thing. Cobb knows to wake me up when he needs to get outside in the morning and go to the bathroom. So I can't exactly yell at him when he does as he's supposed to do, can I?

So the dog has learned two things. First of all, there's no quicker way to get me out of bed by sticking a cold, wet nose straight in my ear. Second, he won't get in trouble for waking me up in such a brutal manner.

I figure the little rascal is doing it all out of spite. He's never exactly warmed up to being trained and often figures out a way to obey but do something obnoxious in the process.

Perhaps I should have gotten a nice, lethargic dog who is both dumber and less devious than Cobb. I do adore the little pest in spite of his scheming ways, however. We got that dog back in September 2006 and since then I've chased him through the neighborhood more than once after he's found a way out of our fence and I've had to put up with him figuring out how to unlatch our back gate and escape. I've bailed him out of the pound, he's peed in my car, Cobb behaves on a leash about as well as a squirrel would, he's managed to lose at least four collars and his shrill, yipping bark has caused one neighbor to hate my guts.

Ah, but it's all part of the joy of owning a dog, isn't it?

Musical Monday -- The Beatles!

The Beatles playing "I Feel Fine" at Shea Stadium back in 1965. Great stuff. Enjoy!

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

The Arkansas Legislature is full of idiots

I urge everyone to take a look at Arkansas House Bill 1339.

Why? Because it's part of a misguided national effort to do away with the Electoral College and replace it with a system through which the president is elected (sort of) by popular vote (in a sense). In other words, your state may have passed such nonsense or may be in the midst of doing just that.

So, what's wrong with the bill? Quite simply, it would deny those of us in smaller states like Arkansas the ability to matter on whit in the presidential election. Why would a candidate campaign here when money would be better spent convincing voters in New York or California to vote one way or another? Under the terms of this mess, Arkansas would simply cast all of her votes in the electoral college to the candidate who won a plurality of votes regardless of how we actually voted. If you can convince the larger states to vote for you, why bother with people in more rural areas like Arkansas that would just be carried along with the majority?

In 2008, for example, Arkansas would have cast her votes for Barack Obama in spite of the fact that John McCain carried this state. In 2000, Arkansas would have cast her votes for Al Gore regardless of the fact that George W. Bush whipped him like a dog in this state. Our six little votes in Arkansas would have been enough to put Gore in the White House, by the way.

Oh, and back in 1960, Richard Nixon would have been named president rather than John F. Kennedy under this scheme. Interestingly enough, Democrats seem to have forgotten that the Electoral College has played to their advantage before -- apparently, that was dandy fine, just as it was OK the mafia delivered Chicago to the Kennedy camp. Turnabout, however, is not fair play as far as those folks are concerned.

The Constitutional problems with this bill -- and others like it across the country -- are obvious. It's also obvious that this effort goes back to a bunch of people who are still upset that Al Gore lost his Supreme Court challenge back in 2000 and Bush was named president. Yes, that's right -- it was Gore who ran to the Supreme Court, asked it to essentially decide the election and then threw a fit when things didn't go his way.

Whether the Electoral College is right or wrong, simply rendering votes worthless across the nation is not the solution to fixing it. Want to get rid of the Electoral College? Join an effort to amend the Constitution rather than going through this sneaky crap and seeking to subvert the process through which presidents are elected. It seems amazing that the Arkansas House has chosen to dilute the limited power we have in selecting a president, but that's exactly what's going on here.

Frankly, I like the Electoral College. Why? Because the "winner takes all" provisions of us give those of us in smaller states at least some voice in a system which could easily be dominated in larger, urban areas. Under the Electoral College, a candidate has to have a message compelling enough to carry the majority of electoral votes rather than just a plurality. In other words, that system gives those of us in Arkansas at least some voice in a government that could easily be pushed along by the whims of people in larger states like California, New York and Texas.

Under this bill that the Arkansas House likes, we're looking at something that's just as bad as the Electoral College is supposed to be, really. It's still a "winner take all" system, but the difference is that a plurality of voters across the nation decides who gets all of our votes rather than Arkansas residents.

As well intentioned as the drive to push the popular vote is, I have a major problem with skirting the Constitution and essentially rendering my vote meaningless. This state didn't support Obama and her votes should not have been cast for Obama.

It's no surprise, of course, that the Arkansas House voted for this mess. After all, the Speaker of the House is a subliterate fool who keeps us updated with his shenanigans through Twitter and prattles on like a petulant, 12-year-old girl.

Fortunately, HB 1339 hasn't passed the Arkansas Senate. With any luck, the Senate will realize the folly of putting something into law which is questionable under the U.S. Constitution and could disenfranchise a lot of voters.

Entrecard top droppers for February

Once again, it's time to recognize the top Entrecard droppers to this here little blog.

These folks -- the amazingly consistent visitors -- are all dandy fine people who are smarter, funnier and sexier than 90 percent of the U.S. population. I thank them all for visiting.

So, here are the top visitors from Entrecard (if you have a blog and you haven't signed up for an Entrecard account yet, head over there and take care of that right now -- you'll be amazed at the increased traffic):

1. Is a mans world

2. ik.my

3. The Junk Drawer

4. Computer Aid

5. Mr. Soleh's Outburst

6. The Way I See It

7. Our Journey to Forever

8. On the Bricks

9. ImamKhalid

10. Epicurean Health

Do yourself a favor and visit all of those fine blogs.

A commercial I hate...

One of the more entertaining blogs out there is The Commercials I Hate.

As you might imagine, you'll find YouTube videos of truly awful commercials and obscenity-laced rants about them. If you haven't visited that blog, you really should -- it's a hoot, indeed.

As it turns out, I hate a lot of commercials, too. So I'm going to swipe the idea from the aforementioned blog (because all of my best ideas have been stolen) and post a commercial that drives me up the wall. Here's the YouTube clip:

Yes, that's the latest ad in a series of bad ads that the obnoxious folks at YellaWood have decided to inflict on the public. In this particular series, an old, hefty guy who calls himself Yella Fella runs around combating outlaws and rotten wood.

The acting is bad, the concept of a "cliffhanger" series of commercials is bad and I'm absolutely sick that the always amusing Riders in the Sky have sold their souls out to those sleazy YellaWood folks. There's not enough liquor on the planet to keep me from flinching when the stiff, ridiculous Yella Fella acts tough, speaks or -- hell -- even appears on my television set.

Want to know why DVRs were invented? So that we could avoid stuff like this. I can't imagine why anyone who saw one of these dreadful ads would think, "Oh, yeah. I'm going to buy something from YellaWood for sure!"

These commercials are so bad I always regret it when I'm watching live television instead of something recorded and face the possibility of seeing one of those awful commercials. If there's any justice in the world, the series will conclude with the Yella Fella being shot dead and buried in a coffin made out of wood so rotten that pieces are falling off the thing as it's being lowered into the ground.

Firefox -- what the heck happened?

Once upon a time, an organization called Mozilla came up with a browser designed to challenge Microsoft's putrid Internet Explorer.

And, so, Firefox was born. Life was good. The Firefox browser was small, fast and considerably more secure than Explorer. Early compatibility problems were ironed out and enthusiastic users developed skins to change the look of the browser and add-ons that made Firefox the most customizable browser on the planet.

I've been a Firefox fan for years, in fact. After messing around with Firefox 3 for the past few months, however, I can't help but wonder what the heck happened?

My light, fast browser has been replaced by a resource-hogging monster that is slow and has definite problems with security. I feel like I'm back in the old Internet Explorer days again and that's no good at all. I believed that Firefox 3 just needed to be updated a few times and things would be great again. That doesn't happen -- if anything, updates have made this browser more problematic than the original Firefox 3 that wasn't compatible with a lot of skins and add-ons from previous versions and took forever to load and run.

What on earth got into the folks at Mozilla? How has success encouraged them to develop something that is almost Microsoft-like in its bloat and the annoyance it causes? Will future editions of Firefox actually be worse? Will another company show up and develop a browser that will be everything Firefox used to be -- light, fast and a magnet for community support?

It would appear we're entering a period in which Firefox's failures have strengthened competitors and have caused at least one new browser to be developed. Apple's Safari has gained some fans as of late and let's not forget that a lot of longtime Opera fans are claiming their browser is just the thing for people who feel let down by Firefox (Opera's good stuff -- I've been messing around with it on my PC and it works very well on my Nintendo Wii, too).

Opera and Safari aren't exactly new, of course. One browser that is very new and works amazingly well is Google Chrome. It seems that Google, as part of the company's overall strategy to rule the world, went and put together a very capable browser that's built on the Safari core. Could it be that Google saw a bunch of irate Firefox fans and decided to cater to it?

If someone would have told me two years ago that I'd grow to hate Firefox almost as much as Internet Explorer, I would have said they were nuts. Sadly, that's exactly what's happened. Mozilla has messed around and has revealed a weakness that competitors appear to be exploiting as we speak.

George Stephanopoulos is a fat head and a hack

As anyone who has been paying attention ought to know by now, President Barack Obama went and addressed Congress on Tuesday. He was talking about the economy and how to fix it by throwing money at it.

I'm not going to talk about that as his address has been dissected all over the place. Besides, I've griped about his economic fixes enough and don't feel like doing it again.

No, I'm going to talk about George "Mouthpiece" Stephanopoulos. I was watching a recap of Obama's speech on ABC's Nightline and noticed, as usual, that Mouthpiece was called on to give an analysis of it all.

Has Mouthpiece ever said "I think Obama got it wrong" or "maybe this guy is totally off base" or "what the hell is he talking about?" Has Stephanopoulos ever been seriously critical of Obama at all?

I don't mind him being an obviously biased jerk as he's always been an obviously biased jerk. However, the man hold himself out to be an "independent journalist" and has found a lot of people in the media willing to back him up on that.

Why is it, then, that partisans on Fox News are accused of political whoring and cheerleading, whereas Mouthpiece is assigned a certain level of credibility for doing essentially the same thing?

Musical Monday -- Blondie!

Here's one of the best from Blondie, "Dreaming," and it's played live. Dig that amazingly busy drummer!

Come join Music Monday and share your songs with us. One simple rule, leave ONLY the actual post link here. You can grab this code at LJL Please note these links are STRICTLY for Music Monday participants only. All others will be deleted without prejudice.

M&M'S Premiums aren't half bad

I've always hated M&M'S.

Now, to be fair, I'm not a big fan of milk chocolate. Most of it tastes like cheap chocolate with something to hide. M&M'S tastes like the manufacturers found the cheapest milk chocolate on the planet, spruced it up with a candy shell that comes in various colors and inflicted it on an unsuspecting public. I've always considered M&M'S to be the Chicken McNuggets of the candy world in that I'd probably get physically ill if I knew what was really used to make the stuff.

When I learned that M&M'S were developed during World War II to give to American troops, I assumed that meant the Nazis developed them to stuff down prisoners of war. I'm still not convinced that isn't the case.

Hey, you can wrap substandard milk chocolate in a candy shell all you want and it still tastes like garbage. Go ahead and add a peanut in the center and you've still got low grade milk chocolate surrounded by a candy shell that just tastes like "sweet" and nothing else. The only thing more disgusting than a bunch of M&M'S is a sack full of the slightly more noxious Reese's Pieces (made popular by the lead character in E.T. the Extraterrestrial, another hated product of junk culture).

M&M'S have always been vile, but I found some the other day that aren't half bad -- M&M'S Premiums. I've actually found myself enjoying the Mocha and Raspberry Almond varieties of the stuff. I found some on sale at Kroger's yesterday and picked up a box. I still hate the standard M&M'S, but these Premiums things are pretty good.

The only drawback I can see to these things is that the old slogan -- "They melt in your mouth, not in your hand" -- doesn't really apply. That's OK, though, because they taste just fine.

Besides, that famous slogan is rather a lie, anyway. I've seen more than one kid with various colors melted to his hand after going through a bag of M&M'S. Everything about the standard M&M is a big, fat lie. The Premiums, however, are very impressive. Give them a shot.

Good luck, Conan!

On Friday night, I watched the last episode of Late Night with Conan O' Brien.

Yes, O'Brien took over the Late Night show from David Letterman in 1993 and is scheduled to take over The Tonight Show on May 1 after Jay Leno retires. O'Brien's successor will be Jimmy "About as Funny as Cancer" Fallon.

Now, the 11:30 p.m. time slot on NBC used to be a great thing. Letterman made it a winner and O'Brien continued its success. And, yes, I said 11:30 p.m. because I'm using central time.

With O'Brien heading to the 10:30 p.m. time slot, I can't help but think three things.

1. There isn't a thing worth watching on network television at 11:30 p.m. at night.

2. That's a shame because it will be tough to choose between Letterman and O'Brien at 10:30 p.m.

3. Will Conan get tamed when he takes over The Tonight Show?

Hey, since 1993, fans have delighted as Conan has run around irritating people and making fun of them. He's brought us such fantastic off-color characters as Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and the Masterbating Bear. He spent the last week of his show, in fact, tearing up pieces of his set with a sledgehammer and and axe and handing the rubble out to audience members as souvenirs.

Will he be able to get away with those kind of antics in front of an audience that used to the tame and predictable Jay Leno? That's a real concern, folks, because I remember when Leno was an edgy young comedian who used to show up and raise hell on the Letterman show. That rebellious streak vanished about the time he took over for Johnny Carson.

So I do hope O'Brien doesn't change that much. Now, here's one of his best bits:
Baseball Sketch