Top Republicans Want to Raise Taxes on the Poor

This is not The Onion.  This is just how ridiculous things have gotten in the Republican leadership.  Today, the New York Times ran an editorial titled "The New Resentment of the Poor," which noted that Republican presidential hopefuls Michelle Bachmann, John Huntsman, and Rick Perry (with an E not an A for America) as well as House majority leader Eric Cantor have all said that not enough people pay taxes and more people should. 

Yes, some people don't pay Federal income taxes.  You know why?  Because they are so poor and have so little income we choose not to tax it.  Instead we let them keep it so they can buy yachts, fill up their children's trust funds, and go on a vacation to Turks and Caicos.  Oh just kidding, that part actually is a joke.  We let them keep what little income they make so that they can just manage to feed their families and pay for gas to get to their super low-income job.  It's the millionaires and billionaires whose taxes we lower to historic levels so they can buy the yachts and fill the trust funds. It's good for the economy you see; rich people create jobs.  I bet you've never seen a poor person create a job.  That's why since we've lowered taxes on the rich, the economy has improved so much. 

It gets very confusing these days who has too much.  Poor families pay too little in taxes!  Teachers make too much money!  Women have too many rights!  Oops, I think we're still supposed to be embarrassed by saying one of those out loud.  Go Bachmann!

Still Life In My New Apartment

It's no Harmen Steenwyck (full disclosure I used Google to help me make that obscure reference), but it makes me happy.  It's the little things that are making this apartment feel like my own, my home.  

Oh and fun fact, I got this bowl at a market in Namibia.  One of the very few things from that trip that has managed to make me happy.

The Wheels Fall Off the Cart

Literally.  I took the cart that Jake put together in the Shaw's parking lot on it's second trip to the grocery store yesterday.  On the way out of the building one of the wheels fell off.  I was able to put it back together to take it to the store.  Once I got my groceries home I had to struggle to pull the cart up a half of a flight of stairs to get it to the elevator.  When I got to my door, the wheel popped off again.  I retraced my steps, but I was only able to find two of the three parts to put it back together.

I was really missing New York, and grocery delivery service.  Here people drive their cars to the grocery store and park in the parking lot.  Having a car in New York is a rarity and even if you have a car, you definitely don't drive it to the grocery store.  Here people also drive their cars to Target.  Or they wait for a half an hour to take the bus to Target.  Half an hour, seriously?  This is not public transportation, it's public frustration.

We got on Seamless Web the other night to order food (for those of you unfamiliar, Seamless Web is this great online tool that allows you to search for and order from delivery places in your area) and almost all the restaurants charge for delivery.  I was scandalized.  In New York if you're going to get delivery you don't even need to come to a compromise about what you're going to get because one person can get Indian and another Chinese and no one will have a problem getting to the $7 free delivery minimum.  Here there were delivery minimums of $30 and delivery charges of $5.  Is there no civilization?

Okay, so I've complained about the buses and the lack of cheap, available delivery service on this blog already.  We all know I'm terrible at transitions.  It is all starting to seem real now that this is my home for the next three years and it's a bit scary.  But New York was scary at first too.  And then I learned how to manage the subway, get around the streets below Houston (sort of), find the reasonably priced groceries, and make friends.  And I miss that sense of comfort, of knowing what I was doing and where I was going, of having a routine.  And I miss my wonderful friends who I ate mac and cheese with, watched Glee with, baked cookies with, went to Target with, ventured into the outer boroughs with, tackled the budget with and generally learned how to make the City my home with.  I know the grammer in that last sentence is horrible, but the sentiment is pretty good.

So here's to New York, but also to Boston and to keeping the wheels firmly on the cart.

Hilarious Anderson Cooper Video

Anderson Cooper, newscaster of great gravitas, is given a string of pee puns to deliver after Gerard Depardieu publicly urinated in the aisle of a plane.  I'm surprised Depardieu is still famous enough for anyone to care about or report on what he's doing, even if what he's doing is peeing in public.  Either way, the pee story pales in funniness to Anderson Cooper losing it in a fit of giggles over one particularly poor poop pun.

The Biscuit Remix

I recently wrote about my new neighborhood bakery, The Biscuit (see Hot Spot Boston: The Biscuit).  And since then I've been back two more times.  Since the first time I didn't have my camera, I thought I'd come back and rave some more about the baked goods and post a picture of my most recent indulgence, the plum blueberry crumble top pie.  Just trust me when I say that the picture doesn't do it justice.

They call it a crumble, but in my mind a crumble is just fruit with a crumble topping and this had a solid bottom crust as well, so for  clarity's sake I'm calling it a crumble top pie.  But whatever you call it, it's delicious.  It was tart but sweet and the crumble was so perfectly soft and buttery but with a little crunch.

There are still about 25 different options inside that bakery case that I want to try, but the one thing I won't try again are the sandwiches.  They have a whole board describing all the sandwiches they offer, but they aren't made to order.  There is only a small basket with pre-made sandwiches so you never know which of the offerings listed on the board will be available and you can be relatively sure of at least some sogginess.  It was disappointing because I think they could easily add made-to-order sandwiches and then I would never have to leave The Biscuit.  Instead, I'll just have to keep popping in for a sweet treat or a tea every now and again.

Hurricane Irene Welcomes Me to Boston

My plans for this week have changed too many times to count.  First I was going to come to Boston on Wednesday to prepare to start work on Monday.  Now I'm not starting work until after Labor Day so I planned to move in on Sunday.  Then word of the hurricane came and we decided Saturday would be better.  But then my brother and sister both had to get to college on Saturday so we decided Friday would be better.   So here I am.

I am afraid of storms.  Most of you know that.  The rest of you will not be surprised to hear me start any sentence with, "I am afraid of..."  When I was little, in the summers I used to avoid watching the weather on TV.  If I did happen to hear that there was a threat of thunderstorms I would refuse to shower or go swimming in the lake.  During storms I would cry and sit on the floor in the middle of the room (to be as far as possible from windows or metal springs in sofas, of course).  I'm better with thunderstorms now, but I still get nervous about bigger storms like hurricanes and tornadoes.  Thankfully, living in New England, it's rarely something I have to consider.  But Irene has me in a mild panic.

I did some pre-move shopping and the water aisle at Target was almost completely sold out.  My friend and I got the last two packs of bottled water.  My number one mission when I got to Boston was to get to the grocery store.  Jake and I went early and got gallon jugs of water, canned soups, canned chili, canned vegetables, and some fruit.  All of this was pretty heavy and we live several blocks from the grocery store so we also bough a collapsable shopping cart to carry our food.  I didn't realize it wouldn't come assembled.  In New York we would have just had our groceries delivered, but alas, this is so not New York.

So, with his characteristic patience and surprising handiness, Jake put together our shopping cart in the parking lot of Shaw's.  As we wheeled a pantry worth of food home (I still feel like we don't have enough water) I felt like perhaps I was being a bit paranoid.  I said, "Part of me feels like a psycho for doing this, but part of me feels like a genius."  Jake replied, "Don't you think all psychos think that way at least some of the time?"

But the news has been doing such a good job at fear mongering/reporting.  Friends, family, politicians, even signs on the highway, are all telling me it could be serious.   York City has it's first mandatory evacuation ever.  Our old apartment is being evacuated and I met a girl in the laundry room today whose cousin's New York City wedding was cancelled because her parents were turned away at the New Jersey border and put on an evacuation route.

En route to my other hurricane chore, getting cash in case stores lose power and can't take credit cards, I got caught in a downpour.  Now I'm sitting in my living room which, in addition to a ton of moving boxes, now also contains my patio furniture.  Now I'm off to do my third load of laundry so that in case we lose water at least I'll have clean clothes.  Then I will likely try to distract myself by watching Project Runway (see post Summer TV: Project Runway) online and trying not to check weather.com.   Here's hoping for a safe weekend and not a week of eating cold canned goods in the dark!

Summer TV: Teen Mom

I've always been a big fan of Teen Mom.  And I felt vindicated when the New York Times ran an article about how it can be used as a tool to teach about safe sex.  Serious newspapers take this show seriously!  This is no Jersey Shore.  People have said that Teen Mom glamorizes teenage pregnancy, but anyone who watched the previous seasons would know that isn't true.  These girls struggle with money, school, terrible boyfriends, custody battles, family issues, substance abuse, homelessness, depression, and even a child protective investigation.  It's not easy and the show makes that clear. 

But as the third season continues, the girls have become tabloid fixtures and for the first time it seems to me that the show may be doing more harm than good.  Two out of four of the moms have gotten breast implants.  Some are talking about modeling and acting as though they can now turn their stint on MTV into a full blown career.  And why wouldn't they think that when you look at Bristol Palin?

While some girls can presumably afford plastic surgery, Catelynn and Tyler have reportedly been evicted from their apartment.  It seems that none of these teens can figure out how to manage their MTV paychecks responsibly.  Amber's child protective case has made her the object of harassment in her neighborhood.  Clearly, Amber has issues she needs to work out, but most struggling parents who are working with Child Protective Services are not also subjected to public humiliation, only those being followed around by MTV cameras. 

If the show was meant to teach young people the perils of teenage parenthood, the lesson has certainly been lost on some, including the cast themselves.  Maci is pressuring her new boyfriend to have another baby even though she now has a two-year-old and is still a teenager herself. 

Teen Mom is documentary drama of the most engaging sort.  You will cry; you will cringe; and you will be grateful it isn't you.  Educational tool - probably not, Entertaining television - absolutely.