Injured State Trooper

You may have read in the paper or saw on the web or even caught the news on TV where a local (local to me at least) State Trooper was struck by a tractor trailer while conducting a traffic stop on June 14th.  Yes, a tractor trailer, and yes it actually hit HIM.  He was standing next to the car he pulled over when some @$$hole in a tractor trailer slammed in to his cruiser first and then hit the Trooper that was standing there.

Well, this Trooper is my next door neighbor and a really, really good friend of mine.  He is home and recovering now.  Not sure how it wasn't worse than what it is but he is extremely lucky to be alive.  Or for the godly people, God must have been watching him...but not too close though, otherwise the truck would have missed.  Anyways, he has a pretty jacked up shoulder and neck and he suffered a concussion.  He is home now and he is slowly recovering.

Here is my beef.  I looked up some info on the web and since he is actually not pulling people over and generating dollars for the State, they put this injured Trooper on "administrative pay."  This is 2/3 of their normal pay, and they do this for all injured Troopers.  Yes, you read it right.  They are PUNISHING him FINANCIALLY for getting hit by a 30 TON TRUCK.  Now, I don't know about you but if I took a 33% pay cut I would definitely have an extremely difficult time.  Sure, workers comp will pay the lost wages, and sure maybe he will get a chunk of dough from the trucking company but guess what?  Bills are due on the first of every month and it may be MONTHS until he gets any of those funds.  He may need a year to recover.  No one knows!  You just can't predict things like that.  Each pay period that goes by is going to get tougher for him and his family, just like it would with any of us.

This is why I set this up http://www.indiegogo.com/trooperavila?a=782100  This is a site where people can go and contribute to him not just for the hell of it, but because this is a man that has gone through some major horse doo-doo and he shouldn't have to worry about the next mortgage payment, or the next electric bill or the next school supply shopping trip for his 3 awesome kids.  We as a community should be more than willing to help a man that puts his life on the line every day to serve and protect.  His recovery period should be one thing, a recovery period.  Not a worry period.

Now I know some of you know this person and a lot of you don't.  I also know that some of you have really good jobs and some of you don't.  But it's going to feel good, whether you know him or not or whether you contribute $1 or $100, to know that you are stepping up and helping out.
 

Thank you all for supporting and thanks for reading!!!

Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Don't you hate when ____________?

TOP 25

You make microwaved popcorn and all the butter and seasoning sticks to the inside of the bag?  Should you lick it?

The person in front of you in the drive-thru line has a list?  Just ruined my day!!

As you are washing your hands in a public bathroom several people just walk right out?  You just touched your wiener Dude, wash your damn hands.

You finally decide what you want in the menu but when you order it they "are all out?"  Thanks for the heads up Bro!

People leave their cars running and the music blasting at the gas station?  Yeah, you have subs and listen to rap...we know.

You hear the noise flip flops make?  It's even worse when it's coming from my own feet.

On a plane, they still feel the need to remind you that you can't smoke?  Who the hell doesn't know that?

People smoke in their house?  Ummm...you stink, and now I do too...thanks.

People have bad spray tans? You look absolutely ridiculous.

Someone is in the left lane so everyone has to pass on the right and they STILL don't get over?  Move the F#@% out of the passing lane!!

You can only find one shoe?  Why is it not with the other one?

People that say carmel instead of caramel?  The "a" is there...pronounce it.

You turn off the shower and realize you forgot to put a towel on the hook?  It's cold, and now the floor is soggy.

Actors and actresses endorse politicians?  Did they forget that we know they act for a living?

You pay $10 to go to the movies and have to sit through 30 minutes of commercials and previews?  It's getting old.

You're ordering fast food and see the worker touch everything in the kitchen with the same glove they are making your food with?  Yeah, that glove is not so sanitary anymore.

People have been dieting for a year with no progress and ask you how they look?  Ummmm, happy?

Chef Boyardee has 20 different things that all taste exactly the same as Spaghetti Os?  You're not fooling anyone Buddy.

You step in dog poop?  Awwww man!

Tractor trailers ride next to each other on the highway blocking both lanes?  Makes my blood boil!

You're in a public restroom and you hear someone talking on the phone while going #2?  Seriously?  Call them back when you're done.

You're in the drive-thru and they say, "Just pull up there and we will bring it out to you."  Umm...no, I was in line first so I get my food first... and fast, like the sign says.

You're at a place of business and the employee complains to you about their job? Then quit!  But not before you finish ringing me up, I got shit to do.

All of a sudden you open your eyes and realize you are still driving? Guilty!

Some Guy you barely talk to keeps sending you invites to read his dumb ass blog?  Heyyyyyy now!


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Out Of Wedlock Children

I read an article today that said that 41% of Americans still believe that a couple that has a child with out being married is WRONG.  Who are these people?  I really don't see what the big deal is.  Now, don't get me wrong I got married 2yrs before we had my Son but it really had to do with timing and whether we were ready.  I don't really think we said, "OK, we are married so now we are ALLOWED to reproduce."

In my family there are five Sons (Me plus my four older Brothers).  Between us five we have given my Parents seven grandchildren.  Two boys and five girls (2 of my brothers apparently aren't man enough to make boys).  My Son is the only one that was conceived after wedlock.  In fact, I am still the only one that has gotten married.  But this doesn't make my Brothers bad people, or the Grandkids bad kids, and my Parents definitely accept the kids because they are awesome and no matter what, they ARE BLOOD.  I am pretty sure my Brothers aren't going to go to hell because of this either.  My Son is not better than the rest because he is from married Parents, he is better than the rest merely by default, because his Parents are just WAY COOLER...lol!  No seriously, in my family he gets treated like the rest of the kids, he gets treated LIKE FAMILY.

I have heard of families not accepting a child as family because the child was born out of wedlock.  I can't imagine ever being so self-righteous that I wouldn't except a child in to my life that had some of MY blood running through his or her veins. It's definitely different when your Child comes home from High School and tells you she is pregnant or has gotten a girl pregnant.  But when your kid is in his or her 20's, or 30's even and decides to have a child with someone that they aren't married too, well then that's they're decision and it should be ACCEPTABLE FOR THE ENTIRE FAMILY.  Well, unless the other person is an asshole...

Bottom line is, it's OK to have an out of wedlock child.  Is it better to be married?  I have no clue.  Just be a Parent or Uncle or Aunt or Grandparent or whatever your Family Tie is to this child and love them for being in your life.  Don't judge these children for something that was completely out of their control.


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Pyromania and Men

                                              
                                           
                                            How perfect is this picture?  I bet a Man took it...

Pyromania is defined as a compulsion to set things on fire according to dictionary.com.  I am pretty sure that if you are a Male, you suffer from this.  But is it really suffering, or just sweet??  I don't know if I have ever met another Man that doesn't like fire.  Maybe it's not even considered Pyromania, but just an infatuation.  I mean, think about it, fire is awesome.  It's bright, warm, colorful, crackly, smells good, and the best part is it burns things to nothing if it's hot enough.

My love of the flame goes back to when I was a kid, so I am guessing we are just born that way.  We used to take lighter fluid and spell our names in cursive in the backyard and then light one end of it.  If you have never done this before, I highly recommend it.  I do not recommend doing this in the garage though.  Sorry about the chair Mom.  My brother and I had fire pits all over our 18 acres of wooded property.  We would clear an area, cut down some trees for a perimeter, gather some large stones for our pit, get some wood, and start a fire.  Then we would sit back and cook some hotdogs while looking at dirty magazines and smoking stale cigarettes that we kept in a Ziploc bag.  Don't judge us, we were 10 and lived in the woods, this was our summer vacation.  Most of my fondest childhood memories include fire.  Whether it was when I was 6 and I dropped my hotdog in the fire and there wasn't anymore and David gave me his or when I was 9 and Wayne and I bent pipes shaped to resemble guns and shot bottle rockets at each other and caught the woods on fire.  We put it out, but why did it have to land in the leaf pile??  That made it a tad bit harder to extinguish.  Even when we went fishing we would start a small fire to keep the bugs away.  We used fire to light the firecrackers to blow up the crayfish we caught and we had a huge fire every Thanksgiving to burn all the brush and sticks that fell into the yard throughout the year.  That reminds me, when you are a Dad and you put gas on a giant pile of wood and you forget your Zippo.  Take the gas can with you when you walk back up to the house to get it because your kids will dump a lot more gas on it and when you light it you will blow back 10 feet and singe off your eyebrows and your beard.  Sorry Dad :)

Now, I don't recommend just going around starting fires, and I don't recommend dumping gas on a fire from a can that doesn't have a safety valve (as you may know, this is why I still have both hands).  But you can safely enjoy fire any time anywhere.  I have a fire pit in the back yard and I love it.  I like to put things in it and watch it change shape.  Whether it's something that burns, starts on fire, or melts it's interesting to watch it break down to ashes.  Some of you women would probably think, "Wow this guy is nuts!"  But you would be wrong, all Guys are like this.  Some may be in denial of their infatuation of fire, but it's true.  Some men only go camping just to light a fire.  You know why?  Because it's the best part.  Nobody loves sleeping in a tent, dealing with mosquitoes, and pooping in the woods.  It's the campfire that draws us in.  Sure the fishing is fun, but what happens after you catch the fish?  You start a fire and cook the damn thing!

Don't compare my love of fire, or any Man's love of fire to being an arsonist.  It's completely different.  Those people are crazy.  I, on the other hand, am just crazy in love.  Can't wait till later...


Cheers!


K.A Ball

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Marijuana...

Alcohol kills.  Smoking kills. Marijuana makes you hungry.  Yet, the ladder is illegal.  Do the math? 

This just doesn't make any sense.  Have you ever heard of alcohol poisoning? Think about that for a second.  The reason they call it that is because you have drank too much "poison." Yes, alcohol is essentially poison.  A delicious poison at times, but it is in fact poison.  They even have a poison meter, so you know how much poison is in the liquid that you consume. It's called proofing.  If you drink something that is 80 proof, that means that the liquid is 60% water and 40% poison.  Somehow the government thinks that it is OK to start to legally and slowly poison yourself when you turn 21 years old.  God forbid if you ever start to poison yourself before that age, you could go to jail.  We all know that 20 year olds aren't responsible enough to slowly poison themselves, that's just crazy (sarcasm).

Back to my first point, alcohol kills.  Approximately 100,000 people die each year in the U.S. from alcohol.  This includes all alcohol related deaths from disease, accidents, and homicides.  Yet, you can still go to store and buy it every single day of your life.  Also, think about how they manufacture alcohol.  They let fruits and plants rot and ferment...yum!

Now lets talk about smoking.  A cigarette isn't just made from tobacco.  There are over 4000 chemical additives in your average cigarette. Except for Winston, they are supposedly just plain ol' tobacco.  Some of the ingredients the Government allows tobacco companies to add to their cancer sticks are;

• Acetone – found in nail polish remover
• Acetic Acid –  an ingredient in hair dye
• Ammonia – a common household cleaner
• Arsenic – used in rat poison
• Benzene – found in rubber cement
• Butane – used in lighter fluid
• Cadmium – active component in battery acid 
• Cyanide – a deadly poison
• Formaldehyde – embalming fluid
• Hexamine – found in barbecue lighter fluid
• Lead – used in batteries
• Napthalene – an ingredient in moth balls
• Methanol – a main component in rocket fuel
• Nicotine – used as insecticide
• Tar – material for paving roads
• Toluene - used to manufacture paint 

Don't you think it is absolutely ridiculous that the Government allows these additives or even worse, that THE MANUFACTURERS ADD THESE CHEMICALS!!!  There are over 440,000 smoking related deaths each year in the U.S.  PLUS there are about 8,600,000 people that live with smoking related diseases.  This is kind of sad, if anything should be illegal it should be cigarettes and the CEO's of these big tobacco companies should be thrown in jail.

Now let's talk about marijuana.  It's just a plant. It's not manufactured. It has no additives.  The chemical that makes you feel funny is called Delta-9 Tetrahydrocannabinol. Also known as THC, this chemical wears off.  Does not have any long lasting side effects and never leads to dying.  I used to be a regular pot smoker, and I kind of just grew out of it I guess. But look, I turned out OK.  I am not some kind of bad person because of it.  In fact, I probably smoked with several of you that read this blog, and trust me, I have stalked your FB page (like we all do) and you guys seemed to turn out OK too...Haha!  If Marijuana is ever legal, I am not going to start smoking it again, but I think there are millions of people that could benefit from it.  Whether it's used for pain, stress, disease, or recreation it needs to be legal for Americans to choose for themselves if they want to use it or grow it or buy it from the store.  There is a pill form of THC called Marinol that you can get a prescription for, but that, again is manufactured.  God knows whats actually in it.  And how stupid does the Government sound when they say, "You can do THC in a pill form but don't you ever do it naturally No smoking it, no eating it, no vaporizing it.  Just buy our pills"  Can you imagine if all of a sudden the Federal Government said, "Tomatoes are ILLEGAL, but you can go get a pill form from the Pharmacy for lots of $$ even though you can grow them in your yard."  Silly isn't it? 

Look, I am not writing this because I think drinking and smoking cigarettes are only for bad people.  I do both.  A few Yuenglings and a Marlboro Light or two is my idea of a good Saturday night.  What I am saying is, marijuana is a weed that grows in the woods and for some reason if you are caught with it in your pocket you go to jail.  JAIL, for a plant....that grows in the woods.  Jail...


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Supermoon and Meteors Saturday Night!

                          


Hey Everyone!  Don't forget that the Moon will becoming it's closest to the Earth all year and it will be a full Moon at the same time!!  The Moon orbits the Earth in an ellipse so it's distance from Earth constantly changes.  The Perigee is when the Moon is the closest and this is what we will be experiencing this weekend.  This will make the Moon look about 14% bigger and 30% brighter than usual, hence the term Supermoon.  The Moon becomes Full officially at 11:35pm on Saturday night.  So, in your Cinco de Mayo drunken state of mind, take a second to look at the Moon and see something spectacular!

A little later, if you haven't passed out yet, download your Google Sky Map and look toward Aquarius and you will most likely see some Meteors (this will be on the Eastern Horizon).  The eta Aquarid meteor show (left over dust from Halley's comet) peaks on Saturday night/Sunday morning.  Aquarius should start to become visible between 2am-2:30am on Sunday morning and you should be able to see meteors from then to sunrise.  You may be able to see a meteor every 2-3 minutes if you are in a darker area!  The Moon's light will make these difficult to see but you should still be able to see some pretty cool streaks.  You should be able to see fireballs shooting all the away across the constellation.  Some of these meteors are only as big as a grain of sand but because they are moving at 145K miles per hour, the friction it produces against our atmosphere creates the awesome light show!!! 

Have a Great WEEKEND!!!!!!!






                                             
                This Sky Map should help for people that can't download Google Sky Map.

Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Life Outside Our Planet?

                                           
                                        This image is a cluster that is 1/10 the diameter of the Moon...

...In other words The Universe is HUGE!  Earth is inside a giant galaxy called the Milky Way.  The Milky Way galaxy is estimated to be 100,000 light years across. A light year is roughly 5.9 Trillion miles.  This means our galaxy is about 5,900,000,000,000,000,000 across.  That's a lot of zeros.  I actually had to look up what comes after quadrillion, the answer is quintillion.  Our galaxy is about 5.9 quintillion miles across.  It has about 300 billion stars and about the same amount of planets.  Its is estimated that at least 10 billion of these planets may lie in what they call a "habitable zone."  This is where a particular planet orbits it's star in a similar spot where Earth orbits our Sun.  What's my point?  My point is there are billions and billions of galaxies like the Milky Way.  Don't you think it would be silly to think that there is no possible way that there is any form of life outside of Earth?  It's naive to think that we are alone in The Universe.  It shouldn't matter whether you believe in God or not, it's pretty much common sense.

It's almost comical when I see people write or hear them talk about how they think there is no life outside of our Solar System.  How could it mathematically be possible that we are alone?  It can't be possible and it isn't.  I am not saying that there are little green men roaming far away planets.  Life comes in all kinds of forms.  From bacteria to viruses to animals to plants.  There HAS to be some of that somewhere other than here.

There very well could be intelligent life somewhere else.  In fact, they could be so far ahead us in technology that they don't even care to visit us.  Think about how far we have come technologically in the last 150 years.  Can you imagine if there are life forms on other planets that are 1 million years ahead of us?  They don't need our resources, they don't need to probe us, and they don't need to abduct us.  They may not even have a way to get to us.  Think about this.  Even if we had some how figured out how to travel at the speed of light, it would take us 25,000 years to get outside the Milky Way from where Earth sits today.  So, a possible visit from any other life form from another galaxy is most likely never going to happen.  The only way this could ever happen is if they are so far advanced they figured out how to not only travel 100s or even 1000s of times faster then the speed of light, but also they would have to go into some sort of hibernation or a cryogenic state to survive long enough to get here.  Another way they could get here faster is to bend space.  Try this little experiment.  Take a piece of paper and draw a circle on both ends.  These represent galaxies.  Lets say that the space in between both galaxies are 1 billion light years apart. Now, let's bend space!  Grab both galaxies and bend the paper in a "U" shape so now the galaxies are almost touching.  We just bent space and now they are 100 light years apart. Tada!  So if they figured out how to travel at 100 times the speed of light, they will be here in a year.  Pretty crazy to think of, but hey who knows?

It's tough to know exactly what's out there but you got to admit there HAS to be something someplace somewhere somehow someday sometime.


Cheers!

K.A. Ball

Why I Only Donate To Smaller Charities...

                                                       

I had some kids knock on my door yesterday and said they were raising money for their school.  I read the envelope that had all the info on it (this was also the envelope they kept their money collected in).  I looked in the envelope and their was three $1 bills in it.  I asked them how long they were walking around and they said over 2 hours.  I smiled and asked them how much I should donate.  They smiled back and said, "As much as you want Sir."  I asked them if $20 sounds good, and they got super excited and said, "Yeah!"  I gave them the $20 and they got on their bikes and rode to the next house.  Now if these kids were raising money for a GIANT charity, I would not have given them a single penny!  Why not you ask?  Because the money would not go where it actually needs to go but in to some Presidents' or Board Members' pockets instead! 

Some of these mega charities members' salaries are sickening.  It just doesn't make sense to me that people can become multimillionaires by starting and/or running a charity.  It kind of ruins the whole concept of charity when these CEO's are pulling a giant salary.  Now, I totally understand that running a charity is a full time job and you should be paid.  That concept I get,  however what I don't get is how people can morally take a ballooned salary when they're main focus is helping people. Let me give you some examples.

NAACP CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous earns $275,000 per year
World Vision CEO Richard Stearns earns $380,000 per year
Food For The Poor CEO Robin Mahfood earns $390, 000 per year
Susan G. Komen CEO Nancy Brinker earns $417,000 per year
World Wildlife Fund CEO Carter Roberts earns $427,000 per year
Saint Judes CEO David McKee earns $513,000 per year
American Cancer Society CEO John Seffrin earns $915,000 per year
American Red Cross CEO Gail McGovern earns $1,000,000 per year

The list goes on and on.  Again, I get that it's a job and that these charities need some super smart people to guide them but some of these salaries are absolutely ridiculous!  I also understand that some of these charities bring in mega dollars, some over $1Trillion a year, but why waste all this money?  You mean to tell me that you couldn't get people that are just as smart, and just as effective in running a charity that would do it for WAY less money?  You know, a CEO that actually cares about the CAUSE and not the PAYCHECK.  It blows my mind that Nancy Brinker has gotten absolutely filthy rich at the expense of her Sister dying from breast cancer.  I am not saying that the Susan G. Komen foundation doesn't do great things or that it's a bad charity but for her to take $417,000 every year and put it right in her pocket is nothing but ABSURD to me.  I'm not going to post any pictures, but go ahead and Google some of these CEO's houses.  It will make you nauseous.

For every MEGA CHARITY, there are a handful of ones that do great things that actually have CEOs that do it for reasons other than MONEY.  Next time you are thinking of donating money to a charity do some research.  You can go to www.charitynavigator.org and actually see what they are doing with your money.  They have a scoring system and a star rating for every charity.  You might actually find out that the smaller local cancer, feed the poor, or environmental charity will actually put your money towards their cause and not their mortgage payments...


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Does The Moon Rotate???

                                                     


Absolutely.  This is why we always see "the face" of the Moon.  Many people think that the moon is just sitting still, but if it was we would see the far side of the Moon as it orbited the Earth.  The reason why we see only the face of the Moon all the time is actually quite awesome.  It's because of Tidal Synchronization (or Synchronous Rotation).  The Earth has pulled the Moon in to us with its gravitational pull to synchronize its orbit around Earth with the same exact amount of time it takes for the Moon to rotate.  In other words, it takes 27.3 days for the Moon to orbit the Earth and it takes 27.3 days for the Moon to complete a full rotation.

This actually was hard for me to understand at first but this little experiment helped a lot.  Take two oranges (or balls, or anything round) and use one as the Earth model and one as the Moon model.  Draw an X on the Moon model (this will represent the Face of the Moon).  Put the Earth model on a table .  Now take the Moon model and move it in a circle, orbit, around Earth model about 1ft away and keep the X always facing the Earth model.  Surprise! You'll see that to keep the X facing the Earth model, you have to rotate the Moon model as it goes around the Earth model.  Also, you will see the Moon model will have to rotate at the same exact time as it orbits the Earth for us to always see the face.  In other words, by the time you get the Moon model to make on full orbit around the Earth model, it will also make one full rotation itself.  If the Moon did not rotate, we would eventually see all side of the Moon.  Cool huh?

In fact, almost all of every planet's moons actually do this same thing.  Hyperion, a moon of Saturn is not tidally synchronized because of the gravitational pull of the other moons around it.  It is in a constant struggle for it.  Once it starts to get close to being synchronized, another moon's gravitational pull changes it's rotational state.  Poor, Hyperion...


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Ohhhhh, N. Korea. My first rant...

Why is it that every time I read the News or watch it on T.V. I see something about the N. Korean leadership finding another reason to be assholes??  It seems like every single week they find another reason to threaten the entire world with nuclear weapons, yet they have never even proved that they have a way to launch one long range.  I am sure you heard about their failed attempt to test a "satellite launching rocket" aka "nuclear warhead rocket" last week that failed miserably and crashed in to the ocean.  I am also sure many American Scientists LOL'd at them when it happened.

They brag about how huge their Army is, 1.2 million strong.  Well guess, what?  If you can't afford to feed them during a war then what's the point?  They are just a bunch of power hungry thugs that will never be taken seriously in the World.  They are only pissed that other Asian States are prosperous and have left the Revolutionary Style of operation in the past and have moved on to bigger better things. N. Korea just keeps holding on to it for some reason.  They are like a teenager that won't give up it's favorite stuffed animal from when they were a baby; even though it is grungy, dirty and constantly makes him sick he still wants to go to bed with it every night.


Well, N. Korea, here is some advice from an average American Citizen.

1.  Shut up!  No one takes you seriously so stop going public with your nonsense comments of "condemnation" and your constant threats of "retaliation."  No one has done anything to you in 50 years, what are you threatening retaliation for?

2.  Feed your damn kids!  80% of your country's children are malnourished AND 1/4 of your entire population needs food aid.  Sooner or later your people will revolt just for the mere fact that they are hungry.

3.  You would get annihilated.  Look around you.  No one likes you.  Do you really think China has got your back?  I don't think so.  They are prospering and have too much to lose.  They say they like you and have your back, but when you constantly embarrass yourself and are blatantly showing that your leaders are BAT SHIT CRAZY, good luck getting their war support.

4.  Your weapons suck.  Seriously, go outside right now and look at your tanks and your fighter jets.  Now go back inside and google pictures and information about the U.S. tanks and fighter jets. Does the word obsolete pop in your head?  I bet it does.  Go ahead and google our Navy too while you're at it...

5.  Not even YOUR people like you.  Tens of thousands of your own people sneak into China every year to get away from your crazy Government and your finger pointing Military style.

Look, I am all for being independent, but I kinda take it personal when the N. Korean government just traded their failed rocket test for MILLIONS OF TONS of food aid from the U.S. and then have the AUDACITY to threaten us with RETALIATION because of it!  The U.S. agreed in February to give them food aid but has now said, "Sorry!" after their rocket launch.  Meanwhile, the Chinese Government just updated their Facebook status with, "SMDH..."


Cheers!


K.A. Ball

Happy Tax Day! Did You Get A Refund?

                                     


Ahhhhh...it feels so amazing to have the Government send you a check in the mail doesn't it?  Most of us just can't wait until tax time so we can get a fat check from the Feds and the State.  The funny thing is, none of us should be getting a refund at all.  All a refund is, is the Government saying, "Hey, you gave us too much.  Thanks for giving us a loan at 0% interest, now here is your money back."  It's kind of like buying a gum ball with a $100 bill and WILLINGLY and KNOWINGLY letting the clerk keep your change for a year.  Sounds pretty dumb huh?

I think we actually lose track of what's actually happening.  Why do we get so excited when we get a big refund?  It's already our money.  It's not like the Government is giving it to us.  It's ours, we gave them too much and they make us go through a lengthily process to get it back.  None of it makes too much sense.

It's very easy to avoid letting the Government borrow money.  In fact, last year they issued over $300B in refunds.  That means they got an interest free loan from us for $300,000,000,000.  I'm sure they used that money to make money so what do we get out of it?  Nothing.  The only thing we can do is make a few changes to our own taxes to avoid the Government taking advantage of our money.  You can change your withholding amounts and you can do quarterly estimates..  This way if you owe a little at the end of the year, you can pay it with out a penalty.

For some people overpaying their taxes is good.  It's like an untouchable savings account for the year.  Some people need the Government to hold money so they don't spend it.  This makes sense doesn't it?  If you have money spending problems, just over pay your taxes a bit and at the end of every year you may have $3K-$4K saved that you weren't able to access and blow it on that new TV or that new Coach purse.  Kinda sweet huh?


Cheers!


K.A. Ball