I've Joined the Ranks...

Well, with much prodding, my husband finally got me to get a new phone...a new iPhone 3G nonetheless. I really didn't want/think I need so much phone but....HOLY COW!!! This phone is amazing. In fact, it's so amazing it's scary!


What made me shrug my shoulders and say "fine, I'll take the phone" (can you believe so much arm twisting from Jason to get this phone? I really didn't want a new phone and didn't find the need to jump on the iPhone bandwagon!!!!) is that I was wanting an MP3 player for Christmas and this phone basically is an iPod as well.

But I can also check my email, get on the internet and see the internet exactly as if I were on my home computer, I have a calculator (and low-and-behold, my favorite calculator just died so perfect timing), a calendar, phone (I guess that is the main point of an iPhone), oh and I'm so excited because I downloaded an App (application for those non-iPhone users) that is a grocery list. You can't imagine how exciting that is to me!


So anyhow, I promptly went home and whipped up a carrying case so I can through it in my purse. It matches this purse here.


Anyhoo, I have SO much to blog about: Lawyer's birthday was Tuesday and his small party is on Saturday, the caterpillars that are eating my mandarin orange tree to nothing and they look like snakes, a few recipes and some random things. Oh and I might throw in a few more thoughts on the upcoming election.

Did you check out the t-shirt here, here, here and here? Buy one today...Kelly will be finished selling these in the next few weeks, just in time for you to wear your shirt proudly before the big election!!

Buy a Shirt!!!!

Hey everyone, I know it's hard to believe I'm doing another post in one day but I wanted to show you a shirt that Kelly Moore from Kelly Moore Photography is selling on her blog. This is for those Republicans that want to want to SHOW their support. All proceeds will go to support the (as Kelly puts it) the candidate that would wear this shirt.

I designed the shirt and she is taking pre-orders so head on over to Kelly's blog (and check out her amazing photography) and buy a shirt to show your support!!!!

Babies, Guns and Jesus....I'll support these issues at stake!!!!

Kelly Moore Photography http://kellymoorephotography.com/mooreblog/

You better believe I will wear this shirt as soon as I get one!

Death & Taxes

Well, forget about the death part of my title, I thought just plain, old "Taxes" sounded ultra-boring.

Today's little post is about, surprise surprise, our upcoming election. I thought I'd give a little insight to what lower taxes means as a whole to our country.

I recently was talking to a certain family member about this exact subject and his/her (this is to protect the innocent, or not-so-innocent...you know who you are!) take on receiving lower taxes was this....it's not going to amount to a hill of beans to me personally (this may not be verbatim but it's what I took away from the conversation). This person truly thought that the lowering of THEIR taxes didn't seem like a big deal in the scope of things. So, in true Amii fashion, let's take a look at what lower taxes for our country will mean as a WHOLE. I am NOT an economist, although I did want to be one at a particular time in my life (I LOVED my economics classes a lot) but I understand basics of how economics works and I'm also pretty much someone who is logical. Logical economics...it almost sounds contradictory to our current situation here in the US!!

1) Lower taxes mean that each individuals/families will have a greater NET worth because they will have more money in their pockets after taxes.

2) Said money allows you to do one of two things (or both)....Spend it or Save it

3) Said "saved" money gives you greater peace-of-mind about your future...you now can save up that money for a house, a car or your child's education, without feeling much of a crunch because you technically just got a raise due to your lower income taxes. (Here's a little secret though...the government really doesn't want you to save it, they want you to....see number 4.)

4) Said "spending" money allows just that...for you to spend it. So let's look at the bigger picture of you spending your extra net pay money.

When YOU go to the store and buy, let's say, a new TV because you have that extra income money (from lower taxes) you think that it is only benefiting you, right? WRONG...if you have extra money and you are spending it, don't you think that at least SOME of the other 300 million plus people in the US are doing exactly the same thing?

So let's look at it this way...let's say 150 million Americans, due to their greater NET (by the way, see below for what this means if you don't already know) worth buy the same $1000 television that they wouldn't have bought unless they had that extra take-home pay. Did you know that all of a sudden, the sales of 150 million TV's just added to our growth in our economy? The more money spent within our economy means that there is prosperity. Prosperity means that all of a sudden there is higher demand of "stuff " (ie, cars, houses, sweaters, ring pops, whatever). Higher demand means more jobs. More jobs means lower jobless rate. Lower jobless rate means less welfare applicants. Less welfare applicants means less tax burden on Americans. The more money that is pumped into our economy also means that we are digging ourselves out of our nation's ridiculous deficit.

Look at it this way....let's say 100 million Americans each made $50,000 (called your GROSS income) with a 30% tax rate. So, if you were to look at it by an hourly rate, you think you're making about $24.00 per hour (if you work 40 hours a week/52 weeks a year). WRONG. When you deduct the 30% tax rate from your GROSS income of $50,000, you get your NET income of only $35,000. Sadly it's the way taxes work (but let me re-iterate that I do believe that some taxes are necessary for such things, since our country as a whole benefits from it, as our national defense...that's the only way we have the military). So now you don't make approximately $24.00 per hour, you really make about $17.00 per hour. So what if tax rates dropped 5%? Well your net worth will be $2500 more per year than it was before. Doesn't sound like that's much to make a difference? Well, let's look at the big picture again with 100 million other Americans making $2500 more per year in their NET pay. If you calculate that up, it equates to about $2.5 billion MORE money per year that our country has as spendable money. And that's only if everything were exactly as my above example.

So to summarize, lower taxes may not "amount to a hill of beans" to you but as a whole it means A LOT to our nation. Next we're going to talk about our energy crisis and what it means to me and how I think McCain/Palin WILL be the go-to people on this subject when they get elected.

Vote McCain/Palin for President and Vice-President!

Oh and by the way, to those that don't like Sarah Palin, my personal feelings are that you, subconsciously, don't like her because she's pretty and smart. Quit being jealous...I'll vote in a smart, beautiful woman, particularly Sarah Palin. Oh and I would way rather have a mother of 5 in the office any day of the week. If you are a mother, you know what I mean! Way to be both smart and pretty, Mrs. Palin! Lord help us should we have ever had manly dictator like Hilary voted in!

Dear Mr. Obama Video

If you don't believe in sacrifices for freedom, if you don't believe in fighting for our liberties, if you don't believe that sometimes it takes a war to keep your freedom or to help others in their cause for freedom....then you aren't American and therefore do NOT deserve the right to vote in my opinion!! How else do you think this great nation came to be??? Please watch until the end. And while I'm not a very sympathetic person, I do believe that the message he gives by his action of walking away is just as important as when he speaks. This is a brave soldier who was proud to fight for our country and for Iraq's freedom and who does not believe that he fought for nothing.



VOTE FOR MCCAIN/PALIN!!!!

Choose wisely, because there is a REALLY wrong choice! Part One

*Deep Breath* Want to know something that gets my 28-year-old blood pressure up? Misinformed and misguided individuals. I know walls will be built between a few of my blog readers and myself but I ultimately have to stand up for what I believe in. This post will actually be multiple posts so if you want to hear my views, stay tuned.

For those of you who are backing the democratic ticket, let me remind you that our country was built on capitalistic democracy. This country was not formed around socialism. Not sure what socialism and the democratic ticket have in common? Well, let me remind you that socialism does not mean a FREE country, where you are: FREE to own your own home, FREE to keep your own paycheck, FREE to have choices for your child's future, FREE to make government choices. No, socialism is based on state and collective ownership. It's based on the government having more power than the people. What does that mean? Well, it means that the government basically OWNS you for the greater good. Hmm? Yeah, it means that you don't own what you think you are working hard for. It means you are NOT the boss of your elected officials.

So why is this really bad (as if all I already said wasn't bad enough)? Well, our government was originally designed to be the PEOPLE'S government where we are the bosses of our elected officials, this is the reason we get to vote. Don't you think for a moment that if and when a party that has shown socialistic backing won't begin to take away your freedoms? Even your voting power? Now this may all sound extreme but it's a glimpse into the future if we allow socialism to enter our realms of government anymore than it has. Did you know that there is socialism-based program in our government now that I think needs to be abolished? It's the welfare system. Did you know this program was supposed to be a "social welfare program designed to DECREASE the dependence on the government"? You should be wary of the word "social" to begin with and next, you should note that the welfare system INCREASES dependency on the government. I once took a sociology class (required and mad about it but learned A LOT from it) and it was noted that there are now 5th and 6th generations of family within the system? Can you imagine? Fifth and sixth generations of families UNWILLING to get themselves out of that rut???

The welfare system makes me red in the face and you want to know something really interesting? My mother, when she was 19 years old with 2 babies, was on welfare back at the beginning of the 80's. She has told me, time and time again, how incredibly HUMILIATING it was to pull out food stamps for milk, diapers, and hot dogs. She wasn't on it for long because she realized that this was not how she wanted to live her life: constantly humiliated, worthless and un-providing for her children.

My mother now owns a VERY successful business (high taxes for small business will be another issue to discuss), never graduated college, and lives the true American dream. She didn't stay in the "system". She didn't feel that the government and the American public owed her anything. She saw no reason for others paying for her way in life. America - It's time to take personal responsibility! Lost your job? Go look for a new one...it's not that hard, I see "hiring" signs EVERYWHERE. Can't feed your children? Get out and work two jobs if need be or, here's an idea, quit having 15 kids!! The welfare system DOES NOT work and as somebody who pays part of my paycheck to support that system, I am pissed about it!! That's one of the many reasons I vote AGAINST the democratic nominees. I'm tired of paying for LAZY (why would you want to get a job when someone is going to give you FREE money), IGNORANT (or maybe not, let's face it, those welfare check recipients have it pretty good!), BITTER (of course it's my fault you had 8 kids and couldn't provide for them, I mean, who knows how those babies showed up to begin with!!) and IRRESPONSIBLE (how dare those welfare recipients take away my hard earned money!!!!) people who want to always say that it's not "my fault" I'm in this predicament. It's not "my fault" I don't have an education (note to those: low-income families actually get "free" money to go to college!! You don't have to pay it back!!). It's not "my fault" I can't afford birth control and have so many kids(um, keep your body parts to yourself?).

American people, I'm tired of the excuses. I'm tired of no action taken against these delinquents (and yes I see that what the "users" of this system are doing is a true crime against our country). And I'm mad as hell that I'm paying their way in life.

Vote against socialism, vote against empowering the welfare system (it DOES NOT WORK!!!), vote against government programs that are BROKEN and vote for McCain and Palin instead of Obama and his "changing change for change because we need change" inexperience!!

If you're not tired of my passion and desire to more informed, stay tuned. I'm sure I'll get going even more and really fan the flames on this historic upcoming election!!