Scene from a side road

Take a look:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/marylee-smithwick/far-more-than-bitter-mess_b_97494.html  She is bitter and proud of it!

This last summer, we drove through much of Indiana, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, as well as parts of Michigan, and were shocked by much of what we saw, perhaps especially in the urban areas off the expressways.  There are blocks and blocks and blocks where the "mills" or whatever factories used to be there are gone, leaving a wasteland.

My cousin (who lives in Indiana) had warned me about the wreckage of the "rustbelt cities," as he called them, that we might drive through.  He was right, and in some places they do really look like a war zone.

Don't get me wrong--there is much that is pretty, both in small towns and cities and the countryside.  That is what we tended to take photos of, and that is what attracts tourists.  But there simply is no doubt that there has been massive economic and social damage.  Anyone who has been deeply affected by that, and for that matter anyone who is even aware of it, certainly ought to be bitter!

I am old enough to completely remember when the Democrats of the mid-1960s declared a "war on poverty."  In places like those it is clear that poverty won out.  And now it is trying to vanquish also the middle class.

The true "elitists" are those who are trying to distract us from their plight--or, really, our plight.

I have had some trouble figuring out what, if anything, is actually good for a person to eat.  When we consulted a dietician a couple months ago, I asked her directly, and she did not name one food.  Not one!

red wine and dark chocolate

After 30 minutes of frustrated watching, I have turned off the disgraceful "debate" being hosted by ABC News and moderated by Charles Gibson, with George Stephanopoulos in yjr second chair.  Every single question in the first third of this 90 minute program has been about the "sound bites," the innuendo.  No substantive or policy questions at all.  None.  Zero.

See Associated Press.

Springsteen

Here in Youngstown, here in Youngstown

Madonna

It has been a beautiful day here--a little windy, but clear and warm.  According to the Chicago Tribune, this is the first day that the temperature has reached 70 degrees since October.

Nice weather

Deer in the woods

That isn't the most important recent Chicago wildlife sighting, of course.  Prominence goes to the cougar (or mountain lion) that apparently found its way over many hundreds of miles into the city--perhaps from as far as the Black Hills of western South Dakota--only to be shot in someone's back yard by our local police!

I do feel sad for the cougar.  We were in the Black Hills last September.  I like it there, and it sure is a long journey across the prairie down to here, almost a thousand miles.  A sad journey to take only to get killed at the end of it.

However, it felt good to be out on a walk, especially since it is likely to rain for the next three days.

Just to make it clear that I don't always eat things like fried mac and cheese for lunch, here is an iPhoto of what we enjoyed yesterday noon:

salad, soup, and sandwich

When Hillary was drinking with "the guys" in an Indiana bar, talking hunting and bowling and trying to show that she is not at all an "elitist" like Barack Obama is . . .

Crown Royal

Crown Royal.

That's right, Crown Royal.  

With the fancy bottle in the fancy (royal) purple bag!

Crown Royal, her beverage of choice.

( I owe this insight to Jon Stewart).

I have been watching John McCain on this 60 minute interview show, hosted by Chris Matthews, and am so struck by how much better McCain seems to me than Hillary Clinton!  It is astonishing.

Tomorrow is April 15th.

Have you filed your income taxes yet?
Or at least an extension?

I can't believe how much trouble taxes have become--how much paperwork there is.  Looking through various items that my late wife had in her desk, I found her mom and dad's income tax forms from the 1940s.  Their whole return then was on one piece of paper.  The form itself was on the front, and the income tax table (to look up how much you owe) was on the back.  Perhaps 20 minutes of work, that you could do yourself, without an accountant, or without a personal computer.

Last year, my own tax return was about 80 pages long.  I don't know how long this year's will be, because we filed for an extension and turned it over to a professional!

Perhaps that isn't true for everyone?  Maybe some people still have simple tax returns, but neither my wife or I do.  Even my son, with a modest income, hires someone to prepare his return.

The income tax actually became a mainstay of federal finance during World War II.  The "Revenue Act of 1942" created a 5% "Victory Tax" on individual incomes over $624.  Revenues were of course needed to fight the war, but pretty much have stayed high since, as the national government has been called upon (in one way or another) to provide more and more services and perform more and more functions.

Of course, we are at war again.  But we aren't being asked to really shoulder its cost.  Rather, Iraq war costs are being added to the national debt.  They are already about ten times what the Bush administration originally suggested. 

Anyhow, don't forget to file (and also send in a check with an extension request).

Hope your experience is better than mine.  I don't mind really paying my own "fair share" of the cost.  But I don't like how complicated it all is, and I don't like it that people with much greater income can sometimes get by with paying lower taxes.  Probably you heard Warren Buffett (with an income of around $50 million) complain that his own tax rate is lower than his secretary's.

.