Fair tax? Give me a break

Ever since Huckabee was on Jay Leno's first show back despite the writers strike and explained his "Fair Tax" plan to America I've written him off my list of plausible presidential candidates. That is a horrible idea and the NY Times agrees with me, as does every sound economist out there. Here's a link to Huckabee's explanation of it if you haven't been keeping up with the political scene.

Some insist that no income tax sounds like heaven (and believe me I'm a conservative so I dislike burgeoning governments), but come on now. Who is going to suffer from this wacky idea to tax almost 30% on every purchase? Middle to lower America, that's right. Reverting back to a flat taxation system is preposterous. Let me reference Megan McArdle, Kriston Capps, and Matthew Yglesias as a few among the many economist bloggers who scoff at the fairness of the fair tax.

And on Clinton winning the New Hampshire primary for the democrats... I expected it anyway. I'm telling you, my prognostication is that she will win the next presidency. I've been calling this ever since about 2002.

Pickle Ice Cream

Dill Pickle Icecream. Have you ever tried it? It is about as bad as it sounds. At first it's like, oh this isn't so bad, but then...the aftertaste. Yuck.

I tried a sample of it at the farm show last year, made by a company in Pennsylvania. Pickle flavor and frozen dairy just don't blend together well; no matter how hard you try. Gross.

The pickles in the photo are only half of the ones my pappy brought over to our house to be canned last summer. Woah, pickle overload. We should've stuck them in ice cream and tried to sell it.

Is there a bunny in there?

And then there are the animals at the farm show too. The cows, horses, ducks, birds of variety, pigs, sheep, alpacas, and bunnies. I love the bunnies in particular. I want one. I was deprived as a child only ever having cold blooded pets like fish and turtles. I never had anything with hair. That's perhaps why I think the angoras are the cutest. They are lumps of fur...with eyes...and ears.

I Can't Believe It's Butter!

The Pennsylvania Farm Show has come again, and so that means the butter sculpture too. Nine hundred pounds of butter was lumped together to form a bus, cow, and children. Yes, 900 freakin' pounds. It takes a cow 9 months to produce enough milk to make that much butter. Jeepers creepers! Oogling at the giant hunk of butter is always one of my favorite things about the Farm Show.

My other favorites are the rodeo and the food. I had onion rings and a strawberry smoothie this year. Mmmm. I am sad I had no honey waffle with ice cream though, because I just couldn't eat anymore. I couldn't do it!

And the potato donuts, have I ever mentioned the potato donuts? Those are heavenly too. They are like donuts, only much much better.

My goodness, I just realized that the farm show is incredibly unhealthy. The giant sculpture of butter should have been some indication...

Insult Me Again

Are you the type of self loathing individual that enjoys a good insult every now and again? Take these:

Thou spleeny guts-griping malcontent!
[Thine] face is not worth sunburning.
Out of my sight! Thou dost infect my eyes.
Thou odiferous boil-brained measle!
You are as rheumatic as two dry toasts.
Thou venomed clapper-clawed clack-dish!
How now, wool-sack, what mutter you?
Thou villainous motley-minded foot-licker!

Gotta love Shakespeare.

The Shakespearean Insulter will take your self esteem down a few notches. And it will feel good.

Blood Suckers

Key chains got me thinking of the free little key chain flashlight that I got for donating blood last month. The Red Cross sent me another postcard this week saying that if I donated now, I'd get a free long sleeve t-shirt. Darn, I let them take my blood for too cheap. I'd donate again if I didn't have to wait the required 8 weeks. I have bunches of crappy free stuff that they've given me for my blood, but now when it's something good I can't even go. Boooo.

Is it sad that part of the reason I donate blood is to get the free stuff? I'm guessing other people are that way too, otherwise they wouldn't keep offering gadgets for blood. I wish they would stop sending quite so many solicitations for the red, but I guess I understand.

If you haven't given blood before, and you are healthy, you really should. It ain't so bad; and it might really save somebody's life.

Frosty on a Chain

I love cutesy decoration thingies (but only to a point where they don't clutter, note 78.4% of my stuff). But anyway, I got this snowman keychain for a mere 50 cents at JoAnn's last year after chirstmas. And he's good all through winter, not just during the holidays.

Frosty makes my keys so much more fun...and plush. I don't imagine he'll stay snowy white for long though.

Candylane

Hershey Park at Christmas time is the greatest! They have millions of lights and lots of chocolate-y fun. I can't believe they started charging for entrance. We used to go for free:( But now I guess you can ride the rides without charge. We rode the Reeses Cup Challenge a zillion times and I pretty much suck at it. That one is shooting a laser gun at targets while zooming through the ride.

The whole town smells like chocolate, and I love it. If you have not gone before, you must next year, even if you have to travel miles to get to PA. As far as amusement parks go, it is my favorite one I've ever been to. Nothing can compare.

The free candy they gave out after the chocolate ride this year, though, was those darn Kissables. They are too much candy-coating and not enough chocolate. Where's the good stuff?