With Eternal Life, Nothing Is Certain But Taxes

   
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Warren Edward Buffett is an American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist. He is widely considered the most successful investor of the 20th century. Buffett is consistently ranked among the world's wealthiest people. He was ranked as the world's wealthiest person in 2008 and as the third wealthiest person in 2011. In 2012, American magazine Time named Buffett one of the most influential people in the world.

Warren Buffett said: "If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end -- people like myself -- should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we've ever had it."

In my opinion, Warren Buffett is absolutely right.

Keep in mind, however, that I also believe that Henry David Thoreau was absolutely right when he said that "books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations." If I possess, tucked away somewhere within the cellular storage area of my brain -- in the matrix of my mnemonic-dependent memory -- the entire contents of all the books I have read in my lifetime, then I am certainly wealthy beyond all belief and imagination.

Me and Warren Buffett -- both of us wealthy in our own lights.

How 'bout that?

While reading from the rather rambling (often chaotic) chapters of Darren Greer's novel Still Life With June I came across a reference to being pissed off. And it struck me that pissed off was a strange way to indicate that the speaker is annoyed, nettled, miffed, riled, peeved, steamed, or displeased. What does 'pissed' have to do with anything? Where did the term come from?

I looked and looked, all over the Internet. The best ideas as to its origin came from a Random House website titled The Mavens' Word Of The Day. It did not answer my specific question, but it did offer some interesting conjectures.

Oh well . . .

You can't always get what  you want.

Now that pisses me off.

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TRIVIA

The first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum.

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HISTORICAL EVENT

On this day, August 5, in 1861, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln imposed the first United States federal income tax by signing the Revenue Act. Strapped for cash with which to pursue the Civil War, Lincoln and Congress agreed to impose a 3 percent tax on annual incomes over $800.

Congress repealed Lincoln's tax law in 1871, but in 1909 passed the 16th Amendment, which set in place the federal income-tax system used today. Congress ratified the 16th Amendment in 1913.

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WORD FOR TODAY

taxation
noun
1.
a. The act or practice of imposing taxes.
b. The fact of being taxed.
2. An assessed amount of tax.
3. Revenue gained from taxes.

A tax (from the Latin taxo; "rate") is a financial charge or other levy imposed upon a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a state or the functional equivalent of a state such that failure to pay is punishable by law. Taxes are also imposed by many administrative divisions. Taxes consist of direct or indirect taxes and may be paid in money or as its labor equivalent.

According to Black's Law Dictionary, a tax is a "pecuniary burden laid upon individuals or property owners to support the government."

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CELEBRITY BIRTHDAYS

Neil Alden Armstrong

(Aug, 5, 1930 -Aug. 25, 2012)

Neil Armstrong was an American astronaut and the first person to walk on the Moon.

Loni Kaye Anderson

(born August 5, 1945)

Loni Anderson is an American actress who is known for having played the role of Jennifer Marlowe on the CBS television sitcom WKRP in Cincinnati and for playing Jayne Mansfield and Thelma Todd in television movies.

J. Wesley "Jesse" Williams

(born August 5, 1981)

Jesse Williams is an American actor and model, best known for his role as Dr. Jackson Avery on the ABC Television series Grey's Anatomy. He also appeared as Lena's boyfriend Leo in the film sequel The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2. In 2012, he starred in the horror film The Cabin in the Woods.

Maureen Denise McCormick

(born August 5, 1956)

Maureen McCormick is an American actress, author and recording artist. She is most widely known for her career as a child actress, during which she portrayed Marcia Brady on ABC's The Brady Bunch from 1969 to 1974.

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It is no more immoral to directly rob citizens than to slip indirect taxes into the price of goods that they cannot do without.
--Albert Camus

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