National Lampoon Vacation

Above is a picture of our outdoor hotel for our recent visit to O'Leno State Park in Florida.   Florida has a great state park system.  Very well organized and all facilies are well maintained.   The campsites are set up for RV and also Tent with some being tent only.   Most have electrical and water at each individual site.

O'Leno has an interesting history.   Originally it was a town called "Keno" after the gambling game but back in the 1800s  it was change to "Leno" because of pressure from religious elements and also business people that didn't want to offend anybody.   Then when the railroad was built,  it passed by Leno and it became a ghost town.  Later on in the 1930s, the forestry department made a state forest out of it and it was referred to as "Old Leno" and is now called O'leno.   Within  the boundaries of the park, the Santa Fe River goes underground and resurfaces down the line.  They have an amazing system of hiking trails and I took a few pictures which are posted below:

Above you can see some of the palm tree type shrubs that are all over the are and concentrated in this particular area where I snapped th photo.  I imagine that there was some clearing done and the palm shrubs took over. 

Below is a picture of a suspension bridge build back in the 30s:

If you are ever in northern central florida I would highly recommend a visit to this park.  Camping is $18 and a day visit is $5 per car.  They have hiking and biking trails as well as plenty of fishing and also swimming area.   Be careful not to swim in the wrong place or you might come across a gator. For more info, check out the Florida State Parks web site which is very good.

big easy

The French Quarter is alive and well.   Below are a couple of pictures I took during a recent daytime visit.   It was a good time which was made even better by the guy who works the door and seats people at the Royal Cafe.  We were walking by about 11 am and he was hawking the passerby's with an invitation to eat blackened chicken, shrimp creole, etc and he also hawked out that our dog was welcome.  We had a dog stroller and thought it was funny.  When  we got hungry we decided to take him up on the invitation.  The guy loves his job.  He made sure we felt right at home and sat us at a table with an open air street side view where we could watch the goings on and interesting people.  No matter what you look like or how you dress, you will not feel out of place at the French Quarter.  Give em a visit and enjoy yourself while supporting some great culture.

R

Time for a Party

I think it is great that people have the opportunity to voice thier opinions and participate in peaceful protests.   However, I do think it is a good idea to know exactly what it is that you are protesting about.   In the "Occupy Wall Street" movement the participants are saying that they are fed up but it isn't really clear what they want "Wall Street" to do.   Are they wanting to shut down the stock market and the banking system and possibly bring in a new group of capitolists who are not driven by greed?   It just doesn't work that way. 

The problem is that if they got rid of every member of "Wall Street", there are plenty more who will come in and do whatever it is they can get away with.  AIG, Enron, and every other type of scandal or fraud will repeat itself as long as people can get away with it.  That is just the nature of people. 

The solution isn't to ask the players to start playing nice.  The answer is in the officiating.  Washington, and the state legislatures, should be the primary focus.  As long as people put up with a system where elected officials can be paid off without concequence, then they will continue to get the kickbacks.  People do need to take to the streets.  Particularly on Tuesday in early November.   We need to elect representatives who are not part of the current two party system because it is broken. 

The time is right for a real third party that is not just the extremists from an existing party like the "Tea Party".   Thier answer is to "revolt"  and be hard core Republicans.   We need a true "Tea Party", one that doesn't just hi-jack the name but actually represents something different which is honest representation.  It is time that American Citizens have more representation than multi-national corporations.

Basically, it is time for America to be America.

Einstein & Twyman: "I done told you so already"

A few weeks back it was reported in the news that scientists had clocked nutrinos traveling faster than the speed of light.   This is a finding that would imply that time travel was theoretically possible and was also at odds with the theory of relativity according to our boy Albert Einstien.  Now it comes out that they likely did not account for the rotation of the earth (relativity) and the movement of the tracking device in relation to the earth.

I have already explained here on the one man web log that time travel is not possible and will never happen.  If it was ever going to happen, it would have already happened in the future and we would know about it here in the past which is at this precise moment the present.

Albert explained it as follows:   E=MC2

I explained it here on the one man web log a few months back: http://marctwyman.blogspot.com/2011/07/science-cathes-up-to-one-man-web-log.html

Read more about it here:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2394747,00.asp#fbid=OA9BZlZhNOI

Taxmasters - News story from the internet today

(picture from ABC news story referenced below)

http://goingconcern.com/2011/10/will-jk-harris-and-taxmasters-join-the-tax-lady-in-the-late-night-tax-problem-solver-body-count/


Below is an op-ed from the above link:


Will JK Harris and TaxMasters Join the Tax Lady in the Late-Night-Tax-Problem-Solver Body Count? By Joe Kristan

 

“Pennies on the dollar” may be a great pitch on cable television, but it’s not a surefire business plan. Desperate taxpayers who have paid money up front to JK Harris to resolve their tax debts at a discount are joining the IRS as potential “pennies on the dollar” creditors now that this leader in the tax settlement industry is filing for bankruptcy protection.
This is the second major blow this year to cable TV ad revenues. Earlier this year “Tax Lady” Roni Deutch gave up her law license in the face of charges that she took fees up front to resolve tax debts and failed to follow through.
Tax nerds see the late night ads when we get home and wonder how these outfits manage to get such great deals out of the IRS when getting the Service to actually forgive tax debts is like pulling teeth from a grumpy rhino for the rest of us.

TaxMasters now stands as the biggest remaining player in the TV tax settlement business, but they have their own problems. They were de-listed last month from the OTC Bulletin Board to the pink sheets for failing to file their 10-Q due August 15. The last reported trade for Taxs.pk is at 13 cents. They have also been sued by the Minnesota Attorney General for allegedly deceptive practices. ABC News reported on the suit:

The Minnesota attorney general says many of the company’s employees are skilled tele-marketers who have little knowledge of the complicated tax issues faced by people who have fallen behind in filing their returns or making tax payments. “When you call, you think you’re talking to a tax professional,” said Swanson. “You’re really talking to just a salesperson who’s trying to get you to sign up.”

So maybe the secret is that the late night settlement outfits are staffed by telemarketers who just happen to be awesome at selling pennies-on-the-dollar deals to the IRS. If that’s true, though, they seem to be having a lot of trouble turning what would truly be a remarkable and valuable skill into profits.

Texas Toast

Here in Texas, our boy Rick Perry decided that he was going to save the country.   Lucky for the rest of the country they are not as embedded in political ideology as rural Texans.   Little things like kickbacks and extreme opinions kind of get in the way when it comes to getting elected at the big time level. 

The truth is that in Texas the lieutenant governor actually more important when it comes to legislation. 

The problem with Perry is that he wants to continue a "war on science" by teaching sunday school in science class.   I don't have a problem with global warming skeptics that are scientists.  However when a pure ideolog oposes the concept of global warming just because he is supposed to, that is like attacking Christopher Columbus because the earth is not flat.  

The bottom line is that Rick Perry is a phoney.   Anybody who supports him is willfully ignorant.

Texas had many great things to offer and Rick is just not one of them.

and then there was one

There used to be 4 major players in the "Tax Resolution" business.

First it was American Tax Relief -  shut down by the FTC

Then it was Roni Lynn Deutch  -  finished off by the state of California

and now JK Harris is filing bankruptcy to get out of hot water:
http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2011/oct/07/jk-harris-to-file-for-bankruptcy/

There definitely seems to be more to the story but either way,  karma is a bitch.