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God’s Warning

August 30, 2011 in Global Warming, Religion & Theology by DJ | No comments

jocelyn Coupaud photo.

I had to laugh today (to keep from crying) – Michelle Bachmann claims that severe weather is God’s way of warning us. Okay, that’s not so far-fetched. But she claims we’re being warned by God about our budget deficit.  Clearly someone, perhaps Mother Nature, is not happy.  But I don’t think it has anything to do with our national debt.

“How the faithful city has become a whore! She that was full of justice, righteousness lodged in her— but now murderers!” says Isaiah. “[T]heir land is filled with horses, and there is no end to their chariots.”

“I brought you into a plentiful land to eat its fruits and its good things. But when you entered you defiled my land, and made my heritage an abomination,” says Jeremiah. “Therefore once more I accuse you, says the LORD, and I accuse your children’s children.”

“They covet fields, and seize them; houses, and take them away; they oppress householder and house, people and their inheritance,” says Micah. “Therefore thus says the LORD: Now, I am devising against this family an evil from which you cannot remove your necks; and you shall not walk haughtily, for it will be an evil time.”

“The fields are devastated, the ground mourns; for the grain is destroyed, the wine dries up, the oil fails,” says Joel. “Even the wild animals cry to you because the watercourses are dried up, and fire has devoured he pastures of the wilderness.”

Do they really believe we are suffering because the government spends too much, or because we permit homosexuality? They do. I can only guess that they haven’t actually read the Book they say we should all read. I read it, and what is happening is no surprise. Militarism, environmental destruction, oppression, and corruption– these are the things the Bible warns against.

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Community Effort

May 27, 2011 in History, Resilient Community by DJ | No comments

From the Iron County Record of January 12, 1923:

EVERYBODY CAN BE USED
The city street supervisor states that he can use any body that wishes to assist In the surfacing of Center Street. For the past two days teams and men have been at work and a great dealt has been accomplished but there yet remains much to do and if I all the men in town who are not employed will turn out this job can be completed by tomorrow evening. This street always has been a bad one, but if it is surfaced now the troubles of the past in the way of
mud holes uneven surface etc will be eliminated.

Can you imagine a plea for volunteers for street maintenance today?

The Tax Code: More Welfare for the Well Off

May 26, 2011 in Tax Issues by DJ | No comments

Dan4th Nicholas image

A tax client asks,

“Our income for the 1st quarter dropped dramatically. Can I base my estimated payment for the 2nd quarter on actual income, and if so what is the formula?”

The short answer is, yes.  The law requires that a taxpayer pay in 90% of the tax due for the year, or 110% of the tax due for the previous year; either amount will satisfy the requirement.  Except that if the taxpayer earned $150,000 or more, he/she must pay in 100% of the tax due this year.  This is all covered in IRS Publication 505, which for 2011 contains 69 pages explaining how to calculate what you need to pay.

In this taxpayer’s situation, where income is expected to be significantly less than last year, possibly as much as 75% less.  Obviously he wants to pay in based on this year’s tax, whihc will be dramatically less than last year’s.  That means he has to know how much this year’s tax will be.  The first challenge is that both he and his wife are currently unemployed.  He expects to start work again this summer.  He has no idea whether or not his wife will find work.  So he has to make a ballpark guess as to what their income will be before they have made it.

The second challenge is even more formidable: assuming X dollars in income, what will their tax be?  All he has to do is start with his best-guess taxable income, deduct his itemized deductions, and figure in any credits.  Except that last year his itemized deductions were phased out and he was ineligible for any credits.  Looking at last year’s tax return will not help him.  His itemized deductions are likely to be d=significantly different, and he may or may not be eligible for the Child Tax Credit, Higher Education Credits, and/or the Retirement Savings Credit.

In effect, he’s going to have to pay me to prepare a tax return based on fictitious numbers in order to have any idea what his tax liability will be.  Then he’ll have to pay me again when the year is over to prepare a tax return based on the actual numbers.  This by a couple that is currently unemployed.

How can we live with a tax code under which a reasonably intelligent taxpayer has no idea how much he will owe?  We talk about corporate welfare; the tax code is a form of welfare for accountants and lawyers who would otherwise have to find gainful, productive employment.  As an accountant, I am embarrassed to make my living this way.  It isn’t right, and it needs to change.

Of course, with Congress full of lawyers as usual, change isn’t very likely.

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Peak Oil: Not Just for Liberals Anymore

May 25, 2011 in Oil by DJ | No comments

Pro Soil photo

Facing Up to End of ‘Easy Oil’ – an article from the stalwart Wall Street Journal no less.  Of course, they anticipate new technologies to make more difficult deposits easier to get.  The concept of a post-oil economy is not something they want to think about.

The End of the World – Again

May 24, 2011 in Religion & Theology by DJ | No comments

“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.  But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.”  Matthew 24:35-36

I’m not sure which is more troubling: that Harold Camping predicted the end of the world, was wrong, and has now predicted an alternate date, or the fascination everyone has with this ridiculous non-story.  The Bible tells us that the end will come “like a thief in the night.”  What Godly person would claim to know more than Jesus himself?  Kind of makes me wonder which team he’s playing for.

A Humane-ifesto

May 23, 2011 in local food by DJ | No comments

“I try to avoid factory farmed dairy and eggs, if possible. I do this to boycott large commercial diary and eggs producers who really don’t treat their animals in a humane manner.   I can produce all our own dairy products here, so there is no reason for me to have to buy from, and support, factory farm commercial producers.  If we run out of dairy products, we’ll do without and use soymilk, tofu and ‘fake cheeze’ until our goats freshen again. Just by doing this, I do quite a bit, in my own little way, to not support the factory farm industry.” – Molly Nolte, Fias Co Farm

We often visit the web site of Fias Co Farm, a wonderful resource for everything goats – from birthing and health to milking and dairying.  We’re grateful to Molly Nolte for maintaining it as a public service!

On my last visit, I happened to click on Molly’s Humane-ifesto.  It is thoughtfully written and well worth a read.  It may also make a great starting point for one’s own personal “humane-ifesto.”

Sure, we do our best to be kind to our goats.  They are part of the family – we could do no less.  But that’s just the beginning.

It’s not easy to avoid the industrial food machine, especially in a climate where it’s difficult to “grow your own” much of the year.  We joined a CSA last year that offered fresh vegetables throughout the winter – but in January what grows (even in a greenhouse) is mostly leaves.  Sometimes it’s difficult to deny oneself the peppers, fruits, and even (generally tasteless) tomatoes offered at the local grocery store.

Molly has chosen a vegetarian path.  I tried that for a while (almost ten years) but was unable to continue.  Like Molly, I try to avoid factory-farmed products, including meat.  We buy a locally-grown pig once a year, which provides most of the meat we need.  I understand there may soon be a source of locally-grown poultry, which will eliminate the need to buy chickens from the store.  (Our preferred store carries a brand that claims to be “family farmed,” but having never seen the farm these chickens come from, I have my doubts about the conditions in which the chickens are raised.)

Please take a few moments to read Molly’s manifesto.  You may not agree with it, but hopefully it will make you think.  From thinking comes awareness,  and from awareness comes change.

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BBC Confirms: Apple is a Religion

May 22, 2011 in capitalism by DJ | No comments

Kit Cowan photo.

When viewed through an MRI, the brain of an Apple fan resembles the brain of a person under the influence of religious fervor.  I suspect few non-members of the Church of Apple will be surprised.  Details of the upcoming BBC Special here.

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For the Love of Time

May 21, 2011 in Economics, Oil by DJ | No comments

I was racing home last night on the freeway, wanting to get there as soon as possible so I could spend some extra time with my wife.  The speed limit was 80, and I was doing it – one eye on the road and the other on my gas gauge.  Reports tell me that a typical car getting 30 mpg at 55 mph drops to about 24 mpg at 75 mph.

Since I had some time on my hands, I started doing some math in my head…

Let’s assume that my gas mileage decreases by 27% when I’m driving 80 mph, and that my base highway gas mileage is 38 mpg.  Gas currently costs $3.77 per gallon.  So that four-mile stretch of freeway would use 0.10 gallons and cost 38 cents at 55 mph.  Driving at 80 mph, the consumption increases to 0.14 gallons and costs 53 cents, an increase of 15 cents or 39%.

That might be worth it to spend some extra time with my wife.  But how much time do I really save?  At 55 mph, that 4-mile stretch takes 4.4 minutes.  At 80 mph, the same stretch takes 3.0 minutes.  Whoopie!  I just saved a minute and a half!!

Let’s stretch that out to a longer distance.  I can drive about 400 freeway miles on a 10.5 gallon tank of gas.  At 55 mpg, that would take me 7.3 hours and cost $39.68.  Ay 80 mph, that would take 5 hours and cost $54.36.  That’s a cost of $14.68 for a gain of two hours and 15 minutes, or $6.38 per hour.  And therein lies the rub: the cost of driving faster is less than minimum wage, so gasoline is still cheaper than my time.  This makes it economically worthwhile to drive faster and get home quicker.

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Weird Tax Law

May 20, 2011 in Tax Issues by DJ | No comments

State income tax paid by an individual cannot be considered a business expense (except in very unusual circumstances).  Instead, it is deducted on Schedule A as an itemized deduction.  This means it doesn’t reduce self-employment taxes, and only reduces income taxes if the taxpayer can itemize his/her deductions.  (The tax can be deducted if it is directly attributable to a business, for example in the case of a gross receipts tax like those found in Indiana or on California LLCs.)

But that same state income tax can be considered a business expense for purposes of calculating Net Operating Loss (NOL), which is carried back or forward and used to reduce income taxes for other years.  (See Rev. Rul. 70-40.)  Why?  Because, unlike the law governing business expenses, the law governing NOL doesn’t specifically say it can’t.

Weird, huh?  That’s our tax code in action.

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Wood Fired Boiler from Recycled Parts

May 19, 2011 in Global Warming - Zero Emissions Challenge, Reduce Reuse Recycle, Utah life by DJ | No comments

We’re far enough out of town that natural gas isn’t an option for fuel, so our home uses propane.  We had reduced our household propane use to about 200 gallons a year.  Then we started making cheese, heating the water with two propane-fueled tankless hot water heaters.  It takes about 20-30 gallons of propane to pasteurize a batch of milk (depending on the size of the batch).  Last year we went through over 600 gallons of propane, and this year was likely to be more.  So we’ve been looking for alternatives.

Wood is the obvious choice.  It is readily available, can be sustainably harvested, has almost zero carbon footprint, and best of all is very inexpensive.  In a sparsely-populated area like ours, the particulates don’t present a problem.  And obtaining it counts as an exercise program!  But wood-fired boilers online have price tags starting at $3,000 – way out of our budget this year.

We’ve been talking to a friend who welds about building us one.  He was interested because, if it worked, he wants to build one for his own use.  After much research and contemplation, we settled on a dual tank design where the inner tank serves as a fire box and the outer tank surrounds the firebox with water.  A trip to the local recycling yard netted us an old air compressor tank and a 100-gallon butane tank.  Then my friend went to work.  He added a door to the firebox, and a piece of scrap 6″ pipe to carry the smoke out of the firebox to the chimney; this runs through the water tank, allowing the water to absorb extra heat.  He added attachment nipples and a pressure relief valve.

As for the all-important cost, the two tanks cost $75 at the recycling yard.  Parts and labor cost another $350.  Plumbing materials cost about another $350, for a total cost of about $775, which is less than the current cost of a tank full of propane.  Wa-hoo!

When my friend had finished, he filled the boiler with water and started a fire.  In 40 minutes, about 70 gallons of water had been heated to boiling!  I took it home and hooked it up, adding about 60 feet of plumbing to my already-tortured vat heating system.  Bur my results were the same: 40 minutes to boiling, and 185-degree water at the vat.  With the tankless heaters, because of our high altitude, we have trouble maintaining 160 degrees at the vat.  Not only will the wood-fired boiler save us money and reduce our carbon footprint, it will help us heat the milk faster, too!

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