Robert Hall

I had a nice mini-vacation back home in Colorado this weekend..beautiful fall weather, aspens all gold and yellow around the Denver metro, blue skies, snow capped mountains in the distance. Good times w/ good friends...made me homesick and realize how much I hate Arizona...will most likely be moving back to Denver in '09. Probably going to take off the week between Xmas and New Years..probably go to San Diego.. Thinking about a real vacation (a week or more) in Spring...thinking about going to explore Seattle and Vancouver and the surrounding areas...

I watched it last night on Larry King...it was pretty funny..

bored

Yeah, the BRIC (Brasil, Russia, India, and China) economies have been on the rise... though I'm wondering if Russia is heading backwards towards the Soviet days...

Doesn't surprise me..there are a lot of nutters here. But Spanish will be the primary language in AZ within a few decades, though...

I know a lot of techies that have Priuses also... because of it's high tech nature, it has high geek cred. We will see if the Volt has similar appeal w/ my demographic in a couple of years.

Both CNG and LPG powered cars have been in the US for years, in fleets... I remember 20 years ago they were using Dodge Diplomats that were LPG (propane) powered in some Florida county police departments....

I'm afraid I'll be long gone by then.

The 20th century was the century of the American Empire. The question is who is going to dominate this century? China?

The Prius is not about styling, or gas mileage...it's about being clean and green, and the image of that.

Well, it's going to be out long before the Volt, so it's a moot point to compare them for a couple of years...

Same thought I have with my Jeep..it's been paid for for over 3 years now, and my annual maintenance + repair cost is far less than a $500/mo car payment. My plan is pay 5 years, drive for 5 years w/o payment, then buy a new car... I've put about $2k in maintenance in it this year (new windshield, transfer case reseal, rear wheel bearings replaced, front discs/pads, 3 oil changes, trans. fluid change, axles greased) ...equivalent to 4 months of payments. About half that last year (which incl. $750 for a set of tires).

Lots of S-corps have 1 person... Common practice in the freelance/independent consulting world. Usually has tax advantages compared to an LLC.

bravado

Another poll that was interesting...something about 'likeability' on CNN..a poll of viewers of the debate....Obama was like 75% but McCain was 22%..

Prado (restaurant at Balboa Park, San Diego)

Nothing wrong with that...it's a big car, and those 20s don't look outsized like a Donk w/ 24s would look...

+1. Very well put.

On one forum, someone described his constant blinking as 'butterfly eyes'...the lighting must have been really bothering his eyes. All the smirking was annoying...

An S-corp is a business, albeit often a sole proprietorship. Big businesses have to pay their fair share...and many of them that make huge profits (Exxon, etc) often make those profits through illegal/corrupt means..(look at Enron, Worldcom, Broadcom, etc..) Interesting factoid--these corrupt big businesses usually have a Republican CEO at the helm...coincidence?

One tax change I'd like to see (no one has brought it up) is I think I should be able claim my dog as a dependent....breeders can claim their kids as dependents, why not those of us with furry four-legged 'children' ?

...or how about 'Rob the software engineer' instead of Joe the plumber.... in a normal programming job, 'Rob' has made from 95k (in a startup) to 125k (in a Fortune 500 company) over the last 8 years, alternating with periods of self-employment (1099, paying the 15 percent self employment tax) @ $75/hr and paying for his own health insurance, to corp-to-corp employment through his S-corp (billing from $75-100 hr, depending on the contract) to W2 employment through contracting firms for $65/hr w/ benefits. In all these scenarios, Obama's tax plan appears to be better for Rob the software engineer.

The greenhouse almost looks carryover.

Well, those aliens...a computer virus can also delete aliens.

Steven Seagal