Lund Explorer

Gosh you were almost next door and didn't call... My aunt and uncle had a cottage on the SE shore near Prudenville for years and we always spent a week or so there every summer when I was a kid. I'll really be looking forward to looking at background shots to see if I recognize any of the places you were fishing. Now for a change of scenery (and serenity) you should be up there for Tip-Up Town, it's a zoo!

Good for you! Tell us when you get into that fulltime position. Will a guy with a Bass Resource bumper sticker get any slack?

It sounded better than "Have A Nice Day!"

Speaking from prior experience as a flight chief in a military police unit, I can tell you that missing appointments isn't an unusual problem. The higher up you go in this type of organization, whether civilian or military, I couldn't tell you how many times that my schedule was all FUBAR. Besides emergencies which we should all be able to understand, there were many times that an appoitnemt/duty ran over the time that I had allotted for it. I can understand why you were put off, but can also understand why your representative said what they did. You're going into a profession where most of the people that you will be dealing with are actually going to fell put off themselves! During your internship you are going to get first hand knowledge of tactful ways to address that problem. Until then, swallow your wounded pride and accept the fact that what took place was out of your control, and most likely out of the other person's control as well. A simple email back to him to reschedule your appointment shouldn't be that hard. Sample: Dear Xxxx, I'm sorry that you were delayed from making our previously scheduled meeting. At your convience, could you call me so that we can arrainge a new meeting date. Perhaps we could schedule it for early in your shift before you get tied down with your other responsibilites. Respectfully, Stasher1

The Four Stroke Outboard. I knew I wasn't going to be forced into buying a few gallons of Quicksilver each year, but the additional fuel economy was a real nice bonus as well.

At this point I really don't care if I get a response from this group. However, I was under the impression that this Tackle the Storm movement was somehow involved with it. The whole thing came about due to an article that Don wrote under that title and provided a mailing address to RCBC. I wouldn't have gotten their address anywhere else if they are only a local outfit. Just another of life's lessons.....

"Potter isn't selling, he's buying!" (It's A Wonderful Life)

I'm not a real big fan of supposed professional team sports, but did have to chuckle when I saw the consequences of the new rookie pay scale. Pretty soon, staying in college will pay just as good as the NFL does!

The longer you fish and the older you get, you'll find out why most retired folks fish during weekdays. This issue is one of those reasons.

A 15' flat with fish marked at 12'-13' seems to sound like whatever those fish were, they were suspended. If so, I wouldn't think that's too shallow for a dropshot rig even in clear water. Perhaps not fishing it completely vertical, but it could work. What baits/methods did you use to catch the few that you got? What type of cover was on this flat?

Actually Glenn, I was expecting a letter from the group. Of all the different organizations that I have donated to in the past, I don't ever remember not getting a reply back at least thanking me. Granted that most of them were doing so in hopes of future support. I'm not sure if that means that RCBC won't need that help again or not, but I will keep it in mind.

I never heard anything about the first event with RCBC Outdoors. They did cash my check, but other than that total silence about what they did with the stuff I sent them.

One of the neighborhood kids had one of those bikes. Crashed it one day, and the damage that gear shifter did to him almost made him "one of the girls". Ouch!

Hey Steve, Do you know how many Yankee Smalljaws I plan to introduce these grubs to? Great looking baits!

Why, didn't you see the thread on Amy Winehouse? People of all ages will do things they know full well will bring negative attention for the simple reason they want attention so bad. Kids don't normally have the same ability to logically think things through that adults do so it is hard to hold them to the same standards. From what you've said on here, plus from my own experience, this sounds like the problem is due to either a poorly thought out attempt for attention, sibling rivalry, or a combination of both. Since you've already tried punishment to cure it and that hasn't worked, any suggestion of a new form of punishment isn't going to help either. What you need to do is to find out what has triggered it. You said that this problem has been going on for a couple of months now, so I have to ask if it ever happened before that? If not, than you can probably figure that something or someone triggered this back around that time. That's quite a long time ago in a kid's world so for him, he might not even remember the actual event, or he may not want to tell you. You, the wife, and the other adults in his life are going to have to put your heads together to try to figure out what was going on just prior to this. It might be something that an adult would think was trivial, but to a kid it might not have been. How long has it been since you've had the kids? Did his brother get some different or special treatment for reason back then? When are the boys' birthdays? Did they have a visitation with their Mom or Dad back about that time? Regardless of what you find, it is obvious that trying to punish him for this type of behavior isn't working, so you are going to have to try a completely new tract to break this habit he has. I think both Nate and Slonezp gave you some good advice, and those things might be worth trying. I don't think it's time to shave his head to look for the "666" birthmark yet, but I'm glad you're trying to figure out how to stop the problem before it escalates. Good Luck

Impossible. That would mean Rootbeer would have to be in his late 40's!

I know it sounds really good Ronnie, until you take into account that everything other than debt payments and savings gets more expensive by 23%. An $800 per/month rental expense goes to $984. $200 worth of groceries will now cost $246. When you consider that even of all couples making $100k per/year, that close to 90% of them live paycheck to paycheck. That is why I said earlier that it would "take a real modification of how people look at buying a home". My worry is that John & Jane Doe are going to take what little extra they have and blow it long before they save enough to pay a large lump sum sales tax on a major purchase. And I don't want to be argumentative with a fishing buddy.... But when the IRS ceases to exist, who collects all of this sales tax? Like it or not, there will always be a federal agency that is tasked with making sure that it collects all of whatever tax we have. Granted that most people won't have to deal with a dizzying array of ever changing tax laws (which is a good thing), but businesses will still be tasked with tax laws to learn and follow. And whoever is working at IRS now will most likely be doing the same thing on a more narrow scale. Unless of course you figure you'll also have to collect and pay sales taxes when you hold a yard/garage sale, sell a house, a boat, a car/truck. See where I'm going with this? Because I'm sure all of you know that you are supposed to report income from such sources, just like I'm supposed to ask as the tax preparer if you've got any of that income. Fun..... Huh?

Wanting to make a brief comment on a national sales tax that I wonder if people take into consideration. That is the large one time purchase. Assume that 23% is law, and it's now time for some young couple to make the jump into the American dream of home ownership. Modest home and for the sake of making the calculations easier, let's say the price is $200k. Gone are the days of getting a 100% equity mortgage, but to be kind, this couple finds a banker willing to take 10% down. How in the world is this couple going to afford dropping 33% of the purchase price to walk in the door of this new home? $66K plus loan costs to buy a house worth $200k that you still owe $190k for? That's going to take a real modification of how people look at buying a home. Until then, home sales will most likely drop along with property values for those who already own their homes. Home sales may spike right before such a tax kicks in, but it will surely crash right afterwards. How about buying a new bass boat, camper, or the truck to tow them with? How much of a downstroke is going to be required on a new Ranger or BassCat? How about the 4x4 you get to drag it from lake to lake? Okay, I'll shut up now as I've gone a ways beyond being brief!

Believe it or not Snook, the nightmare that was the SBT is finally over. The SBT(Single Business Tax) was a tax on what I could best describe as "modified net profits". Your example of a business with revenues of $500k and expenses of $660k, though it generated a net loss didn't absolve it of owing taxes under SBT once you added back in all of the nondeductible expenses. Those expenses, which include payroll, payroll taxes, other employee benefits, depreciation, interest payments, and many other items, punished businesses in this state for way too many years. It recently morphed into the new and improved MBT (Michigan Business Tax) which for some types of business wasn't much of an improvement. The MBT was broken down into two taxes. Three quarters of one percent charged on gross profits plus another 4%-5% charged on net profits. And on top of that was a surcharge to help balance the budget! If the company you gave as an example was one that had high gross profits, such as a hotel, bowling center, golf course, or a company with commission sales, they could owe a good amount of tax even though they still recorded a loss. Manufacturing companies also couldn't deduct production worker costs in calculating gross profits. Quite honestly, this new tax was simply insane. Fortunately, we now have a corporate income tax on C-Corporations and LLC's that are taxed as if they were a C-Corp. Individuals, S-Corps, Partnerships, and other pass through entities no longer have to pay a business tax in Michigan. Such was not the case before when such taxpayers not only had to pay SBT/MBT, but also were subject to regular income taxes on the net income. And people wonder why I fully endorse the consumption of alcohol..... For accountants anyways!

Welcome to the forum. So I'll start to answer your question with a question. After you've caught your limit, what do you change in your quest for that kicker?

Before this gets shut down sadly, I wanted to recall a story I heard a few years back. Former Senator Alan Simpson had taken the floor of the Senate during a debate on SS & Medicare, and to make his point he told a story about his Grandfather being pulled over by a Wyoming State Trooper for speeding. The elder Simpson was driving the old farm truck into town when he got pulled over. When the tropper explained why he had been stopped, he exclaimed that it was impossible for this old farm truck to go that fast. So the trooper asked him if he had a governer on board, an office that the middle of the Simpson clan held at the time. "Naw" the elder Simpson stated, "That's just manure you're smelling!" Of course at the time he told this story, Mr. Simpson had already decided to retire from the Senate, and as he told it that it mattered very little if he actually spoke his mind. Maybe we just need a little more of that these days. BTW, he is still telling it the way it is. Googling up his latest comments on social security as the co-chair of the bi-partisan debt commission only proves it. Not an exact quote, but close.... "Social Security is like a milk cow with 310 million teats!"

Gosh, I didn't even get the chance to welcome you to the forum..... You were really going to like it here!

So, last night we had a severe thunderstorm form up over the top of our little rurual county and it put on quite a light show. Watching the 11pm news, the weatherman came on to say that in the last hour that over 30,000 lighting bolts had been recorded in the county..... 30,000! That's over 500 every minute. In a square shaped county, 24 miles by 24 miles. 576 square miles in size, that's 52 lighting strikes per/sq. mile. Just over one minute per/strike, per/mile for an hour. It was almost an afterthought that it also dropped 3-4 inches of rain in that same hour, and just under 6 inches in the two hours or so before the storm left. So far as I've gathered, there were two homes that caught fire, one factory that took a direct hit and gave over 300 people a day off in the middle of the week, and one fax machine in Rodney that no longer works. But 30,000 lighting strikes in one hour? Makes me happy I wasn't on the lake!

Open the following link, hit auto repeat, crank up the volume, and leave for the rest of the day! Oompah!!!

Nope.... I'm going to disagree. This is a country that figured out how to go to the moon less than two decades after the first rocket was launched into orbit. As long as we all decide to band together for a common cause I don't think anything is beyond our ability to overcome it. Granted it seems that we have gone from Menlo Park to "As Seen On TV".... But I wouldn't throw in the jockstrap too quick!