Thanksgiving 2010

I give thanks for the wonderful family I am blessed to be a part of. I have a wonderful wife who looks for the positive in everything. She is full of the life I can only wish I had. Bryant is a wonderful son who is more man than even he knows. Lena is the precious joy that God has blessed Stacye and me with. She brightens every room she enters. She holds so much promise for this world.

During these holiday times we often reflect and I am no exception. This Thanksgiving I am grateful and thankful for the memories I have of a great childhood spent with the most amazing brothers and sister. A brother I've always looked up to as a Concertmaster, Football Hero, Business Icon, Dreamchaser and keeper of great knowledge (though he thinks he is none of these). Another brother who looked up to me, but taught me much about myself at times he didn't know it. He taught me to look for things that only God can bestow on this world (the Northern Lights) and made me feel awesome by joining me on a Navy ship bound for the North Atlantic. And how about a sister who introduced me to KitKats? To this day I think of my mother taking us to pick her up from her volunteer hospital job (candy striper) and she always gave us KitKats. At the time it was the candy bars I loved, today it is the love that she was showing and sharing that mean so much.

All three are married to wonderful people; a man who introduced me to some of my favorite Eagles music and broadened my musical tastes, a woman who showed me more about life than she'll ever understand and another who was there at the end of my mother's life and the beginning of my brother's.

I am thankful for all that my parents did to make my childhood good and memorable. Mom is waiting for us in Heaven and I cannot wait to relive the good times with her. Dad is out there and I'm eternally grateful for the sacrifices he made for my well-being wherever he may be.

When I lay down my head at night I am grateful that there are two incredible beings looking out for me; God and my Wife. We know the wonders of God and it was Him who delivered Stacye to me (or me to her, I'm not sure which). I am thankful for her perseverance and incredible patience. As someone not worthy of the love Stacye has shown, I am forever grateful that through thick and thin, she remains faithful, loyal and loving.

I am grateful for the friends I have and for which it would take a book to describe.

For all these things I thank God. My wish for you is that you have a life as blessed (if not more) than mine.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Crook CEO's vs. Crook Government

If you have ever wondered why so many opponents to big government don't freak out over corporate executive salaries, it may just be that we see many government employees as more corrupt than the corporate executives. Remember; corporate boards of directors can fire CEO's. Government managers rarely get fired and usually have a pretty nice retirement/benefits plan compared to the private sector.

I give you the following example.

Recently the Florida Dept. of Revenue (DOR) conducted an audit of Energy Services of Pensacola (ESP) records. ESP is the natural gas company owned and operated by the City of Pensacola. The DOR found that many ESP accounts were coded "tax exempt" and therefore no sales tax had been collected on those accounts and paid to the state. The state demanded that if ESP couldn't prove those accounts were rightfully tax exempt, ESP would have to pay all of the back sales tax they had failed to pay to the state. ESP doesn't know how the problem occurred. They suspect it was a computer error and it was unbeknownst to the customers.

Now, if I failed to collect and pay to the government, taxes on goods or services sold to you, you'd probably tell me that's my problem and be done with it. You certainly wouldn't want me to come back to you and say you're responsible for those taxes, right? Ah, but whenever government has a shortfall, they find a way to make taxpayers pay the increase as opposed to cutting their expenses, yet that is what we always ask of businesses/corporations.

Back to the story; this happened to my dry cleaning business. I happen to be an ESP customer in my business and am now being forced to pay over $5,200 in back sales tax. To you who say; it's no big deal, just pay it, you owe it. I say; when was the last time you scrutinized your utility bill to be sure they were charging you all the appropriate fees and taxes? There is nothing on the bill indicating "tax exempt." Do you ask who's head will roll at the ESP for the error? You'd ask that question of a private sector company. Who's pocket do you think this money will come out of given the current economy? If the business doesn't have the money and will have to fire at least one person and possibly go out of business (thus putting 6-7 people into unemployment) would you prefer more people on unemployment?

What is really disgusting is that now, the gas company (which everyone acts as if is a separate entity from government) gets to act as both a monopoly and thug government; two things we all want the our government to protect us from. They say pay up or we shut you off and you have nowhere else to buy your natural gas and they say fight us and we'll bring the full power and authority of the government to bear. Can you say thug-ocracy?

So when you hear about some "crook" CEO or businessman who got paid more money than you think he should've, just remember that in government they never seem to get fired and you rarely hear about them. They just get moved to a new job, keeping all their benefits and pay.