What do you recommend?
I have a bunch of gift cards from Barnes & Noble that I got for Christmas and I don’t know what to get. I think I have enough books to keep me busy for quite a while, but I’d like some new music and movies.
Anyone who happens to read this, tell me what CDs or DVDs I should buy. I’m interested in being exposed to new things. And if I don’t like it there is always eBay.
Too much going on.
So I only started unpacking yesterday after being home for more than a week. I have to wash all my laundry again because my housemates smoked. It is only noticeable out here in sterile California. I have found a place to live for school next semester in Berkeley. Now I can begin to enjoy my vacation. Maybe I’ll even get around to blogging more. I checked my site statistics today and I’ve got quite the international blog. Well maybe it’s just international friends 
I saw hits from France, Chile, and Romania. I miss all of you, JM, Vanessa, Oana and Linda!
For the last week I’ve been hanging out with visiting relatives and haven’t had much news on my mind. Now that I have some time my dad has put me to work getting a new wireless network up and running at his office. It’s going pretty well. A couple more days work. I’ve also been trying to get my broken computer fixed. I’m stuck with my old one from high school. A blazing fast 400mHz machine.
Something that may interest those who have an interest in getting a website hosted is an offer by 1&1, a company trying to get subscribers before they launch. They are offering free hosting for 3 years with lots of features. I signed up and registered a domain (for $5.99) that I will debut when I figure it all out. It sounds like a sweet deal to me.
The only news item that I have had a chance to read lately was this piece on washingtonpost.com about Bush’s proposed immigration reform. Immigration has been one of the newer topics on my mind in terms of policy. My interest in it started even before I met all my friends in Washington who came from other countries (some with much difficulty I may add). It just seems so logical and fair to me to let anyone come here who wants to in order to seek a better life. I mean, I would want the opportunity to move anywhere in the world to do something I like or that could make me successful. I know that most people in the world do not have that opportunity and I’ve even been told by my friends that no matter how difficult it seems to be to get into the U.S., it is still one of the easiest countries in the world to get into. All the arguments about immigrants taking all the jobs from Americans stem from irrational xenophobia. They are based on a groupthink mentality which pits Americans against the rest of the world. I like to think of people as individuals in that scenario because one’s country of origin is pretty much an accidental factor that the individual who may want to relocate at some point cannot control. If so many people want to come to the U.S. because it offers the greatest opportunities, then so be it. We could use people here who recognize that and want to take advantage of it. It can only make us all more successful.
Hmm, not to bad for off the top of my head.
Home at last
I am finally back in San Jose. It feels good to be here, except for the unpacking to be done.
Political commentary has been requested, but I still haven’t had time to catch up with any news. The only thing I heard was good news on the civil liberties front that a federal court ordered Jose Padilla released (or charged?) within 30 days. At least someone is trying to keep the president in check.
Said goodbye to Jean-Michel last night. I can’t wait go see him in France and hang out all over Europe. It’s tough to realize what’s happening when I say goodbye to friends. It doesn’t hit me until afterwards. I won’t see JM again for at least half a year. It was the same when I said goodbye to Amina, I wasn’t comprehending how long it would be before I saw her again. I’ve been around them every day for months now. I think it’s impossible not to take for granted the way things are. It is impossible to live every moment as if it will be the last. Things would be too sad and crazy. Instead of “live each moment as if it were your last,” I propose my motto to be simply “live.” That way I will experience all the ups and downs, all the joys and sorrows, all the glories and tragedies, everything I can from what this life has to offer me. I will know what it feels like to have a familiar thing or person taken from me. I will know what it is like to be content and happy and comfortable. I will also not shun any new things or experiences. I will just “live” to the best of my ability.
The end is near.
Since my computer broke sometime on Friday while I was at work, I have been unable to update anything. I kept myself busy this weekend so I wouldn’t have to sit around my room and do nothing. Thanks to Joe, Court, JM, and Oana for keeping me entertained
I went home, or to my temporary residence I should say, at about 5:30 last night. I had nothing to do. I started laundry, read some of FDR’s Folly, and started writing in my journal. I hadn’t written in a long time, and had my computer been working I would have written on here. I’m ready to get out of here. I’m ready to go home. But at the same time it’s sad. I’m going to miss everyone incredibly. I started packing last night and had to stop myself or else I would have finished.
We had to give short oral presentations today to practice our public speaking. A three minute speech is tough to do if one wants to put in significant content. Originally I was going to speak about the difficuluty for foreign students to get visas to study in the United States, but then realized I don’t know anything about that except what my friends have told me. I decided instead to speak about something that came up over lunch the other day that I actually have given a lot of thought to in the past: a national sales tax to replace the progressive income tax.
What I said may have gone something like this:
I’d like to explore two reasons of many why a national sales tax would be better than the progressive income tax structure we have now. The two reasons are incentives and transparency.
First of all, a national sales tax would eliminate the disincentives for people to work hard and earn as much money as possible. Workers should pursue higher wages without the fear of being bumped into a higher tax bracket. As it stands now, I believe the tax system counters the traditional work-ethic of the United States. One important economic factor of a national sales tax would be that, depending on the percentage of the tax, certain workers immediately would have more real income. There are important psychological factors as well. Because of the increase in take-home pay, more people may want to work or current workers would work harder. Also, because prices would increase from the consumption tax, consumers would scrutinize their expeditures to a higher degree. This may have an effect on total consumption, but at the same time savings would increase when consumers use their money for goods and services they have the highest value for. The increase in savings would result in more investment which is a stimulant for long-term economic growth. Long-term growth helps every participant in the economy.
Right now, businesses spend over $200 billion a year filing and minimizing their taxes. This would certainly not be the case if the tax code were not 6000 pages long. With a tax code that convoluted, long-term growth will never reach its full potential. If businesses had the opportunity to free up the resources used by complying with tax law they could run more efficiently and be more productive. Government resources would be freed up as well. Without an Internal Revenue Serivce there would be no need to conduct wasteful, invasive audits of individuals and corporations.
This brings us to the second point of transparency. I’ve already mentioned how a national sales tax makes income and expenditures more straighforward for consumers, but it would make government more visible to its citizens as well. Taxpayers would see their taxes being collected right at the point of sale rather than having to decipher how much was really taken from them through withholding on their paychecks. If the government tried to raise taxes, the public would react more strongly because the tax increase would be felt by everyone equally and people would understand that increased taxes will directly affect prices.
The transparency of a national sales tax would also loosen the grip of special interests on the government. Congress would not be able to alter the tax code to benefit their friends in favorite industries. Without a tax code there would be no loop-holes for corporations to take advantage of and most likely less tax evasion. Overall the transparency would keep government more honest.
These among many other reasons demonstrate how a national sales tax would be far better than the progressive income tax.
I thought our country supports freedom…
I’m not entirely sure why foreign policy needs to be so complicated. Maybe I’m just ignorant or I see things too simply. But because our country was founded on the idea of self-governance and that political authority rests with the people who can throw off an oppressive regime, I would think that we as a nation, our political leaders included, would support another sovereign group of people thinking the same.
President Bush voiced his opposition to Taiwanese independence as the Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was visiting the United States. Now, I don’t claim to understand Chinese politics or the world political situation on this matter, but I can say that I’m glad that men like President Bush had less clout during the latter half of the 18th century in the British North American colonies.
The newest addition to the cadre of blogging interns, Mr Joe Lai.
The story of how I took the name Mr Willoby.
It all started a long time ago in a land far away… This was back in ‘95 when I was 14 years old and really into a band called Primus. We had had AOL at my house for a little while and I had a dumb screenname based on another Primus song called “Southbound Pachyderm,” but it had numbers after it and didn’t make any sense. I thought one day, there are so many Primus songs about characters, I really should find something related to one of them. There is a little ditty on Frizzle Fry called “Sathington Willoby.” The name Sathington was taken and I was disappointed and so may have been Willoby, but I just decided on the screenname Mr Willoby. It wasn’t taken and it didn’t have numbers after it, perfect. I primarily use the name for bootleg trading now, but it’s also my AIM screenname. I’ve had it for so long, I would feel weird identifying myself as anything else. There you have it. Stop asking…
We are gathered here
Today in these majestic
Halls of old to honor
A man they call
Sathington Willoby
There’s a joke or two, A pun or three
I feel that must be
Told then I go on to
Speak of Sathington Willoby
Sathington Willoby
The legislator that
Penned us up a bill
That banned the use
Of certain things like this and that
this and that
this and that
this and that
