Of New Tankers, Weird Tyrants, and Paying Taxes

I noticed in the news this morning that the Air Force has announced it has given a 3.5 billion dollar down payment on a 35 billion dollar contract to Boeing to build 179 new tanker aircraft.

I guess Boeing isn't worried about things like, oh, possible government shutdowns.

In a related story, the chaos in Libya has had at least one predictable outcome: the price of oil skyrocketed to over $100 per barrel and gasoline prices zoomed to over $4 per gallon in many places.

This means that the Air Force will finally be able to replace its fleet of tankers which date to the Eisenhower administration (!), but probably won't be able to afford gas for them to carry around.

But getting back to Libya for a moment, there is a not-generally-recognized upside to all the violence and rioting in that unhappy nation: if the government is finally overthrown, we will no longer have to worry about the correct spelling of Qadaffi Gadhafi Kadaffy Ghadhafi that bizarre guy in the comic opera uniforms and shades with the team of amazon bodyguards.

Good riddance.

But it's Friday. The end of another work week, the start of the weekend. Tomorrow, I celebrate by meeting with our tax preparer to find out how much of my income the government will take for redistribution to big business and those in tax brackets higher than my own. I'm glad to stand up and do my part to help shelter gazillionaires and huge corporations from having to pay those pesky taxes. In case you missed it, this set of interesting charts will help you visualize the skewed distribution of income and relative share of the tax burden. Don't thank me...it's my civic duty to help you know how well you're being screwed.

But for the moment, I'm going to ignore all that. I'm going to be positive. I'm going to go dancing tonight and forget all the world's troubles in three-minute increments of music and the company of lovely ladies.

Tomorrow will get here soon enough.

Have a good day. Tomorrow is Cartoon Saturday ... I'm sure you're as ready as I am.

More thoughts then.

Bilbo