Don't Vote For Me

There was a mini-scandal this week when it was revealed that Massachusetts Senator John Kerry was trying to avoid paying sales and excise taxes on his $7 million boat by buying and then docking it in Rhode Island. I say mini-scandal because while it made some waves on the national news, it was barely a blip here in Massachusetts. I think I know why: while I understand that it doesn't look good when a Senator actively tries to circumvent the tax laws of his own state, I don't think any Massachusetts resident can get too mad at Kerry for doing this, because we have all done this kind of thing ourselves. It would be very hypocritical. I bought my truck in Rhode Island and there is a reason that there is a huge mall right over the border from Massachusetts in tax-free New Hampshire. Those stores do a good chunk of their business from all the consumers who want to save some money on high-ticket items and it was getting so bad that the state had to start enacting "tax-free holidays" in an attempt to stop Massachusetts money from funnelling into other states. Still, Kerry isn't a normal citizen. This is one of those "higher standard" moments that make me realise I never want to be a State Senator. I'm perfectly content to fly under the radar, save myself some money and not have it end up in the newspaper.

-Speaking of my Rhode Island-bought truck, I have never been one of those people that is maniacal about keeping my vehicle shining. I strive to keep the inside clean, but I've never felt the need to be able to see my own reflection in the hood at all time. What I do instead it spend one day going all-out: cleaning, vacuuming, washing and buffing my way to a showroom-level shine, at which point I'm good and don't do it again for a year. I normally like to get to it before now, but between a very rainy June and an extremely hot July, I didn't have a chance until yesterday. Anyway, one of the last things I do is clean the tires so they have that shiny, "new tire" look (ironic, considering that two of the tires are, in fact, new). I wanted to make sure that I was using the product correctly and read the directions on the back. What caught my eye was actually the warning label. As with any cleaning chemicals, it had the typical "Don't Eat, Don't get in your eye" kind of thing. But, there was another part of the directions that said, "Do Not Use In Windy Conditions." I've never even heard of that kind of warning. What the hell is in this bottle that is so strong you don't even want to risk it accidentally blowing away and landing on something important? As you can imagine I don't need my tires to look that good and simply washed the rims without the chemicals.

-The other night I started to watch a documentary called Bigger, Stronger, Faster. It was about the steroid culture in this country and was pretty much an hour and half of 5'3" men trying to justify why it was ok for people to take steroids. (The old "Cigarettes kill thousands of people a year and they're legal!" argument was quite popular.) But, their addict-like stereotype of continually making excuses for their behavior wasn't what caught my attention. No, what stayed with me was one exchange between a father and his son who was playing football at college and couldn't keep up with his teammates who were on the juice. The son called the father and asked for money for steroids. The father said he wasn't going to send him money for drugs and if he wanted steroids he should get a job. Let's pause for a second here: remember a couple months back when I told you the story about the kid who ran onto the field in Philadelphia and got tasered for his trouble? He called his dad before he started running and asked his dad if he could. That kid's father just said, "I don't think you should." He never told the kid a flat-out "no", which was probably the smart thing to do. Just like the steroid-taker's father never told his son he shouldn't be taking steroids, he just told him he wouldn't be the one paying for them. The point being, there are some stupid parents out there.