Part Of My Philosophy...

...is that my IRS refund should always be spent on firearms or firearms-related purchases. Thus:

1911 from Springfield Armory in .45ACP. It's a used gun purchased in a local pawn shop. As purchased it came with a full-length guide rod and black Hogue grips; I've changed it to a standard GI guide rod configuration and bolted on some coyote tan Dura-Grips with "wasp nest" checkering pattern. Three-dot sights, Commander-style hammer and beavertail grip safety. It doesn't have the locking mainspring housing that Springfield ships with its new 1911's, so a straight Series 70 setup.

I need to pick up some extras for the gun - - more magazines, a holster and magazine carrier. I'm pleased with the purchase, however.

A Tax/Healthcare Tip

via McClatchy.

Look closely at your new W-2 form this tax season. Notice Box 12 and a two-letter code, DD.

If you work for an employer with 250 or more workers, information in that box for the first time is required by the Affordable Care Act. It tells how much you and your employer spent on your health insurance premiums.

Click the link to find out why it is important.

A Proud Man Makes a Stand

Gérard Depardieu:

Gérard Depardieu has said he is handing back his French passport and social security card, lambasting the French government for punishing "success, creation, talent" in his homeland.

A popular and colourful figure in France, the 63-year-old actor is the latest wealthy Frenchman to seek shelter outside his native country by buying a house just over the border in Belgium in response to tax increases by the Socialist president, François Hollande.

The prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, described Depardieu's behaviour as pathetic and unpatriotic at a time when the French are being asked to pay higher taxes to reduce a bloated national debt.

"Pathetic, you said pathetic? How pathetic is that?" Depardieu said in a letter to the weekly newspaper le Journal du Dimanche.

"I am leaving because you believe that success, creation, talent, anything different must be sanctioned," he said.

The Cyrano de Bergerac star recently bought a house in Nechin, a Belgian village a short walk from the border with France where 27% of residents are French nationals, and put his sumptuous Parisian home up for sale.

Depardieu has also inquired about procedures for acquiring Belgian residency.

He said he had paid €145m (£120m) in taxes since beginning work as a printer at the age of 14.

"People more illustrious than me have gone into [tax] exile. Of all those that have left none have been insulted as I have."

"Who are you to judge me, I ask you Mr Ayrault, prime minister of Mr Hollande? Despite my excesses, my appetite and my love of life, I remain a free man," Depardieu wrote.

Never seen Depardieu? Check him out in this scene from Cyrano de Bergerac:

OK, Tax Returns Filed

Got my W2's when I got to work last night, and just finished e-filing with TurboTax for the third year. Didn't have to pay a cent to file, either federal or state. Getting a big refund for the first time in years, which is a good thing. I'm satisfied.

Now That's a Revenue Stream I Can Get Behind...

...so to speak.

ALBANY, Ga. -- Officials in Albany, Ga., say the city's ban on saggy pants has generated nearly $4,000 in fines in less than a year.

City Attorney Nathan Davis says 187 citations have been issued and $3,916 in fines collected since the ordinance went into effect Nov. 23, according to the Albany Herald.

The Man Desperately Needed a Smoke, I Guess

Police say they are looking for a man who allegedly backed his vehicle into the front of a northeast Charlotte grocery store early Thursday and stole a large quantity of cigarettes.

Sin taxes at work. When you tax the hell out of booze, people become rumrunners and moonshiners. Tax hell out of tobacco? There goes your storefront.

Damned If'n We Ain't Just Got Us One Hell of a...Symphony Orchestra

Over at Reason, Nick Gillespie snarks on those decaying cities whose civic boasts include world-class symphony orchestras.

Folks, if classical music were really as popular as its fans make it out to be, then you'd regularly see symphony concerts scheduled on regular advertising-supported TV channels, not just taxpayer-subsidized PBS and NPR outlets.

Meanwhile, Up In Massachusetts...

...Thurston Howell III Senator John Kerry moors his fabulous new yacht in Newport, Rhode Island, to avoid paying Massachusetts sales and use taxes.

Actually, does it even qualify as a news story for a rich liberal to dodge the taxes that they impose on others?


h/t Hot Air Headlines.

Ve Haff Vays Of Making You Diet, Ja?

The Germans want to tax people for being fat.