The Galaxy Tales - Dirk B. (Page 28 of 49)

Amy, I received a full review from you yesterday, includng closing comments. I still need to respond to it.

Samurai for me because of "to smack". But I'm able to puzzle it out to Apollo with no difficulties

OIC. Thanks.

No progress. It's tax season. I have four tax returns to file, including many forms declaring all of my bank accounts, their maximum values throughout the year, etc. I also need to file a number of detailed expatriation forms. I'm paying a fortune this year for a cross-border accountant and a tax lawyer. The latter charges four hundred bucks an hour and has done iffy work so far. And my tax situation is easy, since I had no home or business to sell, no spouse or dependents, and I wisely closed my U.S.brokerage account immediately before moving to the land up over.

Boy the way that Miller played
Songs that made the hit parade
Guys like us we had it made
Those were the days...

Taxes done! Happy dance!

Okay, technically all I did was send a big ass spreadsheet and tax slips to my accountant, but it took two weeks to pull it all together.

There's a Nazi-inspired IRS form called FBAR that you have to file for every foreign account that you hold. It was meant to avoid tax cheating by millionaires and billionaires, but they of course decided to extend it to everyone, and penalties for innocent mistakes can be huge. It's electronic-only submission and the user interface was designed by idiots, so every year you have to reenter the same damn personal and bank information from scratch, including the maximum value for each account. Including old (now closed) and new Canadian accounts, I had to fill it out 10 times. It's virtually guaranteed that you'll type something wrong. Imagine my joy at sifting through all of my bank statements looking for the maximum amounts. My main bank made that extra pleasant by not having all of my electronic statements online, like they're supposed to. I then forward all of the FBARs to my accountant because he needs to enter the exact same information on form 8938 at his end. Turns out there are two IRS departments who want this info, but they don't play well together. Futuo!

Fortunately, this is either my last or second-to-last year of filing those. However, Canada wants the same information about my U.S. accounts. Needless to say, I'm closing those ASAP. I'll be stuck with three, including two IRAs that are doing remarkably well under your tweeter-in-chief.

If only TurboTax supported FBARs. At least they know to import data from prior year returns.

Okay, I'm done venting.

On to my next chapter. Tomorrow. Maybe.

In the 1980s, with the help of Congress, DoD contracting became exceptionally adversarial.  At some point, DoD would ask the prospective contractors for their Best And Final Offer (BAFO).  If none fit the budget, the agency would invite the contractors to suggest ways to save money by submitting a Best And Revised Final Offfer.  Yes, they called it a BARFO.

What about the paragraph below to tack onto the end of the New Bethlehem Galactipedia article? I hacked away at all the detailed Biblical references from yesterday because there are too many conflicting/confusing points of view about key Bible verses I was hoping to use. I'm trying to establish that New Bethlehem is not an evil place (e.g., there are opposing points of view about punishment for crimes based on the Bible), but that being on the border of the Imperium necessitates strong rule of law. Should I eliminate the term inquisition, given its negative place in history? I could simply refer to them as harsh interrogation techniques...

Thanks
Dirk

New Bethlehem has been criticized for its use of harsh interrogation techniques, known as inquisitions, and death by public hanging for capital offenses. The term inquisition, with its troubled history, is meant as a warning to would-be criminals. There is growing pressure from other members of the Realm to eliminate these practices. Nevertheless, many Christians claim that hard punishment for sin is consistent with the Bible’s Old Testament, while others argue that Jesus was the fulfillment of the old laws, cleansing sin with his blood. Regardless, most inhabitants of New Bethlehem accept strict rule of law as a means of defending their world from the Imperium, which many believe is the literal realm of Satan. Conspiring with the Imperium is considered the worst possible crime, and high-profile cases are tried in the Senate, where the conviction rate is 97%. Overly vocal critics of these proceedings are often accused of being Imperial sympathizers.

It wasn't because of a reviewer. I'm trying to make v3 more Christian-friendly. That includes a world that at least questions the morality of its harsh laws, even though the conclusion is that it's a necessary evil caused by the constant threat from the Imperium, rather than just because they're right wing Bible-thumpers. The latter is how I wrote it in v2. This time I want a civilized Christian society turned harsh under threat from invasion by Satan.

Personally, I think there are some people whose crimes are so heinous that they deserve harsh punishment. Personally, I'd let them rot in prison rather than kill them with a simple injection. The guy in Calgary who killed a little boy and his grandparents has been beaten up twice in prison. Couldn't happen to a nicer guy. Other than cases like his, I'm a liberal. The U.S.system is evil because it's completely biased against black people and the mentally ill. Texas has a damn revolving door on its execution chamber.

I'm going to try rewriting it again and include more morality before I add the threat of the Imperium as the driving force behind their strict laws, including the execution of minors guilty of treason (Andrew). The youngest person every executed (by electrocution) in the U.S.was only fourteen, which is how I chose Andrew's age. The youngest person ever sentenced to death was 10, although he didn't die until he was nineteen when they executed him.

Unless you're guilty of treason on a world under constant threat by the Imperium. I'm trying to decide if it should apply for all capital offenses, or just for treason. As a strict law and order world, it would probably be the former. If I want them to be a little more humane, it would be just the latter.

I need Andrew's execution to be traumatic for Joseph. Joseph has a chance to speak on his behalf but is too afraid of what people will think if he comes to the defense of a gay kid. Andrew's homosexuality comes out during interrogation and is public knowledge by the time of the trial. The Senate vote in favor of Andrew's execution is very close, so Joseph's input might have made a difference. Ditto if he had pressed his mother to intervene.

His execution does kinda blow the idea of a friendly Christian world out of the water, though, huh? I'll find a way to include a debate about executing a minor, probably after his rather traumatic death.

taken out of context, this section is impossible to decipher. The keyworks are in the OT when they say the Old Covenant (mosaic) is done-for and when the messiah arrives it will be replaced with a new covenant

Done. Damn that took forever.