Saturday, July 24, 2010

''We don't throw at .260 hitters!''

It has often been said that after Bronson Arroyo hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch that resulted in the famous 7/24/04 Red Sox/Yankees brawl, Jason Varitek told A-Rod, "We don't throw at .260 hitters." According to Varitek, this is an urban legend.
One question remains, however: Did Varitek, as rumor has it, spit out a Bartlett's-style insult at Rodriguez? Did he say, ''We don't throw at .260 hitters''?

''That's ridiculous,'' said Varitek, sitting at his locker before a recent game. ''I'm not that smart to come up with such a clever line in the heat of battle. I knew Arroyo didn't hit him on purpose, and I just told him to get along to first base.''

Sunday, March 21, 2010

“Why should the rich pay a higher percentage of taxes?” or “We should have a flat tax.”


-->Note: If you weren’t linked specifically to this post and you don’t want to deal with V&N material (politics, for non-SoSHers who don't know what "V&N" is), by all means feel free to skip this post and check out the rest of the blog’s counterarguments.
I’m a fiscal liberal who feels the rich should pay a higher percentage in taxes than the poor or middle class.

When the country has a deficit, it’s not rocket science to figure out which income bracket has the most potential to pay to reduce the deficit. The more money that gets paid in taxes, the more money that can be paid against the deficit even though I’m well aware it’s not dollar for dollar. From whom better to get the money than the people who have the most of it?

In a flat tax, the rich don’t pay the same percentage of taxes as the poor because of tax loopholes. To use an extreme example for the sake of supporting my point, a married childless couple making $1,000,000 a year combined is likely to have a lot more money invested in tax-deferred and/or municipal investments than a widowed parent of 4 making $19,000 a year.

Even if a rich married childless couple doesn't invest in tax-deferred and/or municipal investments, 20% of $1,000,000 a year means a lot less to that couple than the same 20% of $19,000 a year means to the widowed parent of 4. Even though the rich couple would pay a higher flat amount, after taxes are paid it’s a lot easier to live on $800,000 a year as a married childless couple than it is to live on $15,200 a year as a widowed parent of 4.

Most fiscal conservatives will say having the rich pay a higher percentage of taxes is punishing people for being rich. Besides what I’ve already said, my response is that although you can’t please everyone, in my opinion having the rich pay a higher percentage of taxes has the most positive effect on the most people overall.

For those who feel I’m not qualified to talk about this subject because I’m no expert in finance or economics, feel free to read this from Warren Buffett.

For those who are curious, although I’m living comfortably I don’t make 6 figures. I can honestly say that if I did make 6 figures I’d be willing to pay a higher percentage in taxes and vote in that manner, primarily because of the impact it could make towards worthy causes if the higher percentage was applied to everyone in my income bracket.

If you’re fiscally conservative, I don’t expect this post or Warren Buffett to change your mind. I’m simply explaining why I feel the way I do. The argument has been discussed to death in V&N, and I don’t feel it’s best to revisit it.

Monday, March 8, 2010

"How did you first hear about SoSH?" or "Why did you choose the 'sfip' username?"

This entry isn't a counterargument like most of these entries, but it's a response to 2 questions I've frequently been asked.

I started chatting on the Boston Herald's Red Sox forum site late in the 2002 baseball season. I used to post there as "soxfaninphilly" since I figured the latter part of that would be unique on the site. The problem was that you had to type out your username every time you posted. Eventually I got lazy and typed the acronym "sfip" each time.

When I had the longer username, someone posted to me that he/she thought I posted on Sons of Sam Horn, which I hadn't heard of at the time. Looking back, I don't know if the person thought I was philly sox fan or if there was some other reason. Regardless, the Herald's Sox forum site went down in early 2003. I wanted to find another site where I could talk about the Red Sox with other Sox fans, especially since there weren't many Sox fans for me to talk to in the Philly area. Remembering that someone asked me if I post on Sons of Sam Horn, I checked out SoSH. When I decided to join and it was time to choose a username, I simply and lazily took my "sfip" username from the Herald site and stuck with it. Unfortunately I didn't know about philly sox fan at the time, which made it look like I copied my username from his.