Here’s a way to not have to pay your NJ State taxes.

Reminds me of the old Steve Martin routine. While the answer is not “I forgot”, it is “I don’t live here”.

Which may be doable if you have two residences, one in a no income tax state like Florida or New Hampshire, you could possibly get away with saying that you’re not a resident of NJ.

But when you are a Jersey City Councilwoman, it’s a neat trick, especially because people sort of expect you to be, well, a resident of your district, and maybe be accessible to those pests commonly known as…constituents.

 

A fun new chart!

Remember Henry Blodget? The guy from Merrill who hyped the dot com boom even when it was obviously a bubble? Got himself banned. Now he’s supposedly working on redeeming himself.

And he’s looking at the current job losses, which coincidentally looks like if you turn the internet stock returns chart from the 1990s upside down…you’ll have our current employment picture. But something tells me we’re not heading for a tidy inverted bell curve.

 

Leave it to the Brits to notice…

That we’re a house of cards and that our own people have predictions that rates will go up another 3 and 1/2 percent.

 

For Sale, One Golf Course. Cheap.

This could actually be good news. With GM’s bankruptcy, it’s pretty clear that they want Hyatt Hills off of their books (especially the environmental liability of it all). And they’d probably forget that we owe them money.

(Note: The reason why it’s a golf course and not something else is that with the buried toxins, paving it or letting people live there is not considered a good idea. Since people are on gold courses for a limited number of hours each year, the amount of exposure is considered acceptable. Also, since there are no heavy buildings on it, the waste will stay put as opposed to getting “squeezed out”. More here, and here.)

In fact, there’s an article about them wanting to dump it on some poor unsuspecting moronic slob.

Hello, Union County?

P. S. Am I the only one thinking that if/when the US Gypsum plant closes in Clark (which I can’t imagine is cost-effective to keep open) that it would make a great back nine? Just a little golf cart bridge over Raritan Road…

 

Ouch. They made the lottery tax retroactive.

How sleazy is this?

They trumpet the hell out of the fact that Lottery winnings in NJ aren’t taxed, and then they go make them taxable….retroactively.

Wow. So if you got about $25,000 earlier this year, paid off all your debts, took the missus to Bermuda for a week and spent a weekend in AC, you’re not going to be too pleased when you fill out your state tax return.

<insert epithet indicating that the state is pathetic here>.

 

Circus 2009

Well, a few acts have changed…and there’s a buffalo that can step on a stool!

Otherwise, it is still the sure-fire kiddie entertainmant and wallet extraction extraordinaire as last year.

Three shows today at 2, 5 and 7.

 

Sigh.

Let the nickel-and-diming begin!

Sure, raise taxes on liquor, the one last cheap outlet for some of us looking for some solacement.

Oh, and now they’re taxing lottery winnings over $10,000. Memo to New Jerseyans who play Lotto: If you were bad at figuring probabilities and expected value before, the lottery is now a lot worse as a way out from your predicament.

 

Maybe the Union County jail should use some of those hook & eye thingies on the screen doors.

Because installing hook and eye latches would probably boost the level of security by 24%. But I kid.

People seem to really enjoy escaping from the Union County Jail these days, although the “Shawshank” guys got more than a wrist slap.

We’ll see if he was just on a Slurpee run and forgot his keys and cellphone.

UPDATE: He’s caught after a week. His own dad called the cops on him…guess he wasn’t goingto pony up any cash for rent.

 

Celebrities are dropping like flies…

Where the heck are the conspiracy theorists? We’re averaging two dead celebrities a day here! Does anybody know the inside scoop?

Now look, they’ve even gotten to Fred Travalena…

RIP, Fred.

 

Soon to be Ya”who”oo?

Like millions of others, I made my IE homepage Yahoo since MSN is nothing but awful.

And in the headlines on the main page, which are always articles I read two days or so ago in other sites such as WSJ or fark.com, an almost daily source of a smirk is the the abject silliness of the headline that follows the word Analysis. For example: “Analysis: Obama walks on water better than other messianic figures” or something like that. Look at the Yaho0 headlines for the next couple days and you’ll see what I mean.

Unless, if this guy’s right, Yahoo’s days are numbered.