Taxes

April 15, 2007

Did I write about my taxes yet? Perhaps I overlooked the writing about them just like I almost overlooked the filing of them. You see, this year I’m getting a little cash back (enough for a sandwich and a medium coke at the local sub shop), and I shoved that thought to back of my mind and my calendar.

I felt that a few bucks wasn’t so important that I had to rush around like a maniac to do the collecting of papers, the crunching of numbers, and the entering of a billion little items into my Quicken software.

Similar to painting a house or training dog, doing your taxes is pretty much the same amount of work regardless of whether you’re getting or giving a lot or a little money. So it’s a heinous task.

Add to that – while we’re talking about calculating taxes – the added (hmm, symmetrical) complexity of filing as a small business and you’ve got a recipe for procrastination.

Since we – and when I say we I mean I or me – are enamored with the power of procrastination, it was a no-brainer to put the taxes away for a little bit. In fact, I was so busy procrastinating lately that I actually finished some projects early so I could focus all my energy on procrastinating about others.

Which brings me to the management at CBS. If they were so certain that Don Imus was a loose cannon and a blight on all things that they see as holy in broadcasting, they should have pulled the trigger long ago instead of jumping on this one politically correct incident and using it to oust Imus.

My view on the “ho and nappy-haired” episode is that the individual incident was wrong. Imus is easily excited and definitely didn’t think about what he was saying. Or he did think about what he was saying and said it to get more people riled up.

That, in turn, would drive UP ratings for CBS and would in most cases keep management happy. But they heard some whimpering from advertisers and some just arguments from the girls (oh, wait…is it wrong to call college-age women girls??) and the school – and they made a snap decision.

Perhaps it’s the right decision and came at the right time. But what has become clear during this entire flare-up is that people are still so frightened about offending anyone and so quick to be offended that we’re stifling our own speech with increasing regularity.

Would Imus have been crucified (oh, wait…better not offend the bible-toters), er made an example of if he had just called the girl’s team talentless skanks?

What if he called them Amazons? Or Neanderthals? Or basketball Betties?

Who knows? But before you get on your soapbox about Imus and demand that everyone be treated fairly, take a look at everyone.

Even the pious and indignant Al Sharpton has been guilty of making a racist slip or 50. Take for instance when he was a guest on a radio program about four or five years ago. It was right after that young girl in Hawaii had her arm bitten off by a shark. Well, Sharpton and the DJ were joking about the incident and sang and laughed along to the lyrics of the song that said, “Bite Whitey, Bite Whitey.”

Maybe we all should just bite our own tongues a little more frequently and stop pointing fingers at everyone else.

More to come…