Some things I didn't know about taxes

Everyone these days is talking about taxes and what the Government can do. I'm not going to take sides in that debate right now, but here is a quick/depressing look at history.

1776 - 1861: NO TAXES! That's right, no income tax. Our founding father truly loved us so much that they didn't want to subject us to government based thievery.

1862 - 1872: Abraham Lincoln had to pay for the civil war, so he made a 3-5% income tax. In 1872 when the war was paid for, it was repealed.

1873 - 1912: NO INCOME TAXES!

1913-1916: Income taxes are reinstated and rise from 1-17% in 4 years.

1917-1920: taxes (for the upper class) range from 67-77%! I don't know the exact number for the middle class, but I'm sure they are equally upsetting.

1921:  President Harding comes to office and drops tax rates down to 56%

1923 - 1931: More republican presidents drop the tax rates down to 24% on the high end.

1932 - 1939: Due to the Great Depression, the IRS hikes the upper class tax bracket to 63%, then later to 79%

1939 - 1945: Due to WWII, a couple things happened here. Taxes were raised to 81-94% to cover war costs, and they also began requiring employers to take money out of pay check before they make it to the employee.

1945 - 1963: Taxes drop to 81% for a few years, then back up to 91%.

1964 - 1980: Taxes drop to 77%, then to around 70%

1981 - 1988: RONALD REAGAN! Say what you will about him, but here is what I know - this president dropped taxes from 70% to 28%!

1989 - 1996: Under Bush #1 and Clinton taxes go back up to near 40%. So much for "No New Taxes."

1997 - 2012: Bush #2 brought it down to 35% where it remains today.


I don't know about you, but I cannot fathom the idea of paying 94% in taxes! Can you? Well here is a thought for you: The only things stopping this from happening in our lifetime are the people we vote into office. So take a look at people's tax plans before you vote, or the people that you vote for might be taking money from your pocket!

Another assumption I had wrong.

Even though they are not outlined in The Constitution, there are a couple of rights that I assume are unalienable facts. Today I found out that on at least one of these things, I am wrong.

I was under the assumption that unless you have committed a crime, a warrant has been issued, or there is a clear and immediate life-threatening emergency no one is allowed to enter a locked vehicle without the consent of the owner. Today however, I watched a tow truck driver break into someone’s car to straighten the wheels out. I called two different police departments to ask about this and both of them told me that this was legal, although no one could tell me where this is found in the VA law books. So I did some research.

First off lets look at one of the laws about breaking into a car:

§ 18.2-147. Entering or setting in motion, vehicle, aircraft, boat, locomotive or rolling stock of railroad; exceptions.

Any person who shall, without the consent of the owner or person in charge of a vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad, climb into or upon such vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad, with intent to commit any crime, malicious mischief, or injury thereto, or who, while a vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad is at rest and unattended, shall attempt to manipulate any of the levers and starting crank or other device, brakes or mechanism thereof or to set into motion such vehicle, aircraft, boat, vessel, locomotive or other rolling stock of a railroad, with the intent to commit any crime, malicious mischief, or injury thereto, shall be guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, except that the foregoing provision shall not apply when any such act is done in an emergency or in furtherance of public safety or by or under the direction of an officer in the regulation of traffic or performance of any other official duty. 

The problem – Every law I could find about entering a vehicle without permission has this simple catch: INTENT TO COMMIT. I’m certainly hoping I missed something, but I could not find a single instance where it was punishable to simply enter a locked car without permission. You have to show intent to commit a crime. Since tow truck drivers are not intending to commit a crime (one hopes), and they did not damage the car in the process,  it is argued that this does not apply to them.

So what does the Law say specifically about tow truck drivers entering your car? NOTHING! I read the entire section of law regarding tow trucks today and not once does it even discuss entering the vehicle. But it does show some other concerning facts:

Prior Convictions:

According to § 46.2-2814.1, no person can be denied the right to be a tow truck driver simply because they happen to be a felon, unless their conviction is directly related to theft of cars, or sexual assault.  But if you’re a murderer, art thief, con artists, or arms dealer you can still have a job, which allows you to break into people’s cars.

I’m hoping to talk to some other legal peeps and get to the bottom of this, but until then…

GOOD NEWS FOR YOU!

There is some light at the end of this tunnel. I did find one law that is actually in your favor: If you get to a tow truck before he tows your car away, he legally has to give it back and can only charge you $25. If he tries say no, here is the law.

§ 46.2-1231.

Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this section, if the owner or representative or agent of the owner of the trespassing vehicle is present and removes the trespassing vehicle from the premises before it is actually towed, the trespassing vehicle shall not be towed, but the owner or representative or agent of the owner of the trespassing vehicle shall be liable for a reasonable fee, not to exceed $25 or such other limit as the governing body of the county, city, or town may set by ordinance, in lieu of towing.

More than 13 hours is illegal!

While researching something else (I'll post it sometime soon), I ran across this little gem of knowledge: In the state of Virginia (and many other states) it is illegal to operate a motor vehicle more than 13 hours a day. (This includes any time you spent driving in other states.) So lets says Rachel and I go on a road trip to see my mother in Iowa. On the way back to VA, If I start driving and go for 8 hours then let Rachel drive for 4 hours while I sleep, it would still be illegal for me to finish the drive since there would be more than 5 hours of driving left.

So my advice to you: If you are ever stopped by a cop and asked how long you have been driving don't say anything more than 12hrs or he can details you till 24 hours have past from the first minute you started driving.


Here is the law if you want to see for yourself:


§ 46.2-812.   Driving more than thirteen hours in twenty-four prohibited.

No person shall drive any motor vehicle on the highways of the Commonwealth for more than thirteen hours in any period of twenty-four hours or for a period which, when added to the time such person may have driven in any other state, would make an aggregate of more than thirteen hours in any twenty-four-hour period. The provisions of this section, however, shall not apply to the operation of motor vehicles used in snow or ice control or removal operations or similar emergency situations.

No owner of any vehicle shall cause or permit it to be driven in violation of this section.

Feel like a techie and write one line of code!

Okay I'm sorry about all the computer posts, but this is something I learned recently and it brought so much joy to my world that I have to share it.

If you've been a mac user for any amount of time you have probably learned two thing:

1. Your mac lets you do the same action, a hundred different way. This lets you customize your computer to behave how you think it should behave.
2. Sometimes these options can drive you crazy.

Let me posit a scenario: You open your documents folder, and it appears in the mother of all beautiful views, column view. (if you prefer any other view, this trick will work for you as well but you should know that everything you're doing is wrong.) But then, you double click a folder on your desktop only to find it opens in the evil Icon view! 

If you are a good person in right standing with God, this sort of chaos can drive you crazy. There are a few ways of fixing this problem, but here is the quickest one I have found:



A) While in Finder, click Command+Shift+U.

B) Your Utilities folder should have opened. Double click on the program AppleScript Editor. If you have never opened this program before, don't get scared. It will be okay.

C) In the top box type the following all in one line:

tell application "Finder" to set the current view of the window of every folder of home to column view

*If you are not a column view user, you can propagate your sin by replacing column view with list view, flow view, or icon view.

D) Hit Compile. This will make some words change colors and check to make sure your code is good. If there are any problems make sure you typed it correctly.

E) Then hit Run.

Now every folder under your user name will be the same view! (This does not change your applications folder, or anything in your system library. Unfortunately those require a bit more effort and I don't want to get into right now)