Mostly about my amusement

Tag: New York (page 1 of 1)

In between weather

Hot and muggy summer weather does not bother me.  I once dragged Lily through Washington D.C. in 101 degree weather and did not realize she was suffering, I was fine.  Summer in Las Vegas was great with it being over 100 and no humidity.

Autumn is very cool and New York winter never gave me a problem.  I’m not saying Minnesota winter would not wipe me out, but even with cold snaps I can’t get into too much trouble weather wise.  Our winters here are just mild and lately getting milder.

The transitions are a pain.  This is damp but not wet, colder but not cold.  One day it’s summertime and spring like the next. Then back to hot followed by cool evenings.

This weather is “in between” and it always bugs me.  For the next few weeks until fall settles in, I’ll be irritated by Mother Nature’s lack of making a decision. The changes give me headaches and my muscles hurt.  I’ll be more cranky than usual.

Sigh, I’ll have to deal with it by playing with the kids more.  The girl just started kindergarten and claims she is not happy.  She likes the bus ride, that’s very cool.  But she says she does not like the work (it’s her second week).

For 3 years she attended half day pre-k and knew everyone.  There were not many girls in her school and she was treated like a princess.  Once she told me she was going to marry one of the boys in her class. When I asked about another boy, she said she’d marry that one later.

I wonder if we are raising the next Liz Taylor?

At her new school she’s just one of hundreds of kids.  It’s good for her but she needs to adjust. She will learn to make new friends and enjoy being in class. She’ll be cranky and we’ll deal with her maudlin behavior.  For now she’s just in between.

I hope Amazon wins this one

Amazon is suing New York state over the “Amazon Tax” law. I hope they win for a couple of reasons.

  1. This law is just aimed at fixing something the state does not like: people buy items from out of state and don’t pay the use tax. If anyone actually pays this tax I would be surprised. I’m not commenting on if people should of should not pay use tax (it’s the law) but sales tax is collected by the store for the state. If the tax is not collected at the time of purchase, who keeps good enough records for all their transactions?
  2. I understand that this law was Eliot Spitzer’s idea. The man was a grandstander who went for big headlines over something useful. Sheriff of Wall Street? More like gadfly of Wall Street. His “penalties” did not really change anything but it did get his name in the papers.

Years ago NY sent officials to photograph NY cars in New Jersey shopping malls. They sent letters to the cars owner saying “Bad Monkey, you should pay your use tax.” This did not go over very well and the idea was quickly abandoned.

If the State of New York does not like federal law they can take it up with Washington. If they want to compete with online stores versus brick based stores in NY then they should fix the tax laws to actually compete and not convince people to go online or even out of state.

It’s tempting for law makers to target companies like Amazon and other online stores. It does not personally cost the lawmaker anything. But it also does not solve anything either and that probably makes it more appealing to the law makers.