I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always scoffed at people when they complained about taxes. “Please,” I would say, “how do you think the government pays for things, hmm? Money doesn’t grow on trees you know. Taxes are a good thing.” This never produced the result I was looking for. Instead of applauding my common sense, or giving me a cookie in appreciation (although I did always suggest this course of action), people rolled their eyes. They sighed. They complained about youth not knowing anything these days.

Now, over the course of my employment history, I have helped 70-year-old women try on bras. I have scooped ice cream for ten hours straight. I have swiped cards at my dining hall after rugby practice lets out and the guys are pulling said cards from the sweaty waistbands of their shorts (um, ew). I fact checked articles on light bulbs and dumpsters all summer. I work hard for my money, darn it, and losing a substantial portion to taxes does not make me happy.

The upcoming election is a hot topic, and the discussion of what’s going to happen to our taxes is part of the reason. People are already paying large portions of their income to our government and it’s always scary to try and figure out just what the next person in office is going to do to your paycheck. Instead of paying for the new suit you need for work, that money just might be sucked into the oblivion of our national deficit.

So what to do? Well, for starters, look at the candidates’ tax proposals. Yeah, you might think that Democrats usually lower taxes for us in the peanuts range of the income scale and Republicans mean tax breaks for the wealthy, but in reality it’s far more complicated. Read More »

Yesterday at 2:53pm EST my phone rang.
“Hello?”
“Sweetie” (it was my mom), “There’s been an earthquake”

My heart stopped.
“Where was it centered?”
“I don’t know”
“How big?”
“They’re saying it was in the 6’s and…”
“Where are you?”
“Driving home from …”
“How are the dogs?”

By now I was shrieking, I barely heard her empty assurances that they must be okay and that she would try to get a hold of someone nearby.

I hung up and rushed to my computer, certain that the worst had happened. Another major Quake…

When I was 8 the ‘94 Northridge Quake destroyed most of my known world. My family was homeless for 9 months and all of our parks were turned into National Guard relocation facilities. For a while I slept with my tennis shoes on—in case I had to climb out of my room the next morning.

It is impossible to describe the relief that washed over me when I finally got through to the LA Times website and saw that it was only a 5.8 (later lowered to a 5.4) with horizontal motion and centered in Chino Hills about 55 miles from my home in the San Fernando Valley. Read More »

At 2:30 pm on June 28th, 20 year old Kazakh model, Ruslana Korshunova, fell from the balcony of her Manhattan 9th floor apartment to her death. Police ruled that her death was an apparent suicide after finding no signs of a struggle in her apartment. Case closed.But the media is refusing to be satisfied, and with good reason — there was no note, and, according to her friends, she seemed to be “on top of the world”.

Hmmmm…. no note, in good spirits… maybe she was “done in”– oh oh oh! By the Russian Mob! Of course! Everyone knows that whenever a beautiful Russian (or former Soviet) bites the dust, the Russian Mob are the culprits. I mean look at “From Russia with Love”, “Eastern Promises”, and of course xXx. Sigh… if only Sean Connery, Vigo Mortenson, or Vin Diesel were on the investigation team. Read More »

We pick up where last week’s episode left off, with Ali drilling Jeremy for an explanation for his bizarre online interview. The argument sounds like thousands I’ve heard my drunk friends have with their long distance boyfriends via cell phone. I listen to Ali and Jeremy run around in circles until Ali reads something of interest from the article: “I wanna marry Lindsay”…I want to marry your sister. Ali says that Jeremy has told her this in person as well. Um, and that didn’t tip you off that he was USING YOU?!?!

Whatever, Ali’s pissed because Jeremy has a crush on Lindsay and not her. Jeremy’s probably pissed because Lindsay has a crush on Samantha Ronson and not him.

Their fight concludes (or is postponed) freaking finally. Ali says she doesn’t trust anyone but her family anymore (not what you said last week.) And goes to her wise and showbiz weary mother for advice.

Dina explains that “we all make mistakes” (especially her–although I don’t know if you can consider raising trainwrecks mere mistakes). She gives a small lesson in Tabloid Manipulation 101 and tells Ali that “they’ll just have to educate him,” which sounds very creepy Scientologist.

Jeremy enters the house while Dina and Ali chat in the kitchen. He doesn’t knock or anything, just breezes right in. Dina then begins to mediate Ali and Jeremy’s argument. Read More »

Perpetual war.

Think of the pictures you’ve seen of bombed-out Iraq, horror stories of refugee camps, and hauntingly hollow eyes of children who have seen too much…

War. Death. Destruction. Pain. Sorrow. No Hope. No Life. No Point.

Somalia needs your attention.

One of the most dangerous places in the world, Somalia has been locked in constant conflict since the overthrow of General Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

U.N. Special Representative Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah stated on March 24 that,

“The situation in Somalia, indeed, is serious. Serious because it has been at war for so long that many people probably do not understand what it means to live in peace, and this is not an exaggeration, or living with a government.”

According to GlobalSecurity.org, 350,000-1,000,000 Somalis have died since 1990 in the conflict.

According to Human Rights Watch, as of 1990, the male literacy rate was 36% and the female literacy rate was 14%.

A fifth of Somalian children die before their fifth birthday. Read More »

For college students everywhere, mid-March means the glorious time to break away from the monotonous second semester daily grind and go buck wild on sunny beaches for a week. Although I participated in most “college-esque” activities; sororities, student organizations, etc, having the stereotypical balls to the wall spring break was something I never did. And now, looking back on it, I’m proud of it.

Trying to convince my conservative parents that spending upwards of $1500-$2000 for a week’s vacation was a hopeless cause. All of my friends would say, “But alcohol is included in the package deal! All you can drink!” Yeah, I’m sure that will be a real selling point. “You see mom, I can binge drink with all that money…”

At the time, I thought I would look back on my college experience and wish I would have splurged on a crazy spring break experience. But now that I am more removed from the situation and college life, I’m actually kind of happy that I didn’t partake. Read More »

When I started college, I thought my digs were pretty sweet. It was a private school—and all girls—so of course it was nice compared to most state schools I had looked at.

My roommate and I had awesome custom made matching comforters (be jealous), a TV, stereo, window AC unit, mini fridge and an illegal microwave. I mean, what else did two girls on the verge of the most exciting adventure of their lives need??

Apparently everything.

According to the LA Times, college kids these days aren’t just bringing their own expensive shit to pimp out their dorm rooms, but their schools (and subsequent building contractors) are totally catering to these high class kids that want dorms that look nothing like, well, dorms at all. Read More »