Cross-trainer 610 calories, 4.0 miles, 40:22 minutes, 150 crunches (ouch!), 195.2 pounds, more water, less saturated fat.

America Needs Utah.  From the State House Building at the Utah State Capitol, Wednesday, September 20, 2006, an interview with Rep. LaVar Christensen, US House District 2 Congressional Candidate.  Topics include:  District 2 Borders, Current and Alternative Energy, Illegal Immigration, and Political Philosophy.

Click HERE to listen.

Just when you thought the state was done collecting surplus tax dollars from you…think again.  The robust $355.5 Million surplus (shown as the excess dollars collected over and above February’s Consensus Projection on the TC-23 report) just grew another $8.52 Million to a total of $364.02 Million**.  And, remember, until all the taxpayers who filed six month extensions pay on October 15, these are still just preliminary estimates.  Also, traditionally, the taxpayers who file for extensions are normaly those who owe a personal income tax.  My guess…it’ll go higher.

FYI…Sales and Use Taxes have grown 10.5% over last year, Individual Income Taxes have grown 18.3% over last year, and Corporate Taxes have grown 77.5% over last year**.

** The Tax Commission estimates that, based on preliminary fiscal year 2006 revenue collections, actual revenue will exceed the February Consensus Forecast by $364.02 Million with over three-fourths coming from Individual and Corporate Income Taxes. (Source: TC-23 MONTHLY REVENUE SUMMARY, Twelve Months FY2005-06)

This morning was a tough one.  I split my aerobic workout between two different machines to take some strain off my body.  31:22 minutes on the elliptical trainer, 3.0 miles, 463 calories AND 10:00 minutes on the stationary bike, 2.32 miles, 83 calories.  140 crunches (adding ten per day), I was OK until about 95 and a half.  Weight 196.2 pounds.  I’ve started to cut out saturated and transfats from my diet.  And, yesterday had a big plate of BEETS for lunch (I like beets)!  Drinking a lot more water.

I was talking to a friend of mine and he reminded me that water weighs about 1 pound per two cups–interesting to note. 

Day 3, 30 minutes on the elliptical cross trainer, 2.93 miles, 451 calories.  I’m trying to detox by drinking more water (my soda replacement). Was at the gym from 5:30 am to 6:15 am.  Weight 196.

I made a monumental mistake yesterday morning—I stepped on the scale for the first time in a number of months.  202.  That was the unmistakable, wretched number it registered.  202.  (Thank goodness I didn’t weigh myself on the gym scale first, which seems to register a little higher than the one in the Master Bathroom—I’ll go with the bathroom scale.)  Now don’t get me wrong, 202 is OK for some people.  However, for my frame size and muscle density 202 is NOT OK.   I was wondering why my suits (and belts) were beginning to shrink about a year ago.  This must be what “they” call a mid-life crisis.

So, what to do.  I have it on good authority that with a little diet and exercise I might be able to lose a few pounds—have you seen John Nixon, the Governor’s budget director, lately?  He’s half the man he used to be.  Literally.

It’s my intent to give a brief daily accounting of my weight loss program.  Diet and Exercise.  Monday:  Weight 202.  Tuesday: Weight 197.  (My scale might be broken.)  At this rate it’ll only take three weeks to get to my target weight.  Target weight: 175.  I hope you’ll have as much fun following this program as I will have doing it.  Charts, Graphs, and Pictures to follow.

Today a letter came from the Utah Department of Administrative Services.  Now, normally when I get bureaucratic junk mail it goes into the round file.  But, this one…this one’s a keeper.  Last year, around this time, one for the previous year came in the mailbox and I still have it to this day.  What is IT you ask?  IT’S the two page summary of our State’s Finances for FY2006 (“FY” means “Fiscal Year”–while most of our households run on a normal fiscal year, January 1 to December 31, our state’s finances run from July 1 of one year to June 30 of the following year).

I thought I’d provide the link to this document located on the state website so you won’t have to go digging around in the dark trying to find it…because I know you’ll want a copy!  If you don’t look at any other “governmental” document this year…you have to spend ten minutes with THIS ONE (click HERE for link).

Why?  Because there’ll be more ink spilt in the local rags over the contents of this document in the next three months, then on any other pre-session OR pre-election topic.  Mark my words.  You’ll see.  Why do I know this?  Am I a prophet?…a soothsayer?  No.  Do I have some special confidential “inside information” from someone, somewhere ”high up?”  No.  But, what I did notice was something I almost missed (I was so anxious to get to the “meat”) as I scanned the contents of the report.  Located betwixt the heading and the Major State Funding Revenue Sources section of the document was a one inch tall by eight inch wide box…that says…GENERAL FUND SURPLUS…$84,631,000…now down a couple of lines…UNIFORM SCHOOL FUND SURPLUS…$215,215,000. 

Those huge multi-tens and multi-hundreds of millions of dollar amounts, my friends, are the extra (surplus) dollars we took out of your personal wallets and didn’t spend…didn’t need to spend…because we balanced the state budget (it’s a State Constitutional requirement) as we always do.  The money’s just sitting in our, the government’s, bank account…collecting interest.

Now, some will tell you we, the state government, overtaxed the people and we, the state government, need to give it back, some will say we should spend the surplus USF (Uniform School Fund) of $215 million (and some change) on the children, afterall, that’s where USF money’s supposed to go, yet, others will say there are ways around the state spending limits and the USF, and through a series of carefully orchestrated transfers, USF’s become General Funds which can be used for limitless social entitlement programs….yadda…yadda…yadda…ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE?! (I know this is a run-on sentence and the punctuation is horrific.)

So, what was my point?…um….oh yeah…this is your surplus money (remember, we took it out of your wallets).  And, In an effort to know where we, the state government, is spending IT…may I suggest a little light reading?! (Click HERE…last chance.)

No kidding!  I want to send you a free book!  [Not paid for with taxpayers’ dollars.]  There is…of course…a small catch (or a few of them—catches, I mean).

An hour ago (2 a.m.), I finished reading an intriguing paperback titled, The FairTax Book, co-authored by syndicated talk show host, Neal Boortz, and Congressman John Linder.  This relatively “obscure” #1 New York Times Bestseller has been available for several months.  No one referred this book to me, which discusses a ground-breaking proposal for federal tax reform.  The “No IRS” symbol on the book cover stood out as I perused the bookstore shelves searching for something interesting to read on vacation.  It was a quick read (big print, 198 pages)—just my kind of book.  The only drawback…not enough charts and graphs.

OK, here’s the deal…(conditions):

First, you must be a Utah resident and 18 years or age or older.

Second, I’m only going to buy twenty copies of the paperback version (lighter weight, less postage).  I’ll need your mailing address.  We can do this two ways.  You can leave your mailing address as a “comment” on this blog’s “comment” section (comments are reviewed BEFORE they’re posted, so, I will promptly write your address down and delete the information so as not to publish it on the web) OR, perhaps the more secure way, you may send a letter via the U.S. Postal Service ($.39) to Rep. Craig Frank, 825 East 1300 North, Pleasant Grove, Utah 84062 (as an elected official this stuff is “public” information already) requesting a free copy.  First come, first served.  Limit one per household.
 
Third, after reading the book please make a brief comment about your thoughts on what you’ve read in the “comments” section of THIS BLOG.

Last…please try to make marks and notes in the book as you are reading.  (I always read with a pen in my hand!)

I hope you enjoy the book as much as I did.  Maybe, after you’re finished with the book, you’ll pass it on to a friend or acquaintance.  Our federal tax system is BROKEN.  “Change will come, either out of chaos or by design.” (The FairTax Book, pg. 194)

The right of an individual to keep and bear arms predates English Common Law – it even predates firearms themselves.  Knights and Freemen were required as early as 1181 to maintain a personal cache of weaponry to protect “their” kingdom and communities.  Autocratic societies that spun-off from serfdom (i.e. England, The Colonies, etc.) continued the pre-common right of an individual to maintain personal arms.  Through English Common Law (1689), an individual’s right to bear arms was reiterated. And, since that time, an individual’s right to keep and bear arms continues to be reinforced in the Bill of Rights and individual State’s Constitutions and Statutory Law.

Second Amendment

“A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.”

History – Governmental Checks

Proponents of the argument for “individuals rights” maintain that it was only in the past few decades the right to bear arms became a “state’s rights argument.”  Their belief is the right to bear arms has always been an individual right.

Because the U.S. Constitution denies states the ability to maintain an active full-time military, states have resorted to forming their own “militias” by organizing National Guard units.  Thus, the “locals” forming a well-trained militia (National Guard) would be the primary local protection for each independent state.  Alexander Hamilton, declared in Federalist #29, that he believed the national government should have ultimate control over state’s militias.  Federalists, however, historically maintained that even the common local man should bear arms so as not to allow the federal government or its interests to unjustifiably usurp the liberty of the common man.  The bearing of arms by the common man would, if necessary, offset and “keep in check” the potential misuse of a state militia against its own citizenry.  By maintaining personal arms the average citizen would then have a localized, equalized power to maintain the personal rights and freedoms for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Utah’s Statutory Requirement To “Carry”

In Utah, an individual who has legally obtained a Concealed Firearm Permit may carry a loaded, concealed firearm on their person under certain circumstances.  The Department of Public Safety and BCI have an extensive resource for those individuals who may qualify to transport, carry, conceal, and discharge a firearm in the State of Utah.  The Utah State Supreme Court has recently ruled that an individual who has a Concealed Firearm Permit may carry a concealed weapon onto the U of U campus—despite current university “policy.”

U of U Defiance of State Statute

Those who would seek to take away the right of sensible persons for their own primary protection are those who would exercise (or try to exercise) dominion and repressive control over others.  In many academic settings throughout our state there remains a festering, liberal element that has intentionally neglected to understand and teach the basic philosophy and principle that an individual has the civic responsibility to be their own primary response for personal protection and maintenance.

The administration of the U of U is walking on shaky ground.  Taking an “ABOVE THE LAW” approach may not sit well with the Legislature and Legislative Leadership. Why would we as citizens and representatives of the people hold the U and its administration to a different standard than we do with ALL other state colleges and universities?  It just doesn’t make sense.  Should defiant administrators be held responsible for their insubordination?   State entities receiving funding through legislative appropriations, one would think, would be careful not to challenge the absolute, and potentially fickle nature of their elected officials.  (Something about biting the hand…comes to mind.) 

BRAVO TO OUR STATE’S SUPREME COURT FOR UPHOLDING (and not legislating from the bench) AN INDIVIDUAL’S FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS OF FREEDOM & PERSONAL PROTECTION!

Add another organization to the list of those supporting the Governor’s Dual-Income Tax plan.  The Utah Taxpayers Association announced their support during the special Revenue and Taxation Interim Committee this morning.  Mike Jerman, Vice President of the Association, lent the taxpayer advocacy group’s endorsement to the Dual-Income Tax plan bill as drafted.

Although not currently included in the bill, Jerman said that indexing for inflation would make the bill better.