Happy, happy, joy, joy.

Nothing has really caught my interest today. Nor has anything happened to really write about. Last night I went out with a few friends, well 14 of them, to Bennigan’s for dinner. It was to celebrate the promotion of a couple of them. One to E-3, the other to E-7. We had a pretty good time and then everyone wanted to go out to a bar near the restaurant. Not the Crew, but a different one. Anyway to make a short story even shorter, I decided not to go and went home. But the ones that did go, they weren’t feeling all that chipper this morning. Except for the 2 instigators who didn’t have to work today. I had to come in to work early, just to find out that I wasn’t needed until my normal time. Great, since I’m already here, I might as well go ahead and get to work. Needless to say, today sucks. Tomorrow should be better though, I get my tax return back. (Yes, I already did my taxes. I always do them as soon as I get my W-2 so I can get my money back ASAP.) But, go figure, the money is already spoken for. Most for the house and improvements, and a little to fix my laptop. (Hopefully it’ll take only a little.) And I’m going to take it down to the repair shop today after work. And they better fix it right and not the way HP “fixed” it. Its more like they Mickey Moused it. I think that I’ll stop talking about HP before I break something.

Speaking of taxes, why does the military have to pay taxes? (Wasn’t the money already taxed once? Doesn’t that fall under some kind of double jeopardy for the money, or something?) Even if you’re overseas, you still have to pay them. (It’s the same for government employees too.) Civilian that work outside the US 11 months out of the year, make their money tax free. Why are we treated different? They already pay us as little as they can get away with. They say the difference is made up by our benefits. Yes our benefits are decent, but we pay some of our money for them as well. We now have to pay for medical and dental coverage for our dependants. (Yes, I know, if the Army had wanted me to have kids I would have been issued Privates.) And the promised (at least when I joined) free coverage for life, if you gave 20 years of yours to the service, has also become a pay for it service.

And every year Congress tries to take just a little bit more from us. And from those who have retired. Yet, if you look, I bet you would have a hard time finding a Session of Congress that didn’t vote themselves a pay raise and increased benefits. Well, its not really that bad, but since 1989, when Congress passed an amendment allowing them to vote for their own pay raises, the average salary has gone from $98,400 to $158,100. And that’s the starting pay! Hell, I only make $49,270 in a year, (Exactly half of what a starting out Congressman made 16 years ago.) and I’ve been doing this for 17 years. But, a Congressman has to serve for at least 5 years to qualify for a pension that they won’t get until age 60. What?!? I have to serve 20 years to get retirement pay, 19 ½ won’t cut it, (Uncle Sugar will say thanks for the time, now get the fuck out. Too bad.) but it does start right after getting out. (Hooray for something.)

Sure, I get benefits like money for college, not that I have ever had time to go, or when I did have time, did my commander let me go. But, the best military benefit there is, is a VA guaranteed home loan. With out that, I wouldn’t have been able to afford a down payment for my house. So, I guess that the military did give me something that was worthwhile.

I’ll see ya’ll later.

Oh, and one more thing...........

God bless(ed) the USA