Well, folks, your old friend The Hawg has been in "change mode" lately.
I woke up one day and thought it would be a good idea to have an active law license again because I've figured out a way to make money with the thing (here's a hint -- just hanging out a shingle, advertising and hoping for walk-in traffic is for suckers). So -- bam! -- I'm in the middle of getting that done.
I woke up this morning and thought I'd been slacking on things here at the All Arkie Army since, well, shortly after I started it. The original purpose of this site was to bring attention to bloggers with Arkansas ties -- to give them a site where they could link to posts on their own blogs of which they are particularly proud and post an original item or two.
So, I'm asking everyone to keep all of that in mind -- post links to your favorite items and post something new here and there if you have time. I've also started a blog list so that members of the famed All Arkie Army can get some traffic that way.
What's more, I've learned a few things about how to get attention on these here Interwebs. Backlinks are important, I reckon, so that blog list will (hopefully) help boost the page ranks of members. Furthermore, please drop me a note if you know of an Arkansas blog that should be listed on that list and I'll put it up -- if we're lucky, we'll get a reciprocal link from some of those blogs and that will help out all of us as the rank of this blog increases and pulls everyone up with it.
In short, I hope members will get more active over here, maybe recruit a friend or two and suggest some links to add to the blog list. I really like the idea of linking to more Arkansas blogs -- let's help out some other Arkies, huh?
One of the better ideas floating around out there is Tell Me Thursday -- a dandy little blog that was built on the notion that people might like to hear the stories behind items posted in the weekly Wordless Wednesday event.
If you happen to be a Wordless Wednesday participant, then I'd encourage you to take a look at the aforementioned Tell Me Thursday. That project should be getting a lot more participation than it is, so please give the site a look, huh? All you've got to do is blog about your Wordless Wednesday post and submit a link to Tell Me Thursday. I'm lazy by nature, so I love that -- I can come up with a post without a lot of effort. Dandy!
At any rate, my most recent Wordless Wednesday post is called Cobb and the The Kitten. I snapped that photo because it really says a lot about The Kitten. We've got far too many animals around here -- four cats (two of whom mostly live outside and one of whom mostly sulks in the closet in the bedroom my wife and I share) and three dogs (again, animals who spend most of their time outside).
Of the four cats, The Kitten is the only one who gets along with all the other animals, my wife and me and our two children. Two of the cats are downright skittish and the closet sulker hates everyone -- children and animals alike -- except my wife and me. For some reason, The Kitten seems to pal most easily with Cobb, our beloved rat terrier.
Why is The Kitten so friendly? I have no idea. I should point out a couple of things, however. First of all, we've had The Kitten since she was born to her mother, The Cheat, back in July. Her name isn't really The Kitten -- it's Gizmo, but her nickname seems to have stuck (you can yell "Gizmo!" all day long at her, in fact, and she won't respond).
The fact we have The Kitten at all takes a bit of explaining. A couple of summers ago, I got a call from my wife. She and my daughter were out at some store or the other and found a family giving away free kittens.
"Your daughter wants a kitten," my wife said.
"Well, tell her she can't have one. We've got two cats already and that's more than enough..."
"You tell her," my wife responded.
"No, that's a bad idea, honey..."
"Hello, daddy," my daughter said after my smart alec my wife passed her the phone. "Can I have a kitten?"
"No!"
"Please..."
"No!"
"Please..."
"No!"
"But, daddy..."
"OK. But only if I get to name it whatever I want."
That's how The Cheat arrived at our home. Also, we were supposed to have her spade, but made the appointment too late. That's how we got The Kitten. Did we plan on keeping any of The Cheat's kittens? No, but we did keep one.
Why? Because she was the friendliest of the lot and looked the coolest (it's obvious her father was a gray-and-black tabby and her mother is an orange tabby). She's been a fantastic cat, too. I do wonder what we'll call her when she's fully grown, however.
So, there you have it...
Take a good, hard look at that photo, folks.
That's Tony Alamo and he's five kinds of crazy. Fortunately, he's not that bright, either.
Let me explain.
Alamo is an alleged minister and certainly a cultist who has pestered people in Arkansas for decades now. I well remember finding his junk literature on my car windshield in the 1980s -- we're talking about rants against Ronald Reagan, the Pope and basically anyone in power who wasn't a screwball.
In 1994, the nut got convicted of tax evasion and sent to the federal pen. Sadly, they let him out in 1998 and he started causing trouble again. He eventually wound up in the southwest Arkansas town of Fouke and set up another one of his blasted ministries. The Fouke mayors office, almost immediately, started receiving complaints of underage marriages, polygamy, child abuse, sexual abuse and all sorts of nasty things.
So his Fouke compound got raided in September 2008 as part of a child pornography investigation. Alamo fled, was eventually nabbed in Arizona and was hauled before a judge in October. He's denied all wrongdoing (of course) and has been sitting in jail since then awaiting his trial in May.
Here's the funny part -- he's been held without bail since October and has finally gotten around to complaining that the court should -- like, you know, uh maybe -- reconsider. That request has been denied.
The law is pretty clear in this instance -- if you are facing federal charges and you think you are being held without bail unfairly, you shouldn't wait five months or so until you start complaining about it (in fact, you've got 10 days to appeal that decision).
Alamo's attorneys should have known this, I suppose. However, I wonder how hard an attorney works when he's representing a known ne'er-do-well who is facing several counts of taking minors across state lines for the purpose of having sex with them.
I hope they get Alamo out of circulation for good this time.
Head on over to Wordless Wednesday to submit something of your own!
According to Little Rock's KTHV -- a CBS affiliate -- that Making Work Pay tax credit may or may not be beneficial.
If you want to read that particular story, just click, click, click away. For those of you in a hurry, however, here's the synopsis.
President Barack Obama has asked employers to adjust their payrolls so that all eligible workers can start receiving the credit. Individuals making $75,000 or less or couples making $150,000 or less are eligible for the credit and are to receive $400 (for individuals) or $800 (for couples).
So, less is withheld from your paycheck, resulting in some extra cash every pay period. Dandy, right?
Well, maybe not.
According to the KTHV story, the amount of taxes you owe has not changed. By the end of the year, workers are to receive a tax credit from the IRS so that extra money won't have to be paid back to the feds. However, KTHV reports there is some speculation that credit will never be issued, meaning a lot of people could be looking at lower refunds next year and might even owe taxes.
Want to defer the credit? Talk to your payroll folks and they can adjust your withholdings accordingly. That's what my wife and I are doing. If it is a true tax credit, we'll receive it when we file our 2009 tax returns.
So cheesy. So cool...
