The last 24 hours have been a little... trying...

Last night, after posting some fine Hand Bra Hotties, I go down stairs to turn on the Monday Night Football. Umm, nothing. TV won't fire up. My guess is a bad bulb. I come back upstairs and arrange for the service folks to come out and get it fixed up. Side note, I'm not usually a fan of service plans, 90% of the time they are a ripoff, but I learned the hard way to buy one on a large TV, but that's another story.

They are scheduled to be here tomorrow between 12:00 and 4:00, so I am taking the day off. While I'm home I'm going to put brake pads on my Bride's car. That means she will be driving mine. I hope she doesn't break anything, or dig around in the trunk, but that's another story also.

So this morning, 4:20am, I am up. Get my clothes ready for work, drop obama's kids off at the pool and dig around the fridge for something for lunch. It was about then that I noticed something wasn't quite right.

Hmmm, when I went to bed last night the perfectly decorated Christmas Tree wasn't laying flat out on the floor. Well it was at 4:40. Not good. Shattered ornaments all over. Christmas tree water soaking the carpet.

I have a sneaking suspicion that my Rottweiler might be involved, but there is no actual evidence.

I wake up my Bride and together we clean the mess up as good as we are able. She gives my girls a new ornament every year, most of them are fragile and of course, it was some of their favorites that were smashed to bits.

So, as you can imagine, I was late for work. Late for me anyway.

On her way to work, my Bride called me and wanted to recap the mornings festivities. I was already in a shitty mood over the TV and the Tree, so a recap wasn't quite on the agenda. That conversation didn't go well.

We had things to do today at work that required a truck someone else was using. They were supposed to be back at a certain time. Not today. Two hours late meant that our day didn't go as planned.

Since I have been home from work, I have cleaned the garage to make room for the brake job on my Bride's hotrod, taken the lights and garland off of the Christmas Tree, recut the bottom of the Tree, put it back in the stand, got it straight side to side and front to back.

What a day...

obama Couldn’t Wait: His New Christmas Tree Tax

This is bullshit. Another dumbass government agency. Christmas Tree Promotion Board? Are you kidding me? Does obama really think he needs to pimp Christmas trees? Christmas trees will still be popular after obama is a distant, horrible memory.

What a dickhead. 9% unemployment, homes being foreclosed and his answer is to tax our freakin' Christmas tress.

By David S. Addington - The Foundry

president obama’s Agriculture Department today announced that it will impose a new 15-cent charge on all fresh Christmas trees—the Christmas Tree Tax—to support a new Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

In the Federal Register of November 8, 2011, Acting Administrator of Agricultural Marketing david r. shipman announced that the Secretary of Agriculture will appoint a Christmas Tree Promotion Board. The purpose of the Board is to run a “program of promotion, research, evaluation, and information designed to strengthen the Christmas tree industry’s position in the marketplace; maintain and expend existing markets for Christmas trees; and to carry out programs, plans, and projects designed to provide maximum benefits to the Christmas tree industry” (7 CFR 1214.46(n)). And the program of “information” is to include efforts to “enhance the image of Christmas trees and the Christmas tree industry in the United States” (7 CFR 1214.10).

To pay for the new Federal Christmas tree image improvement and marketing program, the Department of Agriculture imposed a 15-cent fee on all sales of fresh Christmas trees by sellers of more than 500 trees per year (7 CFR 1214.52). And, of course, the Christmas tree sellers are free to pass along the 15-cent Federal fee to consumers who buy their Christmas trees.

Acting Administrator Shipman had the temerity to say the 15-cent mandatory Christmas tree fee “is not a tax nor does it yield revenue for the Federal government” (76 CFR 69102). The Federal government mandates that the Christmas tree sellers pay the 15-cents per tree, whether they want to or not. The Federal government directs that the revenue generated by the 15-cent fee goes to the Board appointed by the Secretary of Agriculture to carry out the Christmas tree program established by the Secretary of Agriculture. mr. president, that’s a new 15-cent tax to pay for a Federal program to improve the image and marketing of Christmas trees.

Nobody is saying president obama doesn’t have authority to impose his new Christmas Tree Tax — his Administration cites the Commodity Promotion, Research and Information Act of 1996. Just because the obama administration has the legal power to impose its Christmas Tree Tax doesn’t mean it should do so.

The economy is barely growing and nine percent of the American people have no jobs. Is a new tax on Christmas trees the best president obama can do?

And, by the way, the American Christmas tree has a great image that doesn’t need any help from the government.