Before Joey's Dad vaporized, he remembers him saying "This machine will allow any citizen to peer into the mind of any politician and yet, escape unscathed."

What would be the need for a machine to explore the inside of a vacuum? ( :

Back in college, a particular misguided genius that lived next to me took apart a TI calculator down to the last chip to see if he could put it back together. Spent several days, missed a few important tests and several classes. I think he eventually flunked out with A's in math and physics and F's in everything else because he didn't go.

He's the one wearing the hat.

Do you know the "legend" about George Dantzig? Either he was bored with a lecture & fell asleep during class to wake up to what he thought was his homework assignment--or he showed up late for class.

During the course of that day's lecture, the professor discussed what he believed to be two "unsolvable" statistics problems, & he scrawled them on the board in the course of that day's lecture as he discussed the issues that made the variables in the problems "impossible to manage."

Thinking they were a homework assignment, Dantzig copied them down, solved them, & turned them in.

He was later brought in by the Pentagon to develop a state-of-the-art logistics system...

...in spite of the fact that he had failed to pay $859 in income taxes because he had been flummoxed by "ENIAC-Tax." (Now that's funny right there--I don't care who you are.)

Even the people who write the tax code can't seem to be able to follow it.

GF

You're right, but I was referring to Geithner. The guy who is supposed to be managing our entire country's finances (including the enforcement of finance laws & the supervision of banks) was too confusterated to use a "plug & chug" idjit utility (I know that "It was TurboTax's fault" was a bald-faced lie--just pointing out the irony between requisite qualifications & perceived ability).

I can remember working on one of my returns in the early 90s. Form 1040 (the long form). I get to line 17 (I really don't remember what line it was) & the directions on the form read, "to calculate line 17, turn to page 26 [in this book]". I turn to page 26, & there's a mini-form that starts off, "enter the amount from line 17."

Unlike Geithner, I've never underpaid my taxes. I seem to miss a few hundred dollars in deductions every now & then, but that cost is cheaper than what I'd pay a "pro". Besides--I like to do my own taxes so that I stay good & mad at the IRS--& that little cushion is worth every penny should they ever attempt to get me with one of those "scorched earth" audits.