who we are - guitars, guns and Freedom

[Rsmacker]

Don't you ever get the desire to wear ladies lingerie on a Saturday night or walk around Food Lion naked?

Aha, I'm glad you asked that question! You want to hear more of my adventures?

It is a very clever system we 've got. I recently did my tax return, now if I have gone out and bought a new truck last tax year, I would have paid no income tax. However, since I am not VAT (Value Added (Goods/Services) Tax) registered I would have had to have paid VAT on it. Guess what, the VAT would have been the same as what I paid as income tax. I can't go VAT registered because customers wouldn't pay the extra 20% and I'd loose out to the competition. So they have you by the nuts.

The customers don't need to pay 20% extra if you become VAT registered, you can still charge the same. Obviously, you then have to give 20% of the take to the Govt, but you are also claiming 20% of ALL your business related costs (which, with some prudent book-keeping, can be all sorts of shite), so you should either come out on top or at least in the same position as you were in before. Shit, the duty on fuel you can reclaim has to make it worth it. It's simple enough to work out on a spreadsheet and see if it actually is worth doing, one way or another.

Not only have you missed out on reclaiming the VAT equivilant to your tax bill by not buying a new truck, but you also missed out on the depreciation of the truck in subsequent years, which would lower your tax bill anyway. Double fail, my friend. You need to sharpen up, get some professional advice, and you'll have more money to spunk on dirty women and recreational narcotics, like me. Yay!!!

In this day and age, it's little things like that which keep little guys like you (and me) afloat, it really might make a difference you can't spot yourself. Not all of us are Richard Bransons (I don't mean "cunts" either), but there is no need to pay any more tax than you absolutely have to!

Also, business clients expect to deal with VAT registered customers, it shows you are serious, and I'm sure that you'd rather be doing decent, well paid, commercial contracts rather than dealing with little old ladies in their homes, right?

Wocka wocka, whoa, I hear wah pedal guitar! Which brings me neatly onto...

haven't participated too much in RSmacker's sexual misadventure threads due to my lack of interest in buggering little old ladies while their husbands watch on.

Come on now! What's not to love about that? Tell me you think about it when you are clubbing Flipper, go on, I know you do...

Where's that fucker Tonemonster, I haven't seen him for aaaaaaaaaaaaages?

[Cygnus X1]

Bottling (48 to 50) 12 ouncers tonight of batch #2...American Wheat
Batch #1 Amber Ale is one week in carbonation, bottle conditioning...it needs at least one more week to be ready to drink.
Batch #3 (Pale, think Bass) is in week 1 of fermentation.
So I will need 48 to 50 more bottles by next week.

And no, I am not going to buy empty bottles.
Sam Adams are the best to use.

Why does this matter?
Avoiding taxes would be a good reason.
And good quality homebrew is less expensive and much better than store bought.

[Rsmacker]

Is it good stuff though? I mean it, really?
When I was at school, me and my mates all used to be into home-brewing. Imagine it, six 15-yr olds, sitting round supping ale. Unfortunately, I'm a lager fiend and homebrew lager tastes like dog piss, so I had to move on to making my own wine.
We used to get HAMMERED...

Ah, happy days.

[Cygnus X1]

IMO lagering is best done in a keg.
Since I'm still in the bottling phase I'll pass on that for a while.
Yuengling Lager is my favorite go-to light beer.

Wheat and Hefeweisen beers are great for the coming hot weather.

But really I always fall back on Bass Pale, so that's one I am reaching for on batch #3.
Grain addition, late hops, full boil, all that stuff.

I can't say if it is good yet.
The non carbonated samples have been good but it will be the long awaited finish that tells the real story.

[skorb]

Bottling (48 to 50) 12 ouncers tonight of batch #2...American Wheat
Batch #1 Amber Ale is one week in carbonation, bottle conditioning...it needs at least one more week to be ready to drink.
Batch #3 (Pale, think Bass) is in week 1 of fermentation.
So I will need 48 to 50 more bottles by next week.

And no, I am not going to buy empty bottles.
Sam Adams are the best to use.

cool.
I used to brew in my old apt in San Francisco before we had kids. always the top fermenting ales, those are the easiest to make, and the tastiest to my palate.
our walk-in closet smelled like a yeast room with that fermenter setting up in there for two weeks at a time.

[sully]

hey, do you remember the Port Arthur massacre over here in Australia? Do you remember the subsequent buyback of automatic rifles? Do you remember the NRA telling American gun owners after the buyback that gun-related murders had immediately risen here and we were all now cowering in our homes, wishing we had stood up and stopped the tyrannical government from taking our independence away? Fortunately for me and mine, we're not fortifying ourselves in our homes. Gun crimes didn't skyrocket. Fact is, even before the buyback, no one was walking around here with guns out anyway.

The NRA lied to you to promote their own agenda in your country, and they relied on the patriotic gun owner to not question them about the source of their information or its validity. Pretty safe bet because if you already agree with them, why would you question anything they say if it already supports your own position?


I would suggest the distinct possibility that in the interest of maintaining harmony here on the JCF that most dissenters have refrained from posting in the gun threads. I have no interest in guns and so haven't checked in on any of the gun threads.

I do love my freedom (if I actually have any, after ginsambo's post ) and my individuality. I also believe in letting other people live their own lives and enjoying what they love, providing it doesn't hurt other people. However, my lack of participation in any of the threads should only be taken to indicate my lack of interest in guns, not to imply support for whatever flag-waving guns-n-seatbelts freedom rally is taking place there. There are too many people on this forum that I like and respect to piss off and alienate because some of you love your guns and I have no interest in them.

You may or may not have noticed that I also don't join in Metallica threads & also haven't participated too much in RSmacker's sexual misadventure threads due to my lack of interest in buggering little old ladies while their husbands watch on.

But apart from all that, have you noticed the complete dropoff in all other activity in this section of the forum? On my single page view of the Non-J/C section - guns, birthdays, Snoogans talking about a gun for fighting Aliens, NHL lockout news, what would you buy for a grand?, an old car, and a wife onstage with Testament. Out of 20 discussions on view, 5 are birthday well-wishes, 9 are about guns. Oh, and one was mine suggesting we renaming the section to "Guns & Birthday Greetings"

This.

[Cygnus X1]

Quiet numbskulls!

I'm trying to derail this thread!

[straycat]

Kevin is a beer head!

[Cygnus X1]

Kevin is a beer head!

Not quite yet!
It takes 6 weeks to get the "pipeline" flowing.
Not unless you like green, unfinished beer.

[sully]

I got one of those Mr Beer kits for xmas one year; it was a lot of fun, and came out really well.

[Cygnus X1]

I got one of those Mr Beer kits for xmas one year; it was a lot of fun, and came out really well.

Actually the Mr. Beer setup isn't all that bad.
Just don't use their ingredients.
Buy good quality liquid malt extract, some flavoring hops, and yeast...and bottle away.



I'm using 6.5 gallon brewing buckets for 5 gallon batches.
Brew kits are about 30 dollars, makes (48) 12 oz. bottles.
So it's somewhere around 60 to 70 cents a bottle.

A can of LME (liquid extract malt) plus hops and yeast is about 15 dollars.
Priming sugar is just corn sugar, the cost is insignificant.
Cleaning solution is also very inexpensive.

Your Mr. Beer can make quality 2- case batches for close to the same price.