On the tingling eve of the big high school football game, drama was being played out in thousands of U.S. cities and towns. Girl students swirl like autumn leaves as they lived and breathed their hopes and fears in high-pitched whispers. The biggest men in school, the football stars, brooded over their assignments and the hundreds of friends who were counting on them. Mass pep rallies in front of school or on practice fields built up the excitement. Coeds mooned over their heroes in class and the popular girls set their caps for coveted dates with the team’s star players.
The tension of the adult world – even college football – seems tame beside the bubbling pressures of high school football. In Lawrence, Kan., a city of 33,000, the pressure is even greater for the Lawrence High Lions have the longest current winning streak in schoolboy football – 45 games. As Lawrence, on the weekend reported in these pictures, prepared for its big game against Shawnee-Mission North, the 1,100 students urged the ream on with usual fighting, go-get-‘em slogans. But the players themselves faced things a little differently from most. Booted in the strict religious environment of Kansas, they attend a prayer meeting and Bible discussion at a barn outside of town, where on of them wisecracked, “He who playeth hardest beateth Shawnee-Mission North.”
I know, I know, these are pictures of Hitler. And maybe it’s not the best idea to put them here, me being who I am. But these photos are amazing, shot by Hitler’s personal photographer Hugo Jaeger in color and such close proximity that as a fan of historic photography I cannot just pass them by. And yes, I know what was happening while Hitler was greeting adoring women, checking out cars and watching parades, and I have these photos too. If anything these photos make one wonder how a grim, plain-looking and not extremely bright individual could achieve absolute power over a civilized country.
Pretty interesting article about a local (now-defunct) piano seller. It’s notable how in 1940 people didn’t think twice about the phrase “salesman lures the farmer’s daughter into the truck”
You can complain about the Missouri Legislature, but you cannot accuse them in the lack of the sense of humor. Rick Hellman, the heir to Hellman Mayonnaise fortune editor of the Kansas City Jewish Chronicle reports that the Missouri legislators passed a bill meant to tweak the Springfield chapter of the neo-Nazi National Socialist Movement.
In the beginning of the year local news reported that a neo-Nazi group has joined the state’s “Adopt-A-Highway” volunteer litter pickup program, taking advantage of a free speech court fight won four years ago by the Ku Klux Klan. Now they will be picking up litter along the “Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel Memorial Highway.”
No tax is more objectionable to me than the Kansas City, MO earnings tax. While I can somehow justify federal, state, county, property and sales taxes that may be needed to maintain the welfare of the country, state, schools in my community, etc., there is no discernible benefit I can see resulting from me paying a share of my earnings to the greedy inhabitants of Kansas City, MO. I’d rather burn the money than give it to the city that mugs non-residents for one percent of their income just because it can’t generate enough money from its own residents and/or sales and business activity. Unfortunately burning the money doesn’t absolve a person from paying taxes. I know, I know – many other cities have earnings tax and somewhere in Philadelphia it is over 4.5% so you don’t need to try to convince me that it’s a great idea; by some strange coincidence 100% of the people who like the earnings tax reside inside the city limits of the KCMO. I don’t and I don’t.
Back to the tax advice part of this post. If your place of employment is located in Kansas City,MO but you worked at least one full day outside the city limits i.e. went to an out-of-town conference or spent a day at the customer site in the beautiful Johnson County AND you are a non-resident, you are owed a refund. Lets say that you made $100,000 last year and Kansas City wants to confiscate $1,000 from you just because your employer made a horrible mistake when picking a location for the business. If you work 260 days a year, your earnings tax is little less than four dollars a day, therefore, if you traveled for 20 days that year you are owed close to $80. These calculations will not come up in your tax software, you will have to fill out a form and provide some supporting documentation such as travel records or an appointment book.
Lots of work for just a few dollars a day? When was the last time the city of Kansas City let you get away without paying for a parking ticket? Get your money back! They are counting on your inaction so they can keep your money. Even if your refund is five bucks it will require a lot more than 5 dollars worth of work at the City Hall, they will read your forms, review your paperwork, issue a check, buy a stamp – more action than you will ever get for your money, and you will spend your money the way you see fit, hopefully in your own community, where people are thankful for your business.
No tax is more objectionable to me than the Kansas City, MO earnings tax. While I can somehow justify federal, state, county, property and sales taxes that may be needed to maintain the welfare of the country, state, schools in my community, etc., there is no discernible benefit I can see resulting from me paying a share of my earnings to the greedy inhabitants of Kansas City, MO. I’d rather burn the money than give it to the city that mugs non-residents for one percent of their income just because it can’t generate enough money from its own residents and/or sales and business activity. Unfortunately burning the money doesn’t absolve a person from paying taxes. I know, I know – many other cities have earnings tax and somewhere in Philadelphia it is over 4.5% so you don’t need to try to convince me that it’s a great idea; by some strange coincidence 100% of the people who like the earnings tax reside inside the city limits of the KCMO. I don’t and I don’t.