A very happy Father’s Day to all you dads out there. Anything special on the agenda? My husband (an excellent dad) requested homemade pizza for supper, so homemade pizza it is.
My homemade pizza is locally famous. Here’s why: Before I roll out the dough, I roast a whole head of garlic in the oven (top cut to expose cloves, drizzled with olive oil, wrapped loosely in tinfoil and baked at 350 for an hour). Then, after I roll out the dough, I coat it lightly with olive oil and squish the roasted garlic on it and spread it out. Then I top the pizza and bake as usual. It infuses the entire pie with the sweet, nutty flavor of roasted garlic. Nom-nom-nom!
Other causes for celebration: the Romneys’ fancy dancing horse is going to the Olympics, you guys! But here’s what struck me about the article: The Romneys declared a loss of $77K on their 2010 income tax returns for expenses related to the horse, Rafalca.
WTF? The horse is obviously alive and well. The Romneys don’t even own the horse 100% — ownership is split three ways. So what expenses could they incur as part owners in a year that exceed by far what most American wage earners make in 12 months? Are they allowed to treat this pricey hobby as a business venture? Job creators! Also, Best. Dressage. Ever:
[X-posted at Rumproast]
bago
Haters gonna haaaaaate.
SiubhanDuinne
Sound track to that dressage clip is hilarious. I would have spit out my coffee if only I had been drinking coffee at the time.
Your pizza sounds wonderful. I’ll remember that garlic trick.
I don’t even try to understand what the Rmoneys are doing on their tax returns.
donnah
Yummy pizza, Betty!
I had planned a quiet Father’s Day dinner for my husband and my folks coming over for grilled chicken. My dad’s fighting cancer now and he’s not feeling too whippy, so it was going to be a simple celebration. But then the in-laws were invited and and their kids and my oldest son is sharing his apartment with an intern from Spain who just arrived Wednesday and we couldn’t just leave him in the apartment alone, so now I have as many people as I usually host for Thanksgiving.
We did switch the menu to burgers and hot dogs.
Happy Father’s Day, everyone!
Starfish
The horses have bills. They are usually in a heated stable and have a swimming pool to bathe in. They have grooms and trainers.
Linda Featheringill
Happy Father’s Day, guys.
Biological fatherhood is really pretty easy to accomplish, I think, but real, emotional, daddyhood is a full-time job lasting for about 25 years or so.
I salute you men who’ve accomplished daddyhood, regardless of the biological equation.
CaptMaggie
Since when are horse show expenses deductible? I think the IRS must owe me a barrel of money.
SiubhanDuinne
@Starfish:
I’m picturing a gigantic four-legged dancing duck.
Valdivia
Happy fathers day to all the fathers out there.
c u n d gulag
For the Romney’s, expenses for horsesh*t is a loss.
But bullsh*t is always looked at as a gain!
Baud
Is the horse representing the U.S. or the Cayman Islands?
Happy Fathers Day (including all you dog and cat dads)!
MattF
It’s a business in the sense that we peons get the business.
Added: And therefore (I guess I should add) it’s deductible.
Betty Cracker
@Starfish: I get that, but why is it deductible?
Mustang Bobby
My parents celebrated their 64th anniversary yesterday, and today is Father’s Day, so they get a weekend of family hugs and warmth, even if the kids are spread across the country (Seattle to Miami and points in between).
Today is Day 3 of the CityWrights playwriting symposium here in Miami, so I’ve been spending the last couple of days with playwrights (including Christopher Durang), producers, agents, and fellow playwrights; networking and trading ideas and contact information. Today we’ll be able to submit works to Samuel French, Inc. for their short play festival in New York (for 2013) and for the 2013 Summer Shorts festival here in Miami. I have one script ready to go and lots of others in the drawer. Wish me luck, and I’ll be sure to mention your name at the Tonys.
Schlemizel
If the Rmoney share of expenses was 77k then the total bill was 231,000 dollars – thats a hell of a lot of illegal South American help even if the damn horse stayed at a 4-star resort.
Happy Fathers day to all the dads – even the ones who only serve as bad examples
beltane
The losses the Romneys claim on this one friggin’ horse are substantially greater than the annual income of the average American family. In Romney-land, not only are corporations people, but the value of a horse’s ass is greater than the value of a working class human.
Anoniminous
Greece is having a critical (for Greeks) and historically important (for the euro and EU) election. And, as usual, the propagandists and their shills are out in full force. To help filter the horseshit might want to read this by Yanis Varoufakis:
kay
The horse is a 4-H project, Betty, and they keep it in a pole barn behind the house.
The love note Romney left the reporters yesterday made me nervous. “Mitt”.
They’re already on a first-name basis. How long before they start answering to adorable yet
patronizing nicknames?
ornery_curmudgeon
Very cool that the BJ community is developing an interest in Dressage … it is much more than it might seem.
Dressage derives from the ancient Greek discovery of humane partnership with horses, and is the foundation of horsemanship. It allowed the development of effective cavalry, which for better or worse greatly impacted history.
The horses are not specially-gaited breeds, it is their training that makes it seem — at the highest levels — like dancing.
Linda Featheringill
Hip hop dressage:
The horse and trainer did a wonderful job. Bravo!
So when I go into my rant about the upper crust stealing everything the lower classes manage to produce, including their art and music, remember that I don’t mean to insult the horse.
Good job!
Davis X. Machina
I’d vote for someone who did dressage — but only with mules.
beltane
@Anoniminous: The way all the so-called serious people are united in warning of the dangers of a Syriza victory is making me hope for a Syriza victory. Maybe this time is different, but the consensus of the Serious People on just about every issue imaginable has been consistently wrong for at least the past two decades so maybe the time has come to ignore them.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Don’t they say this horse dressage stuff helps Ann Romney’s MS? (I don’t really get that, but I can’t bring myself to suffer through the reading it would take to understand how and why.)
So maybe they claim it as a medical expense?
P.S. The more I learn, the more I am disgusted by that smug bastard and his family.
Weaselone
@Betty Cracker:
Because he’s likely set his hobby horse up as some sort of business partnership. Any money spent on the horse, competition registrations, etc. is treated as a business expense, any money brought in by appearance fees, contest winnings, etc. would be treated as revenue. At the end of the year, his share of the losses goes on his tax returns and is deducted from his earnings.
Technically, anyone could do this, but it only makes fiscal sense when you’re talking big money or already have the lawyers and accountants on payroll, so it’s basically a perk of being rich that Uncle Sam gets to subsidize your expensive hobbies.
jrg
So, he likes to fire people but won’t get rid of a horse that lost him $77K?
If he was a dem, we would not hear the end of this. But since he’s a Republican, the media will forget about it in about two minutes.
Steeplejack
A tax expert’s take on dressage as “business or hobby.”
And the Times had a pretty good, detailed story last month about the Romneys’ involvement in dressage.
Schlemizel
@Weaselone: At one time the IRS would disallow expenses for claimed business activity if the business never made a profit. There was a time frame, perhaps 5 years, and if the business didn’t turn a profit it was considered a hobby & no longer qualified for business status.
I have wondered about this for some time since pro sports owners can produce millions in paper loses every year.
Anoniminous
@beltane:
The odds are the Right – as truly a nasty bunch of thugs you’d just as soon never meet – who are mostly pro-Austerity will get a slight majority of the overall vote although it will be split at least two ways, maybe more. With the collapse of PASOK (“Left,” Pro-Austerity) SYRIZA looks to pick-up most of the Left – except for the Greek Communist Party – and most of the anti-Austerity vote.
SYRIZA refused to join a pro-Austerity government after the last election and there’s no reason for them to join a pro-Austerity government after this election. (Especially after the ND (Right, pro-Austerity) has been lying about them during the election campaign.) In a very real sense, if SYRIZA can’t form a government then no government will be formed and the Greeks will be doing this again in about 40 days.
Joey Maloney
Where did that picture come from? What an awesome daddy bonding moment.
hildebrand
Absolute strangest thing I have ever seen – in a small piazza in Venice yesterday there was a Tea Party of Italy rally. I was utterly gobsmacked. There were a few locals and a good many American tourists listening – though I am certain not many understood Italian. The phrases were the same as in the US – weird to hear the stupidity of the tea party wankers in Italian. The strangest sight was the huge confederate flag hanging with the Italian flag. The best bit were all the various police agencies present – they were not thrilled with the speakers trying to get the people exercised about govt spending.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
@Weaselone: For us peons, at least, to claim business expenses on a Schedule C, we have to make a profit 2 out of the 5 years we make the claim. What about the Big Boyz? Same thing? Or is this some other sweetheart part of the tax code?
HRA
Turkey is in the oven. The Mexican meatballs in sauce are in the crock pot. It’s family dinner day here.
Happy Father’s Day to all the fathers whether they have children or pets.
Arghhh -never felt more disgusted than hearing, seeing or reading about Willard and his stupidity.
honus
@Starfish: So because the Romneys engage in the fiction that this horse is a business and operates at a loss that allows them a tax deduction, all American taxpayers are subsidizing their dressage hobby. I guess paying for the Romney’s horse is a better use of our tax dollars than buying steaks for young bucks.
Nothing illegal, of course, but that is the fiscal reality.
Rafer Janders
@beltane:
Oh, c’mon. At least dressage is a common man’s sport, a sport of the people, something that our forefathers on the prairie engaged in between bouts of plowing the fields and fighting Indians. It’s not something fancy and French and elitist like goddam windsurfing.
honus
@Starfish: And the beautiful part of it is that the rent and expenses for the horse’s stable are deductible, but the rent for your apartment isn’t.
Omnes Omnibus
@Rafer Janders:
I never saw how windsurfing was an elitist sport. Is that because I am such an elitist that I cannot look past my own privilege?
paradox
Nobody else seems to think so but that picture of the Father with the blower is funny as hell.
Hope the nicotine thing is all right. I’m at 67 days.
honus
@WaterGirl: To claim medical expenses, they must be more than 7.5% of your Adjusted Gross Income. While $77k is a lot, I don’t think it quite makes the nut on the Romneys’ AGI.
Betty Cracker
@Joey Maloney: A parenting fail website. I think it’s funny as hell and very much something my dad would do (though I wouldn’t fall for it now).
@paradox: 67 days — awesome! Still nic free at two weeks plus now.
Ruckus
@SiubhanDuinne:
Riding or being ridden?
Ben Cisco
Heard from both my nieces and grandniece and grandnephew. The fact that they view me as a father figure moreso than 1)their still-living biological fathers and 2)in one case, the father LittleMan never knew – well, I wish I could adequately describe how that makes me feel.
To any and all future fathers among the commentariat: Be good to them, be strong for them, BE THERE for them. It’ll mean more than you know.
Yutsano
@Betty Cracker:
I give you as much encouragement as I can from the opposite side of the country Betty!
Weaselone
@Schlemizel: I’m not a tax expert, but I think for horse training the general rule is 2 out of the last 7 years should show a profit or the IRS can challenge the expenses. Even then, profit motive can be demonstrated in other ways. Adopt the trappings of a business by keeping good accounting records, printing out business cards, having a separate bank account, etc. and the IRS is more likely to let you keep keep deducting your hobby expenses as business losses. Of course, it only makes sense to go through all this effort and cost if you have an expensive hobby, and it helps if you already paying for the lawyers and accountants.
Ruckus
@Ben Cisco:
That really is it isn’t it?
Rafer Janders
@Omnes Omnibus:
Where I come from, windsurfing was done by guys who worked as plumbers and carpenters and landscapers and bartenders — it was a solid blue-collar sport. It was for guys who couldn’t afford to keep a boat.
NancyDarling
@Davis X. Machina: That link didn’t work for me. Since I have 4 mules (well, 3 mules and a hinny) as guests on my place, I really need to see it. I just can’t imagine dancing mules since they are so sensible and not given to foolishness.
Yutsano
@Ben Cisco: Blessed day to thee Emissary. And may the Prophets continue to guide thee.
Keith
I made a pizza last weekend with the no-knead dough recipe (via NYTimes). PHENOMENAL! I have made homemade pizzas for years, but this one was the first to have a *real* crust (pizza stone in an oven on its hottest setting helps). It was even incredible reheated in the oven. Crispy on the outside and chewey on the inside withoug being brittle.
Toppings were an afterthought, but it was homemade pizza sauce (lots of oregano), whole milk mozarrella, arthichoke hearts, shrooms, goat cheese, and garlic slices.
YellowJournalism
@paradox: 67 days—awesome! Still nic free at two weeks plus now.
I’ve been around children too much. I read that as nit free. Was going to suggest a lice comb.
Xenos
@Davis X. Machina: Weren’t the Romans master mule breeders and handlers? I am curious if they ever trained them for the classical version of pure horsemanship.
Schlemizel
@ornery_curmudgeon:
I’ve been excited about it since you informed me I could do it in my back yard! It truly is the sport of the people
maya
Those fancy-schmantzy dressage ponies would get the horseshit kicked out of them by a coupla lumpenprol Budweiser Clydes any day of the week.
Schlemizel
@Weaselone: THANKS! The rules at least make sense. I’m not surprised that crooks like MLB/NFL/NHL/NBA owners and Willard Rmoney take advantage of them to make us carry a chunk of the burden for their hobbies but it is nice to think there are at least some rules. It would be nice to think we could tighten them up a bit but that won’t happen in my life time
Betty Cracker
@Yutsano: Thanks! It was a rough couple of weeks, but I’m slowly starting to feel like myself again.
@Keith: Was it this one? I’m always on the look out for good crust recipes, and your description sounds promising. Your toppings sound awesome too, but hubby is kind of old school about that sort of thing, so I’ll have to wait until I make a solo pie to try that.
Rafer Janders
@Xenos:
Reg: What have the Romans ever done for us, eh?
Francis: They invented mule dressage.
Reg: Yes, obviously, that goes without saying…but apart from better sanitation and medicine and education and irrigation and public health and roads and a freshwater system and baths and good wine and public order and mule dressage… what have the Romans done for us?
NancyDarling
@NancyDarling: I never got the link to work, but I found this instead.
http://www.behindthebitblog.com/2008/08/mules-next-trend-in-dressage.html
Somehow, I don’t think my 3 guys and a gal would be with the program.
Keith
@Betty Cracker: That’s the one. Lahey from Sullivan Street Bakery knows his stuff. The 24 hour room temp part adds great flavor (hints of beer), and the dough is soft beyond belief. His tip for bread – dropping the dough ball into a preheated covered pan for steam – really works great, too…only time I have ever produced artisanal-quality sandwich bread.
Nicole
I imagine, to show a profit the required two out of every five years, Ann Romney probably sells a horse or two here and there.
I’m totally for anything that makes the Romneys look out of touch, but I confess, as someone who loves horses, I kind of hope that her horse being in the Olympics means NBC might actually broadcast some of the equestrian events, rather than a five-minute recap at 3 in the afternoon.
So, this dressage thing being in the news may enable me to eat my cake and have it, too. ;)
Elizabelle
I love this dad and daughters picture, parenting fail or not.
Doesn’t the little one look like a garden statue (maybe a tiny mermaid or cherub)?
To all the dads (and daughters, and sons) out there. Power tools optional.
Bruce S
“The Romneys declared a loss of $77K on their 2010 income tax returns for expenses related to the horse, Rafalca.”
The more I see of the Romneys, the more they come across as uber-rich scum. Rub his face in this. Democrats should push a bill for changes to the tax code that address this kind of loophole, explicitly, between now and November.
Also, if this is about Olympic competition, it has to be “non-professional”, i.e. not treated as a business. So this tax deal is a scam. An Olympic runner couldn’t take their living – or training – expenses as a tax deduction so far as I know. Not as an amateur athlete.
PurpleGirl
@WaterGirl: Not that I really know about dressage but I think what helps with the MS is the horse riding and the rythmic action of riding. I think that any horse riding would help.
Nutella
@Baud:
Just had to see that again.
I’m glad the horse made the Olympics because it gives a news hook to remind everyone that we, the US taxpayers who barely getting by in a severely damaged economy, are paying for the expensive hobby of these plutocrats.
trollhattan
Dear lord that kid-n-blower photo made me nearly blow my coffee. Must find a blower and grab my daughter for a tryout…would a vacuum cleaner on reverse do?
Bruce S
@Nutella:
But wait a minute – the Olympics is all “amateur” – how does someone who gets business deductions for their horse compete in an “amateur” contest?
I am starting to hate the Romneys. Very creepy family at the Mitt level. The parents were fine – but Mitt is an example of privilege being abused and run into the ground with a sense of entitlement. Clueless bastards.
ornery_curmudgeon
@Bruce S: “Also, if this is about Olympic competition, it has to be “non-professional”, i.e. not treated as a business. So this tax deal is a scam. An Olympic runner couldn’t take their living – or training – expenses as a tax deduction so far as I know. Not as an amateur athlete.”
Actually the Olympics opened up to professionals in the 1990’s.
There are special tax rules around horse operations because they generate jobs and other economic activity, but are marginally profitable on their own.
Anyway, if we are going to address IRS issues, the tax-exemption for churches in return for their staying out of politics seems a bit more important for activist focus.
PurpleGirl
@PurpleGirl: From the National MS Society web site:
Through therapeutic horseback riding, people with MS benefit from the natural motion and companionship of our equine friends.
Randy P
I’m an amateur pianist. I’m giving a piano concert in less than an hour, something I try to make myself do at least every few years to make myself practice. This is my second in less than 12 months, after a 10-year hiatus.
Half the program is given over to Russian music in honor of my dad’s side of the family, Russian Jews who emigrated from the Ukraine when things got really ugly after the Revolution.
Mnemosyne
@NancyDarling:
I have to confess, although I’ve mostly ridden horses, I have a soft spot for donkeys and mules. They just have so much more personality than most horses I’ve met.
ruemara
@Randy P: Wow, break…a…finger? Have a great performance.
I have no idea what to do today, besides get back to eating on plan since the last week or so of constant parties have me over my last goal weight. Probably go exercise too, but besides cleaning, I got no clue what I truly want to do today. Too many creative projects in the air.
Nutella
@Bruce S:
The Rmoneys demonstration of “privilege being abused and run into the ground with a sense of entitlement” wouldn’t bother me if they didn’t think they were entitled to taxpayer subsidies for their privileges.
The words “leech” and “parasite” spring to mind.
DougW
@paradox: Seven years w/o nicotine after 30 or so of two packs a day. Keep up the good work. It gets better and easier.
Tokyokie
@Steeplejack: I was going to make the same points from my recollection of tax law, but the expert puts forward the case better. But I’ll go one step further: Claiming a hobby that generates essentially no revenue as a business in order deduct the expenses of the hobby is tax fraud, as it is a knowing and deliberate mischaracterization of the activity. And yes, it would rise to the level of felony, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 for both Romneys.
But the bigger question for me is this: How does someone who’s been running for president for most of the last decade sign off on something as transparently crooked as this? Horrible judgment, unbelievable arrogance and an incredible sense of entitlement are what I come up with. Tell me where I’m wrong in this analysis.
John M. Burt
It is a very cool dad who will help his child impersonate the Salt Vampire from the Star Trek TOS first-season episode “The Man Trap”.
Big Jim Slade
Well, you know. these horses even get massages, and the Romney’s love their horse, so they always sploo-er splurge for the happy ending. Do you have any idea how much that costs?
On a serious note, damn, I can make some good pizza, but damn, I never thought of coating the crust with roasted garlic! Hats off to you! Ima try that someday.
Bruce S
@ornery_curmudgeon:
Shows what I know…
But I think it’s fucking creepy.