Voice of Liberty

I have a 2004 Chevy Silverado 1500 Short Bed 4x4 w/ the 5.3L V8. This is NOT the Z71 package. What is the recommended and or maximum trailer weight for this vehicle? We are looking to get a travel trailer and want to ensure my truck will do the job. Thanks!

I own/operate a small retail business, structured as an LLC. I am now purchasing Property and Liability insurance. I run this business myself and am the only person listed under the LLC, so I know that I will be covered under the policy. I have no employees.

My father is retired and spends his days helping me in the shop. He works with customers, makes sales, cleans, etc. He is NOT on my payroll.

Question #1: I want him named in the policy as being covered but do not know whether to list him as an "Employee" or as an "Additional Insured" on the application. What is the difference and which would provide the most protection in this situation?

Question #2: In speaking with the insurance salesman, he said I should list him as an Employee. To me however, this would be questionable in litigation should the LLC be sued because I have reported to the IRS that I have no employees for tax purposes and he is not on my payroll. Does this matter, or I have to put him on payroll and pay him $20 a month or something to be legal?

Until July, 2010, I ran my business as a sole proprietorship and filed federal income taxes on my personal tax return. In July 2010, I closed my sole proprietorship and opened a single-owner LLC. The LLC has its own FEIN (but no employees) and for liability reasons, I want to file the LLC's taxes separate from my personal taxes. How do I report income from the LLC and my personal income taxes (because I do have other sources of income) without being double taxed???

My wife's employer offers health insurance coverage where the employee pays 50% and the employer matches. She signed up for this about two years ago and has had two years of coverage and is now pregnant. On our first doctor's visit last week (which is covered under her policy) we learned that her policy was cancelled in January for non-payment. In checking her pay stub, the employer has been deducting her 50% of the health insurance premium every pay as recently as last week, but according to the insurance company, the employer has not payed on the policy. She is not the only employee who has experienced this recently and NONE of the employees were alerted to this issue by either the employer or the insurance company. Otherwise she would have just paid the entire premium to avoid cancellation.

QUESTION: Due to this and other issues, she has contemplated quitting her job, but without an active health insurance policy, does HIPPA provide ANY protection for her at all to be able to maintain the same policy without her current employer, even after its been cancelled by no fault of her own? Remember, she's pregnant now and we simply can't just take out a new policy because coverage for services related to pregnancy would not be covered under the pre-existing condition clause.

We can sue the employer for fraud (they deducted insurance premiums from her sallary but never paid the insurance company), but SHE NEEDS THE INSURANCE NOW.

WHAT DO WE DO???????

My wife's employer offers health insurance coverage where the employee pays 50% and the employer matches. She signed up for this about two years ago and has had two years of coverage and is now pregnant. On our first doctor's visit last week (which is covered under her policy) we learned that her policy was cancelled in January for non-payment. In checking her pay stub, the employer has been deducting her 50% of the health insurance premium every pay as recently as last week, but according to the insurance company, the employer has not payed on the policy. She is not the only employee who has experienced this recently and NONE of the employees were alerted to this issue by either the employer or the insurance company. Otherwise she would have just paid the entire premium to avoid cancellation.

QUESTION: Due to this and other issues, she has contemplated quitting her job, but without an active health insurance policy, does HIPPA provide ANY protection for her at all to be able to maintain the same policy without her current employer, even after its been cancelled by no fault of her own? Remember, she's pregnant now and we simply can't just take out a new policy because coverage for services related to pregnancy would not be covered under the pre-existing condition clause.

We can sue the employer for fraud (they deducted insurance premiums from her sallary but never paid the insurance company), but SHE NEEDS THE INSURANCE NOW.

WHAT DO WE DO???????

My wife is a sallaried employee (exempt) for a large, private company. Her employer requires her to clock in and out and tracks her hours. Because she is an exempt employee, she cannot accrue overtime. There are two issues with her employer that she has encountered:

#1 She worked 86 hours during a pay period (2 weeks) and left early one day (a total of four hours) for a doctor's appointment. She was capped at 80 hours for the pay period (normal for an exempt employee). She was then assessed 4 hours unpaid personal time. The result was that her paycheck totalled 76 hours for the pay period.

#2 She worked 78 hours in a pay period (2 weeks). Remember, because she is an exempt employee, she is capped at 80 hours. Her employer closed the office one day for a holiday, however docked every employee 8 hours for the day, making them take unpaid personal time. The result is that although my wife worked 78 hours, she was paid for only 72 hours in that pay period.

QUESTION: From an HR course in my MPA program, I remember that #2 for sure violates FLSA. I'm not sure about #1 however. Please provide any insight you can on this and any references she may use in her defense regarding FLSA.

Thank you in advance!

My wife is a sallaried employee (exempt) for a large, private company. Her employer requires her to clock in and out and tracks her hours. Because she is an exempt employee, she cannot accrue overtime. There are two issues with her employer that she has encountered:

#1 She worked 86 hours during a pay period (2 weeks) and left early one day (a total of four hours) for a doctor's appointment. She was capped at 80 hours for the pay period (normal for an exempt employee). She was then assessed 4 hours unpaid personal time. The result was that her paycheck totalled 76 hours for the pay period.

#2 She worked 78 hours in a pay period (2 weeks). Remember, because she is an exempt employee, she is capped at 80 hours. Her employer closed the office one day for a holiday, however docked every employee 8 hours for the day, making them take unpaid personal time. The result is that although my wife worked 78 hours, she was paid for only 72 hours in that pay period.

QUESTION: From an HR course in my MPA program, I remember that #2 for sure violates FLSA. I'm not sure about #1 however. Please provide any insight you can on this and any references she may use in her defense regarding FLSA.

Thank you in advance!

My computer is 5 years old. I need a new one, however I need to frame a better agrument for my wife as she just doesn't understand planned obsolescence and compatibility issues.

Using an iPhone App, I calculated the age of my computer to be 36.2 years old in dog years.

I am unable however, to find a formula to calculate the age of my computer relative to aging in humans. - If you ask me, I would say it's damn near 93.5 years old.

Does anyone have a formula or answer for me on this???

We have two cats. They get along just fine, however one cat hoards things constantly. Every week when I clean the house, I find a variety of things (i.e. my wife's hair bands, socks, jewelry, chapstick, garbage, etc.) hidden in a neat little pile under the bed. He has other hiding places around the house too.

Is he mad at us? Does he think these things are his? Is he trying to play a game? Just wondering if this happens to anyone else.

by burning their garbage???

Actually, it wasn't a celebration really, I burn my garbage all the time because I'm tire of these wackos whining about how long my plastic bottle will be in the earth if I send it to the landfill like everyone else. Just burn it and it's gone in 5 mins.

The right to keep and bear arms in EXPLICITLY embodied in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. NO WHERE in the Constitution is healthcare mentioned, yet the president and many in Congress believe that it should be a right to the people and are even prepared to subsidize abortions based on this thinking.

QUESTION: If Congress deems it "necessary and proper" to subsidize healthcare, WHY are they not FIRST obligated to subsidize firearms for citizens as that right IS granted by the constitution???????

Do all of the low-income earners out there who support Nationalized Healthcare or a Public "Option" realize that in Europe, EVERYONE pays taxes - ON EVERYTHING??? Property Tax, Income Tax, Sales Tax, Value Added Tax, Excise Tax, various other consumer taxes, user fees. In many cases these are assessed at the National, Regional, AND local level.

Do low-income earners realize that in order to pay for government healthcare, the number of deductions and credits traditionally given to low-income earners will be decreased and their own tax burden will increse???

Can YOU afford to pay 30%-45% of your income in income taxes alone, PLUS pay 10%-16% on the value of EVERYTHING you buy??????? These statistics are average among countries like France, Itlay, Germany, Switzerland, etc.

BACKGROUND:

Before dawn on March 16, 1975, two men broke down the back door of a three-story home in Washington, D.C. shared by three women. Upon the first call to police, officers arrived at the house, got no answer to their knocks on the door, did a quick check around, and left. When the women frantically called the police a second time, no officers were even dispatched.

The attackers kidnapped, robbed, raped, and beat all three women over 14 hours. When these women later sued the city and its police for negligently failing to protect them or even to answer their second call, the court held that GOVERNMENT HAD NO DUTY to respond to their call or to protect them. (See below for case references and citations)

This case is not unique, every year in the US, hundreds of civil suits are denied, dismissed, or overturned based on Stare Decisis that the government has "no affirmative duty" to protect citizens.

This is due to the fact that the US Constitution does not explicitly state that protection as a Right JUST LIKE it does not name healthcare as a Right. This COMPLETELY applies to healthcare, because the same courts and same judges will handle healthcare claims citing Stare Decisis regarding government services.

QUESTIONS:

1) Under a single-payer system, or even under a Government subsidized plan, when your claim is mishandled, wronfully denied, or ignored, how would you ever sue for compensation if it was needed?

2) Knowing this, do you still trust the government to be as accountable as private industry, who you almost certainly would be denied the right to sue?

3) Mhy is NO ONE asking these questions in this healthcare debate???????

These questions aren't about lawsuits or money, they are merely about accountability.

Referenced Case Law:

South v. Maryland, 59 U.S. 396, 15 L.Ed.433 (1856) (the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that local law-enforcement had no duty to protect individuals, but only a general duty to enforce the laws.)

DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, 489 U.S. 189, 109 S.Ct. 998, 1989 (1989)

Estelle v. Gamble, 429 U.S. 97

Youngberg v. Romeo, 457 U.S. 307

Bowers v. Devito, 686 F.2d 616 (7th Cir. 1982)

Warren v. District of Columbia (444 A.2d 1, 1981)

Hartzler v. City of San Jose, 46 Cal.App.3d 6, 120 Cal.Rptr. 5 (1975)

Davidson v. City of Westminister, 32 Cal.3d 197, 185 Cal.Rptr. 252 (1982)

Westbrooks v. State, 173 Cal.App.3d 1203, 219 Cal.Rtr. 674 (1985)

Ne Casek v. City of Los Angeles, 233 Cal.App.2d 131, 43 Cal.Rptr. 294 (1965)

Susman v. City of Los Angeles, et al., 269 Cal.App.2d 803, 75 Cal.Rptr. 240 (1969)

Antique Arts Corp. v. City of Torrence, 39 Cal.App.3d 588, 114 Cal.Rptr. 332 (1974)

Background Info:

The federal and state governments currently subsidize food (Foods Stamps, WIC, etc), clothing (subsidizing private charities) and housing (HUD) only for certain qualified individuals. These are the MOST BASIC needs of the human being.

Similarly, the government already subsidizes healthcare for qualified individuals (SCHIP, Medicare, Medicaid, and VA).

QUESTION:

How can the government justify the nationalization of healthcare under the premise that healthcare is a public good without having first nationalized the housing, clothing, and food industries or otherwise FULLY subsidize them as these needs are universally accepted as being more basic?

Further, couldn't the argument be made that because the Constitution explicitly protects the right of citizens to keep and bear arms, that the government should subsidize firearms for all citizens????? - Remember, NOWHERE in the constitution is healthcare named as a right.

Ok, so far we have been told that Global Warming causes droubt AND excessive rain, more hurricanes AND less hurricanes. They've even tried to explain that the recent Blizzards, bringing larget snowfalls on record to many areas and the fact that records show yearly averages are actually DOWN by 1.8 degrees over the past 20 years are also the product of what? - Global Warming.

So when are they going to tie the recent earthquakes in Chile, Haiti, California, and Asia to this Farse, ooops, I mean Phenomina?????

The climate talks at copenhagen have yielded no useful consensus... Other than the fact that no scientific body can agree on the extent or exact causes of any alleged change in climate; Big business and investment opportunities in "carbon credits"; and the revelation that governments have made correspondence with various scientific communities, coercing the fabrication and altering of data to support a more grim image of the climate situation.

Has this changed anyone's outlook yet?

I have a full-grown female cat that I raised from a kitten and she is very lovable. She sleeps with my wife and I every night, on my side of the bed. Lately, I've been waking up in the morning to her intentively licking my head. She goes to town at it and doesn't even stop to take a breath until I practically throw her off of me.

Is this normal? Does it mean anything good or bad - other than she must think I'm dirty?

I am constantly finding my wife's hair in the shower, on the floor, in the bed, in her car... EVERYWHERE! A lot of it. She is 27 years old, eats a healthy diet and has no health problems. This has been going on for years but she exhibits no signs of balding and has a full head of healthy hair.

Is this a problem and how does she fix it?

Do you think that in heaven, Ted Kennedy is finally being held accountable for the death of Mary Jo Kopechne since the judicial system was so apt to give him a pass for his actions that, for anyone who wasn't a Kennedy would at very least be convicted of manslaughter?