So why is Murdoc seeing so many search engine hits on this photo of a USMC Assault Breacher Vehicle firing a line charge?

A commenter tips Murdoc off to this story: Marines push ‘The Breacher’ against Taliban lines

Turbo Tax:
Choose Easy
But look very closely before doing so. They may be trying to trick you.

Murdoc has used Turbo Tax Online for many years now, and he’s always been happy with the service. Until last night.

While going through a few things, I saw that I had been charged for their ‘Ask a Tax Expert’ offer, even though I had not wanted it. After wading through hundreds of complaints on their forum, I just sent a message in directly stating that I had not wanted to sign up and that it looked like users were unable to get out of it without starting completely over with a new account. As I said, I’ve used the service for many years and don’t really want to ditch all that and start a new account.

Here is their reply about the issue:

TurboTax Online – “No Thanks” button is unavailable on the Ask a Tax Expert offer, when starting a new return

The “No Thanks” button is actually gray in color as it was designed, but this is still a fully functioning button that can be clicked.

If you had already selected “Sign Up Now, Pay when you file” the fee will not be able to be removed from your account unless you clear the return and start over.

You can pay this fee when you file, and as long as you don’t use the service, you can request a refund for the $14.95 charge. (This way you wouldn’t need to clear the return and start over.)

You can use the ‘Contact Us’ page to request a refund.

Read that first paragraph again:

The “No Thanks” button is actually gray in color as it was designed, but this is still a fully functioning button that can be clicked.

It is gray in color as it was designed. But if you manage to click on it it will work.

I emailed them back:

It’s refreshing to see a company flat out admit that they are trying to rip you off. Thanks for clearing up that you designed it badly on purpose but that it works just fine even though it’s intentionally hard to understand.

Will the buttons on the refund request page be grayed out on purpose, too? Or will we be able to understand the process without you going out of your way to make it hard to get our money back after you tricked us out of it in the first place?

Now, I’m sure a lot of people have managed to avoid signing up for the service. And I admit that my familiarity with the system probably contributed to the fact that totally missed the fact that I was opting in to something that I would never ever never ever sign up for on purpose.

But they must have known that no one would ever sign up, because they had to try to trick people into doing so. And, though I haven’t paid them any money, they’re playing the whole “get a refund afterwards” game like their system somehow is preventing them from allowing people who have not paid and have not used it from switching it off.

For probably ten years or more I’ve recommended Turbo Tax to friends and family. But this $15 “error” has really shaken my faith. Obviously, I’m a little irritated right now. Jerks.

Almost forgot to mention this: Boy Scouts Celebrate 100 Years of Camping, Service

Like Jim Kirk, Murdoc was never a Boy Scout. But my son is in Scouts and it is a great program.

Happy Birthday, Boy Scouts.

Also see: After 100 Years, Are The Boy Scouts Still Relevant?

A lot of people say no. Probably not coincidentally, most of the people I know who say that are the people I know who I disagree with the most strongly on political and societal issues.

I believe that a number of items in the “The Case Against Scouting” section of the linked article are misstated or just plain wrong. I also find it interesting that the case “For” gets half the first page while the case “Against” gets all of pages two and three. I’ll just chalk this up to the idea that the arguments in favor of Scouting are simple, straightforward, and readily apparent to nearly everyone, while the cases against it require a lot of in-depth explanation of nuances and secret Mormon conspiracies.

Someone just emailed me to say that John Murtha has died.

UPDATE: Story.

Haven’t had time to look around for commentary on it, but is Murdoc the only one who didn’t think that “Green Police” commercial [was all that] funny?

UPDATE: First, Smallest Minority is talking about it.

Second, here’s the commercial:

Third: Somewhere I saw this:

Buy guns not Audis

In today’s Shooting Wire (scroll down to Jim Shepard’s feature):

It was a simple question 84-year old Ted Gundy put to the guys at Shooting USA’s Impossible Shots: “How is it possible for snipers today to hit targets from such long ranges?”

From most of us, it would have been a gee-whiz kind of question, the kind that gets a polite “thanks for watching, snipers use….” kind of form letter response.

But Ted Gundy wasn’t just another TV fan. Gunday was asking about today, based on his own experiences from yesterday.

Gundy was a sniper in WW2 and joined the Army Marksmanship Unit at Fort Benning for a run-through of today’s sniper world. And the old vet showed them young whippersnappers that he could still put rounds on target. With an ‘03 A4.

The story will run on ‘Impossible Shots’ on the Outdoor Channel on February 20th. Until then, go read.

Close Encounters of the Redneck Kind:

Check out some pics and info on the new official rimfire replica of HK’s MP5 over at GunPundit.

Here is a handy graphic found at Instapundit:

Defense vs. Non-Defense Spending, 1960-2010

I’ve made this argument many, many times in conversation. I am always shocked when so few people believe that the spending on the military is less than on other programs. It’s consistently like 80%-90% who don’t believe me.

Remember the bump over the past three years when someone tells you how Bush’s wars are bankrupting America.