MsGuy

I was trying to be helpful. I still am. Sincerely. With a little pre-planning, the tax code has more than enough loopholes to cover 1000 acres in rural New Hampshire. If your parents are worried over how to preserve your grandparent's legacy & pass it on to you and your brother intact, some inexpensive estate planning will both relieve their minds and solve any estate tax problems. Some CPA's make a specialty of dealing with this sort of problem as your family's situation is not uncommon. Concerns like yours are the reason I wish the Dems would just give way on the estate tax issue and set a high enough threshold that regular peolple could stay out of the tax planner's office.

BBB: The current (2009) exempt amount for estate taxes is $3,500,000 (couple = $7,000,000). It's unlikely that the permanant threshold amount will be significantly less. If estate taxes have become a concern for your family, please consider consulting a reputable estate planner. There are a number of inexpensive estate planning tools which should resolve your problems. By the way, it's a misconception that the estate tax is a double tax on earned income. When you're talking of estates large enough to be subject to the tax, you're not talking about taxing savings from earned income. The bulk of such estates are composed of assets representing untaxed capital gains.

"My god, there's millions of sheep happily paying more in their own personal taxes because they backed the fight against the evil DEATH TAX that would never have affected them" I can't count the number of times I've had to explain that to people who not only are not affected but who could never conceivably be affected by the estate tax (short of hitting the lottery big-time). The Dems should just give up on the wrong headed notion that an estate tax is primarily for the purpose of generating revenue and set the threshold at a simple, round, easily remembered high number ($10 million, $20 million, who cares?) and kill "death taxes" as a political issue. The estate tax never has been, never will be, was never intended to be a significant source of revenue for the government.

The current health care load on the economy is north of $7,500 per capita and climbing a lot faster than the general economy is expanding. Doesn't make one whit of difference whether that load is paid for by government, by business firms, by individuals or by charities, the burden to the economy is the same; it's a tax of one dollar in six on economic output (heading fast toward one in five) levied by our health care system. We need good health care for all citizens and we need it at a cost that doesn't cripple the U.S. economy. Somehow every other developed country in the world has managed to achieve both those goals. Most do it by some sort of single payer system for basic health care combined with bells and whistles for those who can pay extra either through private insurance or out of pocket.

Not at all. What of the dummies, the loonies, the clueless et al. ? Of course, just as with asshole and racist, the categories are not mutually exclusive.

If anything I have been surprised how well having an African-American president has gone down with white folks in my small Mississippi town. No they haven't suddenly turned liberal but their opposition seems to center more on his policies than his race. We do have our share of birther/teaparty types and with those guys I do detect a good bit of racism in their anger. Could be that folks are just holding back to be polite around me, but, if so, they are doing a good job of pretending. Whether Wilson is an asshole flamer, a racist asshole flamer or a clever politician playing to his district is an open question.

The one thing that has me convinced that the U.S. will embrace a national health care scheme sometime in the next decade is that our current system has no effective way to control costs. Business, the keystone provider of health insurance under our current system, has been diligently trying to curb medical costs since the early 80's, with no visible success. From a business point of view, the cost of bundling health insurance into the employee compensation package is becoming unbearable. IMO the next decade will see a gradual retreat by American employers from the business of providing health care coverage. WSJ forecasts health care insurance cutbacks This post is in no way intended as a slam of American business practices. With health care costs running at 1/6 of GDP and climbing, business firms, particularly those exposed to foreign competition, are simply unable to tote the load.

Is this what you wanted? Download = 15.76 Mb/s Upload = 2.13 Mb/s ping = 3.39 ms test selected a server roughly 300 miles distant. I have the "high speed" version of Comcast ##@!^*@# Cable. It's crap but it beats dial up (when it's working).

OZ: "It's not what we want it to be; It's not what it ought to be; It's not what it's going to be; But thank God Almighty it's not what it was." MLK speaking on the status of African-Americans in the South circa 1966. (quote reconstructed from memory) Seems to pretty well summarize our current situation, IMO.

No problem, Caeron, I've said plenty of stuff myself that was received ass backwards from what I intended. Actually, read as you intended, the remark has a certain rough humor. Still that's a lot insight you're asking from a teenager. It never hurts to remind ourselves that being raised by breeders has its drawbacks. Most of us acquired the full set of homophobic beliefs before we ever gave a thought as to why we weren't reacting to girls in quite the same way as our friends. I can still remember myself as a 16 year old queer in small town Mississippi with a head loaded with all that shit. Swear I was terrified that my career choices were hair dresser, interior designer or florist (ballet was out of reach). Watching some prominent guy ridden out of town on a rail for being gay would have put me into the closet for a least another decade. Truth be told I can't work up much of either hate or concern for folks like the Lt. Gov. & he's quite capable of fending for himself. It's the collateral damage outing does that bothers me. It gives guys trying to find their way out of the closet one more lesson in fear.

If only Vivas had kept her mouth shut, attended the awards cermony and then "shared her thoughts on how Newt could help her business." Maybe audio-visual aids would have been allowed during her speech!

Caeron, you aren't the first to point this out to me although some have been a bit more polite about it. Being raised Southern Presbyterian left me prone both to playing the hypocrite and being a dick. I do try but often enough I'm less than entirely successful. That said, may I point out to you that you chose to avoid my question about the 16 year old kid? Dominant groups don't single out members of a despised minority for crucifixion simply to punish offending individuals. Persecution serves the larger social purposes of reinforcing dominant group solidarity and conditioning subservience into the minority. Offering up members of the community for yet another auto de fey by the homophobic majority strikes me as counterproductive, however much you might dislike a given individual. So I ask you again, what lesson does the 16 year old gay boy learn from seeing a powerful politician brought down by a homophobic mob? What is the lesson learned if the lynching is a result of outing by another gay? For that matter, what is being taught if the boy in question is straight?

Good thing the lads are wearing dental guards.

Well, you talked me into it, TY. I'm now watching Storm vs. Sea Eagles. Bunch of nice looking, muscular young guys running about in shorts, happily bashing into each other and getting all bruised & sweaty. The very mindless heterosexuality of it all is strangely arousing. I think I've deduced the basic rules from context but the penalties still elude me.

How about the gay 16 year old watching the destruction of a Lt. Gov. play itself out on TV? What lesson is he likely to draw from this outing?

I gathered from another article that the full treatment would cost about $400 for the shots. Not clear whether that included doctor's fees. Something to think about. FDA panel wants to protect your ass.

Here's another article on the same subject. It gives more details on the new antibodies, the agencies conducting the research and explains why (& how) the virus preferentially attacks immune cells. more info That foto brings back bad memories.

Maybe Obama could roll over some of those closeted Republicans? As to LBJ, I think all but the most Daddy obsessed would read that statement as a threat rather than an inducement.

In this guy's view it's all on the Democrats. I agree. LBJ ran into this same lobby driven socialized medicine shit storm with Medicare in 1965 and he vowed to get his bill through Congress if he had to hump every democrat on the Hill. It's all on the Democrats

Rather than cancel health insurance flat out, many employers attempt to offset ever rising premiums with cuts in coverage. Eventually you wind up with a "medical policy" that is going to put you in bankruptcy court if you have a serious illness. It's a harbinger of the collapse of our employer based system. JKane: E-mail your congressman. I guarentee every employee of every insurance agency in your district has been prompted to do so by industry lobby groups.

All the confusion and opaqueness of the current health care debate is scaring the hell out of ordinary people, especially those who still have private or employer paid medical coverage. Hell, it confuses me and I have actually put considerable effort into keeping current with the proposals. Josh Marshall asks why not just present the public option as a voluntary choice to buy into Medicare at any age. Medicare is familiar to most people through their parents/ grandparents. It's not some nebulous unknown that leaves them worried that they and their kids won't be able to get decent medical care. For me at least that kind of clarifies what the debate is really about. Marshall's Article Even Dick Armey approves.

Thanks TY. I call myself trying to keep up with this sort of stuff but missed this one entirely. Bit by bit the science guys seem to be edging toward a cure.

If you would like a more granular view of the reality behind the 750 word opinion columns, 10 inch news pieces and 3 1/2 minute tv news stories, I highly recommend The Sandbox, a milblog (military blog) that provides a safe space for active duty Americans to report their experiences and reflections from Iraq and Afganistan. Not partisan/ not political/ not censored & not sponsored by the Pentagon, I find it offers valuable insights into the realities of American operations in this theater that can't be found on cable news. Some of the posts are funny, some are sad, almost all are well written and insightful. If Ernie Pyle were still around, he would be posting in The Sandbox. Read some of the posts and comment here if you're so moved. On the other site I felt it necessary to ask the guys to show some respect for our troops and not turn the thread into a liberal/conservative shit fest, but surely that would be superfluous for the gentlemen over here. The Sandbox TRY: Old Blue's post of 8/31 for exasperated humor K's post of 8/25 & Capt Tupper's post of 8/14 for insights into working with the ANA (Afgan National Army) Dr. Father Tim's post of 8/7 for how the Army's new policy on PTSD is working out on the ground Teflon Don's post of 8/3 for how well we are doing by our "wounded warriors" I teared up reading this one. Any of you who have a friend who came back damaged from Nam will be saddened by what happened to Teflon Don's buddy. Fair Warning: These are posts written by military folks and some are loaded with military slang that can be difficult to decipher. Hey, that's why google was invented!

According to Google, a minor and apparently innocuous programming error initiated a cascade that brought down their whole system. Oops! IMHO the wonder is not that it happened but that things like this do not happen more often. Oh shit!

Turns out it really wasn't me. All those roaming boyfriends were suffering from a genetic deficiency in their vasopressin receptors. Thought I would post the new data here for what comfort it might be (although judging from your posts many of y'all may be carriers of the same genes ). Male Bonding Linked to Genes