Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > November > 15 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USCompassion, death and taxes
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Thinking Right’s weekend free-for-all. Pick a topic:
• Headline: “Who killed Mark Allen MacPhail?” The jury’s already told us who killed police officer MacPhail. That’d be Troy Davis. We know, too, who killed children in Atlanta and DeKalb. That’d be Wayne Williams. A genuine question is “Who snatched Mary Shotwell Little?”
• Favorite headline of the week: “Hospitals no place for sick people.” That’s my belief, too. Too many really sick people there.
• Demo presidential sweepstakes: Hillary promises a $1 billion federal program to give employees at least eight weeks of paid leave to care for newborns or sick family members. Nope, says Obama, $1.5 billion. But wait! says John Edwards. He’ll spend $2 billion. In Democratic political terms, this means Edwards is twice as compassionate at Hillary.
• Former Atlantan Lois Quick Novick, who died this week, was described by her family as “a voracious reader of newspapers [who] had the gift of being able to take editors to task and articulate her position with intelligence and wit.” And, furthermore, “she never met a dog she didn’t love.” I often read obits thinking: “I wish I’d known” the departed. A dog-lover who could dress down snarling editors with intelligence and wit is high on that “wish I’d known” list.
• Let’s see. On the one hand, as a Cobb resident, I have a sheriff, Neal Warren, who is checking the immigration status of those booked into his jail. On the other, the man who did little or nothing with law enforcement or job creation to deter his citizens from entering this country illegally, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, visits Cobb for a $500-a-plate fund-raiser, considers Warren’s actions to be “really going too far.”
Warren or Fox? In my county, it’s Warren by a landslide.
• Sixty-nine million dollars — the sum the Rev. Creflo Dollar’s World Changers Church International in College Park took in last year — is a mind-boggling sum. But unless somebody’s done something crooked, the $69 million and how it’s used is entirely between him and his congregation. Same for Bishop Eddie Long, another of the evangelists whose records are being sought by Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa). Ministers can’t dip into the church’s accounts for personal use, compensation must be “reasonable,” and expenses must further the church’s purpose.
• Striking transit workers in France, angry that President Nicolas Sarkozy proposes to end their retire-at-50 perk, force Parisians to walk, bike or skate to work. Roads don’t strike.
• President Bush is chosen by the online magazine Film Threat as the “least-powerful, least-inspiring and least-intriguing people in Hollywood.” Or, more correctly, “to Hollywood.” We know. We see their movies. And Academy Awards clips.
• Billionaire Warren Buffett tells Congress to keep the death tax — now set to expire in 2010. Unless Congress makes existing law permanent, though, it roars back in 2011 on estates of more than $1 million. “I think we need to … take a little more out of the hides of guys like me,” he told the Senate Finance Committee. Buffett is giving 85 percent of his fortune, estimated last year to be $44 billion, to five foundations not subject to death taxes. Tax policies targeting “the rich” have unintended consequences. The alternative minimum tax that Congress passed in 1969 to chase down 155 individuals who avoided income tax now hits up to 25 million middle-income taxpayers, costing them as much as $2,000 in additional taxes.
• The silly U.S. House of Representatives. The silly, silly House. For about the 40th time, Democrats bring up an Iraqi withdrawal bill — this one attached to $50 billion to fund troops for about four months. It has no chance of making it into law. The silly, silly House of Pelosi. All Georgia Republicans voted no, as did Democrats John Barrow of Savannah and Jim Marshall of Macon. Both are in competitive districts. Atlanta’s John Lewis voted present.
Permalink | Comments (97) | Post your comment | Categories: Column
Comments
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 8:08 AM | Link to this
Good morning all. I think Jim is too hard on the poor headline writers. Each of the criticized headlines would be completely accurate with one additional preceding line: “Newspaper Reporter Does Not Know …”
My favorite headlines of the week, quoted from Taranto Monday:
It Was Ladies Night “Pakistan Bars Planned Protest by Bhutto”—headline, Associated Press, Nov. 12
Better Make Ours Black “Creamer Increases Lead to Six Strokes”—headline, Associated Press, Nov. 11
Speaking of the Dem Cant-idates, did anyone ask Hillary any tough ones last night, or has everyone learned what the Clinton’s do to their enemies?
I fear Sen. Grassley is onto a valid scandal. As a believer I dislike hearing of misuse of limited church resources, especially when the criticism is valid. Maybe Creflo and Eddie live conservatively, in 1200 sq ft homes, and I won’t have to worry about them proving to be another embarrassment to believers. The cure, of course, is Fair Tax – then we don’t get into hair splitting about income, but tax all spending on hard goods, whether church or private.
Jim, surely you do not suggest that patriotic American transit workers would ever strike?
Yesterday we had a meeting of the braintrust here on the Wooten-blog and voted “Film Threat” the least interesting publication about the least meaningful industry in the least rational state run by the least competent Congress in the world.
I don’t have my tax tables with me, but just how much tax did Warren the Magnanimous avoid paying by sending his fortune to trusts at his death? I am so disillusioned – I thought he believed he should pay taxes on his fortune.
I truly admire the ethics of the House Democrats – now that the US military is on the verge of winning it all in Iraq, it really takes a lot of political moxie to be willing to shill for the terrorists.
By Mid-South Philosopher
November 16, 2007 8:10 AM | Link to this
Good morning, Jim,
With respect to some of your topics this morning, I offer the following:
While I have my issues with Georgie Bush, I don’t need Hugo Bozo Chevaz or Vincente Demente Fox to criticize him or anyone else in my country! And, I am about as interested in the political opinion of the Hollywood crowd as I am of Mayors Pike and Stoner of Mayberry.
Troy Davis and Wayne Williams were found guilty by a jury of their peers. Unless there is irrefutable evidence offered to the contrary, they are where they ought to be.
I wouldn’t say that the U.S. House of Representatives is silly. In order to be silly, one first has to have the capacity to be rational. You will not find rationality in the House of Representatives. It hasn’t been present there in many, many years.
Oh, by the way, while the House has been passing useless legislation attempting to reign-in Georgie’s Iraqi Adventure, they have conveniently let slip away the opportunity to fix the Alternative Minimum Tax that is going to ram many working, middle class Americans next year.
One large jar of Vaseline, please!
Don’t re-elect anybody.
By ybrik
November 16, 2007 8:21 AM | Link to this
Those HR democrats!
They are SOOOO Silly! what a great word describing an elected group trying to do what 65% of Americans want them to do!!
Isn’t democracy silly!!!
By James
November 16, 2007 8:25 AM | Link to this
Ethics Questions
-Lisa Murkowski
-Jerry Lewis
-Ken Calvert
-Pete Domenici
-Heather Wilson
-Scooter Libby
-Alberto Gonzales
By Planner
November 16, 2007 8:25 AM | Link to this
Striking transit workers in France, angry that President Nicolas Sarkozy proposes to end their retire-at-50 perk, force Parisians to walk, bike or skate to work. Roads don’t strike.
Really? I guess those occasional trucker strikes and road blockades in Europe where tunnels and border crossings are backed up hundreds of miles don’t count. I’ll bet at times like that, travelers around Europe are thankful for their high speed intercity rail networks to avoid the gridlock.
Two weeks. Two uses of the new catch phrase “roads don’t strike” from the Jim Wooten chapter of the anti-transit fringe. Just a hint, for some variety, you might want to trot out that oldie but goodie “for the same amount of money, you could buy everybody a Mercedes” line? Equally misleading and thoroughly debunked.
By Bikini Bimbo
November 16, 2007 8:29 AM | Link to this
That’s really sticking your neck out, Mr Wooten, by choosing Barney Fife over Santa Anna.
Who snatched Mary Little? Who would phrase a tragedy like that in such a insensitive way, except a clumsy lout. Shame, sir.
I SAID SHAME!
Anyone who thinks roads dont strike has never driven over a Canton highway pothole at 45mph. Roads strike hard.
Warren Buffet’s point is that the alternative minimum tax was set on income in 1969 dollars, which in todays money is six times that. That’s why the middle class gets nailed. The inflation factor.
Silly Pelosi. It’s really not fair that she’s a democrat. Wasting time with exit strategies. We cant leave. She should be talking about censuring Bush for getting us all trapped in the quicksand of Iraq. We are there forever. It’s Humpty Dumpty all over again. A cracked eggshell of a foreign policy cant be put back together again. Accept Iraq as a new state. Just accept it. We are there, and there we’ll be.
A dog-lover who could dress down snarling editors with intelligence and wit? But I hate dogs. They bark. I liked your pun, but you could have gone further with the dog metaphors in that sentence and hit it way over the fence. I wont bother rewriting it. I’m sure Glennduh will handle it with the usual leg-lifted aplomb he sprays all day long everyday.
Remember to spay your pet bloggers.
By Eric
November 16, 2007 8:33 AM | Link to this
The World According to Jim: 1. If a jury said it is so, it must be true. Don’t question jury decisions, they are infallible 2. Driving is the solution to all of our transportation problems. Build more roads and more road capacity, encourage people to drive more and farther and everything will work itself out fine. 3. Since some policies have unintended policies, they must be bad. Anything with unintended negative consequences is bad. 4. Using indirect means to make a point through budget negotiations is “silly” and to be derided. Regardless of how Congressmen and Congresswomen feel about an issue, on the budget side, they should just rubber stamp it.
Watch this space for more “The World According to Jim”
Thank you.
By Rod
November 16, 2007 8:36 AM | Link to this
Actually, I agree with Jim!! The bill about bringing home the US Soldiers from Iraq is insane.
We should just leave all of our soldiers in Iraq until they die. Clearly Bush doesn’t think they matter at all. Just let all our boys die.
By lazermike
November 16, 2007 8:45 AM | Link to this
Are you crazy? Warren Buffett isn’t a hypocrite for avoiding the estate tax by giving away his wealth to foundations. It’s what the estate tax is for. It’s exactly the reason why people support the estate tax: It encourages using the money for good works rather than simply passing it down to one’s heirs. This is not an “unintended consequence” of the estate tax — it’s the reason it exists.
By Shar
November 16, 2007 8:52 AM | Link to this
Roads may not strike, but they also cannot accomodate the number of people who come into and out of pre-automotive cities like Paris, London and New York, where the streets were designed for horse traffic and walking was the norm. The idea of such a city taking on the one car/one person inefficiency of Atlanta is ludicrous - in no way could the roads handle the traffic, and in no way could the city be torn down and redesigned to accomodate new roads. Plus, the additional amount of foreign oil that would be required should all of those mass transit commuters suddenly transform into drivers is ecologically and politically unfeasible. Far, far better for Atlanta to look at how we can translate Paris’ economy of fuel and movement to our sprawled landscape and agree to pay the operators handsomely to avoid strikes. A new conductor is far less expensive than a new Connector!
As for the right Reverends and their filthy lucre, I agree with Senator Grassley’s request for information under the theory of ‘trust but verify’. Tithing Church members should give on faith but be assured that their sacrifice is being used as they intended, and taxpayers are entitled to verification that tax-exempt organizations do not abuse their free ride.
By Thorne
November 16, 2007 8:53 AM | Link to this
lazermike, at first I thought you’d said the opposite so I’mall this lazermike’s nuts he’s like got it exactly wrong but then I realized what you were saying and that’s just right. Toadally.
By Charles
November 16, 2007 8:54 AM | Link to this
If Mary Shotwell Little had been snatched in 1985 instead of 1965, the case would be solved. And Amnesty International, The Innocence Project, The Pope, relatives of the wrongly convicted, etc., would surely contest the arrest, conviction, imprisonment, and possible death sentence.
Homicide detective W. K. “Jack” Perry probably had suspects in mind for the disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little from the beginning. Some could not be completely ruled out; cleared of guilt in his mind. There are always individuals who appear to be guilty, although unfounded, completely innocent. That’s the nature of policing.
In 1965, detective W. K. “Jack” Perry could have easily used the powers at his disposal to arrest and incarcerate a citizen for the disappearance, kidnapping, and murder of Mary Shotwell Little. Thank God he thought it better to allow the apparent crime to go unsolved than to commit a greater crime; the crime of wrongful arrest and conviction.
Regretfully, that’s not the disposition of the criminal justice system or the general public today. Subconsciously, we believe that it’s better to put an innocent person in prison than allow a crime which shocks the conscience to go unsolved. A wrongful arrest and conviction gives us a false sense of security or justice.
Come on. Fess up. It doesn’t matter to you whether a person in prison is guilty or innocent. Just serve the time Troy. Serve the time Wayne. Just serve the time…
By sparrowhawk
November 16, 2007 8:59 AM | Link to this
Rod at 8:36:
I tell ya whatcha do. Next time you write something infantile like that, before you hit the “Post” button think how it’s gonna read in Bagdad, where they actually know a thing or two.
By Redneck Convert
November 16, 2007 9:03 AM | Link to this
Well, old Sonny’s GA Water Plan didn’t bring much rain, so me and my buddy Jim Earl got a idea. The state can bring in the Rev. Jim Bob Buice to put up his revival tent. I never been to one of his revivals where it didn’t pour buckets. It would just take getting his name off of that state list of people that can’t be around kids and pretty soon we would all be going to work in canoes.
Anyway, I want my grandson little Sonny Zell George to get my estate when I get took up in the Rapture. I don’t want the trailer and the pickup to be sold to pay taxes when I’m Up There looking down at you sinners. So get rid of this estate tax, is what I say.
Me and the missus watched the Democrat debate last night. Well, she watched and I kept my back turned to the TV the way I always do when a bunch of libruls is on and the TV ain’t turned to Fox News. All I got to say is if any of them is elected president, we will be in the poor house, what with all the money they want to spend on doctoring and lazy poor people. I expect people like Wooten and jbmlaw and Van and tftt and Sister Dusty will be going to the bank to borrow money to pay all the taxes they don’t have to pay now.
Well, I got to get going on my rounds. The Baptists will be mighty thirsty after all the dull sermons this weekend, and all my bars is stocking up big. I hope the women don’t fight over me the way they done yesterday. Have a good weekend everybody.
By Silly Jim
November 16, 2007 9:07 AM | Link to this
The World According to Jim: 1. If a jury said it is so, it must be true. Don’t question jury decisions, they are infallible.
Unless of course it’s the Scooter Libby verdict…….
By SharonH
November 16, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this
Jim, to date there are over 200 people who juries said they were guilty but DNA and other evidence said they were innocent, including Robert Clark and Willie Williams of Georgia. If it were up to you, these men would still be sitting in jail. You have no right to use the words compassion or justice because you know nothing about either.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 9:13 AM | Link to this
Well, we have the invasion of the nerds this morning. They know more than the President of the USA and more than Jim Wooten. And their patriotic “war-supporting”cries ring out..”We”re gonna be there forever!” They are still trying to make us run.
James is presenting his usual lists (and checking them twice. Got to be sure he’s naughty, not nice. Santa Claus is coming!)
And PoFo, bless HIS lil’ heart, has turned into Bikini Bimbo in this cold weather.
Ah well, jbmlaw and MidSouth Phil are holding down the intelligent end. I like MidSouth’s lineWhile I have my issues with George W. Bush, I don’t need Hugo Bozo Chavez or Vincente Demente Fox to cricize him or anyone else in my country.
You tell’em, MidSouth. We’ll make a Republican out of you yet.
By Phil
November 16, 2007 9:19 AM | Link to this
One 1-minute pray for rain: $10.00
One 1-minute Dollar pray for rain: $1000.00
One 1-minute Perdue pray for rain: Priceless
By Pam Davidson
November 16, 2007 9:23 AM | Link to this
I can’t believe Fox has the audacity to come into Cobb and fundraise! This in a county where I refuse to stop and get gas on my way down 75 because the Mexicans gawk at me despite the efforts of the gas station owner who they often torment. Common Jim, tell who hosted that sweet event.
By Splennduh
November 16, 2007 9:25 AM | Link to this
BikiniAtol,
That last paragraph of urz, hmn. Jim’s thing about the dog lady is cute, but there’s something slightly hinky about wanting critics in a democracy to be house-trained when they enter the Fourth Estate.
I keep coming back to a certain San Jose, CR soiree and a tipplesome salute to a country so ballsout beat-the-band untrammeled that some schmendrick can write a letter to the editor calling El Senor Presidente an SOB, get the thing published, and read in the same space a couple days later the reply from His Excellency calling the schmendrick an SOB.
When I reflect upon the many sublime and decorous estimations of Mr. Hamilton published by Mr. Jefferson, I’m led to speculate that Mr. Jefferson would have preferred dogs that bite to spayed Hillaries. (I can’t use here the word I really want, but as the spectacularly misogynistic Senator Dodd sed last night as often as he could, it rhymes with the codeword “shrill”.)
By Shar
November 16, 2007 9:29 AM | Link to this
lazermike@ 8:45 - I agree with you, but I’d go a little farther. The estate tax exists to employ tax attorneys, to encourage charitable giving and to enable wealthy and powerful individuals like Mr. Buffett to sidestep Congress and decide how their money is going to be spent. Since I tend to think that a smart cookie like Warren Buffett is more likely to allocate the money wisely than is Congress, I think an adjusted version of the system should be continued. Such adjustments would include increasing the exempt amount to ensure that family homes and control of family businesses could pass to family members.
By Xavier
November 16, 2007 9:30 AM | Link to this
Does anyone know if its true that Vicente Fox made so much money that he bought Fox News and is going to broadcast everything in Spanish?
By Rod
November 16, 2007 9:32 AM | Link to this
sparrowhawk (re: your 8:59). Are you really that stupid? Obviously I was joking. I want our soldiers home - Bush couldn’t care less if they live or die.
Get a clue.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 9:33 AM | Link to this
Splenduhh@ 9:25,
Would you mind translating that post? Thank you.
By Splennduh
November 16, 2007 9:36 AM | Link to this
Sure, Dusty. Here it is for you in the words of George Bush: blah, blah, blah.
By Richie
November 16, 2007 9:45 AM | Link to this
The American system of Justice is the best that have ever been devised on Earth but it is not perfect! To Jim, the greiving relatives of victims, and other that feel that a jury’s last verdict should be undeniable under any circumstances, open your eyes, ears, and mind to the situation and never deaden your mind to accept what is initially presented. Often times investigations are not complete but done with haste to present a suspect rather than the right suspect. Unfortunately in many cases, Prosecutors, police and others trump up charges in order to close a case rather than doing their job and completing investigations. Until charges are brought against people charging and convicting without sufficient evidence, wrongfully convicted cases will persist (Read the over 200 DNA proven cases of people wrongfully charged).
By jm
November 16, 2007 9:50 AM | Link to this
Mr. Wooten is correct, roads do not strike. However, the cars that use them require oil, which goes to fund all those wonderful countries that love the US, like Iran, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Venezuela. Keep the price of oil high!!! Vladamir Putin, Hugo Chavez, King Abdullah and Ahmadinejad thank you for your support.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 10:02 AM | Link to this
Splenduhh @9:36
I should have known. “Bush did it” by Splenduhlib. Cute!
By sparrowhawk
November 16, 2007 10:03 AM | Link to this
Rod at 9:32:
Yes that’s what I meant. The point is not whether you were or weren’t joking—joking good, I repeat, good—but that you were doing it to emphasize how obvious it is to you that the alternative to Pelosi’s bringing ‘em home now is to “leave them there until they die.” Don’t you get what an insult this is to the troops? Nobody’s going to think that you want them to die, Rod, but just about anyone in uniform over there is going to take it that you do want to deprive them of what they want, which is the big Third Option you’re papering over with your joke. What they want—what they want for themselves and for their country and for the Iraqis—and what they want us to want, is for them to stay in Iraq until they succeed.
And though it’s even now coming as shocking and tragic news to Speaker Pelosi, succeeding is just what they’re doing. Watch her footwork next week.
By rwh
November 16, 2007 10:12 AM | Link to this
As we stumple into things that are hidden; the more we hear about things that are actually in front of us. People who follow other people before they know it, they are drawn into either problems or trouble. We have seen many Media Headlines from the Bynum, Eddie Long, Creflo Dollar, murders, stealing, drugs, Grady and countless of other things including our much needy water crisis…all along, these things has been directly in our face and now, it chosen to surface. We have moved from our merely 100,000 dollars homes to over the edge of pushing the 300K to over 1 millions with the subprime false lending, we find ourselves in a deep hole and can’t climb out of it. The sad part of it all is “the thinking right” Mim Wooten has it right! Its like we are struggling and living in a thrid-world country…for what, when we have all of the resources. It is sad because we keep thinking that a Dollar is the answer when that dollar should be the route for America to gain rather than lose what has been so great for many and now for a few. One of the sadder things is no matter who we are or what positions we hold, people by nature will do what it takes to get ahead; no matter if it is off the backs of many or from a few. I would not be at taken by a mere fact that we are watching our states and its leaders become targets of their own second guessing and cause a major misunderstanding further as we now have seen how our gas prices have went crazy and they just sit back and do nothing. We are still living in the “have(s) and have not(s)”…..and crime continue to be at the forefront no matter which way you turn. We can’t find the right answers in our Churches, Courts, Federal and State officials, we need a whole new Federal Leadership of Men and Women who can actually put America back on track regardless what situations we are in.. or where we are headed. Do anybody have any answers?
By Curious Observer
November 16, 2007 10:17 AM | Link to this
What they want—what they want for themselves and for their country and for the Iraqis—and what they want us to want, is for them to stay in Iraq until they succeed.
What they want, you hapless moron, is to get out of that hopeless hell-hole and come home. Only a military service-dodging idiot like you would write such drivel. You would soil your pants if you even came close to a rifle.
By Splennduh induh Gunter Grassduh
November 16, 2007 10:26 AM | Link to this
Yeahhhhh, like Dusty’s ever gonna not get it.
You fraud, hiding behind other people’s names like that wimp Jefferson used to do! For shame! Get yourself house-trained, I say! No peeing on the carpets in this House Divided! No rockee boatee. No sheeteedisturbee. You gotta beef, you gotta dust off the old intelligence and wit and face down the snarling editors with your ivory-handled bumbershoot. That’s the way it’s done if you’re at all well adjusted. Because that’s what’s important, adjusting to the circumstances others control. It’s simple adjustment to society. That’s what Jefferson and Franklin and Paine would have wanted. Not society makers; society ah-just-go-along-to-get-alongers. Get with the ticket mon.
There. Will that do for a translation? If not, then p1$$ off. Excuse me, I meant to say, “then I am abashed by my impoverishment of intelligence and wit before the snarling bloggers, upon whose indulgence I shall impose no further.”
After you, my Dear Alphonse.
By sparrowhawk
November 16, 2007 10:41 AM | Link to this
Curious Creature @ 10:17,
I may be a moron, but I’m not hapless.
Yes, I too don’t know what I’d do in combat, but I think your guess is probably part of the scenario: I’d start by soiling my drawers. I’ve spent a lot of time with veterans, and the stuff they sometimes lay on you can be heavy enough that you have to go pay a professional to dump it onto, and the professional then has to pay a professional’s professional to transfer the load, etc. It’s a missing law of physics, the Conservation of Suffering.
So anyway since you insist that the troops want to book it and bag out instead of staying and succeeding, why don’t we test your claim? Whatsay we ask them, on the Internet? I’ve done so, frequently. It’s no more difficult than posting on Jim’s blog, provided you can get their minds off sex.
[Rudy 08]
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 10:59 AM | Link to this
Dear BB @ 8:29, “But I hate dogs.” We have only four dogs, all foundlings, inside our home: a Doberman-mix (Police-Dog has a truly-ferocious bark, especially for a 14-year old;) a hyperactive border collie/Greyhound mix (loud but infrequent bark;) a big mostly-lazy pit bull/lab mix (menacingly quiet;) and a frenetic miniature poodle mix (loudest of the bunch.) The poodle is crazy; if he were less than 10 years old, I’d rename him “Kos” or “Soros.” I can hear myself yelling, “Get down, Soros, you idiot.” He wants us to call him “Suppertime,” as that is the only noun he responds to. Mrs. jbmlaw has a soft-heart for those who are lost in the world; I’m sure she and the late Ms. Novick would have gotten along famously.
Dear Curious @ 10:17, I think you fall for the MSM propaganda. Great essay contradicting your view from last month, http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110010686
By getalife
November 16, 2007 11:00 AM | Link to this
The US political strategy has failed in Iraq. Their government is deadlocked.
The gop now want to replace malarki.
You are a fool if you think w can fix it.
The troops did their job, bring them home and send the gop to fix their government.
They broke it, they should fix it. They should all go over during their holiday recess.
By HIDT
November 16, 2007 11:23 AM | Link to this
I think Warren Buffett actually means he’d like to see the government take more out of the hides of people who haven’t been as generous as he.
And, while I admire him, I also disagree. Anyone _ even misers _ who can amass a fortune through legal means in their lifetimes should be able to pass it intact to whomever they wish.
By Phil's Attorney
November 16, 2007 11:25 AM | Link to this
Phil @ 9:19,
Please add the following in six-point type: “Offer good at participating polling places for a limited time only with approved celestial credit service not available in blue areas customer must attend church to qualify if you experience priapism lasting more than four hours contact your Governor immediately at 404-656-1776.”
Thanks.
By The Captain
November 16, 2007 11:26 AM | Link to this
Why are conservatives constantly intellectually dishonest?? The government doesn’t tax you when you die! It’s a tax on the person who is alive, did not work for the money, and receives it as income. Only Wooten would think that Paris Hilton is more deserving, and more entitled to pay a smaller tax percentage than cops, secretaries, or any other “regular Joe” pays on money they make, simply because the money comes from a “family dynasty”. Conservatives no longer respect work, only your family name.
By HIDT
November 16, 2007 11:40 AM | Link to this
Say, a cash poor adult child of a cash poor, but land rich farmer inherits a that land which is valued at $2 million. Would you have that child sell the farm to pay the inheritance tax?
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 11:43 AM | Link to this
Dear Captain @ 11:26, sounds like you confuse “income” and “savings.” As a country, we never tax “savings” - this is the capital base that allows lending and investment by others - except when people die, then we steal as much as possible.
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 11:46 AM | Link to this
Well-argued, HIDT @ 11:40, my compliments. You focus the question sharply, using a common case.
By HIDT
November 16, 2007 11:53 AM | Link to this
Steal is exactly the right word jbmlaw. I have never understood how our elected leaders allowed this post-mortem pilfering of people’s property. It’s positively preposterous.
By the Captain
November 16, 2007 11:56 AM | Link to this
It becomes income once it transfers to someone else. And no, there is most defiantly a loophole for the farmer (or one can be made), but more importantly if you believe that then you have been deceived. This hypothetical case of the farmer really only happens in the make believe world of political marketing.
By getalife
November 16, 2007 11:59 AM | Link to this
G.O.P. Loses Vote on War Funding
Troops home, gop in Iraq to fix their government.
Reid has one bill with telecom amnesty and one without.
Which one will he bring to the floor?
He should bring the one without.
By HIDT
November 16, 2007 12:03 PM | Link to this
Nope. Would have bitten me in the butt had the land been worth slightly more. It happens a lot in this rural state and others.
And I would argue assets saved should not be considered income earned if it is inherited.
By time to joyously machine gun all lefties and toss their stinking carcases over the greasy corrupt me
November 16, 2007 12:03 PM | Link to this
I see the psychotic peeping tom is back to yet again projecting its far left obsession with its own poorly developed toilet training … if mentally constipated peeping tom had a sh!t there’d be NOTHING left!!
How reassuring for drooling anal retentive mentalists everywhere to see the resident psychotic easier to wind up than a syphilitic puff adder with an official gorge SOREos moveyourtreasonousbowels.org IED up its rectum - should have been aborted a thousand times already - the energiser dogturd posing as the execrable anal obsessive aborted foreskin is still witlessly and anally puking up its anally unfunny witless cringe making mongoloid puke. Happily the backward slimy ultra fascist saudis have oppressive towel head religious police, san fran sicko has oppressive far left thought police to protect AIDS ridden sick and twisted queer f aggots and the huge lemming like swinish herd of deranged cut and and run hate America treasonous traitors from the real world, the french have surrender monkey garlic police making sure everything is smothered in rancid garlic and UNDENIABLY this forum urgently needs aggressive ditch the sad anal obsessive abjectly pathologically unfunny vainglorious narcissistic I anally desperately need 10,000+ puerile maggot brained id’s to unremittingly float my puss filled rabidly egocentric boat police.
So much for Perdue’s cringemaking pathetic attempts at inducing ALREADY forecast before a cold front rain.
Here’s a much more worthwhile public exhortation:
ALLLLLLLLLargh U nasty horrid bacon munching under age paedophile lover of towel head beheading cowardly greasy arab humping sphincter grabbing towel head scum we proudly beseech U to immediately rid us of ALL wriggling perfidious leftist maggots that have infested this noble fruited plain. Oh great compassionate circumcised camel jockey blowing ALLLLLaaaaaargh have mercy on your proud Dixie based yanKKKee pervert hating infidels and deliver us from all pinKKKO moveyourtreasonousbowels.org abortion bucket escapees - in your glorious Mecca style pork chops with A1 sauce name we proud American patriots demand that as a sign of who will truly and nobly ultimately triumphantly prevail in the age old fight between the good moral high ground hogging infidels and the pork scratchings gobbling socialist human scum detritus ALLLLaaaargh send us two worthless appeasing vainglorious far left yellowbellied verminous lying chattering monkeys that will be beaten easily by a folksy pragmatic Harvard scholar from Texas … OOOOOPS TOO LATE … and ALLLLLarrrrgh after another quick giant ham sandwich in paradise and wasting 72 Rosie O Dyyyke like virgins (puuuuuuuuke) make sure U bless u’re brave stout hearted selfless M16A2 toting crusading urban terrorist killing conquerers (twice and counting) of Fallujah and Ramadi et al - its great practice of course for next year when they return home as victorious heroes of the “surge” - which the Bush hating NOWskeeeeeeredshitless leftist media shamelessly ignores - to help our nations’ great NRA - Minute Men civilian militia finally liberate san fran sicko, berkeley, boulder, boston etc. And ALLLLLargh please - as a final selfless thought - make DAMN sure that crackpipe debbieturd never runs out of pork chiterlings!!
By Schitzy Mitzi
November 16, 2007 12:19 PM | Link to this
tftt, well I (note prominent placement of first-person singular pronoun) get the narcissistic part, and so does Cybil, but neuroses and psychoses in the same pkg.?
By time to lengthen the name box a bit
November 16, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
time to joyously machine gun all lefties and toss their stinking carcases over the greasy corrupt mexican border
bloody name box aint long enuff to get it all in sometimes …
By getalife
November 16, 2007 12:28 PM | Link to this
Another civil rights march on Washington.
Our country is going backwards.
Nice work w.
Geez.
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 12:36 PM | Link to this
Dear HIDT @ 12:03, I would respectfully suggest a modification of your postulate – as all income is subject to taxation, those funds thereafter saved should never be taxed again; “double taxation” is more repugnant than “double jeopardy.” Of course, a cleaner course than splitting hairs over the definition of “income” would be simply to tax consumption. Fair Tax provides a useful blueprint.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 12:36 PM | Link to this
Splenduh induh@10:26
Would you translate that post for those of us who are drug-free? Thank you.
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 12:38 PM | Link to this
getalife, a march on DC. Cool. What are they on about, Mena? Mexicano/Chicano ambiguities?
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 12:42 PM | Link to this
Dear getalife @ 12:28, you surprise me. I would not have expected you to condemn “another civil rights march.” I think you are too hard on the protesters, however; “another civil rights march” does not necessarily mean the country is retrogressing to the 1960s, it could be just sort of a “reunion tour” for those intellectually displaced by 1960s narcotics.
By Splennduh Injah Jah
November 16, 2007 12:50 PM | Link to this
Dusty @ 10:26,
No.
By HIDT
November 16, 2007 12:54 PM | Link to this
Dear jbmlaw@12:36 Agreed.
By getalife
November 16, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
ambulance chaser,
No surprise from you, still an idiot.
Geez.
By Jack
November 16, 2007 12:58 PM | Link to this
or a chance to be in the choir or other funtion in Creflo Dollar’s World Changers Church, you must provide the church with you W-2 form so they can determine that you are tithing enough. if you aren’t giving enough, you don’t get to play. What horse manure Creflo must be made of.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 12:59 PM | Link to this
Splennduh Injah Jughead@ 12:50
Why?
By Jack
November 16, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this
Jughead? Wasn’t he in the Snuffy Smith comic?
By ron
November 16, 2007 1:10 PM | Link to this
People give freely to Creflo,A.Dollar Jr.That’s something I don’t understand,but since they give freely,I think Creflo would be a fool not to spend it,and ask for more.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 1:19 PM | Link to this
Jack@1:10
I don’t know,Jack. Jughead just seems to go with Splennduh Inja. Whatever. He’s definitely a comic, cosmic or incontinent..one of those.
By getalife
November 16, 2007 1:24 PM | Link to this
Countdown: Welcome Home
Bring em home, send the gop.
By Jack
November 16, 2007 1:43 PM | Link to this
incontinent? That depends.
By Steve
November 16, 2007 1:55 PM | Link to this
What a waste of time this forum is - nothing from the Wooten supporters was civil or made any sense.
What a sucky time to be a Republican…
By the way, Perdue prayed for rain and took credit for the already forecasted showers we got the other night. How ridiculous is THAT? GOP gaffe #5,435,210.
By Splenndifficult Jughead Beanie
November 16, 2007 1:57 PM | Link to this
Dusty @ 12:59,
It all goes back to BikiniBottom’s winged reference to Jim’s cuddly story about the late AJC reader’s wondrous capacity to remain polite while she gave the editors the what-for. I know it’s a hassle, but if you’d see my Costa Rican post of November 9 @ 11:58 (It’s under Jim’s November 8 column, “Property Taxes, Pakistan, Vouchers”), I think you’ll find a striking contrast between the Hallmark segment of Jim’s column and the way in which a free press and freedom of expression were meant by our founders to be used. (Hint, e.g. the First Amendment was not intended to have anything to do with politeness.) The reason we know of the founders’ intentions in this regard is that they themselves frequently used the newspapers in a Costa Rican, as distinguished from a polite, manner. They were, to be sure, intelligent and witty, but not one of them would think of checking his weapons at the door before entering the newsroom. And that is why I kept Tanline’s canine spaying-and-neutering metaphor, and redeployed it with reference to housebreaking. Newspaper editors are not supposed to presume to break us, or insist that our unseemly virile parts be excised, because we are not their house pets. They are our instruments; we are not theirs. Newspaper people don’t like to be thought of as the instruments they are, any more than readers like to be regarded as dogs, and that is the reason for Jim’s dogbone eulogy for the spayed and house-broken lady who was so composed at all times, even in the face of snarling editors, that she was permitted to rest upon the AJC’s finest furnishings.
The little Hallmark tribute is not a big deal really, but bollocks nonetheless. It doesn’t belong in a vertebrate newspaper, but admittedly it does become the AJC.
P.S. I prefer Cecil to Beanie Boy, Beanie Boy to Veronica, Veronica to Jughead’s beanie, and Jughead’s beanie to Jughead.
By Jack
November 16, 2007 1:57 PM | Link to this
Bless your heart Steve. Don’t go away mad, just go away.
By Jackie
November 16, 2007 1:59 PM | Link to this
The US Army has stated of the 22 brigades it has, 12 are in Iraq and there is no troops left for military conflict anywhere else in the world. The further stated, if we do not begin to rotate those soldiers out of Iraq by spring, the Army will be broken. A second news story indicates that desertions are up in the Army by 80% and recruitment is down and it is harder to find troops to fill the ranks. Do we have neo-con volunteers to “protect us from the terrorists?”
By Jackie
November 16, 2007 2:03 PM | Link to this
News headlines highlights why we need to spend the money at home instead of $1.5 Trillion in Iraq for war.
Ty Ziegel lost an arm, part of his skull when he was attacked in Iraq VA initially rated his brain injury at 0%, meaning he got no compensation for it Another vet: VA rejected his claim, saying his wounds were “not service connected”By Dusty
November 16, 2007 2:04 PM | Link to this
Jack @1:43
Good one, Jack. I like your dry humor.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 2:20 PM | Link to this
Splendifficult Jughead @1:57
Well, that clears that up. You are jealous of the kind lady that wrote fiery letters to the editor and loved canines whose attributes in obits were kindly noticed by our good editor Wooten. Yes!!
My dear Spendi, even the spineless newspinnerpapers must have some humanity. Is that not so?
By Phil
November 16, 2007 2:32 PM | Link to this
I was once ashamed to have claimed to believe as a Democrat; I am now ashamed to have associated myself with the Republican party; I just can’t bring myself to go Nader (or the current equivalent); and the Libertarians just can’t seem to get their act together. I am so confused. Who do I trust? Who do I believe? Why haven’t the big businesses, special interest groups, Saudis, Hugo, Al, etc., come out and told our politicians what to tell us to think yet? Who’s in charge? Is it still too far from the election?
By jbmlaw
November 16, 2007 2:46 PM | Link to this
Dear Jackie the JewBaiter @ 1:59, you present phony numbers on desertion – the volunteer army has greatly reduced desertions over the VietNam years (I suspect leaving the malcontents stateside is a material element for the improvement.) As to the Army breaking, only a lack of stateside support for the mission, which is near completion, could possibly cause such a breakage. As to your neo-con question, if you only read the link I offered our friend Curious @ 10:59, you will discover how the “gospel” (funny choice of words, don’t you think) of our Jewish internationalist friends has spread throughout those doing the noble work in Iraq.
Dear Phil @ 2:32, if you are hostile to the idea of “freedom from government” within and among “big business” I suspect you never grasped the foundational role of “freedom” in the Republican charter. You will be happier with the socialists.
By Beanie Boy
November 16, 2007 3:01 PM | Link to this
Nah, Dusty, I’m not jealous of her at all. Why would I be? To me she’s a metaphor for a columnist’s ideal of the perfect newspaper reader, the one who reads all their stuff, takes it seriously, mulls it, and couches her occasional complaints in the most urbane and press-worthy terms. Nothing wrong with urbanity—a rare thing these days, in part because of the passing of such true ladies—but urbanity doesn’t strictly belong in an American newspaper. That’s what journals and books, and hence the USPS Fourth Class rate, are for.
Neither do I mind Jim’s unctuousness, as long as he bares his talons for e.g. idiot educators and gubernatorial nonentities. Instead he does what the dog lady did: he gentles them, as one might correct an animal with only carrots and no sticks. Even the English, for Pete’s sake, take off their gloves before newspapering. Spare the rod, spoil democracy.
By getalife
November 16, 2007 3:07 PM | Link to this
First kos Newsweek op-ed
By Phil
November 16, 2007 3:07 PM | Link to this
Dear jbmlaw at 2:46PM,
Isn’t freedom of speech a wonderful thing to still have in one’s possession? If you ever misplace yours, I’ll be glad to sell you a replacement for a fair profit.
By @@
November 16, 2007 4:02 PM | Link to this
I’ve read today’s column Jim but before I begin I have to confess…
I never visit without taking my little hand cursor thingy, the one with the index finger pointing up and placing it right between the two front teeth in your picture. Again, it’s the overbite. It’s sooooo cute with my little finger thingy in front of it.
Anyhoo to continue…
I have no idea who Mary Shotwell Little is. Forgive me if I sound insensitive, but are you talking about congress? Merry Shot…Well……Little?
Hospitals no place for sick people? Could it be the “staff”?
Sweepstakes? Double their pleasure, double their fun? Chew Doublemint Doublemint Doublemint sum…some…bums.
Picking up after doggone editors? Very good for the environment. Some folks enjoy recycling “it” the environmentally conscious will dispose of properly. Good for Lois!
Well Jim, you know what they say about “two hands” and filling them up with ermmmm dog poo. Who’s eatin’ what at $500 a plate?
Little known fact about Creflo Dollar’s church. You have to study a manual and take a test before he’ll let you become a member. I had a co-worker who was required to do just that. Poor soul.
Every time a worker strikes, the innocent bystanders pay. Down with union peddlers.
But Holly loves wood.
The cost of hunting down income tax evaders? What does it cost to put a tail on Teddy or John Kerry’s yacht? Wouldn’t it be cheaper just to nab them in the WH?
Silly, Silly? Are you makin’ a sneaky, sneaky SS reference there Jim?
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 4:13 PM | Link to this
Ah dear Beanie Boy @3:01,
How amazing. You are moaning the passing of urbanity while contributing to its demise, declaring it passe’ for publications.
I, too, bemoan the passing of politeness and consideration. Unlike you, reading absolute censored starred and still egregious gauche language by any writer immediately brings to mind a fool who has long been in the presence of bad company. It is a downgrading element.
Southerners have long been champions of courtesy and concern. It has been shown and taught by example for centuries. But that too is passing because the indigenous Southerner is a rare bird these days.
But you would like the true Southerner because underneath it all lies a fiery force of determination forever loyal to the finest standards.
Jim Wooten knows where he is from and does not lower his standards. He does not conduct a bully column but one which gives us thought.
By Van
November 16, 2007 4:18 PM | Link to this
I can not believe no one made a big deal about all the softballs lobbed at Hillary last night.
It appears that Wolf Blitzer got the message loud and clear. Lay off her royal highness.
I guess the “smartest” woman just ain’t got enough to play with the big boys without a little help from the Hillary thugs.
I wonder if Tim Russert got invited to fly into Iraq on a trade mission, or to visit someone at Fort Marcy Park?
Oh, well I guess some people are more equal than others, sorry George.
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 4:22 PM | Link to this
A couple of you gaiamystical greenies have claimed that Governor Purdue, for whom I can find no use whatsoever, planned the prayer service to coincide with a date for which rain had been forecast. What’s more magical, the Governor’s answer to the drought, or your belief that government is so omniscient that it can predict the weather?
By @@
November 16, 2007 4:40 PM | Link to this
I don’t know that the questions were “soft” but there was something going on in the audience. Everytime her opponents tried to go after her there was a lot of heckling.
Threw ‘em off their game it did.
Planted hecklers. I wouldn’t put anything past Hillary and Bill.
By @@
November 16, 2007 4:49 PM | Link to this
Dusty:
But you would like the true Southerner because underneath it all lies a fiery force of determination forever loyal to the finest standards.
That is my impression of you and an admirable one it is.
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 4:53 PM | Link to this
Van,
That debate was so messed up that the Internet is not a big enough pipe through which to fit a full description of all the messedupness. CNN has become a total joke, and I really hope it’s resold and turned around fast, in time for the maximum-incoming election barrage.
You’re right about the coddling of the battleaxe; in itself, a delicate operation. By contrast to the stroking of the axehead, the irrelevant Senator Dodd, seized what he had reason to believe would be his only chance to speak, and used the opportunity to squeeze in the misogynistic codeword “shrill” as many times as he could. You may remember it. It sounded something like, “I don’t think the American people want us to get up here and get all shrill…the American people want us to take care of business without being shrill…the voters are tired of the shrill tone of…so I’m not going to use shrill claims…” etc. It was great squirmy fun to watch that one-man freak show acting like he was getting away with calling Teacher a bee itch outloud because he’d mastered Pig Latin moments before. I think it’s already my favorite piece of political theatre since Howard Dean’s Yankee rendition of a Rebel yell. (Though who wouldn’t agree with Phil here that Sonny’s rain dance was priceless?)
Even the made members of the old Party have figured out that the axe is gonna fall.
By Bikini Bimbo
November 16, 2007 4:56 PM | Link to this
Davinci’s Last Supper has encoded musical notations that recently got translated and played on an organ. Certain features in the famous painting were used for notes.
I looked at Davinci’s Mona Lisa recently and I liked the beat and it’s easy to dance to. I gave it a 69. Mona Lisa: a real hip hop ho
Actually, I played the notes encoded in the Mona Lisa and it was “It’s Raining Men”. Not a drought remedy, but it’s nice to know some chicks really want it bad.”
By getalife
November 16, 2007 4:58 PM | Link to this
Atlanta prays for rain, God responds sarcastically
wingnuts,
Geez.
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 4:58 PM | Link to this
correction: “itchbay” for “bee itch”
By Jackie
November 16, 2007 5:01 PM | Link to this
@jbmlaw,
Once again, you open your mouth and insert your foot. There is an article in the Washington Post, CNN and others verifying what I said. Further, you indicate that I am Jew-baiter. You are a Protestant that thinks the Jews are “holding your place” in the Holy Land until the rapture, I would suspect. What a hypocrit you are, sir!
By getalife
November 16, 2007 5:03 PM | Link to this
van,
rudy has faux noise and she has cnn.
Fair and balanced.
Bwa.
Glenn,
Have you ever heard of a five day forecast?
Geez.
By Dusty
November 16, 2007 5:11 PM | Link to this
@@ 4:49
OOOhh, thank you. I appreciate your kind words.
By Bikini Bimbo
November 16, 2007 5:12 PM | Link to this
Do you believe how clever getalife is, you see, he doesn’t refer to Fox News as anything but the amazingly caustic and sardonic term, “Faux Noise”. Who is this man who weilds his satiric wit with such a deft hand that no television channel could survive.
(I dont know who he is but he left this silver suppository).
By getalife
November 16, 2007 5:28 PM | Link to this
OK, I hacked it from KO.
By getalife
November 16, 2007 5:33 PM | Link to this
Speaking of faux noise
Enjoy.
By getalife
November 16, 2007 5:41 PM | Link to this
Ooops,
Speaking of faux noise
Enjoy.
By jm
November 16, 2007 5:46 PM | Link to this
This should make Dusty happy, the Braves just made a contract offer to Tom Glavine.
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 5:47 PM | Link to this
Marshal Dusty @ 4:13,
First, I wholeheartedly agree with @@ 4:49. Second, the Costa Rica story, which is accurate right down to the names, tells of an example of an inspiring use of profanity in celebration of freedom—these days an oft-used and seldom defined term. I’d intended the story as an amusing and perhaps bracing definition of freedom, which definition I’d presumed to submit to this blog in the context of the Iraq invasion and occupation, the merits of which are attacked here every day. The immediate context for the Costa Rica story included not only the background circumstances I’d mentioned, but also that Generalisimo Somosa was at that very moment being evacuated from neighboring Nicaragua; that his flight marked the end of a regime under which even the urbane exercise of free expression routinely got people killed; that we in that room were then among the only people on the planet who knew that Somosa had been evacuated by the US Army Air Cav under orders from President Carter; that every person in the room was a conservative democrat; that all but the host were refugees, exiles or journalists who’d escaped death by sheer luck.
As to your point about the disappearance of public urbanity, I believe that I had offered that very observation in the post you found objectionable. I also suggested that urbanity should not be allowed to displace either sharpness (talons) or bluntness (sticks) in a newspaper, since harshness, not politeness, is what is protected by our First Amendment press freedoms. The U.S. Supreme Court has borne out this interpretation for more than a century.
There’s no call for getting regional about it. I was raised in California by my grandfather, a Southerner whose father was a Civil War Captain. My family have been in Georgia for a long time, and though I’ve lived here only a short time I’ve been coming here, to visit family, all my life. My ancestors crossed the Atlantic to Savannah with Oglethorpe, and later worshipped there with Wesley, who converted them to Methodism. One of them, having served as a low-ranking officer under General Washington, was rewarded for his war service with a grant of land near Athens, where he is buried.
I greatly appreciate old school manners, as I happened to mention in this blog once with reference to Justice Thomas. And I love Georgia, and Georgians not least for their easy good manners. But I’ll have to stand behind my point about the occasional need for strong language in newspapers. Journalists and their contributors shouldn’t call something “old time religion” when they mean “Jim Crow”, and shouldn’t use “Jim Crow” as a name for brutal racism.
But then just last week Jim endorsed poll testing, so who am I to say?
By Bikini Bimbo
November 16, 2007 5:53 PM | Link to this
Bush is helpless and doesn’t know what to do about Pakistan.
Where’s the leadership?
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 6:01 PM | Link to this
Jackie, that’s a deeply funky rendering of evangelical theology you’ve got there. You might want to send that one out over the airwaves and see how many prayer cloths you can flog.
BikiniBabe, I heard that DaVinci ditty, which sucks. If il Maestro had wanted to write music, it would be better than John Cage’s. As to artistic encoding, like a lot of people I think Hockney’s Secret Knowledge thesis is a gas. As art history goes, begginer’s luck. Who doesn’t love it when the wisdom of the wise is made foolish?
By Glenn
November 16, 2007 6:05 PM | Link to this
BeachBlanketBimbo,
‘Sbest Ikintell, three possible outcomes loom in Pakistan, two of them good. So Bush doesn’t strictly have to do anything other than let it play out. (Although presumably he’s got Condi flailing again.)