Dear President Obama, I want to express my gravest concerns regarding the proposed tax legislation currently pending before Congress. This legislation, which you negotiated with the Republican leadership without input from Democratic leaders in Congress, is a sell-out. In exchange for extending unemployment benefits, you’re in danger of strangling Social Security, taking a giant step towards making the Bush-era tax … Read More
Of Pork, Congressional Redistricting, and the 2010 Census
As 2010 draws to a close, the official results of the 2010 U.S. Census will soon be published, and we’ll know for certain how the 435 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives will be allocated between the states. Congressional redistricting isn’t a sexy issue, or even particularly interesting, but the decennial census results determine the political makeup of the … Read More
Corporate Socialism and the Television Industry
Paying for television has always bothered me. As a child, everyone enjoyed free, clear transmission, albeit with the cutting-edge technology of rabbit-ears or rooftop antennas. There were few channels, but once the television was plugged in, the sole additional cost was pennies for electricity. Forty years later, my family’s satellite dish stands proud in the front yard, and we receive … Read More
Locking Your Doors Against Identity Thieves
Preventing identity theft by guarding private information, such as date of birth and social security number.
Of Glass Houses and Stones, or Musings on the Midterm Elections and the Role of Government
We are mere weeks away from the midterm elections, and the current debate clearly revolves around that all-American topic: the role of government in our lives. Whether the discussion is framed around health care, taxes, defense, the environment, the economy, or the Department of Education, the question, as I am increasingly seeing it, is not so much how much these … Read More
The Enigma Variations on Extending the Bush Tax Cuts
I am a beneficiary of the Bush tax cuts, as are, probably, most of you. When the cuts were first enacted in 2001, we might have seen our federal taxes drop by hundreds of dollars, or maybe even by a thousand or two. All absolutely welcome tax relief, but was it really? As a response to those tax cuts, and … Read More
Customer Service, or Good Will Hunting
Ask any moderately successful businessperson the secret of their success and the answer will inevitably include the quality of their customer service. Whether in a restaurant or store, with a doctor, lawyer or accountant, or even at the local gas station, a patron will only consider returning if prior experiences are pleasant. The good will that is created is a … Read More
Life After School Portraits
School pictures are as much a part of early fall as colorful foliage, new shoes, and essays on what I did on my summer vacation. They’ve been such a constant, I’ve never questioned their necessity. As a child, I dressed up, combed my hair, put on my prettiest smile, and two months later received a package crammed with disappointment. No … Read More
The 2010 Dead Billionaires’ Club
What do Mary Janet Cargill, Dan L. Duncan, Walter Shorenstein and George Steinbrenner have in common? If you guessed that they’re all dead, that they were extraordinarily wealthy at the time of their deaths, and that their estates will pass to their heirs untaxed by any sort of transfer tax, you’d win the jackpot. They are members of the “2010 … Read More
Changing Times
“May you live in interesting times,” says the old Chinese curse. “May you live in interesting and changing times” may be more germane to our modern era. Our planet is increasingly governed by economic upheavals, and absolute truths are shifting. Nothing is exempt. Indicators that we formerly relied upon as beacons of economic health have become suspect. Unemployment stays stubbornly … Read More