History of the Estate Tax

[merrylander]

Originally Posted by ebacon

In order to avoid estate taxes rich individuals put good chunks of their money into trusts because the trusts live on after they die. That is normal estate planning, so it is a ruse for some of the people that signed The Giving Pledge to say that they were always into philantropy. That's not exactly true.

It is also important to see what the trust charter requires the trustees to do. For example the pledge might say that they give to an organization that teaches the importance of economic ideals to school children. OK, wtf is that in English? Oh, the trust pumps schools full of Ayn Rand books. Thanks dick face.

Hearst could have said that he gave all his money away and it would be true. He gave it to a trust. The trick is that the trust's goal is to let him run his company from the grave. He's dead. He should get over it and let somebody else play. Luckily there is a law that requires his trust to expire when the last heir dies that was alive at the same time Hearst.

The egos of some of these pricks is unimaginable. They truly are mentally ill. How the Tea Party wants to be under their thumbs befuddles the hell out of me. Or maybe the Tea Partiers think they have a chance at taking a seat at the blue bloods' table. What a joke.

Dinna worry, Atlas Shrugged will bore them to death midway. They must have beenpaying her by the word as it could have been condensed to 50 pages, 75 at most.

[ebacon]

Originally Posted by merrylander

Dinna worry, Atlas Shrugged will bore them to death midway. . .

We have to hope so. BB&T CEO Allison ordered that the bank take Rand's obj, uh, assholism into classroms under the guise of charity. It's ironic that he also took $3.1B of bailout money but hey, what's a little money between subjects and their king.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=90104091

Now that the weasel is retired he has taken a role at the Cato Institute. Now there's a bunch of rocket scientists.

These kinds of assholes sure aren't the ones that invent stuff like Rearden Metal. All they have ever invented is ponzi schemes and Atlas Shrugged is their advertising material.

[noonereal]

Originally Posted by ebacon

I'm just curious as to the board members' abilities to see both sides of an issue and at least agree that there are pros and cons. Which side they want is of course subject to differ and can only be resolved civilly by vote.
.

So you are testing the members here?

I'll be reviewing your posts to gauge your abilities to be a valued poster here.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by piece-itpete

There are plenty of Democrat leaning foundations. I'm seeing less and less of a centrist here

Pete

Because once you start thinking about these things objectively, sans patriotic and pseudoreligious hullabaloo......You start to realize just what a total ripoff modern conservatism, as advanced by the rightwing machine, really is.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by ebacon

The egos of some of these pricks is unimaginable. They truly are mentally ill. How the Tea Party wants to be under their thumbs befuddles the hell out of me. Or maybe the Tea Partiers think they have a chance at taking a seat at the blue bloods' table. What a joke.

Beautifully stated, and full of truth, my friend.

Dave

[bobabode]

Originally Posted by noonereal

So you are testing the members here?

I'll be reviewing your posts to gauge your abilities to be a valued poster here.

Be nice! He's been posting up some doosie's regarding the Tea Party...heh, heh!

[ebacon]

Originally Posted by noonereal

So you are testing the members here?

I'll be reviewing your posts to gauge your abilities to be a valued poster here.

Do what you need to do.

I'm not testing. It's just that after years of doing this stuff I have learned a few things about discussing politics. One of them is that it is more fun if people talk from their heart and top of their head.

For me at least it is lame as hell reading posters that just battle each other with cites to opposing viewpoints. The problem with that is that it lets the major parties script the dialog and reduces the debaters to useful idiots that further the parties' agendas. The good stuff in the middle gets driven over as the discussion crashes back and forth between the left and right guardrails.

I have also learned that its no fun to debate with people that can't at least see both sides of an issue. That's like wrestling with the proverbial pig that likes the mud.

If you want to see if I am worthy it might be best to debate me instead of reading my few old posts in a vacuum and judging me. I could judge you too but what good would that do? And even if we disagree it's no big deal. It's not like our two votes out of hundreds of millions are going to change anything overnight. We are just pawns in a bigger game being played over a much longer time horizon.

[BlueStreak]

Originally Posted by ebacon

Do what you need to do.

I'm not testing. It's just that after years of doing this stuff I have learned a few things about discussing politics. One of them is that it is more fun if people talk from their heart and top of their head.

For me at least it is lame as hell reading posters that just battle each other with cites to opposing viewpoints. The problem with that is that it lets the major parties script the dialog and reduces the debaters to useful idiots that further the parties' agendas. The good stuff in the middle gets driven over as the discussion crashes back and forth between the left and right guardrails.

I have also learned that its no fun to debate with people that can't at least see both sides of an issue. That's like wrestling with the proverbial pig that likes the mud.

If you want to see if I am worthy it might be best to debate me instead of reading my few old posts in a vacuum and judging me. I could judge you too but what good would that do? And even if we disagree it's no big deal. It's not like our two votes out of hundreds of millions are going to change anything overnight. We are just pawns in a bigger game being played over a much longer time horizon.

Cool.

[d-ray657]

Originally Posted by ebacon

And even if we disagree it's no big deal. It's not like our two votes out of hundreds of millions are going to change anything overnight. We are just pawns in a bigger game being played over a much longer time horizon.

We just do what we can.

Regards,

D-Ray

[beej]

Originally Posted by ebacon

Do what you need to do.

I'm not testing. It's just that after years of doing this stuff I have learned a few things about discussing politics. One of them is that it is more fun if people talk from their heart and top of their head.

For me at least it is lame as hell reading posters that just battle each other with cites to opposing viewpoints. The problem with that is that it lets the major parties script the dialog and reduces the debaters to useful idiots that further the parties' agendas. The good stuff in the middle gets driven over as the discussion crashes back and forth between the left and right guardrails.

I have also learned that its no fun to debate with people that can't at least see both sides of an issue. That's like wrestling with the proverbial pig that likes the mud.

If you want to see if I am worthy it might be best to debate me instead of reading my few old posts in a vacuum and judging me. I could judge you too but what good would that do? And even if we disagree it's no big deal. It's not like our two votes out of hundreds of millions are going to change anything overnight. We are just pawns in a bigger game being played over a much longer time horizon.

I, for one, would rather not judge anyone and do my best not to. I take what's posted here at face value, assuming that individuals mean what they say. On occasion, I've had my trigger tripped (pun intentional) when discussing firearms issues but, for the most part, try not to become so emotionally invested in the discussion that it elevates my blood pressure. That said I enjoy a spirited discussion and welcome views that differ from mine. Makes for an interesting break from work and helps get the juices flowing early in the a.m.

With respect to trying to understand the point of view of others, I'm not always successful in my attempts to do so but would like to think that I at least make the effort.

My 2 cents adjusted for stimulus.