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Will Phillips, a 10-year old boy from Arkansas, has been in the news lately.  If you haven’t heard about it yet, Will has chosen not to recite or stand during the Pledge of Allegiance at his school.  Why?  “I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all,” specifically for gays and lesbians.

Will is my hero.  In the face of teachers being cross with him, and other students calling him a “gaywad,” he continues not to stand.  He’s getting a lot of media attention, too.  (The Jon Stewart clip is particularly humorous.)  He was interviewed on CNN, and he handles himself so much better than you might expect from someone who is only 10 years old.

His parents are to be commended, for supporting this kid while he takes a controversial stance at school, for standing next to him in the face of national publicity, and for teaching him these values in the first place.

I don’t know about everyone else, but the health care debate has slightly overwhelmed me.  I haven’t been paying attention and i don’t know the details.  I do hear weird things about “death panels” and then people say it’s ridiculous that anyone would come up with that.  I hear that the government gave up on what they really wanted and are already compromising.  I hear that we have to do something because our current system is unsustainable.  I hear the right saying nothing needs to change.

Understanding the health care debate became a lot simpler when i found The Back of A Napkin.  He describes the whole thing in four simple posts, complete with pictures of napkins.  I’m sure it’s oversimplified, but it definitely gave me what i was looking for - a better grasp of what the debate is about in our country.

Napkin 1: The health care equation

Napkin 2: It’s not about health care

Napkin 3: The plans on the table

Napkin 4: What’s it mean to me?

I have a fondness for napkins.  We are constantly using them to write down bridge hands or illustrate points.  And now i’ve learned about health care from them.

Below are some images of our new President, in normal situations that all of us can identify with.   I loved these.  Enjoy.

I’ve always thought to myself that i will really be an adult when i no longer look forward to snow days.  If i hear about a possible storm coming and think i hope it misses us.

I must still be a kid, because when i heard there was a surprise formation of clouds that was going to dump snow on our area, all i could think was, YAY!  I was hoping all day yesterday, trying at the same time not to get those hopes up too high, that it would snow enough to get us out of work.  I had a dream about waking up in the morning, and seeing only a light dusting and having to go to work, but i slid into a ditch on the way there.  I had another dream that i woke up and looked out the window and there was no snow at all.

Then i actually woke up, and the bedroom had that luminous quality that can only come from light reflecting off of lots and lots of snow.  YAY!

The coolest part about being at home today, is that we can watch the inauguration of Barack Obama.  Echoing many sentiments i’ve heard and seen in other blogs, it is just extremely awesome the progress this country had made.  I’m proud to be an American today.

What does it say about me that i think it would be cool to be the person who organized the inauguration event and all the behind-the-scenes stuff that had to happen?

President-Elect Obama will probably have to give up email entirely, according to this article from the NY Times.

Apparently, the President’s communications are supposed to all be public, so there can be no private emails. There is the concern about security, too. My thoughts on this:

• Staying in touch with friends is important. The President of the United States is still a human being, and needs friends and social contacts. I wonder how it evolved that he became this isolated and untouchable person. I can’t imagine not being able to drop an email to a friend, or send a text message about a sports victory.
• Electronic communication is necessary to be effective. I think all fast-paced higher-ups in modern companies know this. That’s why Blackberries are mandatory at a lot companies. Imagine how much could get done if our government officials were encouraged to take advantage of technology.
• Too much news exists electronically to be ignored. Newspapers contain day-old news. News programs can only give highlights, and stories are often sensationalized. The electronic world is where more and more people are going for their real news. And the sources of information are endless. Can a president really know enough about what is going on in the world by getting brief summaries each morning?

I have Facebook and MySpace pages, which i only visit a few times a month. I don’t have a profile on any dating sites. I don’t Twitter. I’m not a super-blogger who influences the masses. But, even with these electronic deficiencies, my electronic identity is important to me. There are lost of people at work that i only know through electronic communications. Approximately 15-20% of my relationship with my boyfriend is electronic, through emails and IM. One of my closest friends and i probably have 60% or more of our relationship in IM. I wouldn’t want to give that up if i had a choice. So i guess i won’t run for President.

It sounds like being plugged-in is somewhat important to Obama, though. It will be interesting to see how he handles these issues during his presidency. Will he be able to modernize the office?

What about you - could you give up email?

I watched the 3rd Presidental debate Wednesday night.  It was a good debate, i thought, and i was glad it was focused entirely on domestic issues.

In the debate, I heard McCain denouncing Obama for his negative ads “attacked (McCain’s) health care policy.”  I thought it was a strange comment, since that is the sort of thing i think political ads should be addressing.  You know, the issues.

And then McCain turned right around and started talking about Bill Ayers.  And i just read that McCain has authorized thousands and thousands of robocalls - automated voice calls - that do the same thing.  Calling voters and warning them of Obama’s supposed association with a terrorist.  It’s even more despicable since McCain has loudly criticized robocalls in the past.  Isn’t this the worst of negative campaigning?  How can he accuse Obama of it with a straight face?

I guess i understand where he is: he has no other choice.  He is losing, from what i’ve seen of the polls.  And McCain will do anything not to lose.  Which is one of the big reasons i do not want him as President.  An unscrupulous man, who will intentionally mislead the American people and try to scare them about the character of a very responsible and honest man, just to get elected.

It scares me.

If Obama responds in kind i will lose faith.  Maybe move to Canada.

Did anyone else notice that McCain did not once utter the word “maverick” during the second Presidential debate? I think, like me, the rest of the American public is extremely tired of hearing about McCain the Maverick, and his campaign has wisely cautioned against its use.

I just finished an interesting essay from Rolling Stone called Make-Believe Maverick. It’s very, very long, but there is a lot of information in there that i’m positive McCain does not want you to know. Such as his history as a pampered and mediocre Navy pilot. Such as his connection to the Keating Five. Such as his extremely volatile temper. If you have some time, check it out.

Sarah Palin’s mispronunciation of the word “nuclear” is just one more reason Americans should run from her. Who else says “nucular”? W. does.

How can you look at the word, and somehow get “nucular”??

I was sorry to see she did not totally embarrass herself during the debate. But i thought Biden did a better job.

Amusing conversation overheard the day before we left for the beach, between Lance’s mom, Carol, and our buddy Malcolm.

Malcolm: At this point, I am a little worried for Obama’s safety.

Carol: Why is that?

Malcolm: I’m not sure the American public will tolerate a black president.

Carol: Well, i think the protection we have in place now is a lot better than it has been previously.

Malcolm: Oh you think so?

Carol: Well, Bush hasn’t been assassinated yet!

This is so true.  Bush is such a bumbling idiot; it does speak to the effectiveness of the Secret Service nowadays.

Personal finance is one of my interests - i am subscribed to numerous financial blogs, i listen to Clark Howard whenever i can. This doesn’t make me qualified in anyway, i’m just sayin, i read a lot about personal finance.

One of the big “reforms” that President George W. Bush pushed through during his 8 wasted years in office was to abolish the death tax. Abolish the death tax!! Sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?

The phrase “Death Tax” contains two words Americans loathe. We hate death and taxes, those two unavoidable entities. So to abolish it *must* be good for the American people! Right?

Unfortunately, the American people are being mislead. The so-called Death Tax only affects a very small percentage of Americans. The current law is this: if your net assets at the time of your death, minus life insurance, is MORE THAN TWO MILLION DOLLARS (four million as a couple!), then you have to pay an extra tax on the amount exceeding the $1M.

Middle class Americans have two major assets: their homes and their retirement accounts. In fact, many do not even have retirement accounts, but that is a whole other post. In general, your average American family will not even come close to worrying about the dreaded Death Tax. It really is only taxing the upper class.

What does it mean to be “upper class”? It seems everyone wants to define themselves as “middle class.” I found a decent definition at Wikipedia of the super-rich (top .9%) as “Multi-millionaires whose incomes commonly exceed $350,000; includes celebrities and powerful executives/politicians. Ivy League education common.” The “rich” (top 5%) is defined as “Households with net worth of $1 million or more; largely in the form of home equity. Generally have college degrees.”

People in that category, the top 5%, will be affected by this Death Tax. Should it make the general public happy to abolish a tax for this small group of people?

Even if you just barely get over the $2M threshold, it’s a tax on the amount over that. That first two mil is yours, free and clear.

So the Death Tax really is a tax on the rich. But our buddy Bush talks about it in his speeches as if he’s done something good for “the people.” It’s only good for a few people, and those funds could do a lot of work if we collected them and added them to the budget.

The tax used to be on amounts over $1M. Bush’s repeal has the threshold amount rising gradually over a period of years, and then it disappears entirely in 2010. It will return again in 2011, i think back at the $1M threshold. There is a push to make it permanent.

I am 100% against its permanent repeal. As inflation rises, perhaps it’s reasonable to make adjustments to the threshold amount, but to get rid of it entirely benefits only a very small percentage of Americans, and those who least need it. If i’m lucky, maybe the death tax will apply to my estate when i die. However, i’m not planning on any of my kids being total bums. I consider any money i pass on to them to be gravy. I’m just not concerned that they won’t get “enough.”