Joe the Terrorist

[PreyingMantis]

Let's talk about handling PeTA nutjobs, Justin. From flaming Johnny Weir - now my personal hero. He can throw a gay party in my home any day of the week. I promise I'll wear pink in his honor.

On the lighter side of things...wouldn't you agree Bill that this outfit would give you a whole new attitude? Pink maybe but fuzzy most definetly. Mainly because you have the guts and confidence to parade with pride in such a daring outfit. Yet still be 100% man.

Now how many of you can beat that fellas?

[Bill Glasheen]

There are some ways around those through the proper set up of a trust.

Really sorry about your dad.

Van

Thanks for the information.

My dad knows all the tricks. As a trader of securities, it's his job to understand how legally to keep hard-earned wealth away from the sticky hands of Uncle Sam.

My dad has done very well since he left NASA and then the construction industry, and entered the market during the JFK administration. Even with two very nasty dips in the market (Nixon administration and now), he has managed risk well and come out the back end just fine. He's even created a charitable trust that now is having trouble spending its assets fast enough to - again - keep Uncle Sam from wanting to take assets. Tax laws can really suk.

The problem is that he's Irish Catholic, which means he's more fertile than the energizer bunny. Mom had 8 kids in 7 tries. Tax laws weren't designed for wealth transfer with the Irish Catholic paradigm. And with the trust thing, you can only transfer wealth so fast before Uncle Sam again wants to take a piece of it. It really suks, because this is money he has ALREADY PAID TAXES ON. But whatever... Death and taxes are the only two certainties in life.

The unique window came with the Bush tax cuts. The "Death Tax" was temporarily eliminated. The temporary nature of this tax relief was the only way Bush could get it through Congress. But by inaction, Obama and the Democratic Congress will effectively raise taxes. Above a certain threshold - one way to low for a man who wants to split his assets many ways for kids and grandkids - much of his potentially transferable wealth will be taken. This window ends at the end of 2010.

Here's the thing. I want my dad more than I want my inheritance. I will be a good Sisyphus and push my rock up the mountain, knowing that the government will roll it down when I've (hopefully) enjoyed my dad's stimulating company far longer than this year.

As for cancer... The goal here is to have the patient live with the cancer. It's a bit of a paradigm shift, but one that can be thought of in a positive way if the mind allows it. My mom lived 50 years with rheumatoid arthritis. If I can give my dad 5 to 10 years living with cancer - and have him die of something else - then we'll all have gained much.

As for Uncle Sam... Don't get me started.

- Bill

[Bill Glasheen]

On the lighter side of things...wouldn't you agree Bill that this outfit would give you a whole new attitude? Pink maybe but fuzzy most definetly. Mainly because you have the guts and confidence to parade with pride in such a daring outfit. Yet still be 100% man.

I'm just staying in touch with my feminine side, Mantis.

Eat your heart out, Flip Wilson!



- Bill

[PreyingMantis]

Scarry how beautiful he is isn't it? Ladies doesn't this just piss you off?

[Bill Glasheen]

Scarry how beautiful he is isn't it? Ladies doesn't this just piss you off?

My favorite Geraldine skit.

Flip Wilson Show with Geraldine and Muhammad Ali

- Bill

[PreyingMantis]

Flip Wilson Show with Geraldine and Muhammad Ali

- Bill

"How would you like to loose 5 lbs real fast? Maybe I will go light on you!"

Hahahahaha! I haven't seen that in many years.


Telephone pocketbook vs. cell phones....hmmm who would have thought?????

[Valkenar]

Given the sensitivity of the topic I'm not really sure that I want to argue it much. But the estate tax seems reasonable to me given that it's assessed on the person receiving the money. That's the way taxes work. If my company gives me money, and then I hire someone to paint my house, the money is taxed twice. The estate tax is the same, it's just a gift instead of a wage.

Personally I'm in favor of preventing wealth aristocracy. There's nothing good about a permanent, hereditary plutocracy. And I'm in good, capitalist, company. Warren Buffet, Andrew Carnegie, Bill Gates, Adam Smith and, of course, Thomas Jefferson all agree.

In fact, several of these folks go far beyond what I would suggest. Here's Jefferson's opinion:

"The portion occupied by an individual ceases to be his when himself ceases to be, and reverts to the society. If the society has formed no rules for the appropriation of its lands in severalty, it will be taken by the first occupants."

"To annul this privilege, and instead of an aristocracy of wealth, of more harm and danger, than benefit, to society, to make an opening for the aristocracy of virtue and talent, which nature has wisely provided for the direction of the interests of society, & scattered with equal hand through all it's conditions, was deemed essential to a well ordered republic."

Warren Buffet:
"If I really could do it, it would shock you,’ he said. He’d tax the hell out of personal consumption – at progressively higher rates – and impose an ‘enormous’ inheritance tax.”

Bill Gates (on the repeal of the inheritance tax):
It's ridiculous...it's just such a fair tax. I mean, it's just such an opportune, appropriate time to have repaid from the people who have benefited more than anyone else from the circumstances that this country makes available, from the conditions that make it possible to become..

Adam Smith:
"The course of reflection in which we are immersed here on the elementary principles of society has presented this question to my mind; and that no such obligation can be transmitted I think very capable of proof. I set out on this ground which I suppose to be self evident, "that the earth belongs in usufruct* to the living;" that the dead have neither powers nor rights over it."

[Bill Glasheen]

Justin

The thought is nice; the reality is very different.

The way the estate tax works is that you get to transfer wealth at a reasonable tax rate up to a certain amount. Above that amount, Uncle Sam just takes it all away.

Now that's all fine and good for your Big Government society which encourages single, welfare moms to keep pumping out even more babies on the taxpayer's dime so that their daughters can become teenage moms and their sons can find a good life in prison. I'm a big believer in Darwin, Justin. Aren't you? Think about the natural selection process we've created. The best, the brightest, and the hardest working can't afford to stop long enough to have kids. Meanwhile the stupid in society are breeding like cockroaches. Nice species we're creating!

But you believe in "Intelligent Design", so I guess that paradigm doesn't apply. Right, Justin? Gotta love all God's children!

Or maybe we can provide mass transit for everyone because people really shouldn't drive their own cars. It works in Boston and New York after all; why can't it work in the midwest? Or maybe we should spend money on your favorite, Justin - more wars overseas. Or lots of money to the United Nations so we can prop up inefficient economies run by despots. (North Korea anyone???)

Or...

We have an Irish Catholic man who sacrificed everything for his family and had 8 kids that he put through private school and college while he drove a beat up Rambler. His kids have kids. And he wants to spread that wealth AT A REASONABLE TAX RATE to his kids and grandkids.

And if he doesn't want to give it to his kids and grandkids, well it's HIS RIGHT to give it to the charities of HIS CHOICE!!! Not some charity that some azzhole in Washington deems worthy of our taxpayer dollars. Indeed my dad has started a charitable trust in my deceased mom's name, and it's churning out money to worthy causes now at breakneck speed (to keep Uncle Sam out of it).

But no, Justin. That couple hundred thousand before taxes doesn't go very far with 8 kids and all their kids and whatever. The rest gets stolen.

It gets better than that, Justin. You see... ever heard of something called a family farm? It's slowly going away. Why? Because of this stupid death tax. It takes a tremendous amount of assets in terms of land and equipment just to get started farming so you can produce enough crops to barely eek out a living. Try to pass that on to your kids, and guess what? The taxes eat up so much of it that they are forced to sell the damn farm to some land developer who converts it to a big-assed mall with parking lots so there is yet another place to get jeans and to hang out.

Nope... the family farm is dead because of our tax structure. Only good old corporate America can farm now. But I know how much you like corporations, Justin, so I guess that's no big deal to you.

Or maybe a mom-and-pop restaurant. Or grocery store. Or...

You get the picture.

Above a certain percentage, Justin, it's just plain robbery. Fashioning it to be anything but is just plain wrong.


YOU LIE!!!!

At the end of the day, it comes down to this. IT'S NOT THE GOVERNMENT'S FUKING MONEY!!! And it doesn't belong to anyone else as well, no matter how much they want it, and no matter how unfair they think life is.

Want money? Earn it the hard way - just like my dad did. And don't punish him because he didn't blow it all on booze, whores, and fast cars.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. I told dad that I'm perfectly happy with him marrying some big-chested blonde with an IQ of 50 and spend his fortune covering her in fur. Die in the sack with your last penny spent. Fine by me, dad!



Just don't let Uncle Sam get it. Nothing good ever comes of it.



- Bill

[Valkenar]

I understand your position Bill, and I even agree with some of it (family business, etc). There's some I don't agree with, but I'd rather postpone the argument for now. Maybe in 2020 we can revisit the subject.

[Van Canna]

And don't punish him because he didn't blow it all on booze, whores, and fast cars.

Ha...so I won't have anything to worry about after all

[Van Canna]

What's your view of a living trust [avoid probate] Bill

[Van Canna]

The conspiracy to fleece your estate

Since the days of the Roman Empire, the long, complex, and costly probate procedure required at death has bewildered the public.

For more than twelve centuries, this quandary has been deliberately orchestrated by a conspiring legal profession.

For more than a millennium the ruse has succeeded in intimidating grieving and confused families of the recently deceased into the arms of general practice attorneys who earn up to 20 percent of their annual income needlessly skimming thousands of dollars off the top of estates.

The Living Trust, which became a part of English Common Law nearly 500 years ago and does away with the need of probate at death, was, until recently, covered up by the legal profession and rarely offered to clients as an estate planning alternative for no other reason than to preserve attorneys’ exorbitant probate fees.

[Van Canna]

The Wall Street Journal estimates that the cost of the probate procedure averages about 8 percent off the top of the estate. The average time to accomplish it? About 18 months. The cost generally breaks down to 65-75 percent of the total extraction going for attorney fees while 25-35 percent goes for court costs.

Because the lion's share of probate costs (65-75 percent) goes to the attorney, estate planning is as much about avoiding attorneys at death as it is about avoiding probate.

To keep the cash cow delivering the cream, most attorney-written Living Trusts are drawn intentionally and unnecessarily complex to force the heirs back to the lawyer to unscramble the trust and settle the estate.

Hence, when the cost of settling the trust is added to the attorney's exorbitant fee for drawing the trust documents, it becomes obvious that the attorney intends to get his, regardless of whether the estate avoids probate or not.

[Van Canna]

How and why a Living Trust avoids probate

There is only one way to get the assets out of your name, yet maintain complete control of the assets and not expose your children to exorbitant capital gains taxes. Its called a Living Trust.

[Bill Glasheen]

Van

My dad knows a lot about this stuff. He's coming into town tomorrow for more medical visits. We'll have time to chat about this. I'll get back with you.

Keep up with the booze, whores, and fast cars, Van. Better than feeding the government beast!





By golly I think that 2nd lovely lass is... REAL!

- Bill