Assault on Marriage II features a truly horrifying plot twist, in which two men get married, not only causing the wrath of God to descend upon New England -- instantly incinerating everything except the Bush compound in Kennebunkport -- but also leading heterosexual couples to decide not to get married because they don't want people to think they're "queer." Western civilization appears to be doomed, until Pat Robertson and James Dobson come riding to the rescue. Despite the carnage and strong language, no actual judges were assassinated during the filming.
Don't Burn That Flag IV, like most sequels to sequels to sequels, is looking a little creaky. Sure, back in the mid 1980's when it burst onto the scene, people wanted to see it just so they weren't left out of office water cooler discussions. This retread tries to breathe new life into the franchise by having the NSA build anti-flag burning zombie robots in their top secret labs. These robots work fine for a while, choking long-hairs before they can set zippo to stars and stripes, but things go awry when the zombie robots interpret their programming to understand flag desecration as including gaudy tasteless apparel:
It's a cliffhanger of course, setting us up for Don't Burn That Flag V, which I think has Rocky Balboa in his American Flag trunks defeating the zombies.
Finally, Guess Who's Bringing Their Estate Tax Repeal to Dinner pairs George Bush and Dennis Hastert as two uneasy partners (think Danny Glover and Mel Gibson, or more likely Eddie Murphy and Nick Nolte) who must rely on their common bonds to destroy the dastardly plot of the liberals in Congress (since only two or three liberals were actually found in Congress, they had to use actors) to keep the Estate Tax on the books. As usual, the heroes discover that there's more to the plot than meets the eye: the liberals are controlled by none other than the preserved brain of Joseph Stalin, who hopes to rewrite the Estate Tax code so that it affects more than 2.1% of dead Americans. In this Sci-Fi thriller, the Estate Tax causes all of Iowa to lay fallow, as family farms (the few that don't belong to ADM and such) go under; meanwhile, every mom and pop restaurant closes down under the onerous burden of having accumulated a few million dollars...
Unfortunately, BushCo studios will have to tailor their marketing scheme to deal with the severely diminished core demographic of people who might be potentially affected by the brain of Stalin's nefarious plot: since 2000, the number of estates filing taxes has fallen from 123,600 to 63,800 -- and the Post reports that of that 63,800, "only a small fraction of those will actually be taxed." So how do you scare up support?
They've already laid the groundwork by continually referring to it as the "Death Tax," as if everyone were taxed for dying -- thereby making the core demographic include, well, everyone.
Oh, we're in for a long, hot summer.
5 comments:
Whether it's 2.1% or 99%, no one can convince me that *anyone* should be taxed for dying. I guess that's why I could never be a democrat.
But the point is that no one IS taxed for dying. I could die tomorrow and not pay taxes for it. However, if I had an estate valued at over 2 million, the estate may have to pay taxes.
Personally, rather than rename it the "Death Tax," which is absolutely a misnomer, they should up the rate to 100%, rename it the "Equal Start In Life Revenue Act" and make sure that no one profits from another person's hard work -- now isn't that the libertarian way -- level the playing field?
Exactly. And it's not the government is taking all of the money away, are they?
Yes, it is the government. When you die and pass your hard earned money onto your children, the government would step in and take a 45% chunk before your kids get it assuming you meet the threshold (it used to be $675K back in 2001 - meaning if you leave your 1 bedroom dupont condo to your kid, they would have had to pay the estate tax or the condo would go up for auction and the remainder would go to the kid).
But THEN, your kids still have to pay income tax on it on what they inherit. It's pure double taxation.
The libertarian way is to be able to dictate and who and what get's your belongings after you die without government interference.
Just as much as the rich shouldn't get special treatment in any other rrespect, they and their testamentary heirs shouldn't be taxed more because they died rich.
I say good riddance to the death tax.
Ah, the Estate Tax isn't going away. The limit by the way is around 2 million now. Bush's tax code has the estate tax ceiling rising throughout the decade, going away for one year (2010 or 2011), then coming back at an earlier level (I think 1.5 million).
RCR points out the big problem I have with Libertarian economic philosophy -- they champion all this free market and open access ideology, but when it comes down to it their policies simply lead to concentration of wealth in fewer hands.
There are several ways around the estate tax if you're close to the cusp, including creating living trusts with proper provisions. Another way is to make gifts up to $11000 to each potential heir -- kids and grandkids for instance -- every year. A couple with three kids, each of whom have two kids, could unload $198K a year that way.
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