Estate Taxes (death taxes)

Large estates are mostly family businesses, farms, gas stations, retail stores, truck stops, dry cleaners, restaurants, homebuilders, and dealerships. The deceased's estate is pretty much the business. He may have a few thou in the checking account, a decent house and a nice car, but most of the estate is the business.
So, lets look at things from the standpoint of the business. It's been humming along, employing people, making a profit, getting by. It hasn't been growing 10% a year, its cash flow is on the tight side, but as long as the owner stays alive, it will continue being an asset to the community.
Then something bad happens and the owner dies. The business is willed to the heirs, and all of a sudden, it/they (business/heirs) is/are liable for humongous amounts of estate tax. The heirs don't have that sort of money. Neither does the business. In many cases the business is liquidated to pay the estate taxes, the employees are laid off, and the community looses a local business.
In short, the estate tax, death tax, is a killer of small businesses. Those of us who have operated small businesses know how difficult it can be to keep the doors open. That's tough. Even tougher is starting a business up from scratch. So the liquidated businesses don't grow back. When the estate tax forces them to liquidate, they stay liquidated, and the community looses the employment, the services, the taxes, and the civic support that local businesses provide.
In short, the estate tax anti small business. The really fat fat cats, like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet have foundations and pricey lawyers to keep their fortunes out of the clutches of the government. The estate tax doesn't hit the rich, it hits small business. Estate tax demands that small businesses cough up incredible amounts of money every generation and few small businesses have that sort of money.

Skip the "Dream Act". Grant US citizenship to vets

Anyone who has borne arms the the defense of the United States of America is entitled to US citizenship. I say anyone with an honorable discharge from the armed forces should be granted US citizenship, 'cause you cannot find better citizens anywhere. That "Dream Act" they are talking about sounds kinda complicated, rules about how old the kid was when his parents brought him into the country, how old he is upon discharge. And give credit for going to college, which isn't the same as serving in the military. I say just grant citizenship to all honorable discharged veterans and we will gain a lot of valuable and loyal citizens.

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

I have 8 inches on the porch and it's still coming down. Ever faithful town of Franconia plowed at 6:30 this morning and again at 11. It's light dry and fluffy, perfect for sking. Cannon will be in good shape for this coming weekend.

School Lunches

Somehow I survived public school on brown bag lunches packed by dear old mom. My children got by on brown bag lunches packed by yours truly. Two generations of my family did fine with out a school lunch program.
So, in its infinite wisdom, in a time of austerity, the Congress decided to blow an extra $4 billion dollars on the federal school lunch program, after the $12 billion already spent this year. To add insult to injury, the bill bans school bake sales, because the brownies contribute to childhood obesity. Congress has been unable to pass any appropriation bills, but it has time to blow $4 billion on school lunches. Or is it really $4 billion handout to agricultural interests?
Now with deficits in the trillions, a measley $4 billion isn't all that much. But we gotta start somewhere. Who was it that said "A billion here, a billion there and pretty soon you're talking about real money"?

Rolls Royce engine failure, followup

Aviation Week believes the catastrophic in flight engine failure suffered by the Trent 900 engine was caused by an oil leak. The engine oil leaked from a piece of tubing, pooled in the bottom of the the engine casing and caught fire. This is back in the hot section of the engine, there is plenty of heat to ignite darn near anything. The oil pipe leaks are attributed to welding flaws at the factory. The extra heat of the oil fire caused the intermediate turbine to run too hot and fail. Jet engine turbines always operate as hot as engineering dares, the hotter, the better the fuel economy. It wouldn't take much additional heat to push the turbine over the temp limits.
If true, this is good news for Rolls. They merely have to inspect all the engines for oil leaks, and replace some engine piping. The basic design of the engine appears to be OK, it just had a weak part installed. Change out those parts and problem is fixed. There should be some hearty sighs of relief coming from the Rolls engineering dept.

That Deficit Commission

They have been getting some air time on TV. They want to do a tax hike by just eliminating deductions, mortgage interest is the big one. They claim to have some spending cuts.
Question: Are these real spending cuts, or fake spending cuts? Real spending cuts happen when the agency gets less money next year than it got last year. Real spending cuts are very rare. Fake spending cuts are when the agency gets less than it asked for. This game is really old, and the agencies always ask for much more than they expect to get, on the theory that what they do get will be enough so they don't have to do layoffs.

Big all day storm, but less than an inch of snow

Yesterday was wild up here. Wind gusts strong enough to shake the house. Big trees whipping back and forth. Plastic trash cans and empty drywall mud buckets flying thru the air. Nearly as bad as the April tornado three years ago. The lights stayed on, mostly. The power would occasionally die and confuse the computer and the Bose clock radio. Trees down on the roads, Town of Franconia trucks cutting them up. The show lasted for nearly 24 hours.
For all the fury, darn little snow.