LJ, you are relatively young I believe and it is likely in your lifetime that you will have a large enough gross estate (currently >$5 million) to be subject to the estate tax. As a consequence, it would be in your interest to try to get property out of your gross estate throughout your life to avoid that tax. One way you could do this is to deposit $13,000 into BoatShoes' bank account every year ($26,000 if your wife gives me $13,000 as well) as you're allowed to give away up to $13,000 to me and not be subject to the gift tax. We wouldn't want those socialists in Congress to get their hands on it now would we? Since no one likes paying the death tax it is clear that it is in your very best interest to engage in this transaction in exchange for my being the greatest poster on the politics forum. I will pm you my checking account information.
And as an aside; as much as some of the more conservative fellows on here frustrate me at times, I think it's safe to say that the liberal wing of this board now has the two most outrageous posters in Gibby and Bigdogg (3 if I am the third???).
Bigdogg you have been made a fool on this thread. If you are to assert that a pay stub posted on the internet means nothing than your own accusations for someone to post it show your own incoherence. He simply said that "he makes more than you could hope for." If it is true, as you say it is, that you can't tell if anything someone says in a message board is true, why cajole him to provide proof which you will not accept? That is largely what is great about an anonymous message board is we can debate the merits of issues rather than attack the interlocutor because we don't know the person making the argument. Sure we find out information about each other as time goes by but the point remains.
If I earned my income as a transvestite prostitute through craigslist ads and Manhattan Buckeye knew that he would never bother with my opinion on the efficacy of the IRC's taxation of foreign source income. Now he at least bothers with scoffing at my posts because he knows little about who I am other than that I might have an affection for Sperry topsiders. So, why bother with trying to get LJ to prove a personal statement he made about himself?
Also, do you not see that your obsession with the mace thing and Kasich's job at Lehman Brothers is as irrelevant and pointless as all the crap that many conservatives are bringing up about Obama? I mean goddamn.
I was raised by a GOP family but The GOP as it stands today repudiates text book economics, arithmetic and empiricism while adhering to political conceptions of justice that completely contradict many of their own card carrying member's personal moral philosophies and values. The debate over the character of our State and our Nation will not be won by wondering if John Kasich had a hand in creating toxic debt instruments. Despite what we may see from time to time, most people are reasonable (at least to a degree). Many teachers, cops and firefighters have conservative values and yet have come out against Kasich because of at least one of his policy moves. If you stick to reason and argument about policy and you engage people, I believe (perhaps naively) that you can make progress.
No one is going to come out against Kasich because you allege he brought down Ohio's economy at Lehman. But, if you talk to an average guy who has a family and a life but tends to be conservative about why outlawing collective bargaining might actually undermine the cause of liberty as it infringes one our ability to freely contract; about why a fetal heartbeat bill is bad policy because a heart is merely a pump and isn't sufficient for tissue being alive any more than a Shop Vac; and on and on and on....you can get a reasonable person to see your point at least.
Plenty of people who read the other boards but don't post over here lurk here. Many of them at least probably lean conservative being that this site originally grew out of a sports messageboard. It is tougher to sway Believer, etc. than others but when these less emotionally invested posters read a post by you hammering Kasich for unimportant things, they get turned off and say "goddamn libtards." If you make a reasoned point, they have to at least evaluate the point in their mind and can't merely dismiss it.
Now, I'm not saying I'm mister fair poster or blah blah and I don't mean to be rude or sound like I'm lecturing. As if I'm even in a position to lecture anyone. God knows there's plenty about me that sucks. But damn, you got pwned in this thread. Now we've all been pwned before. You're one of the few liberal allies on this board and therefore I'd like to call you friend. But personally, I would like for one day to have BGfalcons pm me and say;
"Wow, I guess you're right Boatshoes, the estate tax prevents the consolidation of political power and prevents a perpetual ruling class the type of which our Founders left England to avoid and although I still have traditional, conservative values and prefer the missionary position with lights off over that wacky wild sex you liberals have, I can see why no conservative being true to those values would support the Estate Tax's repeal. Though I still think taxes generally aren't good I can see now the useful purpose this one serves in maximizing overall individual liberty."
Now, I think you'd like that too. But, every time you bash Kasich about things that don't matter like they bash Obama it makes that a little harder as they get into a groupthink circle jerk about how stupid liberals are and their hearts harden.
