Y'all been at it while I was vacationing.

Can't argue with anything the doc says.

A flat income tax rate is fair. I don't see how it could get more fair than that. Sales taxes are not fair, it can be argued, because the poor and middle class end up paying a greater percentage of their income on the tax than do the wealthy.

All the class warfare, the loathing of the rich, is ugly.

Old money - families that do nothing to earn their riches but wait for dad to die - is a little discouraging to us commoners who must make our own ways in life. But what are you gonna do, steal the cash from them with inheritance taxes?

All the newly rich - people who got lucky, or struck it rich with a particular idea or skill, is what this country is all about. We all dream about hitting it big and telling the boss to f**k off, don't we? But remember, for every one of those success stories there are thousands of failures. People who invested everything they had in their little businesses, or in their athletic or performing arts careers and failed. Why be vindictive toward those who have succeeded? It's just wrong if you ask me.

Speaking of wrongs - I just came back from the horse track at Del Mar. The dollar I take up to the window was taxed when I earned it, taxed when I bet it, and taxed again if I happen to get lucky. The windfall tax is as wrong as the death tax, IMO.

Lastly, though I have only one very young kid, it seems to me that job one in parenting is making the little guy feel loved. We've all seen plenty of hetero couples fail to do even that. Gay couples are obviously disadvantaged, but kids are much more resilient (and stubborn) than we give them credit for. The preacher's daughter becomes a whore and the drug addicts' kid becomes a doctor.

Spiffnme, if you were raising an adoptive son would you encourage him to be gay, straight or neither?