A fairly taxing debate - Orlando Sentinel
Another FairTax rally. Some debate on how many people showed up, but it was still in the thousands.

I'm sad that the first person they talked to didn't get it. Yes, his income tax would go down, but he makes it sound like he wouldn't be paying taxes. Government can't exist without money; taxation is a "necessary evil".

One point they bring up is that the "real tax rate would end up being higher" than stated in the current bill. However, that would only occur

if Congress voted to increase the tax

. Well, or if they changed it before the bill in its present form was enacted. Either way, future changes require Congress to increase the tax rate, which would become a very public obstacle to them increasing their spending.

This story also points out that the FairTax rewards saving rather than spending. This means that people who take care of themselves (via saving for the future) will be taxed a "little less" than those who don't. Those who live beyond their means are the ones that are really screwed (they were screwed to begin with; this just speeds them to their coming crisis).

Transition still worries me, though. People need to understand the ramifications of the FairTax before it goes into affect lest mayhem ensue. And we can't have mayhem, now can we?

YouTube - Thanks Comcast

Clark Howard pointed out that YouTube has become a place for people to post videos/audios of their customer "no-service" experiences. This one is a Comcast technician who fell asleep while on hold. There's another one of AOL bullying someone who is attempting to cancel their account. If you have a bad story - publicize it!

Beach 2006 001

Emily and Alex in Sand
Originally uploaded by Grand_Vizier.

We went to the beach last week and had lots of fun. See a slideshow
at Flickr