If you followed our exciting porch project, I should let you know the room is painted and ready, and we have a sectional sofa on order. We looked at a lot of sofas at a lot of furniture stores, but there’s one place we missed.
1 comment November 14th, 2007
Let’s hear some more Jo Stafford, in recognition of her 90th birthday, a couple of days ago. Here are two songs by Jo that were on the radio at the same time, in 1947, the year this picture was taken with Tommy Dorsey and somebody who I assume you recognize.
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
Let the first one play through, then for contrast the second song will come in to give you an idea of her versatility.
6 comments November 14th, 2007
At the beginning of the year, the news was this:
Tax Cuts Offer Most for Very Rich, Study Says
By EDMUND L. ANDREWS
Published: January 8, 2007WASHINGTON, Jan. 7 — Families earning more than $1 million a year saw their federal tax rates drop more sharply than any group in the country as a result of President Bush’s tax cuts, according to a new Congressional study.
.
.
.
Families in the middle fifth of annual earnings, who had average incomes of $56,200 in 2004, saw their average effective tax rate edge down to 2.9 percent in 2004 from 5 percent in 2000. That translated to an average tax cut of $1,180 per household, but the tax rate actually increased slightly from 2003.Tax cuts were much deeper, and affected far more money, for families in the highest income categories. Households in the top 1 percent of earnings, which had an average income of $1.25 million, saw their effective individual tax rates drop to 19.6 percent in 2004 from 24.2 percent in 2000. The rate cut was twice as deep as for middle-income families, and it translated to an average tax cut of almost $58,000.
And today the news is this:
Buffett Says Estate-Tax Repeal Would Benefit RichestBy Alison Fitzgerald and Ryan J. Donmoyer
Nov. 14 (Bloomberg) — Warren Buffett called on Congress to maintain the estate tax, saying that plans to repeal the levy would benefit a handful of the richest American families and widen U.S. income disparity.
Buffett, the billionaire chairman of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc., told the Senate Finance Committee that advocates of repeal were “dead wrong” to call the levy a “death tax.”
It would be more appropriate to call it a “death present,” said Buffett, 77, who is the third-richest person in the world, according to Forbes Magazine. “A meaningful estate tax is needed to prevent our democracy from becoming a dynastic plutocracy.” Heirs to vast fortunes, he said, have already won the “ovarian lottery” and shouldn’t be further rewarded by the tax system.
But enough reading. Let’s watch a video!
Add comment November 14th, 2007