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Sorta. From the Baltimore Sun:

Sen. Kerry and President Bush also differ sharply on estate taxes. Under current law, the basic exclusion from federal estate taxes this year is $1.5 million. That exclusion is scheduled to rise in stages, reaching $3.5 million in 2009, while the top tax rate, now 48 percent, is set to decline in stages. The estate tax is scheduled to vanish completely in the year 2010 -- only to reappear in 2011.

Sen. Kerry favors raising the basic estate-tax exemption to $2 million "immediately," Furman says, and also setting an exemption of $10 million for a small business or family farm. The exemption would grow with inflation. President Bush wants to kill "death taxes" completely.

I'm still trying to determine how an estate tax is fair at ALL. I get taxed on my income, I get taxed on my interest, I get taxed on profit from my property when I sell it...how many times do I need to get taxed? The fact that the estate tax is 45% is also a killer.

--trb

"Meanwhile, William A. Arbaugh, an assistant computer science professor at the University of Maryland, College Park and part of the team, easily sneaked his way into the state's computers by way of his modem. Once in, he had access to change votes from actual precincts - because he knew how to exploit holes in the Microsoft software."

"...qaida has probably got guys with camcorders and digicams snapping recon shots"

Indeed they probably do:

Bridge tape called reconnaissance
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/custom/attack/bal -suspect0825,1,7554105.story

Mainstream? Like Forbes, BusinessWeek , Ziff-Davis (and here and here too), CBS News, USA Today, and most have heard of PC Magazine, plus a lot of papers like The Houston Chronicle, The Detroit News, the Syracuse Post-Standard, The Baltimore Sun, and the St. Louis Post-Standard. I have all those links plus others in a list I just send to people. I keep adding to it as I find more. Usually gets the message across that I'm not making stuff up.

From the looks of it, he's building a modern V-1, an dteh tech used is not vastly different from that used in model aircraft. larger scale perhaps, but even taht is questionable when you look at some of the large scale a/c (sucha sthe B-52) modellers have built

This is exactly the point I was trying to make when I embarked on the DIY Cruise Missile project.

It's not rocket science and almost anyone could do it if the set their minds to it.

Besides, why build a cruise missile, which requires you stayin in one place and buying a bunch of stuff taht may arouse the interest of teh authorities when you could steal a biz jet, deliver a larger payload, and do the planning in dispersed locations?

Actually, my other point was that you could build one of these things *without* attrating a lot of attention or rousing the interest of the authorities. There's nothing involved in the construction of an LCCM that would ring alarm bells anywhere.

And your chances of using a hijacked or hired business jet to deliver a payload would seem to be pretty limited if this story is any indicator.

With a flight time of less than 10 minutes to its target and a small radar signature, an LCCM would have a much higher probability of success without the need for martyrdom.

I checked out the Hope Yen article you referred me to. It uses phrases such as:

'The panel report said that meeting never happened.'

I posted earlier a reference to somthing I called 'the 9-11 report'. It would be this 'panel report' that I am referencing.

Yes, the 9-11 commission is not investigating the justification for the Iraq war. It is investigating the attacks against America on 9-11. As I said before, the 9-11 commission has cleared Iraq as assisting in the attacks. From that, I am making the assertion that the war against Iraq does not further our efforts in combatting terrorism. It has succeeded mainly to fan the flames of terrorism. Do you feel safer now than you did immediately after 9-11? I certainly do not. This unilateral attack on Iraq has provided recruiting power to the Islamicist nut-cases that directly after 9-11 received much less popular support than they do now.

At risk of feeding a deliberate troll, you do realize, of course, that:

• "murderous" - "Military shrugs off attack on wedding party"
• "torturing" - More accounts, photos of Iraq abuse surface...
• "liar" - Bush misstated report on Iraq
• " rewarded people who attacked you"
• "spoke fondly of it" - Mission Accomplished!

According to the original article in the Baltimore Sun, the family hasn't decided to sue yet. They probably know that they don't really have a case. 'sides, all they want is to be insiders for the IPO, atm, not get zillions in punitive damages or trademark-violation damages. Of course, this could all change if they don't get the chance to be insiders for the IPO.

So no, this doesn't really seem like a case of folks suing google 'cause they are violating the common-law trademark rights of the 4-year old who came up with "googol"...yet.

Don't be too sure about that.

We went to watch the race... you'll notice the police boat rescuing the train in one of the photos. Only the engine went in the water at the second water crossing in Federal Hill. To add to the excitement, they were in the water near where a freak storm capsized a water taxi a few weeks before.

The course is 15 miles long including 2 water entries, a mud pit, and a sand pit. You must be in pretty good shape to make it. The guy in the beaver suit was easily in his sixties...

"Fifi" won the Best Bribes Award when two of her crew serenaded the judges on bended knee.

"The Valking Viscar Boot" was awarded the Worst Honorable Mention, for "half-baked theoretical 'engineering' which did not deter its Pilot from the challenge of the race"

"The Rat" won the Next-To-Last Award for coming in right near the end of the race.

I wish I'd known in advance, I only live about 45 minutes away and it would have been fun to watch.

Happy Trails!

Erick

If some goverment functionary wants to snoop through my ISPs records to see that I spend 80% of my time online surfing for porn let them have at it.

Do you feel this way because you are unaware that the Bush administration has declared war on pornography..?

Or is it because you imagine that the attention of a FBI employee would be necessary to monitor your internet activities? They've already got Carnivore, an automated system to do just that. If the FBI needs no justification or advance approval to use it, do you find it hard to believe they'll watch us all?

Maybe you think your porn habit is too trivial to warrant attention from the FBI. Folks who swap music online probably felt the same way... until the FBI started raiding schools.

Scarey thing is, what if the US goverment decides to fuck up someone's life abroad in the name of "fighting terrorism"?

You mean like this?

First they came for stern

Then the came for the porn (news article not porn link, fyi)

Now they sell "self correcting DVD players" (how long till you can only buy those?)

*shrug* where's our first amendment now, biach!?

E.

In other words, if I put a recipe for chicken breasts on the Internet, this software will detect the word 'breasts' and display some pr0n next to it, whereupon the justice department will beset your door and drag you kicking and screaming to the slammer. Now go and TRY to prove that it was the computer's fault.

Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooh well.

Ashcroft, a religious man who does not drink alcohol or caffeine, smoke, gamble or dance ...
-from the article

I don't care if he avoids alcohol, caffeine, smoking, or gambling

But I don't trust a man who won't dance. He can dance badly, I don't care -- but if he wants my trust, he's got to dance.

-kgj

(When was the last time your neighborhood lost water?)

Ummmm, today. Schools shut down and everything. Towson lost water a couple month ago...

When you take into account the many years of schooling -- a typical neurosurgeon will be in his 30s before even starting to practice -- the fact that residents are worked like slaves, and the arduous call schedule of surgeons in general, then their pay is quite reasonable imo. Of course I'm biased, as I should be since I'm going to med school myself. And possibly going into neurosurgery, to tell the truth.

This article, on how some doctors are dropping malpractice insurance, is also a good read. A key fact to glean from that article is that for one physician it would have cost $60k/yr for $250k of coverage. That's ridiculous.

Personally, I really, really really want and need the famed VISAR (Video Image Stabilization and Registration) software. This was used recently by to improve the quality in the security camera video in the recent abduction and murder of Carlie Brucia.

"Commercialized by Intergraph"? Where's my check from Intergraph then? If it was developed with tax dollars, it should be open sourced so it can be commercialized (or not) by everyone. That will have the most salutary effect on the economy - not one, but dozens of companies improving the quality of video.

Land of the free?

He says that it would only take one more terrorist attack and public support is assured.

Hmm..reminds me of this