Ants on the Melon
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Is marriage a dumb move?.

The decision to wed or not, of course, is between you, your intended and your conscience. But you should realize that from a coldhearted financial perspective, the U.S. tax code and Social Security rules don’t necessarily come down in favor of marriage for people with a substantial amount of assets.

Its well known that I enjoy taunting my married friends about being married, although not often for financial reasons.

I just read an interview with Merle Haggard in Time magazine that I thought was really good. While I haven’t decided on a candidate yet (not much to chose from), Merle says some things that I think a lot of people have been thinking:

“The folks don’t have a say-so anymore. They’re being force-fed–music, yeah, but every other darn thing too. I supported George W. I’m not exactly a liberal. But I know how that Texas thing works, who those oil folks are and what they wanted in Iraq … I’m a born-again Christian too, but the longer I live, the more afraid I get of some of these religious groups that have so much influence on the Republicans and want to tell us how to live our lives.”

and

“The thing that gets under my skin most about George W. is his intention to install fear in people,” he said, after walking me down a hallway lined with gold and platinum records. “This is America. We’re proud. We’re not afraid of a bunch of terrorists. But this government is all about terror alerts and scaring us at airports. We’re changing the Constitution out of fear. We spend all our time looking up each other’s dresses. Fear’s the only issue the Republican Party has. Vote for them, or the terrorists will win. That’s not what Reagan was about. I hate to think about our soldiers over in Iraq fighting for a country that’s slipping away.”

You go, Merle.