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Michele

Member since: Aug 18th, 2006

Michele's Latest Comments

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Recent Comments:

10 expenses you may think you can deduct on your taxes, but can't (WalletPop)

Mar 10th 2010 11:35AM One huge negative consequence that will happen if there is a fair tax is that homeowners will no longer have the homeowner deduction. I have read economist estimates that this would reduce home values by 25% or more. That is because the adjustment one is able to make to one's taxable income is so very large; it makes homeownership affordable for many.

Unless the fair tax takes this into account - and it won't, if I understand it correctly - homeowners will end up paying far more in taxes every year. That, in turn, will make homeownership less desirable, therefore driving down the prices.

If the fair tax DOES take this into account, then overall tax revenues will fall, because those who rent will get the benefit of it as well (whereas now they do not). They'll need to make up those revenues somewhere.

I currently pay nearly $1300 in rent per month (I live in Los Angeles, and that's not too bad for the area). But if I were paying that much in a mortgage instead, I would be getting about $3,000 more back in my tax refund. Knowing that, my husband could change his withholdings to have less taken out, and give us that $250 - $300 more cash flow per month. A fair tax changes all of that.

Before you advocate for a fair tax, think through ALL of the consequences. Yes, the underground economy would be taxed more fairly, and that's not a bad thing. But people like you and I would, in all likelyhood, be actually taxed more under that system.

My 12-Year-Old Stepson Refuses to Cooperate With Me! (ParentDish)

Mar 8th 2010 12:38AM I have been the stepmother to my husband's daughter from his first marriage for 9 1/2 years. Her mother died when she was 3 1/2; she is now 14. She moved in with her father when she was 5. We had power struggles, temper tantrums, you name it. I have an older daughter from my first marriage, and I kept trying to tell him that something wasn't right with her. He wouldn't believe me. Even when he finally realized, four years into it, that I was right he didn't really understand how bad it was. I fought and fought with the school to get her help, and kept being told it was my imagination. They wouldn't assess her, and I didn't know how to make them do it.

When she went into middle school, after six years of fighting for her at elementary school, the school principal called me six weeks into school and said that she had been looking at her records and that she needed to be assessed. She could see this from the very records that the elementary school had said were unremarkable! We began another odyssey for two years, when finally I was told she needed to be seen by School Mental Health.

Just last year she was diagnosed with ADHD. Very reluctantly, we put her on medication. ADHD medication is a stimulant, so for those children who are misdiagnosed, it doesn't work at all. But it was a miracle for us. She suddenly could control herself. She could actually retain what was being taught in school (I always felt she was bright, but she struggled terribly in school). To date, she has lost over 35 pounds - and she needed to lose them - because she is no longer eating compulsively. ADHD causes compulsive behavior in many kids. The medication allows them self-control.

I have always loved her, but I spent years disliking her. And no wonder she was acting out - imagine her frustration at school, unable to retain information and being told in all sorts of ways that she was stupid. She has to work very, very hard in school now (she's a freshman) but she is catching up.

I consider her my daughter, not my step-daughter, no matter what the school paperwork says. She said a few weeks ago that I was her real mother, and I was so happy that words cannot describe it.

I'm not going to say that ADHD was her only problem. She found her mother dead at a very young age. Her father was terrible about and inconsistent with discipline, and suddenly she was living with all of these rules and structure. And I'm not going to say that she is perfect now, because she's not. She's 14. She's moody and all of the other teenaged things. But I like her now. It was all worth it. It can work.

Dear Harris Boys: I Know What You're Going Through (PopEater)

Feb 25th 2010 4:16PM I lost my dad almost four years ago. My mom had injured herself three weeks before and was still at a rehabilitation hospital when he had the heart attack, and he was in the hospital in ICU for a week before he died. I was there most of the time. It was a nightmare I will never forget, and I certainly haven't gotten over it. Within the next year and a half, I lost my mother-in-law and one of my best friends. I still feel lost without all of them. Just when I think I'm getting better, something happens to remind me of him and I am back to that day, wondering what went wrong and what I missed, because he seemed to be getting better. I'm beginning to fear that I really will never get over it, or the other two losses, or even start to feel better.

Puppy Love Takes on a Whole New Meaning: Love at the Dog Park (Pawnation OLD)

Feb 11th 2010 1:18PM Oh Annette - here you are again, being negative about someone.

Every child should have a dog? Really? What about the children whose parents can't afford proper veterniary care? Who live in a small apartment with no place for the dog to run and no dog park nearby? Once again, as above with Suzy, you show how you think you know how everyone should live their lives.

And if you don't want your children stuck in front of the computer or television, why are they? We have no television in my house. That's the sacrifice *I* made so that they had a better childhood. However, you don't see ME telling others that is what they should do, because we all have our own ideas about what is best for our children.

Grow up, Annette. Stop criticizing other people and find something nice to say.

Puppy Love Takes on a Whole New Meaning: Love at the Dog Park (Pawnation OLD)

Feb 11th 2010 1:11PM Annette, I think you're being a little harsh on Suzy. When I was single and doing a lot of performing, I chose to adopt cats because my schedule made it impossilbe to take care of dogs properly. I worked a full-time job and then was in rehearsal or performance almost every night. My cats were there when I got home and not desperate to go out. They had plenty of food, water and I always kept TWO litter boxes so that they were fine.

And yes, there were times I was away for a few days. I had very little money to board them, so the fact that I could use my perpetual feeder and my perpetual waterer and an extra litter box was truly helpful. All of my vacation time in those days went toward seeing my parents.

I now have three children and they are treated just fine, thank you. I am a stay-at-home mother and spend many hours working at the youngest one's school in addition to being a Brownie troop leader, going to college part-time and performing in four different singing groups. We have no pets right now because we are living in a two bedroom apartment and don't think it would be fair to any animal to be in such crowded conditions and when I can give so little time to them.

Your assumption that Suzy is a terrible pet owner and would be a bad parent was really unfair. You need to read what someone says and try to put yourself in their shoes. And really, if she feels that she can't deal with the extra effort a dog requires and so doesn't get a dog, doesn't that show her to be a caring pet owner? Shouldn't you praise her for not getting a dog when she can't make the commitment for whatever reason? Too many people buy animals they can't afford to treat properly (financially, emotionally, timewise), and here you criticize a woman who has made a conscious effort NOT to do that? You owe Suzy an apology.

School District Bans Dictionary, Reaches Compromise (ParentDish)

Jan 29th 2010 10:44AM Paddy - YOUR ignorance is astonishing. Girls who are receive sex-ed are many times LESS likely to engage in risky behaviors and/or get pregnant. This has been shown over and over again in studies. Sarah Palin does not believe in sex-ed, and her daughter got pregnant! Does this tell you anything?

When children are curious, they investigate. If the adults give them age appropriate information, their curiosity doesn't lead them to figure things out for themselves.

My mother was raised in a very conservative religious household and lost her virginity early in high school. I war raised with awareness and did not do this. My oldest daughter is almost eighteen and disdains those who are cavalier about their virginity, something she still possesses. Teaching about these things does not advertise for it if it is done with the goal of teaching responsibility and safety.

Did Steve Jobs Pull a Fast One at the iPad Unveiling? (BloggingStocks)

Jan 29th 2010 10:02AM He could have sold it for a dollar and I wouldn't buy it if AT&T is involved with the wireless connection. I will NEVER deal with them again - that was two years of hell that I will never forget. Why he is doing this again is beyond me.

Why Low-Fat Caused the Obesity Epidemic (That's Fit)

Jan 24th 2010 9:12PM Yes, people need to eat less and exercise more. This article was explaining biochemically WHY we are eating more. A person's body will keep sending "I'm hungry" signals to it's brain as long as it is deprived of a REASONABLE amount of fat and when there is added sugar in the diet. It is very hard for the average person to eat less when their body is constantly telling them it is hungry. The food manufacturers like that, and create processed food that is made specifically to make your body hungry for more food.

With that in mind, it's not just a matter of eating less and exercising more, it's also a matter of eating less processed food to avoid this biochemical process.

Katie, all of the examples that you mention in your post are not the people this article was talking about. You're correct that poor eating habits are not helping them. But you ALSO need to be aware that drinking diet soda can, with some articifical sweeteners, activate the pancreas, which will release insulin to breakdown what it believes is sugar. What happens is that the insulin then creates low blood sugar, which tells one's body to eat. That's why diet soda is bad for you. Some of the people you mention also got into their bad eating habits because of the biochemical processes discussed in the article in combination with the decreasing exercise that we, as a country, have been doing.

Legal limbo: Disney could go after you for posting vacation videos online (WalletPop)

Jan 19th 2010 11:55PM You state that right now, Disney could use all the help they can get. I don't know about any other park, but Disneyland, here in California, had more visitors last year than any other. They RAISED their annual passport fees across the board just after the first of the year, and I doubt it will slow them down a bit.

Otherwise, I agree with all you said.

Does Jay Leno Deserve All This Late-Night Backlash? (PopEater)

Jan 13th 2010 7:00PM You have left out one important fact. Leno announced a retirement plan back six or seven years ago. At that point, the network promised Conan the Tonight Show. Then Leno changed his mind, and didn't want to retire.

Did NBC do the wrong thing? Yes. But consider this as well. The networks ALL handle new shows like this:

1) The hire staff and tell them it's for 13 episodes (sometimes it's only 6)

2) Suddenly, the number of episodes is cut down to 6 or 4

3) At the same time, the very pilot that they liked and so decided to pick-up the show with is suddenly very wrong and needs to be reshot.

4) The network people watch the shows and demand changes according to whatever the new "wisdom" is. Last year, funny was out, so a really funny show has all the humor removed, for example.

5) The show finally airs. It is cancelled after one or two airings.

This happens over and over again. Anyone who works in television will tell you this.

Leno and Conan both got eight months to prove themselves, and now they're boo-hooing over being cancelled. No one else gets time to develop an audience anymore. Why should they?

Leno wasn't treated fairly, but maybe he should have stuck with his original word - that he was retiring - because NBC signed a contract with Conan O'Brian based on that word.

And Leno's primetime show took away the jobs of over 1,000 people who worked on primetime shows from the 10:00 p.m. slot. Not just the stars of the shows, but the normal people who lost homes because, with five fewer shows to be made, there were fewer jobs to be had and they didn't get them. I don't see Jay Leno suffering such a fate. My husband's six months of unemployment before landing a job in the fall destroyed us financially. Leno knew what his primetime show would do to people like us and he didn't care.

No sympathy here.