Anti-Catholicism?

Since the five members of the Court who voted to uphold the ban on partial birth abortion are Catholics, the Church must obviously be pulling the strings, right?



Nod to Father Peregrinator.

Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Upheld!

Yee-haw! The Supreme Court has upheld the ban on the horrid procedure popularly known as partial-birth abortion. My wife comments:

It should really be called partial birth infanticide, though. It is performed late in pregnancy (after 20 weeks), often after the baby is able to survive outside of the womb (24 weeks is the generally accepted beginning of "viability", though occasionally a baby can defy that). The only part of the baby that is not delivered right away is the head, which is punctured, emptied, and then removed from the birth canal...

The life and health of the mother is often cited as a reason for keeping this "Intact Dilation and Extraction" or "ID&X" procedure legal. Proponents say that it is safer than childbirth and carrying a risky pregnancy to term.... So.... a breech birth, which for otherwise healthy, wanted pregnancies is usually considered dangerous in and of itself, is better for a woman with a high-risk pregnancy than a complete delivery? Even though it is artificially induced, and involves sharp implements thrust into the baby's head while it is till inside the woman's body?

Young taxpayers in the dark on 401(k)s and other tax-related benefits

Interesting article from CCH Internet Research NetWork™

Young taxpayers are significantly less likely to take advantage of tax-related benefits, are most likely not to know whether they are eligible to participate in benefit plans, and nearly one in five rate their employers as terrible in providing information about tax-advantaged planning, according to findings from a nationwide CCH CompleteTax survey.

"You generally can't avoid taxes, but there are some ways you can reduce them without a lot of pain. Unfortunately, taxpayers are still not as informed as they should be or participating as much as they could be to realize these tax savings," said David Bergstein, CPA, a tax analyst for CCH CompleteTax.

The survey of 1,290 U.S. adult taxpayers, commissioned by CCH and conducted by Harris Interactive, found that many taxpayers are not taking full advantage of basic tax-saving strategies and those 18-24 years of age are the least likely to be doing so. The biggest jump in usage of tax-advantaged programs occurs between the age groups of 18-24 and 25-34, with the percentage of individuals contributing to a medical flexible spending account (FSA) or 401(k) plan more than doubling between these age groups, and the percentage contributing to an individual retirement account (IRA) increasing 10 percentage points. The survey also found that 14 percent of all adult taxpayers are currently not saving for retirement.

Many employers will even match a percentage of your 401(k) contributions.