I freaking love twitter. I'm talking to Holland Taylor about charitable giving...

[YellowRubberDuckie]

...and how if the 1% didn't have the tax deduction they wouldn't give a dime. Of course she's arguing with me that at least they do it. I said Mitt of course doesn't give a crap about any good the money is going to do, he just wants the tax deduction. I freaking love twitter for this reason!

[exboyfil]

1. Mitt like most Christians give tax free money to their

local social organization (er I mean church). The tax deductibility of local mission for churches is an abomination. When you subtract out the salaries for clerical and other staff that mostly support your needs, how much is left that is actually "charitiable giving". Of that how much is evangelizing (maybe meeting spiritual needs but not conventional charity).

[hfojvt]

4. but if I give to a church with, say, 300 members

what I give is not just going to meet MY needs, but the needs of the entire congregation, and, in theory, anybody in this community can also become a member and get their needs met.

Except in actual practice, the local church does not do much more than bore you for an hour once a week, although sometimes there will be programs for kids. There does seem to be something going on every night as the local Methodist church.

[hfojvt]

2. that's kinda the whole point of the tax deduction

But I would not really generalize about the 1%, or even the .1%. You are talking about some 1 million households (or 100,000). Some people in that group may very well be salt of the earth and some may be rotten to the core, but that is also true of the bottom 20% as well. Rachel Maddow is part of the 1%, and so is Obama and John Kerry and so was Ted Kennedy.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

3. I was talking about Mitt, Koch Brothers, and their ilk...

...I was not talking about the Generous Liberals or the people who do it for the general good. I'm talking about the people who do it ONLY for the tax deduction and who don't give a rats ass about others, only their bank accounts.

[hfojvt]

7. again though, you should not assume selfishness just because of political affiliation

and you should also notice that the tax deduction is not 100%. If Mitt Romney makes $10,000,000 this year and gives $1,000,000 to charity that charitable donation only saves him about $150,000 in taxes. Because his income seems to be mostly dividends and capital gains, his marginal tax rate is only 15%. Even if the top rate was 39% (and the state where he lived charged 10%, which would be very high for most state income taxes) he still would only be saving $490,000 on his taxes. Which would mean that he was giving away $510,000.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

8. That is still one hell of a tax break.

[sabrina 1]

5. Good for you, if you need help, let me know. I love it for that reason also. We get to ask the

questions they media will not ask.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

6. You're awesome.

I'm @SageMel621 on twitter. I am all over the place. =)
I also told Joss Whedon this morning it is douchy to charge your fans to take pictures with you. Apparently James Marsters (Spike from Buffy) and his fellow cast members who aren't A listers are charging $50 for pictures at his 50th birthday concert. Just kind of hacked me off, and I love these people from the show. I'm a big ass nerd.

[AsahinaKimi]

9. please add me as well

@AsahinaKimiko .. I also agree, where else do you get to snag a few responses from high profile people.

[sabrina 1]

10. Thanks I will add you to my follow list

I use it more to follow people and to get news, but have eg, tweeted Scott Walker, lol, that was fun.

[sabrina 1]

11. Okay, just added you to my follow list so now I'll know when you are 'interviewing' some of these

people and will be happy to help out.

[YellowRubberDuckie]

12. LOL

I don't always get answers, but I know they're seen.
I've made friends with a few interesting people because of Twitter, such as a columnist for Huffington Post who is a Muslim who has just written a book regarding the atrocities committed by Pakistan against non extremist Muslims and other religions they don't like. He denounces these atrocities and calls out extremists. Very interesting dude. The hashtag is The Wrong Kind of Muslim, which is confusing and meant to be ironic. I just wanted to warn you to make sure you knew if I was replying or retweeting these things that I wasn't being weird or extremist.

[sabrina 1]

15. No problem, Walker never answered me either, but it was fun to know his twitter feed was filled

with tweets telling him what people thought of him. And I am being followed by Cory Booker! I have no idea why since I am not very active regarding tweeting, or maybe he thinks I am someone else! Anyhow, I followed him back and he tweets a lot!

[YellowRubberDuckie]

13. Followed you back.

It's pending.

[sabrina 1]

14. Okay, I will go check and accept!