We had our quarterly birthday party today. Rescheduled from last Wednesday. So it was a V-day theme. I got a rose. And a heart-shaped doily with my name on it.

I don't like this week very much. I think I'm going to go home now, and seriously consider working from home on Friday.

Damn.

On the same day that Britney was shaving her head, a guy I know who works in the office of Senator Bernie Sanders sent me an email. He was trying very hard to get news organizations interested in some research his office had done about George Bush's proposed 2008 budget, which was unveiled two weeks ago and received relatively little press, mainly because of the controversy over the Iraq war resolution. All the same, the Bush budget is an amazing document. It would be hard to imagine a document that more clearly articulates the priorities of our current political elite.

Not only does it make many of Bush's tax cuts permanent, but it envisions a complete repeal of the Estate Tax, which mainly affects only those who are in the top two-tenths of the top one percent of the richest people in this country. The proposed savings from the cuts over the next decade are about $442 billion, or just slightly less than the amount of the annual defense budget (minus Iraq war expenses). But what's interesting about these cuts are how Bush plans to pay for them.

Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.

[link]

I don't keep other people's secrets from DH, and if someone asked me to, I'd refuse. It would just be weird and awkward. (Unless it's something like "Don't tell E, but I'm going to buy him a pony for Christmas. What's his favorite color?")

if someone asked me to, I'd refuse

What if it ws like, soooper personal. Like, TMI girly stuff?

So long as I like somebody, I am the Fort Knox of secrets.

I was going to post a specific example of inter-dyad communication gone wonky, but then I remembered that I'd seen on the guy's myspace that he's a Jossverse fan. Figured I'd better not in case he's lurking. (Are you lurking?)

It's funny, 'cause I don't remember if he was in the fandom when we were friends. Am I responsible for it? I don't recall. Maybe I'm due a toaster and didn't even know it.

What if it ws like, soooper personal. Like, TMI girly stuff?

I'd honestly rather not know myself than be asked to keep it from DH. Even if it's something I probably wouldn't tell him anyway (like girly medical TMI details about a non-mutual friend), I wouldn't want to be put in a position where I *couldn't*.

I tend to not tell other people's secrets to Paul. Or tell them in general, if I'm made aware that it's an actual secret. Side effect, perhaps, of years under NDA.

Which, when I knew about Certain Friends' Baby News, involved MONTHS of tongue biting, because I really wanted to share it with someone, but it wasn't my news to share.

I usually tell TCG everything, and he usually forgets I told him.

I am a great secret keeper. Because I'm pretty gabby, people think I'm not, but I can keep secrets for years. I knew a friend had AIDS years before any of our mutual friends did and didn't reveal it until he did. In my present job, I know what every employee makes, details about their medical histories and secrets about theirfamily life and would never reveal them--not even to someone who didn't know them.