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To me, the real issue is the precedent this “taking” will set. How different is taking Kosovo away from Serbia from taking Texas, or the entire Southwest for that matter, and establishing a mew Hispanic nation (or giving it back to Mexico)? Kosovo has been a part of Serbia for longer than Europeans have been in the Americas.

What gives one nation, or group of nations, the authority to partition a sovereign nation just because immigrants do not play well in the sandbox with the owners of the sandbox. Wilson made a mistake when he tried to make a nation from desperate peoples who just happened to speak very similar languages. The US still needs to atone almost 100 years later?

Kosovo was considered a part of Serbia even when under the influence and threat of the Ottomans. Albanians are entitled to claim the land as theirs by possession as squatters?

The US had better be prepared to wave good-bye to the Southwest under that reasoning.

Serbia may fight to maintain sovereignty.

I am US, not of Serbian ancestry, however, I do speak Serbian and have spent time there.

My daughter just graduated from Texas A&M with a 3.9 GPA and a triple majaor in Chemistry, Biochemistry and Genetics, a 38 on the MCAT and missed one question on the GRE.

She has not decided what she wants to do for a PhD (or MD). Her solution was to enroll in a summer based MEd degree that has her teach during the school year. She will be teaching 9th grade science in the Cy-Fair school district next year. The teacher’s salary actually looked good compared to the stipend that most grad schools would pay.

The schloraship is income, but the cost of school will be an offset; the scholarship will not hurt you or here tax-wise.

I am not disagreeing with you. I am just saying that many people do not receive any benefit from the deduction because only the amount of the deduction over 2 percent of AGI is deductible.

Like the cost of preparing a tax return. As a miscellaneous itemized deduction subject to a 2 percent floor, most people do not receive any benefit of that particular deduction.

There can be no simplification until we decide to stop using the tax code for things other than raising revenue.

Do you think that Congress could (or would) vote to send every homeowner a rebate on the mortgage interest they paid or to every person who gave to a charity? How about to a business that bought a new computer or automobile? In effect, that is what we do when we allow a deduction from income for anything; it is a disguised, sometimes very thinly, means of underwriting a portion of the cost of an activity.

While most people do not argue that the activities are beneficial (which activity one thinks is beneficial depends on which deductions provide you the biggest benefit), they subsidize particular activities and only vary in degrees from a direct payment system. A deduction is just another form to distribute the largess of the public purse.

Without changing the perspective that it is permissible to indirectly subsidize activities, any attempt at simplification will fail.

CPA, JD, LLM

Both my parents (and Grandmother) taught math at the JC level; my mother also taught at the HS level. My father was an enginnering major and my mother was a math and education major. From experience, my mother knows more math and is the better teacher; I had her for freshman alegebra. I later took calculus in college and she was the one who had help me; my father had not used his math skills for several years and no longer remembered enough to teach effectively. In the JC, my mother taught the higher level courses and he taught the more basis one.

I do not disagree with your premise. It is very accurate when one considers the extraneous filler now used in public schools. As far as granting college credit along with high school credit for the same course, that was college specific. Wash U would not give credit for more than 15 hrs taken pre-matriculation, but would not make one take the same class twice and would grant a masters degree concurrent with the bachelors using the same college coursework. Several of the Ivies to which she applied would not take anything or even give prerequisite credit. The colleges would take AP credit, but based upon the score on the AP exam, not on taking the AP (college) course.

Some states, North Carolina for one, are required to accept the community college credits.

From experience, my daughter started coursework at NCSU when a 15 yr old high school sophmore and the colleges to which she applied did not like to see the college credit as two high school semesters. Some would not transfer a course that was used to fulfill a high school requirement. It also makes your transcript look strange and taxes their credulity if several courses were taken. The number of credits exceed what a "normal" high school can possibly fit into a four year schedule.

It was an interesting experience when we went into the admissions office at NCSU to enroll her in a couple of their courses; Latin and Biology were the first two she took. The counselor was very condenscending initially. Then we showed him her SAT - 1340 and PSAT - 222 (a National Merit Finalist); he became very cooperative. Her scores were above their average entering freshman. She finished with 41 hours and above a 3.9 GPA. (She just had to go to camp with her friends at church and missed the first four days of a summer school math class, her only B.)

From working in several big 8 - 5, soon to be 4, as an attorney (CPA, JD, LLM (NYU), a portion of the tax practice is probably compatible. However, attorneys and accountants do think differently. Most of the larger cpa firms, especially in the larger offices, employ JDs in their tax practices, but unless the JD has an accounting base they are like a fish out of water. Both professions have something to offer the client. Most attorneys run from the numbers and most accountants are ill prepared to handle a complex fact situation. Both abilities are necessary to properly plan a transaction.