Do you want to pay more taxes?

In 1989, the state legislation raised the Massachusetts state income tax from 5% to 6.25% as a temporary measure to overcome a budget defecit. By 1999, this "temporary" increase was still in place, although it was at 5.95%. In an affirmation of the democratic process, the citizens of Massachusetts gathered enough signatures to put a referendum on the November election ballet, proposition 4, which proposed a multi-year reduction of the rate back to 5%. In November of 1999, the people of Massachusetts passed proposition 4.

Now, faced with another budget crisis, state legislators are again looking at the state income tax rate as a way to, "raise revenues". They have proposed that the current rate of 5.6% be frozen, or even raised, in order to provide, "additional revenue" to balance the budget.

Sound familiar? It should.

Sound fair? No way.

When the citizens of a democracy take the initiative to put a referendum on an election ballet, the legislature should listen. The people of Massachusetts have spoken, and they have said they want their tax rate at 5%.

Next week will be a critical week. The state house of representatives will be holding discussions on the tax issue. Don't be fooled by the language you hear. Nobody wants to say that this is a tax increase, or a freeze in the tax cut, so they are using language like this:

''This budget says what will happen if we do not consider revenue enhancements,'' said Stephen E. Collins, excecutive director of the Massachusetts Human Services Coalition. ''Obviously, they are trying to prove the case for the need for revenues, and I think they've made a very legitimate case.''

"We realize we're part of an elaborate dance here, and it's a dance we're willing to partake in because we think revenues need to be raised to take care of this situation."

Revenue enhancements == tax hike

The need for revenues == tax hike

Revenues need to be raised == tax hike

Another possible outcome of next week's discussions is a really shifty move. Rather than increase or freeze the actual tax rate, the legislature may vote to decrease the personal income tax exemption. This is the $4,400 exemption that is taken out of your gross income on your taxes. Don't be fooled, this is a tax hike, since it results in you paying more taxes, even if the overall rate is lower.

Folks, I'll be fair here. The legislature does appear to have the constitutional right to adjust the outcome of a public referendum (although I'd like to see the legal precedent or a challenge to this one). However, one of the principals of the American form of democracy is that elected officials are supposed to do what the citizens who elected them want. And even though there are groups arguing for a tax hike so that certain unfortunate budget cuts don't happen, these are small numbers of people compared to the voters in 1999.

Tax revenues are like an addiction. The state legislature is acting like an alcoholic celebrating a week of sobriety by drinking.

My friend Kim Davidson asked me if I took the carnival pictures from a hang glider, because she's a Medford girl, and she didn't recognize the perspective. Since I've gotten into low-light, urban landscape-type pictures, I've discovered that one of the best places to take night photographs of city-scapes is in parking garages. So these pictures were taken from the top of the Harvard-Pilgrim parking garage in Medford Square.

Funny thing about that. As I'm walking into the garage, it's about 6:45 PM. The garage closes at 7PM, but of course, you can still go in and out, there's just no-one minding the exit booth and gate. And I have a backpack slung over my back, and I have a big tripod over my left shoulder.

Now, as I get close to the garage, I see one of Medford's finest out front, and I think, DAMN. There's a cop patrolling the garage. This sucks. I mean, I'm not doing anything bad, but I can see in this day and age where the cops are probably not going to think to kindly of a guy with a big backpack and a tripod hanging out on the top floor of a parking garage across the street from a public carnival.

Anyway, I decide that he's not going to stop me, and he's certainly not going to say anything if I walk in like I own the place, and so that's exactly what I did. I strolled in as if I was just running an errand after my doctor's appointment, and as if it is totally natural to bring a backpack and a tripod to the doctors office. And that was it. He never checked up on me, and I had free run of the place, which was totally awesome.

Now if I can just find a public place to get some great night shots of the Zakim bridge in Boston, that would be totally awesome. Please, if you have any ideas, let me know. And for all you jokers out there, don't say, "duh, the roof of the Fleet center" unless you can actually hook me up to get on the roof of the Fleet center.

This priest thing is really out of control. Here we are in late April, four months after the scandal broke, and we hear quotes like this:

"There is a growing consensus, certainly among the faithful, among the bishops, that it is too great a risk to assign a priest who has abused a child to another ministry," said U.S. bishops' head Wilton Gregory, the bishop of Belleville, Ill.

Growing consensus? You have got to be kidding me. This quote came from this article on Yahoo.

Another poop story. So Katherine has kind of weaned herself (she's no longer breastfeeding) by gradually rejecting Kara, and we were faced with what forumula to use. We tried Similac (I think), but she didn't seem to like that, so we switched to Carnation, which frankly, was wonderful. It was wonderful mostly because it's not a super expensive premium brand, she really seemed to like it, and for once, we could buy a "normal" product and feel good about it. Until we got to the doctor, who said, "oh no, we don't recommend that at all. She should be on Similac or something similar". So we tried again, and it actually worked out this time. It turns out that the first experience might not have gone well because of the adjustment to formula rather than the actual product. And so now we're paying a premium for good formula, but there are some benefits. Onto the poop. WIth Carnation, Katherine's poop took a dramatic, ugly turn. It became black and pasty, like mortar mix, and came out in great quantities when she did poop, which was once a day or so. It was also extremely smelly, and she started producing really stinky farts. For such a cute little girl, she was awfully stinky and smelly. On the Similac, her poop has returned to the mustardy type, and is not so bad, and she's stopped farting. On the Carnation, she was also spitting up an awful lot. We bought a couple small rugs on Saturday, and she spit up a mouthful twice in Building 19. Thankfully, neither one hit the stack of rugs. But this is much better on the good formula too.

I can't tell you how nice that is. It's really a nasty experience coming home from work, taking the baby, and having her spit up on you, like, six times in the half hour before dinner. Our doctor wasn't that concerned, but it's really nice that it's better now.

And now, a word about binky's. A binky is a pacifier, as you all may know. As Katherine has grown, one of the obvious signs of her development is how she interacts with the binky. When this all started, you'd plop it in her mouth, and she'd suck on it, and she might pop it out. Then, it turned into forcefully ejecting it, so that it got some hang time. Then, she started to grab it with her hands. She can now put in it and pull it out on her own. Since she can grab it, she can do a "floor layup" with it. This is a move where she pulls it out of her mouth and holds it in her hand. Then she eventually moves her body on a couple of axis at once, moves her arm in some direction (usually at the floor or horizontal to the floor), and let's the binky go mid-movement.

This gets really annoying after awhile, but as a parent, you end up developing a Jedi like reflex to catch the falling binky. You really do get to the point where you can detect the movement with your peripheral vision, and put your hand (which is fortunately much larger than the binky) in a place where it will intersect the most likely trajectory of the binky, and catch it on the way down. Kara and I have both gotten really good at this. But there are some positions where this just doesn't work very well, because you can't anticipate the start of the floor layup. For example, if she's sitting on your lap straddling a leg with her face pointing out, it's really hard to detect the beginning of a binky ejection.

So we broke down and bought a pacifier strap. This is a clip with a 6 inch strap with a velco attachment for the binky. Now, when she ejects the binky, it falls harmlessly to the side. In fact, she's now experiementing with the strap itself, and binky retrieval and placement via strap manipulation.

Oh yeah, these things can be dangerous too. Every book and manual you see says not to use them because of the danger of strangulation. And for that reason, we never leave her alone with this thing on -- we only use it when we are actively supervising her. But we also see a lot of other parents using them. Why?

When the Jedi reflex eludes you, and she ejects the binky on the floor eight or ten times in a row, you'll know why. It's, frankly, a real pain in the ass.

There's a bunch 'o stuff happening right now, but I have to get to the important details. We had a doctor's visit this morning for Katherine, and she did great.

Vital statistics:

Head size: 16 1/4 " (between 50 and 75 percentile)
Length: 25 " (75 percentile)
Weight: 12 lb, 14 oz. (50 percentile)

Her proportions are rounding out a bit. She's still tall, but average weight and pretty much average head.

Her doctor also commented on how strong she was. She said it was unusual at this age for a baby to be rolling over to the level she is (I finally saw her roll over on Saturday, from tummy to back!), and when she held Katherine upright, she said that she could bear her weight with her legs, so she's unusually strong. So of course, Kara and I think she's an exceptional child. But we're not exactly unbiased, so it's nice to hear good news from the doctor.

More later, I have to work...