The Wine Commonsewer™

We Moved To Phoenix and Nobody Told Me

Mrs TWC was traveling this week and called last night from Baltimore. I was whining about the continuing heat and humidity and the threatened afternoon thunderstorms (no we didn't get wet here).

She strolled over to the Inner Harbor from the Marriott and was rewarded with a muggy wake-up call. Here ya go, Babe. Try some actual humidity on for size.

She said people smoke a lot there too (a cultural surprise for us Californios).

Speaking of Baltimore, wonder if Jesse's wife had the baby.

UPDATE: Maya Helen joined our world at 6:59 PM last night. Ma, Pa, and the wee one are doing well. Congrats guys.

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer

The Cheap Winecommonsewer Speaks Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

TWC picked up a bottle of 2002 Estancia Cabernet Sauvignon last week, mainly because it’s been a while. With boatloads of recent converts to the fine art of drinking wine, prices continue to climb, and in that context Estancia Cab is a good value, meaning you should be able to find it in the ten to twelve dollar range.

It’s quite drinkable now with most of the characteristics you would expect from a California Cabernet including some dark fruit, a little oak, perhaps a smidge of vanilla, and a decent finish with no hint of that sickly sweet taste TWC hates.  Although it has the makings of an everyday-drinking house-wine, this won’t be the wine you’re talking up at the next party.

As a basis of comparison, the 2002 Estancia is probably on a par with Mondavi’s Woodbridge Cabernet. Except, that you can pick up a 1.5 liter bottle of Woodbridge for about the same price as a 750ml bottle of Estancia if you’re paying attention.

Oh, one more thing, The 2001 Estancia Cab was chosen as one of the fifty best under-$20.00 wines by Wine Spectator. I don't think the 2002 is going there.

Very cool virtual tour of Estancia's vineyards here (dial-up not recommended)

As Ever,

TWC

Beer Has Something For Everybody

Gentle Readers,

Sure, this has been around before but the lesson still holds.

(click to enlarge image)

tip of the glass to Chuck S

As Ever, The Wine Commonsewer

Good News For The House Blond (And My Sister)

Gentle Readers:

Dark chocolate can not only soothe your soul but can lower blood pressure too, researchers reported Monday.

"Previous studies suggest flavonoid-rich foods, including fruits, vegetables, tea, RED WINE and chocolate, might offer cardiovascular benefits, but this is one of the first clinical trials to look specifically at dark chocolate's effect on lowering blood pressure among people with hypertension," said Jeffrey Blumberg of Tufts University in Boston, who led the study.

As Ever,

TWC

tip of the glass to Danny G

Ownership, Inheritability, & Choice: Refocusing the Social Security Reform Debate

Gentle Readers:

A lot of people are Pro-Choice. But not when it comes to funding your retirement.

In a new study , Cato senior fellow Jagadeesh Gokhale questions reform opponents’ argument that transition costs would adversely affect financial markets, making personal accounts prohibitively expensive. If changes to Social Security policies are delayed, runaway growth in Social Security's financial shortfall is likely to ensure higher tax rates and more adverse reactions by financial markets in the future.

For a couple of bucks you can pick up It's Your Money here. Or, maybe I'll give you a copy sometime, because that is the TWC MANTRA. It IS your money not the government's (what a concept). 

Listen to Cato's radio spot here.

As Ever,

TWC

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Tax Reform

Gentle Readers:

Andy Anderson always insisted that General Motors never paid a dime in corporate taxes. Those taxes were paid by ordinary folks who bought Chevy's and Oldsmobiles. It's a bit of an oversimplification but you get the point. Costs of doing business are passed on to consumers whether they are taxes or fenders or wages or bolts. For the record, passing on costs in the form of higher prices isn't nearly as easy in a global economy.

The President's Advisory Panel on Federal Tax Reform is charged with making specific recommendations on tax reform to the President. The Tax Foundation has weighed in on that question with a new "Fiscal Fact" warning panel members not to repeat several mistakes made during the last major U.S. tax reform in 1986.

As you may be aware, the Tax Reform Act of 1986 substantially reduced income tax rates and broadened tax bases. However, it also increased the tax burden on corporate taxpayers in an effort to fund reductions in the tax burden on individual taxpayers. According to the new analysis by Staff Attorney Chris Atkins, as the President and Congress consider options for reforming the tax code, they should avoid the temptation to use revenue neutrality as an excuse to redistribute the tax burden among Americans as was done during the 1986 reform.

The concern is that the US already has one of the highest combined corporate income tax rates in the civilized world and in an effort to appease individual taxpayers, an ever larger share of the tax burden will be shifted to the corporate level. In a global economy, that's just asking for trouble.

As fomer Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Fred Goldberg Jr. said in testimony to the President’s Advisory Panel on Tax Reform, “we cannot, absolutely cannot, hope to compete in a global economy by setting corporate taxes in a vacuum. We will get killed.” Nor can we “hope to compete in a global economy” if Congress once again insists on an individual-corporate tax shift similar to what happened in TRA-86.

This stuff is a huge snore but it's critically important because it affects all of us.

Of the 30 OECD countries only 2 have higher taxes.

As Ever,

TWC

How Hot Is It?

Daisy & Blackie cool off.

Woke Up In Needles?

The House Blond is home sick with a tummy ache, the bus driver is all kinds of p.o.'d at That Boy (chatted with her this morning after chasing the bus for three stops), passed up an invite to Lake Havasu, and at sunrise it was 85 degrees (forecast to be 106 with thunder storms).

UPDATE: and my main computer's getting ready to crash.

Big Sigh.

As Ever,

TWC

Zip It, Kid

Good Morning Gentle Readers,

Now I already know what a lot of you guys are thinking about this. Might be the ultimate female piercing, er..ah, implant, er whatever. And it's got some serious possibilities. Aside from Monday Night Football that is (men are SUCH pigs).

But you know, once you get past the obvious, this technology could be especially useful for other stuff too. Like when your whiney teenager is relieved of the car keys for nonchalantly wandering through the door several hours past curfew last Saturday night (and she didn't answer the cell phone, neither).

But Daaaaaddddddddyyyyyy, the battery was dead.....

Zip it, kid..........

As Ever,

The Wine Commonsewer

tip of the glass to Charles S

Don't Touch My Bone

Gentle Readers,

TWC doesn't know if this is the world's dumbest dog (ever).

We Report, You Decipher

As Ever,

TWC

tip of the glass to Davey Jones  3.0 mb download