I was raised in a family where my Mom was a devout Catholic and Dad was a lukewarm convert. Growing up I always was coming up with reasons why I shouldn't go to Mass but Mom wasn't buying any of it.  I would say in my high school & college years and even in early adulthood, I attended Mass every Sunday, but I wasn't always there mentally.

My wife had a similar experience. Going to church was just something she did. After our first two children were born, we realized we had to determine for ourselves what our spiritual life was accomplishing and what we believed.

For me, I couldn't walk away from the Catholic Church because I believe the Sacraments are an incredible gift that non-Catholics don't seem to understand. The Eucharist, Marriage, Reconciliation are things I couldn't live without. Even the other gifts (Mary, the Saints, the Liturgy) are things that reinforce the Faith in a way that I think non-Catholics don't necessarily understand in the Catholic sense.

That was great!

Sandy, I was thinking exactly along those lines (equal protection, due process). This tax only applies to individuals that choose not to participate in a certain economic activity. It's not an excise tax or an income tax, it's a non-participation tax. But if that were truly legal, that would expand the taxing authority of congress into other areas where Americans might not be active. That would seem to open a true can of worms. The majority decision is so convoluted that I can't see how this is settled law.

While I definitely agree that replacing ObamaCare is priority number one, I also fear that government programs are not that easy to abolish. Even with a Romney win and the Senate going Republican, the Dems will do employ every legislative maneuver they can to avoid abolishing the law. But one thing they can't stop is a law suit on its way to the Supreme Court.

Obama admits he doesn't like Right to Work because it's Right to Work for Less. I think that is called competition. So, Obama doesn't like competition.

I don't doubt that people are using the money for important things. I'm trying to pay off my kids' college costs. But it seems disingenuous of many Democrats who felt that Bush was intent on destroying social security by removing 2% of the individuals tax to invest in a retirement account with the individual's name on it, but are now fine with the fact that Obama is taking the same 2% from social security and asking Americans to spend it right now. Where are the howls that Obama is destroying the system?

The "Buffett Rule" is all smoke & mirrors. Obama & Buffett know that the majority of Buffett's income comes from dividends & cap gains. It's interesting to look at some of Buffett's investments since 2008. GM, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs to name just a few. These investments pay some sweetheart dividends. Interesting too, is that these companies benefited from government bailouts.

The fraud is that while rich progressives call for the "rich" to "pay their fair share, they seem incapable of paying an increased tax unless mandated by federal law.  David Axelrod recently said that President Obama wouldn't be sending an extra check to the treasury because, "That's not the way we operate our tax system, okay?"