Three cheers to DTS and Cajun for supporting the little guy! I like to buy local when I can, too. Not only is it good for small farmers, but it's also good for the environment because family farms are often vital habitats for all kinds of threatened and vulnerable species of wildlife.
I wanted to post a link to some myths/facts about the estate tax. As of 1998, there had never been a reported instance of a farm being lost to the estate tax. According to this link, only 3 in every 10,000 farms make up the bulk of an estate. The figure is similar for small businesses-- oh, just read the link; they put it better than I do.
http://www.faireconomy.org/estatetax/ETMythsFacts.html
I think the "People will lose their farms! Lose their businesses if we don't repeal it!" is scare tactics by the Republicans. FYI, Rupert, the Dems did try this year to raise the exemption to 3.5 million an individual and 7 million a couple and the Repubs shot it down because they want to abolish the tax entirely, not modify it. Here's a Washington Post article on that. It's actually pretty hard on the Dems for not being able to get people to understand that the estate tax is not a bad thing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...053001182.html
Later, Gators! (and Cajungators) Danzig, I'm really going to the movies now. I swear it...