I use BTC because its simple, practical, and I think will be around for a long time.

Will the original posters give an update on whether or not BitInstant has processed your transactions? I'm interesting in knowing if you got your BTC or not.

In my opinion, its very worthwhile to look into trends of other financial institutions.  Although BTC is still quite new, it seems to be following common patterns that the US dollar, EURO and GBP have been following for a long time.  It's my belief that due to the completely digital distribution of BTC, lazy lawmakers aren't hindering the growth and evolution of BTC.

Good analysis Ben, I think this tax will not be affecting BTC for the most part, since the use of them will probably rise from smaller-scale vendors.  Could you imagine large-scale acceptance of BTC as payment?  Makes me wonder if it'll turn into revolutionary legislation, or a nation-wide crack down against non-government-backed currency.

Haven't spent my BTC on anything external yet, although they are my investment so it doesn't make sense for me to spend USD to buy BTC, just to spend them again, and I haven't spent any of my mined coins.

Ever since the initial double dip, BTC has always been rising in value.  Its true that the increase in the past few months is pretty staggering, and can send off red flags to some people.  But if you look at the rise in popularity of BTC, factor that with BFL's promise of new ASIC lines, and BTC in pop culture including "The Good Wife," and couple that with the halfing of blocks ~December, I think the increase in value is proportional to the change we are seeing.

@pekv2 -- Good information, if you think about the nature of BTC, having a debit-card loaded with them sounds counter-intuitive to me.   Where are you going to spend it?  What financial institution is backing the account?  Who would connected the physical card to the wallet?  Doesn't make much sense.

I think being skeptical is critical to success in a hostile environment.  I'm not to say the BTC community is hostile itself, rather just online financing should be as rigorously treated as offline ones (if not more).

Right now there doesn't seem to be too options.  I have heard of a few places to help you distribute your BTC locally but havn't tried or looked into them myself.