I have used the 24-105 quite a bit, good enough, but f4 makes it kind of useless inside, as would the f4 24-70. Of course you could use a flash, but then there are other image quality issues.
I have been going to the lowest f-stop value, where ever possible, which makes the decision lean towards the 24-70 f2.8 third choice enticing. The big issue with this lens though is it does not have image stabilizing, like the f4 choices, but with the f2.8, you can go with a faster shutter speed, which negates a lot of the need for IS.
You could sell both lenses on Amazon, and buy the f2.8 for virtually an equal cost for what you sold the f4's.

Go for the 1.4 for sure. And I would consider the 35mm before I would buy a 50 mm. The reason, 50 mm is too narrow for indoor shots. 35 is a bit wider, and with the 1.4, you need less light of course. You only live once, so get the 1.4, even if you have to wait a bit longer.

Top line ND filters are over $100. I bought one, and have not used it very much. I simply take pictures from different angles if possible, or post process. But for professionals, they are a must. For instance, wedding pictures on the beech with a bright sky in the background can be a time when a variable ND filter is helpful, otherwise the people in the picture will turn out too dark.

Of course the debate is whether water boarding is considered torture, with torture being forbidden by the laws of the Geneva Convention. Personally I do believe water boarding is torture, no different than trying to smother someone. The issue then is that Palin made jest of water boarding, and the way it was stated would infer that she favors water boarding which is illegal.

One of the things to consider when thinking about Presidential ratings is that there is a bias right from the start that will limit the top end of ratings to close to 50%. If you dig into the ratings, not just of this President, you will find that about 80% of a particular party will dislike a President of the opposite party no matter how well the President is doing, and 80% of the same as President party will poll with the President almost no matter what.
I just looked at the Gallup polls, and the ratings amongst Obama are 82% for Obama, while only 11% of Republicans are for Obama. What has changed during the past year or so is the Republican favorable rating has slipped from a range of 15-17% favorable to 11%. This makes up a good portion of the rating slip for Obama. The other is a decrease in favorables amongst Hispanics mostly over the fact that Obama is deporting a lot of Hispanics, in fact record numbers. So I am not surprised there is a bit of a slip there.

I use PS for post processing, particularly when doing layers, but I don't like the print function in PS, I like LR5 much better for printing.

To repeat others, you get what you pay for in filters. You might have an $18 filter, which could do very well for most, but it is not the same quality lens material as a high quality filter, which often price around $75-$100. Personally, since I buy them so infrequently, I buy the better ones. And since many lens are the same size, you can use one filter for many lens. The other thing you can do is buy adapter rings, but my experience is just buy the filter.

No racism, hah, are you joking? I am a white male, 63. I have lived during some very tough times, particularly during the riots in the mid 60's. I lived in one of the hotbed cities, Newark, NJ. I have to tell you, racism was alive and well back then, many snickering comments, in fact, many hateful comments. I happened to live in an area where our friends were from many different backgrounds, and as kids, we saw how our parents talked about the differences, and it wasn't pretty.
I happened to be at a lunch yesterday, some 55 years later, and I have to tell you, it wasn't two minutes, and someone made a racial comment, snickering, and others joined in. Things have not changed one iota.

Guess it depends on who you are, what race, gender, religion. If you are a white male, then perhaps you might feel it was right to ditch affirmative action.

That's good input. Perhaps I will post some other more eye appealing flowers.

One thing I would be very careful of is having strong light in the background, like the bright light coming though the windows. This strong light source is telling the sensor to reduce the brightness of what it saves, so the rest of the picture will be darker. Zooming in will help, but not eliminate the problem. Repositioning yourself may help, but of course that may not be possible. The last way is to post process.

Great job. Amazing what you can do with cameras and software these days.

Since I received a lot of compliments on my first post of a hydrangia yesterday, I am sending another post with an orchid, accented with a black background. I have quite a few of these accented pictures, got a bit carried away, but they all come out beautiful.

I went to the Krohn Conservatory flower show in Cincinnati, took a bunch of pictures, and then was practicing with my CS6 software. I did a bunch cropping pictures of flowers, then accenting with a black background. This is one of my favorites but I did about 30.

Hydrangia

The Canon 1.4 50mm is outstanding. I have it, and the shots are great. As with all of the shorter primes, be careful of the depth of field. If you are shooting pictures of people, go up to about f5.6.
I use this lens mostly indoors, as the light capture is great versus other less expensive lens. I also have the 1.4 35 mm, Sigma.