Seeing as these days I put in lots of USE flags outside of make.conf, here's the principle output of "emerge --info" and following that will be the most recent emerge update string with all the USE flags that suppliment the process

Portage 2.1.9.42 (default/linux/amd64/10.0, gcc-4.4.5, libc-0-r0, 2.6.38-gentoo-r6 x86_64)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.38-gentoo-r6-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_E8400_@_3.00GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.2
Timestamp of tree: Tue, 31 May 2011 22:00:01 +0000
app-shells/bash:     4.1_p9
dev-java/java-config: 2.1.11-r3
dev-lang/python:     2.7.1-r1, 3.1.3-r1
dev-util/cmake:      2.8.4-r1
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.2
sys-apps/openrc:     0.8.2-r1
sys-apps/sandbox:    2.4
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.65-r1
sys-devel/automake:  1.9.6-r3, 1.10.3, 1.11.1
sys-devel/binutils:  2.20.1-r1
sys-devel/gcc:       4.4.5
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1-r1
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.10
sys-devel/make:      3.82
sys-kernel/linux-headers: 2.6.36.1
sys-libs/glibc:      2.12.2
virtual/os-headers:  0
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"
ACCEPT_LICENSE="* -@EULA ut2003 LOKI-EULA RTCW-ETEULA"
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/share/openvpn/easy-rsa"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo"
CXXFLAGS="-march=nocona -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="assume-digests binpkg-logs distlocks fixlafiles fixpackages news parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unknown-features-warn unmerge-logs unmerge-orphans userfetch"
FFLAGS=""
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://distfiles.gentoo.org"
LC_ALL="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1 -Wl,--as-needed"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="acl amd64 berkdb bzip2 cli cracklib crypt cups cxx dri fortran gdbm gpm iconv ipv6 mmx modules mudflap multilib ncurses nls nptl nptlonly openmp pam pcre perl pppd python readline session sse sse2 sse4 ssl ssse3 sysfs tcpd unicode xorg zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache cgi cgid dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CALLIGRA_FEATURES="braindump flow karbon kexi kpresenter krita tables words" CAMERAS="ptp2" COLLECTD_PLUGINS="df interface irq load memory rrdtool swap syslog" ELIBC="glibc" GPSD_PROTOCOLS="ashtech aivdm earthmate evermore fv18 garmin garmintxt gpsclock itrax mtk3301 nmea ntrip navcom oceanserver oldstyle oncore rtcm104v2 rtcm104v3 sirf superstar2 timing tsip tripmate tnt ubx" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" PHP_TARGETS="php5-3" RUBY_TARGETS="ruby18" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia vesa vga" XTABLES_ADDONS="quota2 psd pknock lscan length2 ipv4options ipset ipp2p iface geoip fuzzy condition tee tarpit sysrq steal rawnat logmark ipmark dhcpmac delude chaos account" 
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_BUNZIP2_COMMAND, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS, PORTDIR_OVERLAY

USE="X gnome gtk tcl tk device-mapper dbus consolekit policykit zeroconf avahi mdnsresponder-compat autoipd iproute2 networkmanager fuse gdu java opengl jpeg png tiff gif mikmod vorbis truetype cairo extras dga directfb dvb fbcon ftp ggi gsm jack joystick ladspa libcaca libmpeg2 lzo mad md5sum mmxext mng openal pnm pvr radio sdl tga v4l v4l2 vdpau vpx xanim xinerama xvmc zoran alsa dirac faac ieee1394 mp3 schroedinger speex theora threads vaapi x264 xvid flac imagemagick mmap vcd wavpack a52 aac cdda cddb dc1394 dts dvd fluidsynth fontconfig gnutls id3tag libass libnotify libv4l libv4l2 lua matroska modplug mpeg mtp musepack nsplugin ogg sdl-image shine shout skins sqlite stream svg taglib twolame udev vcdx vlm wma-fixed xml xv zvbi network networking netplay utils slang xattr wxwidgets dmx lcms kerberos rar idn gmp xscreensaver berkdb mp3rtp skey djbfft cjk vdr curl fontforge motif digitalradio sndfile Xaw3d toolbar guile loop-aes libssh2 nss madwifi bluetooth quicktime qt4 djvu fftw fpx gs hdri openexr icu dv mjpeg nuv postproc devfs-compat thunar lzma lm_sensors expat xft pkcs11 ffmpeg lame timidity encode lapack usb ao yv12 themes tools games gstreamer xulrunner pdf vlc xine xrandr attrib exif acpi xcomposite type3 xcb injection -ares -win64 physfs maps double-precision grp hog mvl qpak wad music remix voice" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev keyboard mouse joystick" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia vesa radeon v4l vmware" emerge -avDNut world