What Happened To Common Sense? Is It All That Uncommon?, by Corey Langeslay

Special to TLE

"Quote for 4/10/2002: Income taxes are not so bad and certainly could be worse. Suppose we had to pay on what we think we are worth? -- Anon"

The stupidity of this "Quote" is obvious, but the sad part is our company decided that it was a good quote. Then posted it on our Intranet for all to see. Gee whiz isn't it cool, our taxes aren't "so bad".

Income Taxes are forced theft from the people to redistribute to others. Most of us pay 47% total income to taxes. These taxes are hidden charges in everything, Gas, Food (You thought food was tax-free? Sorry, but there are FDA regulations, fuel taxes to deliver, taxes the farmer paid to grow it, subsidies, distribution taxes, and dozens of other little add on taxes. To up the cost of your favorite food and all get passed on to you to pay for it out of your salary.) So Income Taxes are bad, and they can't get worse unless they take away all of our paycheck. And we pay far more in taxation than they are worth in return. No matter how it is counted.

But then we should also ask, what exactly does this money that they take out of our income go to buy for our Federal Government? I know a few items we are buying like, $850 Hammers, $300 Toilet Seats, and a huge package of foreign aid to Russia (Yeah, the guys with nukes and oil, and diamonds, and platinum that made submarines, tanks, and aircraft carriers just like we do) or how about Egypt, they get a nice chunk of cake from us. Colombia, Mexico, even Japan gets some of the cake too. We send a big check to Cuba every year for our naval base where we currently hold the Taliban prisoners. Yep, we still give money to Cuba for the lease on that land, the only avowed Communist country in this hemisphere and we send them money.

Fun, I love seeing our taxes go out the door never to return, and what a value! Some of these countries hold open protests against us or set our citizens up to be murdered. Cool, isn't it grand that we have all of our money for the next generation of the country X's citizens too. After all, what good is it for me to keep some of that tax money anyway, I'd just waste it on something less important like my College Education or fixing the brakes on my wife's car or food for my table. What possible motive could I have for wanting to keep more of my money? Just selfishness really isn't it? Could be that we want to stop some bad people from oppressing the weak and the meek of the earth, but then what are we doing in Saudi Arabia? They have some tough rules on their people, they get bad marks from amnesty international every year because they torture and kill people for adultery.

Ok, maybe they are making the world a safer place with our cash. Do you feel safer after all this money has been spent all over the world? In the past 20 years you'd think billions of dollars could buy us some safety. Maybe they thought "This time it will work!"

Maybe this time we should try something different, and not have all of our cash go off to the rest of the world for things that do not work in our best interest. How about we cut off all foreign aid? How about making it like the Red Cross or United Way. If you want to give you can give as much as you want and can afford. And if they start to support stuff you don't like you can stop giving to them and give to another group that supports what you want. You can vote with your money on what is good and what is bad. That way our taxes can be eliminated. The insidious fact is we are so over taxed that little nonsense quotes such as this are enough to send normal human beings to the nervous hospital, and since the lunatics are running the U.S. Government the place is empty.

As for the writer of this little quip, I'd stay anonymous!

Corey Langeslay is a Libertarian that left the lakes and rivers of Minnesota and moved to Central Texas and works hard at converting the masses from Socialists drones to freethinking Libertarians. Writes essays about humor and freedom, and generally tries to live free in any way he can. He has dogs, cats and a wife that for some unknown reason love him anyway. You can e-mail him at [email protected].

The State vs. The People, by Claire Wolfe and Aaron Zelman

Is America becoming a police state? Friends of liberty need to know.

Some say the U.S. is already a police state. Others watch the news for signs that their country is about to cross an indefinable line. Since September 11, 2001, the question has become more urgent. When do roving wiretaps, random checkpoints, mysterious "detentions," and military tribunals cross over from being emergency measures to being the tools of a government permanently and irrevocably out of control?

The State vs. the People examines these crucial issues. But first, it answers this fundamental question: "What is a police state?"

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