Government is a meddling presumptuous pain in the neck. The sooner we get it to stop manipulating us through tax laws, the better.
Go read the whole thing. It’s short. Your life will be better for it.
Politics
Happy Bill of Rights Day
Happy Bill of Rights Day.
For more on Bill of Rights Day, there’s an article here and here.
Educate yourself about the basic rights that we US citizens are supposed to have, and that government is not supposed to limit (remember, these documents are supposed to limit government, not the citizenry). Alas, every day we creep closer and closer to losing them; that the limits are being put upon the people and the government runs rampant and unchecked. The first step to ensuring our freedoms are not taken from us is to learn about these documents and embrace their fundamental message.
Go read.
Let’s be reasonable
Nicely Said, Joe
The gun lobby isn’t “pushing guns into every corner of our society” any more than the ACLU is pushing free speech, the NAACP is pushing blacks, or the ADL is pushing Jews into every corner of our society. The right to keep and bear arms is a specific enumerated right guaranteed by the U.S. and most state constitutions. It is an inalienable right recognized by the people that wrote the constitutions and has been a part of our society since long before they wrote those documents.
Switzerland’s Crime Rate
The key to freedom is the ability to be able to defend yourself. And if you don’t have the tools to do that then you are at the mercy of whoever wants to put you away. And the tools for that are guns.
Found via Fark, and interestingly the comments started out making rather a good point (instead of just lots of snark).
DrRatchet: hubiestubert: Any tool can become a weapon if you hold it right, and by focusing only on weapons, means that you don’t focus on WHY people are turning to crime, which is the more important question, and the larger issue.
Which is why controlling or eliminating weapons fails as a way of reducing crime (I’m looking at you, England.)
Very much so. Gun control is a false debate when you talk about crime prevention. It is a distraction from talking about what actually concernsboth sides of the debate, and that is crime prevention. Preventing crime is something that few can argue against, at least with any honesty, save perhaps those who are invested in the prison industry.
So, it would be nice to see folks veer from the whole gun control debate and instead focus on what they all share, and that is how to reduce crime. Rather than investing so much time and effort to talk about the style and manner which crimes are committed, but to get to the root causes.
Less worry about the symptoms, than the actual disease.
Good for the Goose
Via SayUncle I find this awesome piece of legislation: the Geithner Penalty Waiver Act.
From Rep. Carter’s press release:
“This bill seeks to codify what is now established by the law of precedent,” says Carter. “The Geithner case has established a legal precedent for the determination of penalties by the IRS, and that precedent can be cited in all federal tax courts. The penalty is now set at zero.”
“Taxpayers who willfully attempt to evade paying their fair taxes should pay a penalty, or our tax code becomes unenforceable,” says Carter. “This bill is not to reward tax evaders, but to defend the Rule of Law itself. If we as a nation choose not to enforce the law against the politically privileged, then we cannot enforce the law against others without undermining respect for the law itself.”
Indeed.
Quote for the day
You know how to tell that you’re on the right side of a debate? When you’re not concerned with having all the data available, good and bad, because you know that even the statistical noise won’t harm your argument.
Background check to be a parent
Continuing this morning’s theme of “Asinine in England”, apparently now there’s a proposal for homeschooling parents to have to undergo a criminal background check in order for the government to deem them fit and qualified to teach their children.
Unbelievable.
So you don’t need a background check to send your children to government school, but if you want to teach them then you do. Of course we can enter into the slippery slope here because if you’re unfit to teach your children, wouldn’t you be unfit to be a parent? How soon until your children would be taken away from you (given how the UK governments behave these days)? Who deems what a fit or unfit parent is? Why just stop at a parent that wishes to teach, how about any and every parent because if you’re not fit to be with the child during the day, why should you be fit to be with them during the nights and weekends?
As well, one side-effect would be killing off homeschooling, which is well-likely a hidden goal. Lord knows we can’t have free-thinkers in our midst, nor encourage thought other than government-sponsored. Too dangerous for a well-controlled society.
This is government gone amuck. This is intrusion. This is daft.
Bowling is dangerous (apparently)
Who knew that bowling could be so dangerous, but thankfully we’ve now got a UK Government study telling us so. Thank God for the government telling us these things.
Back in my day, people took bowling as a P.E. class because it was a joke. But apparently now evil bowling lanes are just waiting to gobble up and physically mangle our children. They must be banned! Or at least:
Its authors even considered ordering every bowling alley to put barriers across lanes. But they were forced to admit defeat – after realising that bowlers must be able to see what they are aiming at.
I wouldn’t even call that a modicum of common sense winning out; that’s still too generous.
And did you know, if you continue to breathe, you might suck in a bug that could cause you to choke and die. Better stop breathing now because the risks of choking on a bug are too great!
*sigh*
What’s worse than taxes? The spending.
From John Stossel:
It’s not that taxes don’t anger me. They do. But I’m more angry about the arrogance of the ruling class. It reminds me of Walter Williams’ riff: “Politicians are worse than thieves. At least when thieves take your money, they don’t expect you to thank them for it.”
Taxes, even counting hidden taxes, are not the real measure of what the thieves take. The true burden of government, the late Milton Friedman said, is the spending level. Taxation is just one way government gets money. The other ways — borrowing and inflation — are equally burdens on the people. (State governments can’t inflate, but they sure can borrow.)
O’Reilly told me that America is ready for a tax revolt. I hope he’s right. But I don’t think it will happen until more people see the ruling elite for what it is: a gang of arrogant bullies that has the audacity to believe that they know how to direct our lives better than we do.
That’s why, bad as the taxes are, I’m more upset about ObamaCare, Medicare, the “stimulus,” the auto bailout, the bank bailouts, the Fannie/Freddie bailouts, the trillions in guarantees, and on and on.
The politicians’ spending schemes represent presumptuous interference in our lives. They are an assault on our autonomy.
Stuff From Hsoi 