What a great way to start the day! Cynthia McKinney is out! And, with what may be a twofer, her bigoted anti-Semitic daddy, is in a runoff in his reelection bid. Monday night, He was on TV and said sumpin' to the effect, that the reason the election was so close was due to 'Jews, J-E-W-S'. Nice to know Billy can spell.
I voted yesterday morning on the way in to work. The polling place is only about 1/2 mile from my house, and, it is right on the way to work. Didn't even have to make a special detour. And, in a related piece of symbolism, the polling place is a Jewish synagogue. Delicious. I walked in and went to the Democrat table and started filling out my paperwork and noticed that there were considerably more people getting Democrat ballots than Republican. I remarked to the lady sitting next to me, 'Didn't realize there were this many Democrats in Dunwoody.' She replied, 'From your lips to God's ears.'
So, now people are probably wondering what I'll find to write about. When in doubt, I could always write about Cynthia McKinney or fisk a Molly Ivin's column. Barrel. Fish. Gun. Done. Not to worry. There's still plenty to write about. Like today, I'm actually gonna admit I was wrong (at least partially) about sumpin'.
Last Saturday, I ate dinner with my friends Michael and Cindy. We usually wind up discussing politics and they have a nefarious plot to win arguments:
1. Get me drunk.
2. Gang up on me.
They also have an additional advantage, that since they are married, they get considerably more opportunities to practice arguing.
Whenever we get together for dinner, we always wind up drinking three bottles of wine. After that, Michael and I usually have some Grappa (Italian white lightning). Before attacking me, they usually wait until we're almost done with bottle number two. Saturday followed the same game plan.
But before I discuss that, let me tell you another strange thing that always seems to happen when I eat at their house. We usually start with a white wine or champagne with an appetizer, commonly smoked salmon. Then, we have another bottle of wine with the dinner, and finish off with a red wine with cheese. We usually eat the cheese in the den and watch television. This is where the weirdness sets in. Everytime I'm at their house on a Saturday, we stumble upon something beyond the fringe on television. I wrote about one of the programs we watched back on June 24, 2002. It was about transvestites and transgenders. I wonder if Aaron saw it. What was weird, is one of the cross dressers works for TCIDNN (The Company I Dare Not Name). I looked him up in our company directory, but couldn't find him. Must not have been his real name. He did give out some invaluable tips for men in drag. e.g. Pluck your eyebrows. Much easier to paint eyebrows on. I filed that away for future use.
On this particular evening we stumbled on to the Anna Nicole Smith show which is a direct ripoff of the Osbournes. Don't television executives believe in originality? Monkey see. Monkey do. I've only watched about five minutes of the Osbournes and I don't see what the big deal is. Of course, I don't see the appeal of Jerry Springer and the rest of the shows that show us dysfunctional members of the human race. Do people watch this stuff so they can feel superior? Don't know.
We wound up watching the whole show. We could not take our eyes off the spectacle of this overweight bimbo (who was once a Playboy Plamate of the Year) making a fool of herself. Cindy would say 'This is brutal'. And I would respond, 'And yet we continue to watch'. And then they blamed it all on me because we always stumble onto this bullshit while I'm there. I bet they secretly watch programs like this all the time and then when I'm there, blame it on me. At least the program on transgenders and transvestites was funny. Funny? It was hilarious! The Anna Nicole Smith show was just sad. Incredibly sad.
But back to where they ganged up on me.
Awhile back I wrote a piece called Tax the Stupid! where I stated that I was for cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, drug taxes (legalize and tax), and the lottery. My argument went along the lines that since all these activities were purely voluntary, the taxes were voluntary.
About this time, they decided to cheat. They used logic on me. They pointed out that since I was a libertarian, I should be against all taxes. Well, um, uh, well libertarians agree that there are some functions government should provide and these functions require money, so there has to be some form of taxation. For example, the federal government should provide for a strong military (the best in the world) and should provide for secure borders (not doing a very good job there). I am also a strong believer in the Interstate Highway system. A lot of the stuff the feds try to do could be done much better at the state or local level. Education comes to mind. So it now comes to a discussion of exactly what government at all levels should do and how we should pay for it.
That usually gets us going on the bit from The Life of Brian:
So now what they throw at me, is my real estate tax is a voluntary tax. I don't have to buy a house. I could rent. And, I'll have to admit, they do have a point. But, on the other hand, the government encourages me to buy a house by allowing me to deduct my mortgage interest and my real estate taxes. I'm still not convinced by their arguments.
But what has changed my mind somewhat on cigarette taxes is an argument made by my Companion Grouch, Kim Du Toit. I'm not against taxing cigarettes per se. I still think it's an excellent idea for the poor to pay some of the freight. I firmly believe that most poor people are that way because of lousy decisions like dropping out of school or having children they cannot afford. Another stupid decision is choosing to smoke when it says right on the pack that it's bad for ya. So, I don't mind the tax itself, only the amount of the tax. As Kim points out, in some areas the tax is now so large, that there is a black market for cheap cigarettes. Organized crime can now muscle in on the market of a perfectly legal substance. And once organized crime gets in, we start having turf wars and people get killed. What's next? Outlawing cigarettes?
Whatcha in for?
Smoking.
Smoking?
Smoking.
Bwhahahahahahaha!
I don't think government should be in the business of legislating morality. See, I'm back on firm libertarian ground. I don't think crackheads are crooks. I think they're sick. They don't belong in prison, they belong in treatment centers. And if they can't stay clean, keep 'em locked up in treatment centers. Don't put 'em in prison with mother stabbers and father rapers (with apologies to Arlo Guthrie). Legalize pot and tax it. But not too much. Pot smokers don't belong in prisons or treatment centers. But keep 'em away from all you can eat places. Pot isn't even addictive, unlike cigarettes. And I don't believe this gateway drug bullshit.
So, I admit I'm wrong. I'm not wrong about taxing cigarettes. Go ahead and do it 'cause it's a tax on the stupid. And, yes, I once smoked but quit because I couldn't breathe. I was stupid. I wised up. But don't tax the product so much that you create a class of criminals who don't want to pay the high taxes and will find a cheaper source.
Let the poor smokers puff in peace.
Just keep 'em away from me.
Posted by denny at August 21, 2002 01:30 PM