Obama the Crude

Many are expressing offense the President Obama used the sexual slur "Tea-Baggers" in an upcoming book. We have seen one left-leaning reporter after another use this crude term when referring to those associated with the Tea Party Movement. Instead of addressing the genuine and rational concerns of the Tea Party movement (outrageous runaway spending that will doubtless lead to confiscatory tax hikes beyond the already unfair burden), the left attempts to dismiss the movement by using a sexual term used for the practice of dipping ones scrotum into the mouth of another mimicking the dipping of a tea bag in hot water. I do not join the ranks of the easily offended regarding this slur. Instead of feeling offended for myself, I feel embarrassment for the person using the slur. The crude are often unable to feel embarrassment for their boorish acts, that it is often left to those around them to feel it for them.

What I do take offense over is that President Obama somehow came to believe he has time to write a book. In the midst of one crisis after another, somehow time can be spent authoring a book. This would not be just any book, but a book with the name of a sitting US President on the cover. Add to that, being the first black President. Add to that the intense scrutiny he knows the book will be under. Imagine the care and attention such a book must take to ensure it meets the lofty standard of being written by the most powerful man on earth. How in the world does such time exist without drawing attention away from the great cares that demand presidential action?

We have an impending crisis looming that the recent oil spill will only magnify. The economy has a time bomb in it. This time bomb consists of fuel prices. We are already paying a lofty $3 and higher per gallon. Any improvement in the economy with drive up fuel usage which will drive up fuel prices. With the increased restrictions on drilling that Obama already placed and the doubtless further restrictions on offshore drilling the oil spill will influence, we are likely looking at the highest gas prices ever.

With President Obama driving up our deficits so he can recreate this nation in his image the only solution Democrats understand is to increase taxes. We will likely see a poison pill of increased income taxes combined with a new layer of taxation likely in the form of a VAT tax. The increase of taxation and fuel prices will be disastrous.

I guess after further consideration, I should be glad rather than offended that Obama is spending time writing books. Hopefully, such book writing will steal away enough time to keep him from further poisoning the well of economic prosperity our country has enjoyed for a long time.

Tax Freedom Day For Illinois

Today is a special day for me and my fellow Illinoians. We have been slaving away from Jan 1st until now to pay for our tax burden. While the National Tax Freedom average day is April 30th, in Illinois we get a couple extra days in the House of Pain. Though we are worse off than the average, there are 10 states worse off than Illinois. The TaxProf Blog has provided a list of those states and the Tax Freedom Map of 2007. States still being whipped by their Taskmasters are:

1. Connecticut (May 20)
2. New York (May 16)
3. New Jersey (May 10)
4. Vermont (May 9)
5. Rhode Island (May 9)
6. Nevada (May 8)
7. California (May 7)
8. Washington (May 6)
9. Massachusetts (May 6)
10. Minnesota (May 4)

Wow, Connecticut has almost 3 weeks more to go! It is amazing that even though on average people work from Jan 1 - Apr 30 for the government, many still think we are undertaxed. Such slavery is obscene by any standard.

Free at last, free at last
I thank God I'm free at last

Well, I will enjoy being loosed from the chains and the whip from now until next Jan 1.

Liberal Fundamentalism

Most of my life I have been around Christian Fundamentalism. In my youth I did not really understand it. In my early adulthood I was fairly zealously a part of it. In recent years I have moved to the edge of the movement with only a step or two to exit. There are many good things in the movement, but I think they have at the same time earned some of the resentment hurled at them. As I analyze some of the less desirable features of "Fundies", I am seeing a closer and closer resemblance between the liberal movement and the dark side of Fundamentalism.

A detailed writing on the subject would be too long and get more into matters of faith than I choose to in this forum. So I will highlight a couple areas. One involves how they are viewed while the other how they view others. Both groups tend to be very judgmental of others. They are constantly analyzing the actions and words of people and construing (often misconstruing) what is going on in the inner person. The Fundie is often viewed as taking on a "Mrs. Gladys Kravitz" approach to viewing others: snooping, judging and jumping to conclusions. They act as if they know what is going on inside you based on whatever they think they observe. (Mind you I am not talking about all of them. Enough are this way to have given the rest a bad rap, though) Liberals in the same way are constantly judging others with their politically correct yardstick. They make judgments of racism and sexism where it does not exist - claiming it is so deep rooted even the person does not know himself enough to know he is "this way". Then if you do not subscribe to their liberal doctrines of socialism, they make accusations that you do not care about people, especially minorities and the poor.

In the area of how they are viewed, people often throw accusations of hypocrisy and insincerity at Fundamentalists. If they really believed what they "preach" they would be acting differently - toward God and toward their fellow man. I think the same think can be thrown at liberals. If they really believed what they "preached" they would live their lives differently. Two excellent examples are man made catastrophic global warming and taxes.

If liberals truly believed that the earth is in grave danger due to man's emissions, they would drastically reduce their lifestyle - and not with the discredited carbon offsets either. They are trying to push the government into forcing emission reductions across the board for everybody. If they really believed what they preach they would not wait until the government enforces such reductions. They would take drastic measures now. Some currently do, but there are many more (especially with celebrity status) who only do so when enforced by government.

Similarly in taxation, many liberals think that our fiscal problems are caused by being under-taxed. This notion is ludicrous. All one has to do is look around: every person with a job, every item for sale, every property, every service and every luxury is an opportunity for taxation. All are taxed and often on multiple levels of taxation. There is a ton of money coming in. Liberals then point out how much the wealthy have and that such wealth is too obscene while others have little or nothing. So they push and they vocalize for more and more taxation. More taxation for all and especially more taxation for the wealthy. They preach this is the right thing to do because they can then take the money and help others without. If they really believed what they preached, they would voluntarily pay more taxes. It is so easy - simply figure your tax liability and when writing the check ADD to it. Instead they want to wait until laws are passed before they will part with more of their money. Instead they scrape and claw for every tax loophole and deduction they can find to keep their tax burden even lower.

Face it liberals - many of you show nothing but contempt and hatred for Christian Fundamentalists. You disrespect them with your comments on TV. You use Fundies as material for your comedy. You buck against this group. However, as I have shown you are very much alike in the areas I have pointed out: how you view others and how you are viewed. I'm sure this makes your day.

Wyoming Does the Humane Thing

Wyoming has done a humane act. They have repealed the state sales tax on food items. According to the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle:

Former Rep. Ann Robinson beamed as the governor signed the bill making the temporary removal of the sales tax on food passed last year permanent.

Bills to lift the tax had first been brought by lawmakers in the 1950s, she said, so Wednesday also marked the end of a very long process for that idea as well.

"Food is the most basic need of the people of Wyoming," she said, "and it is not a place for collecting taxes."

According to this website, most states have an exemption from or limited taxation on food and Wyoming has re-joined humanity by adding their exemption. While Illinois limits taxation on food items, they still do some taxation. It boils down to this: if I need to purchase something to survive, the government should not be there to take a chunk of my money when buying it. This includes food, medicine, gas to heat my home and cook my food, and medical services. Indirectly I should not be charged tax on gasoline that gets me to work every day in order to put food on my family's table.

Fun Stuff:
Now on the flip side for fun, there are quite a number of food items that I do not need to survive. Some examples might be: potato chips, ice cream, cookies, twinkies and other such snacks, frozen pizzas, soda pop, and last but not least........kool-aid.

On a non-food side note: does anybody know if there is any sales tax on Bibles, Korans, Books of Mormon, etc.? If so, that looks like a fine case for the ACLU to fight. That would be a REAL breach of separation of church and state. It reminds me of the church I used to attend. Often there would be police cars camping out in the parking lot way out of sight to trap speeders going by. One night I was late and came whipping in the parking lot (I had some ushering duty to perform) and at the last second saw the police car. I wonder if they had given me a ticket if I could have claimed separation of church and state to get out of the ticket?

Enough fun. Good job Wyoming for doing the right thing. You never should have had a food tax to begin with, though.