Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
Jonathan Chait is a senior editor at The New Repulic.
Iwent over and read his bitching, and my impression is that he is an idiot that does not realise that all taxes are the result of being able to own and run a business.
Unkawill, would you kindly elaborate? Because I’m sure you meant to imply that taxes are the price we pay for a government that ensures a rule of law, which thus allows private enterprise to prosper with a sound foundation of law regarding its practices.
Obama just fired the CEO of General Motors. By definition, that is fascism, not capitalism.
So I’m sure you can see where I’m somewhat confused when you state all taxes are the result of being able to own and run a business, and the logical problem with people who do n0t own a business paying taxes and businesses accepting orders from The Fed on how their business is to be run and by whom.
It’s not a matter of taxes any more, it’s a matter of freedom to do business.
And guess where business moves to when freedom is curtailed? In the immortal words of Peter Fonda, “Anywhere but here.”
– Max
“This Must Be One of Those ‘Where You Sit’ Things”
Could beeee……Ijiuts.
Max,
They are moving anywhere but here.
Increasingly the gov is nothing but a criminal conspiracy to loot one group to give it to another. You can see the wisdom of the founders in limiting the franchise to property holder, those who pay the freight, and not tax eaters.
Law is consistent with the constitution, anything else is just a fiat without the force of law. Either the population relearns that soon or we are doomed.
Quartermaster, I believe we are indeed doomed. There is no national appetite for another revolution, we are nearing the point where nearly half the population is fed at the trough of the public fisc in one way or another.
Finally there’s that annoying problem of deciding when taxation rates are actually worth voting the bums out or hanging them from lamp-posts on Washington Avenue, the classic escalation of force problem. If in a minority it’s difficult to vote them out (and let’s face it, with stealing being made legal via US Code a congressman’s job is really to steal more from the public fisc than his voters pay in, because if he doesn’t they’re not going to pay any less in taxes, so we can’t blame them for doing what we elected them to do).
On the other hand, most people balk at the thought of stringing up a member of Congress in the public square, and I can’t say I blame them.
We’re never going to get Congress to apply the laws it passes for the rest of us to themselves…
So, yeah, we’re screwed. We don’t have the gumption to force a chance, Congress will not force a change until the system that gives them power is untenable.
What results is apathy and gradual decay, like a ship foundering in heavy seas — people cling to the safety of the large ship even as the tiny lifeboats leave with those who had the will to take risks and survive.
I hear New Zealand is a nice place, as is Brazil.
– Max
Max,
Either that, or arrange it so you’re in the crow’s nest with plenty of champagne and caviar so you’ll at least go out in style as the last survivor as the ship slowly founders. (PS: Just be sure to sever all the rope ladders leading up to the Crow’s Nest)
PPS: Did you read my reply story (not the 1st comment) about Katrina? It got held up in moderation and you left before it got out. You might get a kick out of it.
Virgil, I did indeed see it and chuckled to myself. You, and most other regular commentators, have if not a way with words a very penetrating way of driving straight to the point most folks haven’t yet thought of.
That’s why I’m here. It’s not an echo chamber, and I learn along the way.
I should sigh at this point. I’m just over 40 years old. I’ve seen Vietnam, the Green Revolution, the Malaise, Reagonomics, the Clinton Era, HillaryCare…
Never before have I thought we were this close to a semi-benign dictatorship rather than a republic.
– Max