the anti-soma

I'm sure everyone's heard about the latest kerfuffle with Planned Parenthood.  I'll summarize, but won't link to the story plus video.  I don't want to owe anybody a new keyboard because they vomited on theirs.

In a breathtakingly horrific flouting of U.S. law, they are not only performing partial birth abortions by delivering late term babies breech and murdering them in the process, they're harvesting and selling organs when they think they can get away with it.

And each and every individual in the United States, willing or not, is complicit in this atrocity.  Because Planned Parenthood is supported by our tax dollars.

Never have I ever been so glad that we get more back than we pay in.  Because every dollar heading for the EITC is one that cannot be handed over to the murderers of the most innocent among us.

I am so far beyond angry that I cannot even express it.

Yep.  Time to lawyer up and sue the ever-livin' fuck out of the city of Philadelphia, and the state of Pennsylvania for permitting this to happen in the first place.

Seriously.  The city tax office admitted to making up the $280K back taxes bill out of whole cloth, and because the guy, who lives on a fixed income, didn't purchase the transcript that some petty bureaucrat ordered him to, a fucknugget sitting on the bench and claiming to be a judge ruled that the guy had to pay the bill that everybody involved admitted he didn't owe.  

I'm pretty sure that suing the city for a few tens of millions of dollars, with the lawyer paid half of the proceeds, would get him a damn good one willing to work without retainer.

That's how much of our tax money is spent on things that are within the federal government's realm of responsibility. 

49% goes on Welfare/foodstamps/social security.  A further 20% goes on "income security and other benefits."* 

Read this.  And tell me you're not pissed off.

*Full disclosure: we get the earned income tax credit.  Yes, it adds up to more than we pay in, total.  We would refuse it in a heartbeat if it meant that the federal government would cease handing out money taken from those who have earned it to give to those who refuse to earn it.  As it is, we look at it as a refund of all the social security money that we will pay into the system, but never see a penny back from.

Next year, the Affordable Care Act will come into all its Orwellian effect.  The Bush tax cuts will phase out. 

So, what's happening? 

Layoffs.  And more layoffs.  Most of which were in states that helped keep those policies in place. 

I am not happy that people have lost their jobs, especially not heading into winter, and Thanksgiving and Christmas.  I feel really sad for the kids that are going to be adversely affected by this. 

As for their parents...well, they're learning a hard lesson.  Stupid should hurt.

Denny's [CORRECTION: a franchise owner that owns forty Denny's restaurants, and a few others, all in Florida] is going to be making sure the average Joe knows exactly how much Obamacare is going to cost the businesses: the owner of the business is going to add a clearly-marked surcharge to customers' bills.

I surely wish we could do this with everything.  I suspect that all those wonderful government programs would quickly be suspended if people realized just how much of the costs is being carried by the businesses that they're targeting (none), and how much is on the customers (all of it). 

The sad part is that I can see this being treated like just another sales tax: griped about at first, then ignored.

With Roberts' SCOTUS vote declaring mandatory Medicaid illegal by the dubious virtue of really being a tax rather than a "mandate that everyone must buy broccoli," we are, as Ezra Dulis has pointed out in this article, being taxed for breathing.

Yes, ladies and gents, the government has managed to tax air. 

I leave you with a musical comment on where this will end up:

“I’m also being chastised because I work 18 hours a day and make a living. I feel that I’m part of the 2 percent and I’m really not interested in a woman who has 95 children and has 95 husbands.

I think if I work very hard, I should be able to gather the fruits of my labor. And I think if you’re not about to work, you should get minimal and leave me alone. I think if you don’t wear a helmet and you fall off your bike, you pay for the doctor.”--Joan Rivers

Like the Affirmative Action Bake Sales, I can see the students involved in this completely missing the point.

They worked hard for that good GPA.  I see that.  I understand that they wouldn't want points taken from their good GPA and handed to those that don't work as hard. 

I work hard for my paychecks, and I resent every dollar taken from my family to be given to those who don't work.  I hate--hate--that such a huge part of the federal budget (54%) goes toward things outside the Constitutional responsibilities of the federal government.

I would be willing to bet that most of the students approached about redistributing GPA points to the less fortunate won't see the parallels.

The author of this piece did it all.  With pictures.

Seriously, why else would the IRS need a SWAT team?  Tax evaders don't tend to be the most violent of criminals--rather, they tend to serve in Presidential cabinets. 

I don't have any idea how they think they could levy this tax.  I don't know how they think they can collect it.  Or how they can enforce collection of it from individuals who refuse to pay their tax to support the corrupt, sex-slave-selling kleptocrats that will be the main beneficiaries, despite what they say. 

Especially when those who refuse to pay are better armed and have more testicular fortitude than any of the troops they can field, despite being civilian citizens of a (unfortunately still) member nation.

The definition of hypocrisy is telling people to do one thing, and then doing what you told them not to.

Google and its CEO are a really good example of that: Google is under investigation for moving profits offshore to evade taxes, while the CEO says "higher taxes would not prevent him from investing or spending. Opponents say higher taxes would hurt growth."

Riiight. I'd think that the CEO of a company like Google would be wise to the fact that Google enables the common person to do a search to find little gems like the bit of hypocrisy mentioned above.

Did you get dinner and maybe a kiss first, or did they just roll you over and do you dry?

Despite what the government swearing that there is no inflation, and using that lie to justify no COLAs for seniors, Wal-Mart's CEO says that the superstore can't hold the line on prices for consumers much longer.

In other words, were it not for Wal-Mart, the federal government's big lie would have been exposed sooner.

I'm now just waiting for the government to be exposed for the incompetents they are when it's revealed that, not only is there no money in Social Security for COLAs, but there's no money in Social Security, period, and they're stopping payments for good (even though they're not going to stop collecting the taxes that supposedly pay for it).

The moment that happens will mark the beginning of Rome burning.

My other half and I took our two kids and went to a conservative association meeting. We came away with a little book for the kids called Founders' Fables that teach lessons based on the Constitution. It's very cute, and very well done.

We also came away with a deep-seated frustration that the presentations offered were so basic. Seriously, people--what the hell is wrong with you? How in the hell can anyone be unaware that there is no special trust fund for social security? Who doesn't know that the current generation of workers is paying for the current generation of retirees? Who doesn't know that the population of workers is shrinking while the population of retirees is growing?

Worst of all, who simply whines "I want the money I was promised, no matter that it's at the expense of my kids and grandkids?"

So. There's the irritation. Here's the alarm.

Most of my readers are aware that I'm in Missouri. We've had "Fair Tax" legislation floated about for a couple of years, now. It sank in committee. Simply couldn't garner enough support.

Instead of abandoning it for a flat income tax (sensible--which is why politicians won't go for it), they've re-named it the Missouri Jobs Act.

Okay, first off: the whole "Something failed to gain support from the sheep--I mean voters, so let's sneak it past them by renaming it" alarms me. It's related to the whole pride issue I wrote about a bit more than two years ago now.

The reasons a sales tax didn't gain traction are too numerous to mention. Let's talk about the effects we can expect to see in Missouri if they succeed in passing this renamed "Fair Tax."

People within about thirty minutes' drive of a state line are going to do the majority of their shopping--especially on big ticket items--out of state. This directly results in...

1. Fewer sales made in state. Fewer sales mean smaller profits, as well as smaller amounts collected in state taxes.

2a. Smaller profits mean overheads must be lowered. Overhead includes employee wages. That means that people are going to be fired. Which, in turn, means not only is less money going to be spent in-state, but more unemployment is going to have to be paid out.

2b. Items sitting on shelves will have their prices dropped in an effort to sell them, leading to an even smaller profit margin, even with fewer employees. Small business are still going to go out of business.

3. Shoppers fleeing the state to shop will eventually lead politicians to increase the tax rates, and possibly re-apply an income tax on top of the "fair tax."

4. Both businesses and income earners will begin to flee the state.

The Fair Tax is not a good idea, not in this economy. Many of us knew that, and that's why it was defeated under the proper name. Re-naming it and foisting it on us again demonstrates a level of deceptiveness and chutzpah that just frightens me. Tells me that my home state is determined to self-destruct.

New York City's lefty mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is planning to start charging a fee for trash pickup. New York City residents are whining "But that's what we pay taxes for!"

Grow up, grow a pair of gonads, pay your fees like everyone else in the country, or leave NYC for someplace where it's not supposed to be covered in the abusive property taxes you pay.

I can see cutting back city employees to four day weeks, not buying gas for nonessential city vehicles, and not decorating for Christmas, but really, Newark? Is it really bad enough that your city can't even provide the sandpaper that elementary schools nationwide provide?

At least the mayor isn't raising taxes.

I mean, if they're as disconnected from reality as Nancy Pelosi, they really need to be institutionalized, not re-elected every time they come up.

There is no way extending unemployment payments will help the economy. The only thing that will accomplish is to basically put people on welfare, and get them to not look for work. It is, after all, human nature to put forth the least amount of effort to maintain their standard of living. If people can just collect a government check and not work...well, they won't work.

No, the fastest way to create jobs would be to cut taxes, both those on personal income and those on corporate income. Oh, and repeal a whole lot of the regulations and rules (like the community reinvestment act) that directly contributed to the crash.

Instead, we're slated for some massive tax and regulation increases, beginning within the next six months.

Oh, goody.

When an individual citizen takes out credit card after credit card after mortgage after whatever other kind of debt they can think of, their credit rating tends to drop. That, in turn, causes their lender to raise the interest rates, raising their payments on said debt.

Somehow, our current administration's secretary of finance doesn't seem to think that Moody's actually will reduce our national credit rating, regardless of how much we owe. The man who couldn't figure out TurboTax obviously doesn't understand how the credit/debt system works, any more than he does the tax system.

The People's Democratic Republic of California is planning on raising taxes to balance their budget.

What it will more likely accomplish is to drive out the productive citizens and leave the leeches.