Comments on All Your Base Are Belong To Us: The Kip Lange Homepage: The ballot initiative in MA to end the income tax

"Oh well. Merry Christmas anyway, even if I do hat...

2007-12-21T09:58:00.000-05:00

"Oh well. Merry Christmas anyway, even if I do hate you for some reason."

Hahahahaha...nice. :-)

You too.

Ah. Well, if I wasn't nice to you at the time, it ...

2007-12-20T14:32:00.000-05:00

Ah. Well, if I wasn't nice to you at the time, it depends. I have a short-fuse temper sometimes, which I'm sure you know, but I also enjoy the low, long-smoldering grudge, as well. ;-) You have to figure out which situation it was (and whether or not I was drunk).

Ellipses are fun; however, I'm a semicolon junkie. I've actually trained myself to use them less, believe it or not (dead serious on that).

Oh well. Merry Christmas anyway, even if I do hate you for some reason.

And Warren Zevon...are you from the Nuke days? That's the only connection I can make there.

PS - The elipses are a crutch for me. ;-)

2007-12-20T10:56:00.000-05:00

PS - The elipses are a crutch for me. ;-)

The last time we spoke, you were less than nice to...

2007-12-20T10:54:00.000-05:00

The last time we spoke, you were less than nice to me. It might not be the best thing for me to email you.

And, btw, now I really do play Warren Zevon on occasion...

Hope you are well...

Ah, how tantalizing. How come you're using the ano...

2007-12-19T16:15:00.000-05:00

Ah, how tantalizing. How come you're using the anonymous tag, then?

Seriously, drop me a line at the email addy listed on the main page. I love catching up with people. I'd repost the email address here, but then it'd get spidered and I'd be getting 600 spam emails a day (the email address on the main page is an image so it can't be spidered and I *still* get spam on it).

So, hey, come on, fess up and tell me who you are. :-)

Your ... at the end is even more intriguing. Intrigue squared. Intrigue cubed. Drop me a line. You can call me a fascist bastard if you want to!

I'm not the same anonymous as the person who left ...

2007-12-19T13:27:00.000-05:00

I'm not the same anonymous as the person who left comments on the previous entry...just this one. And yes, I did know you many years ago...

I'm just wondering, Anonymous -- do I know you in ...

2007-12-18T22:53:00.000-05:00

I'm just wondering, Anonymous -- do I know you in real life, or from back a little further? You seem awfully familiar with the way I think, is all. ;-)

Also, quick disclaimer -- while the Carla Howell post may have endorsed Ron Paul, I am in no way endorsing Ron Paul.

Hey, I appreciate that a lot. Thank you. Just reme...

2007-12-18T22:16:00.000-05:00

Hey, I appreciate that a lot. Thank you. Just remember, I'm not a big-l Libertarian. They're just too far out for me. For instance, privatizing prisons and farming out the prisoners as slave labor? That's a Libertarian idea I don't like much.

Now, if we legalized marijuana anda taxed it...and that is a Libertarian idea, and a good one at that.

But you raise just as many valid points. We do need money from somewhere, obviously, and free enterprise can't do everything. And I honestly believe in welfare; people who can't help themselves, we do have a duty to provide for them.

In other words, I'm not saying abolish taxes altogether (although that would be nice, if we could somehow finance it), but tax less. As you can guess, I'm an ardent supply-sider. So my issue is not taxes per se, but the diminishing returns taxes that are too high create in business...taxes that can keep a small company from employing the people it needs...taxes that target the middle class..."blue collar" taxes like cigarette taxes...we're taxed too much, it's that simple, in my mind. Less taxes, more productivity -- yes, I support "voodoo economics". ;-)

Ok ok, point taken. You do make a good one.

2007-12-18T15:24:00.000-05:00

Ok ok, point taken. You do make a good one.

Okay... Anonymous said... How will roads get paved...

2007-12-18T13:02:00.000-05:00

Okay...

Anonymous said...
How will roads get paved or schools get funding for after-school programs or to buy books, etc, if we don't pay taxes? Where will the money come from?

First, you do realize that we're talking about ending just the state income tax, right? And -- income tax. We already pull in craploads of money from sales taxes, lotteries...why is giving the government more money always the answer for liberals? As P.J. O'Rourke said, giving money and power to Congress (state or otherwise) is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

I imagine the Libertarians have in mind revenues generated from sales tax and such in MA, and might even suggest bumping up the sales tax. They would also most likely pursue privatizing things like clearing roads. I did say I'm not a Libertarian, didn't I? Notwithstanding, I think I can live without the state income tax.

Likewise, many after-school programs are already privately subsidized.

Now...

You do know that military spending comes from American tax payers. So are important government programs and initiatives. Once we stop paying taxes and leave these things up to corporate sponsorship, we lose control.

First, I didn't say end the Federal income tax. Yes, we need a tax, and said tax should go immediately to things like national security and providing some sort of social safety net for those who really qualify. I'm not against that.

As for "importent government initiatives", I say, any damn time the government wants to "do good" on the home front, it blows up in our faces. Because government is ultimately just a money-sucking machine. You claim that when we stop giving the government our money we lose control. Isn't the fact that we're unwillingly giving the government money already kinda qualify as "losing control"? I don't get an itemized agenda I can tick off to earmark my bills only for national defense. I have to go along with idiotic programs like HeadStart and such.

Why do so many conservatives want an end to taxes? You will save more money in the long run using taxpayer money to sponsor things such as public works, rather than taking that away so the poor can't afford to repave their roads or send their children to school and the rich have to pay out of pocket for these luxuries.

Why do want an end to taxes? Well, first, almost all of us agree some base tax is necessary. What we want is an end to bullshit taxation that never stops going up, and which people such as yourself accuse of helping the rich when they help the great majority of this country far more -- the middle class. Liberals crap on the middle class, always have, always will. Which means you're crapping on 99% of our society, basically.

I dispute the idea of "saving money in the long run" through taxation completely, although I do enjoy the little pie-in-the-sky mixed-Socialism pablum you're spreading around.

And...paying taxes is just par of being a free citizen? What? That's the most corporate damn thing I've ever heard. People should never be compelled to vote. You don't want to vote, that's fine. That's one of the great things about America. Other countries will fine you if you don't vote. Of what value is compulsory voting?

It sets a further gap between the classes, which is not what this country was founded on.

Oh, please. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer, right? You do know they just finished a study (I forget where, I'll pull it if you need it) that showed the most "equal" societies are also among the most squalid. The higher the income gap, believe it or not, the higher the overall state of living, period. It's not a bad thing, not at all. Better than all animals being equal with some more equal than others.

This country was founded on the belief that every (wo)man should have equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream.

Actually, this country was founded when a bunch of drunken religious zealots with guns got tired of being taxed so damn much. Boston Tea Party. Ring a damn bell? What multicultural history class from hell have you taken? ;-)

We are not giving the government free money.

Oh, I'm sorry! So close, but the correct answer is you bet your damn ass we're 90% feeding a bloated bureacracy with money we earn in our own lives in a private capacity.

The rest of this, I mean, it goes on, it's well-meaning idiotic liberal blather. Well-intentioned, again, at best. Free enterprise is the answer, not monolithic government investment or support. I know that. Most people know that. Get outta your liberal dream world and notice life, man, that's all I can say, instead of feeding this quasi-Socialist babble to me.

The most feared phrase in the English language is, "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."

How will roads get paved or schools get funding fo...

2007-12-17T15:34:00.000-05:00

How will roads get paved or schools get funding for after-school programs or to buy books, etc, if we don't pay taxes? Where will the money come from? You do know that military spending comes from American tax payers. So are important government programs and initiatives. Once we stop paying taxes and leave these things up to corporate sponsorship, we lose control. Then, what becomes of Democracy? Paying taxes is just part of being a free citizen, along with voting. Privitization just leads to corporate control. It takes the power out of the hands of the citizens. Why do so many conservatives want an end to taxes? You will save more money in the long run using taxpayer money to sponsor things such as public works, rather than taking that away so the poor can't afford to repave their roads or send their children to school and the rich have to pay out of pocket for these luxuries. It sets a further gap between the classes, which is not what this country was founded on. This country was founded on the belief that every (wo)man should have equal opportunity to achieve the American Dream. Once we end up having to pay out of pocket for what we always took for granted, things start to fall by the wayside. The poor can't pay and the rich don't want to pay. We are not giving the government free money. We are paying a government to represent us and take care of our communities. Everybody rich or poor pays taxes and everybody votes. While I do believe in cuts in certain frivilous income tax penalities, we need, conservative and liberal, to see the small details, as well as the big picture and not pick which view we think is more important. There is a real reason we all contribute and some things more important than a little extra cash every week.