Hillbilly Blog Reviews
Buddy Don has started a new feature, blog reviews. An excellent idea! I may be saying that because he reviews my site. But I take this as a high compliment:
i half to add mitt, whenever i furst red mr. uncles site, i figgerd twuz one of the one-noters a la sick
of bush or hobbsonline,
them that ye kin almos perdick usin parody on a counta they dont never sprize ye with a new pinion, tho they kin git purty inventive with thar splainayshuns of
thar own orthodocks point of view. taint that thars nuthin wurth readin thar,
but the content tiz kep within sum limitin blinders.
This reminds me. Tom sent an email stating that people at the recent Memphis blogger’s bash discussed my politics. Tom didn’t say, but I’m sure the term wingnut popped up a few times. Tom concluded that I:
1) really like guns
2) really hate taxes
I do like guns but I like gun rights more. I only have three guns. I don’t collect, per se. I have owned many guns but I tend to buy/sell/trade when I get bored of my current guns.
I don’t really hate taxes. I realize that they are necessary and provide valuable services. What I take issue with is the fact that everyone pays too much. The poor get screwed by sales, payroll, and use taxes; and the rich get shafted by income taxes.
One final thing, I am apt to (and quite often do) change my mind about issues. If more info comes to light or I am exposed to a new way of thinking about things, I may change my mind on the issue. Seriously. Some people think that maybe this is inconsistent or disingenuous but I don’t care. It’s my prerogative. I forgot who said it, but a commenter here said something like:
Consistency is a fine trait in house paints. In thinking entities, it is rather useless.
So, there you have it.
February 17th, 2004 at 10:29 am
For the record, the term “wingnut” never came up. In part, at least, because I was one of at most two openly liberal bloggers there. Most were either conservative or apolitical.
As for taxes, you’ve got a point about the poor being shafted by sales, payroll, and use taxes, but I’m not so sure about the wealthy being “shafted” by income taxes. At least not when you compare the US to other industrialized nations. I mean, sure, you could pay less taxes being wealthy in Haiti, but would you want to?
Fixing the sales tax problem is easy: exempt groceries from sales taxation. Not “convenience foods,” or chips or sodas, mind you, but meats, eggs, milk and fruit juice, etc. Most states already do this, but Tennessee does not for some strange reason. Couple in the relatively high sales tax rate here, and you have one of the most regressive tax systems in the country.
Massachussetts takes it even a step further, by exempting clothing from sales taxation. That, to me, goes too far, however, because if you can afford to buy a $150 pair of Nike shoes, you can afford to pay sales tax on it.
February 17th, 2004 at 10:33 am
First of all, comparing us to other industrialized nations is irrelevant. I don’t give a flying crap that canadians pay 15% sales tax to fund health care. They pay too much too.
Second, the wealthy would likely buckle down and be less manipulative of the tax code if they weren’t in such high tax brackets. They still pay the tax, they just pay that money to high dollar tax lawyers and accountants.
February 17th, 2004 at 1:53 pm
Uncle:
They still pay the tax, they just pay that money to high dollar tax lawyers and accountants.
Lookie there, the government actually created a market for money to flow. This helps the economy! See, I never would have seen that economic benefit of taxation had you not pointed it out.
February 17th, 2004 at 2:54 pm
It was Tom (Tom, not Tim) who brought this up. He jokingly said he could sum up your blog or philosophy or some such in two sentences. (See above.) We agreed it was pretty clever and Tom repeated it a couple of times. It wasn’t to pick on you at all. We also talked about Instapundit and Instalanches. We made fun of the local talk radio guy and talked trash about the local paper with two of their employees sitting right there.
Man, we need to do that blogbash thing again. We just plain ran out of time. It was too much fun.