by

“Taxation is thievery” nonsense

Nobody likes paying taxes.  Some libertarians take that to the extreme and claim that taxation is thievery.  They paint a picture of the evil government pointing guns at the helpless citizen (usually naked and wearing a barrel for some reason) implying that it is absolutely wrong for any government to demand that citizens contribute to society.

They long for a world where the government expects nothing from its citizens — you know, like no society that has ever existed in the history of the world.

Humans are social creatures, and unless you live in a shack in the woods away from everyone, you are expected to contribute to the society that provides benefits to you.  Even primitive societies demand that you take your turn gathering berries or weaving.

To demand otherwise is just selfish.

This does not mean that we can’t complain about the unfairness of our tax system.  I do that all the time.  We have a hugely unbalanced system where the average person foots the bills so the rich and the corporations don’t have to.  We could close loopholes and adjust our tax system to be fairer while reducing (if not eliminating) income tax on the majority of Americans — and we’d still be able to balance a budget.

And we can also complain about what the money is spent on.  I also do plenty of that.  We spend too much on things we don’t need, and not enough on things we do need.

There is a lot to criticize about our tax system and where the money goes.

But to turn that into “all taxation is thievery” — well, that’s just selfish nonsense.

tax

Editorial cartoon: Political games

by

And I feel fine!

Bet you didn’t know that the end of the world is coming soon.

According to Pastor John Hagee, the “blood moon” phenomena is surely a sign from God that the end is nigh.  It’s just like how Halley’s Comet foretold the end of the world in 1666, and we all remember how the world ended then. Or every other time over the history of mankind we had a blood moon.

Every generation over the past two thousand years have concluded that the world is ending soon and in their own lifetimes.

Pastor Hagee believes that God is sending us a message, by use of a perfectly explainable and completely predictable celestial occurrence with natural bodies obeying the known laws of science.

I mean, how can He be any clearer?  I mean, apart from appearing before each of us, speaking in our own language, or doing a thousand other things which would make it absolutely clear He was telling us He existed and the end was near.

Ha ha, we laugh.  Pastor Hagee!  He’s the guy who also said that Hurricane Katrina was God punishing gay people.  What a maroon.

But the fact is that people believe this guy.  And this guy, like many prophets, profit greatly from those who believe.

Yeah, sure, they have the right to believe whatever stupid thing they want to.  But knowing these people exist and apparently make up a large percentage of the population goes a long way in explaining how certain people get elected, doesn’t it?

 

Editorial cartoons: Post-Presidential Statesmanship

by

A solution worse than the problem

Everyone has an idea on how to improve the country.  Some of them get thrown around in memes on the internet and shared by people who say “Great idea!” without ever thinking about what that idea really means.

Here’s one of my recent favorites:
1476706_10153500011730494_700077965_nIn case you can’t read it well, it says:  “I think we should have Congress take an exam on every national bill (e.g. Obamacare) to make sure they understand the bill, its positive and negative consequences, and write an essay showing their knowledge of the bill and how it affects all social classes in America.  Bring in Unviersity professors to proctor and watch for cheating, and if they don’t pass the exam, they don’t get to vote on the bill.”

What a great idea!  Now, how do we pick the university professors and make sure they are writing the exams fairly? Oh, I know! We’ll elect them! And then we can make sure they’re doing their job right by making them run for re-election every few years. And we can have debates and interviews so we can make an informed decision about these professors…

Wait a minute…

Simple solutions are often just that — simple.  And often, it boils down to the most basic question in a democracy:  Who decides?  Who decides that they passed the exam?  Who chooses the exam givers?

When people say we should limit hateful speech, the next question should be “who decides what speech is hateful?”  When someone says we should use religious law in America, we should ask “Who decides which religion?”  Who decides is what democracy is all about.

The bottom line to me though is that when someone demands that we allow college professors make these decisions, I’d like that person to be able to spell the word “university.”

Editorial cartoon: Corporate religious freedom

by

Obamacare kills again

And yet another place shuts down because of Obamacare.doctor-obama

A free clinic administering to the poor, with volunteer doctors. Yep, you guessed it — Obamacre is making them shut down.

Because they are no longer needed.

“Because people are qualifying for insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare, our free medical clinic will not be needed anymore,” Stacey Bowser RN, 9th Street Ministries Clinic Director, stated. “We’ve gone from seeing around 300 people a month on a regular basis, but as people were enrolling in Obamacare, the numbers we were seeing have dropped. We were down to 80 people that came through the medical clinic in February, all the way down to three people at the medical clinic in March. Our services won’t be needed anymore, and this will conclude our mission.”

Editorial cartoon: The Tinker Bell plan

by

The good and bad news about Colbert

CBS announced that Stephen Colbert will take over for David Letterman in 2015.

Good:

1.  Stephen will be a great host.  Unlike Jon Stewart (who was a Political Science major and then a stand-up comic), Stephen was always an actor first.  Much of the humor on his show was political, but much was not.  I think he sees himself as an entertainer first, not a political pundit, and this should translate well into the standard talk show.  His interviews with musicians and actors on his own show prove he can handle it.

This is a picture my wife made of Stephen Colbert using dryer lint. It's now hanging in a Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum somewhere. Her web page is here: www.heidihooper.com

This is a picture my wife made of Stephen Colbert using dryer lint. It’s now hanging in a Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum somewhere. Her web page is here: http://www.heidihooper.com

2.  It’s already angered the right wing lunatics.  Rush Limbaugh, in his soft-spoken way not given to hyperbole, declared that “CBS has declared war on the Heartland.”  Others complained all over the Twitterverse about it, because of course everyone is always forced to watch TV shows they don’t like. You can always judge a man by who his enemies are.

3.  He will stay in New York.  West Coast humor just isn’t as, I dunno, intelligent as East Coast humor. Even Harvard graduate Conan O’Brien seems to have dumbed down his show heading west.  I don’t know if it’s the writers or the audience or what.  New York has an attitude that lends itself to a certain type of humor that doesn’t seem to be anywhere else. (Just like British comedians have a different type of humor than American comedians.)

Bad:

1.  We’ll miss the Colbert Report!  With John Oliver moving to HBO, will Comedy Central attempt to create another political show, or will the time slot be given to South Park reruns? Maybe they’ll expand the Daily Show to an hour, which would also give Stewart more time for the interviews without having to say “To see the whole thing, go to our web page.”

2. He’s not going to be playing his conservative character in this new show.

3.  Colbert will not be getting Peabody awards where he’s going, and he’ll be just another talk show competing with all the others at Emmy time.

4.  I feel sorry for Craig Ferguson, whose show is often hilarious.  I thought he’d be next in line since his show follows Letterman and is owned by Letterman’s production company.

The bottom line is that this is a good move for him (bigger audience, bigger pay, etc.) but bad for us.

Editorial cartoon: Family dynasties