A recent comment on one of my posts lamented how governments need to do more to reduce gas prices. Yes, we know that some nations do subsidize the price that their citizens pay at the pump. For example, the Chinese government pays such a substantial portion so that their citizens pay only pennies per gallon (which tends to anger cashiers at gas stations because they can only accept Chinese currency).
A lot of people seem to forget or ignore the idea that “governments” do not have a pot of gold at the end of their taxation rainbow. “Government” is nothing more than a collection of people spending money taken — not earned or asked for — from people in their country.
You and I are held accountable if we don’t live within our budget. But elected officials and dictatorships aren’t held to the same responsibilities. Either, they aren’t reelected or they get asylum in another country (and this is just the options in a democratic country). So it is amazing how noble you can be when spending other people’s money while not having to worry about the consequences. I guess this is what makes political power so attractive. Just promise what you will give without telling what you will take to make your promises possible.
Anyway, it would be nice to think that we’re entitled to any commodity at a penny per gallon. But that is the three-year-old in us doing the thinking. Remember those good old days when the world revolved around only our immature, selfish desires? As adults, we have to deal with many things that are beyond our control. As long as the price of gas and bread aren’t being maliciously manipulated, we will have to deal with nature’s equations of supply and demand. But that isn’t a problem. Being the inventive, ambitiously lazy species that we are, gasoline as a resource will soon become part of our ancient history as we move on to the next chapter of stayin’ alive.
So there I was, standing in my local IRS office, eagerly waiting to surrender my latest extortion payment when I noticed a new poster on the wall. It was a eye-catching picture of a beautiful sunlit Earth suspended over the black background of space. In large, white letters across the top of the poster was the title “IRS Environmental Policy”. Under the glowing Earth, in smaller white letters, there was about 200 words arranged in three paragraphs. To the lucky reader of this poster, the IRS described how they strived to be the friendliest, most environmentally conscience agency that ever terrorized a planet. It was touching to read all the politically correct, green-sounding jargon. But I think I could have done a better job with much fewer words and much more honest text: “While we at the IRS work diligently to take your money, we will do our very best to not tax the environment as well.”
Published on Saturday, 19 July 2008 .
I wish I could say that computer problems have kept me from blogging as often as I should. Instead, it has been critical demands of life that take up my blogging time. So it is absolutely frustrating to look at my Alexia chart and see that those visitors with the magical toolbar are almost nonexistent now. And I was unable to stop it…
The same goes with my Bloglog and Blogcatalog visitors. At one time, there was a visitor every few second. Now the widget on my blog shows that days pass between these special readers.
So I am pretty certain I have done three things to slowly kill W.A.T.T.’s popularity:
– I have not written on a consistent basis,
– my posts have not been interesting enough to encourage repeat visitors or links,
– I have not schmoozed as much as I should with other bloggers. In other words, if you don’t leave a comment at their site or if they don’t even know that you have stopped by their blog, why would they reciprocate? I am guessing that my use of RSS readers does not let my fellow bloggers know that I do read their sites on a consistent basis.
So it’s depressing to watch my blog fade into Internet obscurity. But as Rat poignantly observes in the cartoon, “And yet somehow the world goes on.”
Published in Uncategorized
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It must be a slow news day. All of the local news stations in North Carolina are making a big deal about the low pressure system off the coast. You can hear the excitement in the voice of the newscaster and the weather forecaster as they talk about a third potential hurricane storm reaching tropical depression status.
I’m sorry, unless the storm becomes a hurricane in the next few hours, I don’t know what the excitement is about. To me, it’s a tropical depression is when you go to the Bahamas and discover it’s nowhere as great as what you thought it would be.
Today we celebrate our independence from a King that had the gall to tax us at 3%. Now, two hundred years later, we are blessed with officials that tax us at a combined rate of almost 50%. Which is worst, tyranny by a monarchy or tyranny by major vote?
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