Bloviating Zeppelin

(in-ep-toc'-ra-cy) - a system of government where the least capable to lead are elected by the least capable of producing, and where the members of society least likely to sustain themselves or succeed, are rewarded with goods and services paid for by the confiscated wealth of a diminishing number of producers.

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Raping the Citizen: It's Starting

Whatever crazy and overbearing idea can be created by governments, will be created by governments. It is already beginning. Please consider:

1. Australia: Charging To Flush Your Toilet:

HOUSEHOLDERS would be charged for each flush under a radicalnew toilet tax designed to help beat the drought.

2. Oregon: 1900% Tax On Beer Proposed:

PORTLAND, Ore. -- Five Oregon state lawmakers want to impose a hefty tax on beer and have introduced a bill that brewers say would cripple them.

Video: Brewers hopping mad over tax: 1900% beer tax proposed - Deschutes makes Oregon 150 brew

Four Portland legislators joined a Springfield senator to introduce Oregon House Bill 2461, which would impose a $49.61 tax on each barrel of beer produced by Oregon brewers.

Along with this "stimulus" package (to be signed Tuesday by Mr Obama) -- and the other MASSIVE Porkulus packages yet to come -- local, state and federal governments will create more and varied ways to ensure you, the citizen, are taxed and fined to the Nth degree, and your freedoms limited.

More, of course, to come. Just you wait.

6 Comments:

Greywolfe said...: I've said it and said it, the nation we love is dying. The cancer is in the bone and spreading fast. Each month will bring more and more attacks on our freedoms. Congress is complicit with the President and the courts are just as bad.

Better cling to your guns and religion, my friend. That's all you'll have left soon. I fear that the window of opportunity for anyone to change the direction of our country is closed by 4 months.; Mon Feb 16, 06:44:00 PM PST
Z said...: Greywolfe's right..how the H did this EVER HAPPEN? And we're watching and STILL allowing it to happen.
it's the cutest, most rotten darned thing that EVER EVER EVER happened to America..thanks to the BIG ZERO.; Mon Feb 16, 08:31:00 PM PST
Anonymous said...: here's my two cents: first, beer is bad for you (mostly) anyway, so maybe it's the government's way of a win-win situation. people who drink pay for a cause, while people who don't stay healthy and don't have to waste money on a vice.; Tue Feb 17, 02:39:00 AM PST
Bloviating Zeppelin said...: Greywolfe: I don't disagree. I fear -- and so many persons would call me a raving loon, though I certainly do NOT advocate this -- that there is violent insurrection in our future. No, not on the part of those who TAKE from the system, who SUCK from the system, nor those who despoil the system for their own gain (politicians, elected officials), but from those who are fiscally responsible for the UPKEEP of the Entire Beast. The American Taxpayer. You. Me. And that clump of persons, the American Taxpayer -- well, we as a group are dwindling.

We are not far from the day when those removing from the system outweigh those making input to the system.

Z: Because more and more Americans want their Free Cheese and they don't realize WHO actually foots the bill for the cheese, nor do they much care.

Imee: I suppose you could be right. I like beer. But what happens when YOUR particular ox gets gored? What will YOU say then? In any event, thank you for visiting my blog, and thanks for taking the time to comment!

BZ; Tue Feb 17, 06:28:00 AM PST
A Jacksonian said...: Hopping mad brewers? Before this we Barley knew them...

Bug I digress...

Beer is, actually, quite good for you, with all sorts of lovely anti-cancer agents and things to combat ageing. Especially dark beers... mmmm.... a stout for me, please!

Still you would think the Neo-Temperance movement would realize that this is not a good way to go: do they not remember the criminals that went around Prohibition and the current ones evading cigarette taxes? I mean Hezbollah only made $10 million/year on doing that between NC and Detroit, sending it back home to their mother organization. That back in the late 1990's.

And who is the government to decide what is good and not so good to put into your body? Really, so long as you know what is going in, that is the end of it: food and drug purity laws. Those helped to move the use of cocaine, heroin, and other drugs down in the early part of last century BEFORE government decided to outlaw things.

Now there is the argument about 'these being a burden to everyone' and so it is! Because of the damned laws on 'health insurance' where no one takes the risk to themselves seriously and moderates them. 'Just let the company pay it'! Yes, take zero responsibility for yourself and then... well government has to step in and do that FOR YOU... why isn't that a good way to lose liberty and freedom?

Really, we have too many insured people in the country and if people actually had to adjust their behaviors to the long term costs of them, then the cost of medical care would go down. Diabetes from overeating? Hey, cheap food, no? Still, if you have to start paying for your medical care and the medications, you would start to take care of yourself. 'But media is pushing these things' comes the cry! Yes, lets have government limit speech, too...

Suddenly you go from the supposed 'good' of health insurance being subsidized to government controlling what you can take in the way of medications and then stifling speech on advertising. Oh, but its all so well cared for by government!

Really?

Name me the things government does obviously *right* from the get-go and continually? Get folks to pay their taxes? Look at the Obama cabinet nominees and tell me that is the case, where the rich get a 'free pass' until it is time they hit the limelight. And the little guy gets shafted.

Manage emergencies? Florida for four successive hurricanes, Katrina, now the ice storm in KY, plus numours other citations too long to recount. We were better of when San Francisco and Chicago had to rebuild their cities on their own dime. And the worst disasters unrelated to global warming but thoroughly predictable are coming... and we do nothing because the federal government is so 'competent'.

Enforce drug laws? See: Al Capone, Hezbollah, Mexican Cartels and drug gangs. Nope.

Schooling? We are still reading at the exact, same literacy rate as when poor Johnny couldn't read. Hundreds of billions down the tube to *nothing* save a huge bureaucracy.

Air Traffic Control? Moderate to poor. We need a distributed system now, and the over-arching federal one can't do it because it has to give up control... sucks, no?

Fight wars? Hey, we are actually doing ok in Iraq! Afghanistan the new administration seems about to Charlie Foxtrot.

The atom bomb? Yup! A single project directed to a single end with the known laws of physics working for you: all you had was a bit of engineering and refining. That is, actually, simpler than trying to change over to 'renewable energy sources' because not all people can use the same sources equally, save electricity. See: nuclear power, and the waste of 'activists' who have nearly killed cheap and clean energy.

No, when it comes to government doing things right for 'everybody', lets just keep it small and let folks decide on their own. We actually didn't have an organized crime 'problem' before government got into the act of prohibiting commonly made and grown substances. Now, of course, it gets to tell you what you can do in your own backyard and home, because it effects the 'national black market' pricing! You have to love that rationale, no?

There is this myth of 'omni-competent' government that is so blatantly not true that just recounting the problems could take days. The moment you think something is 'bad' for someone else because you 'know better', and you think that government is needed to correct them, you are looking to take someone else's liberty from them to justify something that they are well equipped to make up their minds about on their own. Remember that crossing the street has the risk of being hit by a bus... the same risk potential as problems from alcohol. And yet *you* look both ways before crossing, right? What makes you think others can't do that for themselves and reach their own decisions that you might not like?

Who died and left you as god?; Tue Feb 17, 08:03:00 AM PST
Anonymous said...: Yep, America was warned, just like the rest of us, but like the rest of us, enough of you chose this path as well.

Now we all have to pay.; Wed Feb 18, 03:40:00 AM PST

Bloviating Zeppelin

: Name: Bloviating Zeppelin; Location: Sierra Nevada Mountains, Fornicalia, United States

A former Democrat in my tender and ignorant youth, I am now a Conservative first and, these days, quite a distant Republican with a dash of Libertarian mixed in for good measure. I believe in God, the strength of America, the brilliance of our Founding Fathers, the valor of our military, and the need for Leadership in all forms and on every level. I am not an advocate of censorship as I believe everyone on the Far Left has a God-given right to be painfully stupid -- as I have a right to expose said stupidity. UPDATED NOTE: Recent legal references mandate that I make clear that these writings are ONLY my written OPINIONS and those of no one else. FAIR USE NOTICE - This web site may contain copyrighted material, which may not always have been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Such images and excerpts are made available for the purpose of analysis and critique, as well as to advance understanding of social, political, media and cultural issues. We believe this constitutes 'fair use' as explained in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law. ADVERTISING: I do NOT, however, ask for nor display advertisements here.

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Bloviating Zeppelin

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Raping the Citizen: It's Starting

6 Comments:

Bloviating Zeppelin

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