 Who's FICA and what's he doing with all my money? Taxes suck! Nobody wants to pay them. But we all have to. Sure we lie to reduce them. We'll pay someone else to prepare them 'cause most of us don't understand them. If a mistake is made, it doesn't matter who made it, you have to pay for it, usually with interest. So, except for the very few Americans who can afford great tax accountants and lawyers, every year the government will take roughly a quarter to half of your income. Everyone has had trouble with the IRS, if you haven't yet, don't worry you will. You got too much of a refund, didn't pay enough, shouldn't have claimed all of Bolivia as dependants, forgot to file for six years...doesn't matter. They may be slow, but in the end the government will get their money. Don't take my word for it, just ask Willie Nelson. They didn't just take his money, they took his house. Everyone pays taxes. Illegal immigrants, they pay. They have to if they ever want resident status. No excuse, there are programs in place so that they can pay their taxes. Lost your job, on government assistance, your broke government-cheese-eating-self is still required to pay taxes. And it's not just the Federal government, the state and city or county you live in get their share of your money as well. Buy a beer, fill up the gas tank, you paid a tax to somebody. Hell, most of the time you are paying taxes with money that has already been taxed. Win the lotto, have a long shot come in at the race track, the government will take their cut. You win ten thousand on a game show, you come home with about four and change, guess who gets the rest. That's right, doesn't matter if it borrowed, found, earned or stolen, some how, some way you will give the government your money. So why the hell don't people vote!?! You wouldn't contribute half your paycheck to the family grocery fund, then not have a say in what kind of cereal gets bought. Yet year after year, millions of Americans pay billions in taxes and don't say a damn thing about where the money goes, or even worse who has to pay what next time. You want to keep more of your money? Get off your ass and vote. Otherwise we'll keep paying Halliburton to build Burger Kings in Baghdad while Katrina victims get evicted from their trailer park refugee camps because there's no more relief funding to rebuild America. Kyle Pesonen - Staff Writer - E-mail Comments on this article. |
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The Face of Domestic Violence
This is Tanya. Tanya died on March 11th at the hands of her estranged husband.
For twenty years Tanya worked hard, was a good wife, companion, provider and much more to her husband and for twenty years, he abused her. She suffered in silence for many years and had even tried to leave once or twice before but had always gone back in the end because she believed that she was supposed to make it work. Last year Tanya had finally endured enough to make the decision to leave and begin her life anew.
Tanya moved out of the home she had shared with her husband and began to try to work out the division of their assets that she had worked so hard to build up. They had six houses because of her hard work and for most reasonable people, even half of that would be more than equitable. Unfortunately, her husband was not reasonable. He rejected the offer of half their assets and demanded spousal support which was more than Tanya could bear.
When Tanya refused to pay alimony to this man that had abused her for so long he began to make threats and Tanya did the responsible thing. She got a restraining order against him. Unfortunately, the restraining order was not enough to keep her husband from lying in wait for her at the church where she went to find peace in her troubled world.
Before Sunday services at her church on Sunday March 11th, her husband confronted her with a gun, chased her down and killed her execution style while dozens of shocked churchgoers looked on. The horror of her last moments on this earth were such that none among us can truly imagine what she was going through.
As I sat in the church for her memorial, I was awestruck by the courage of her parents who because of the strength of their beliefs have forgiven the man who killed their daughter. While I admire their strength I must confess I don't share it. I still feel much anger towards her killer. Tanya was a decent soul who deserved much better than to die horribly at the hands of a cold-blooded killer.
The one thing that I feel must come out of this is that we must spread the word that domestic violence is unacceptable in our society. We must leave no stone unturned in the fight for the end of domestic violence in our society. Only a weak person raises their hand in anger against their partner or child. Only a weak mind resorts to violence. True strength and compassion are inseparable companions. Without one the other cannot exist. We must educate our children that violence is never the answer and hatred only breeds hatred.
Troy Wilson-Ripsom - Staff Writer - E-mail Comments on this article.
Oil and Infrastructure
The biggest job of the President is to be the leader of the United
States of America and work to get what he believes are the right
programs moving forward for the country as a whole. Congress can pass
the laws and the American people can bring pressure do what is right,
but the President needs to have a vision for the country and its
future.
My programs will be designed to strengthen the country for the long-run
and get us back to being the world leader we once were. My programs
are not designed with the next election in mind or in keeping a
specific party in power, but rather for the greater good of all
Americans. Here are two ideas:
First, the biggest problem facing us now and for generations to come is
our dependence on foreign sources of oil and oil in general.
We need to immediately start a “Manhattan Project” for energy
independence. We put a man on the moon back in the “dark ages” of
technology and I firmly believe that we have the brain power to come up
with solutions to the world’s energy problems if only we apply ourselves
and our resources to the task. We are quickly on our way towards
spending $750,000,000,000 (that’s billions) of your tax dollars on the
war in Iraq. If that money had instead been pointed towards new
research and development into fuel cells, hydrogen, solar, wind and
other technologies, I believe we would already be well on our way to
major break-throughs in renewable and alternative energy solutions.
The world and the United States would be much better off if we weren’t
all relying on a small region of the world for the lifeblood of our
economies.
I believe it was the Shah of Iran who once said that oil is far too
valuable to be used as a fuel and in many ways he was extremely correct
given the thousands of products that we are able to derive from oil.
Besides being an extremely useful fuel source, oil is an extremely
important component in thousands of products we use and rely on
everyday. Wouldn’t it be better if oil was preserved for those uses
and we were able to find our energy elsewhere?
The only way to bring the price of oil down is to make it less valuable
and the only way to do that is to develop alternative energy sources
that can replace oil in everyday life. Not only would this be good for
the country and for the future, but it would also go a long ways to
reducing Greenhouse gas emissions.
Second, our infrastructure is falling apart and needs to be fixed.
We, as a country, are losing billions of dollars every year in lost
time, damaged vehicles and wasted fuel. We have a Federal gas tax that
is supposed to go towards our infrastructure, but that has been wasted
and mismanaged until we find ourselves in the position we are in today.
For that reason, I would propose an additional ten cents a gallon
gasoline tax that would be specifically and totally earmarked only for
highway improvement projects. It could not be “stolen” for the general
fund, it could not be borrowed for other items, it could only be used
for roads and bridges. The highways, freeways and bridges in our major
cities and in many other parts of the country are in danger of collapse
from poor maintenance and lack of capacity and we, as a country, need
to do something about it both for now and the future.
Frank McEnulty - Independent Candidate For President - E-mail your comments about this article. | Visit the campaign website
