Death and Taxes

Today, I wrote out Federal and state tax checks. I've been so busy that I had to file an extension, but I'm sending in my estimated taxes with the the extension. I did a lot less business this year (3 months of vacation and having a social life will do that), so I figured it to be about $1,300. That's in addition to my regular payroll taxes that are automatically withheld, so it really comes out to something much higher. However, I'll stick with $1,300, since that's what I'm sore about.

A 105MM high explosive shell costs approximately 160USD. In a few months, some Iraqi family will be picking up the body parts of their children after a 105MM HE shell comes through the roof. Was it my money? Was it yours? My taxes are paying for 8 shells. Or perhaps 1,300 rounds of 7.62MM match grade rifle ammunition. How about the .50 caliber bullet that takes off some toiling woman's head next July? Did you pay for that? Or was it my money that filled the ammunition crate?

One of the very few things in my past that I regret was going out shooting groundsquirrels with a couple friends. It was on vacation in Montana many years ago, but I still remember a gutshot groundsquirrel running between the stumps, intestines rippling in the grass behind him. I pulled the trigger then, and I wish I hadn't. There was no need, no purpose, no reason.

My taxes are pulling triggers now. And don't even try to tell me they're not, because even if my money goes to feed some struggling single mother in some inner-city ghetto, that $1,300 is money my government doesn't need to spend on that woman, and can spend on bullets instead. Basic economics; money is fungible.

If voting were effective, it would be illegal.