More Discriminatory Taxation in The USA
Today on NPR, there was a story about how the cigarette and cigar tax to pay for the SCHIP program was going into effect soon and I can’t help but voice some concern over this blatant intrusion into the rights of all Americans. I should preface this by saying that I am not a smoker, never have been a smoker and that I find the act of smoking to be repulsive; my outrage over this taxation should show you just how offensive the change is, if I’m not for smoking.
On April 1, the tax on cigarettes is going up from 39 cents to $1.01 per pack, but cigars are going to be hit hardest; they jump from 5 cents to 40 cents PER CIGAR. How this will affect the packs of cigars you can buy, no one is saying, but $4 extra for a 10 pack is raping the consumers of a product and I’d say it teeters on the lines of discrimination.
The premise for the tax seems admirable: provide federal funding for health care for children. But there’s an issue of unfair taxation that comes to mind when I hear this change. You remember that whole ‘no taxation without representation’ issue our nation once had, right? At the same time the taxes on tobacco rise and rise, other ‘vice’ products like porn and alcohol remain taxed at the same levels; keep in mind that porn is only taxed with sales tax.
But there’s another issue here, one that’s been brewing in the states and in the county health departments since the 80s, when the clamp on tobacco started in mainstream America; these health departments hope to see what we all know extreme taxation will do: people reduce smoking and those who do it recreationally may stop altogether.
This begs the question: how can the state impose their desires on the free will of the people, in a capitalist society no less?!
I appreciate what they wish to accomplish and I recognize that smoking leads to cancer and other health issues; education doesn’t work, because when people are addicted, no level of education can deter that pull at their soul to smoke another cigarette. But the approach to the change in health ‘norms’ is all wrong here. What the states and counties need to do is continue to allow Americans to make the stupid decisions they do, but rather than foot the bill for their dumb mistakes, implement state law and regulations that forbid state/Medicaid/Medicare funding for Cancer treatment on the lungs, throat, mouth and anything else determined to be a history of smoking, UNLESS there is a child that was exposed to 2nd hand smoke. See, in this scenario, those who decided to smoke did so willingly and the state can then say: “You made the choice; you have to live (or die) with it.”
Yes, that sounds heartless, but if a person is told and knows that X action will create Y result and they choose to do it anyway, they can and SHOULD be forced to live with that choice.
Next, we need to stop taxing one group of people discriminately; if you want to fund a program, do like Kevin Kline did in the movie Dave: slash funds from unnecessary programs and spending to fund what matters. Like my mother used to tell me: “If you don’t have the money for it, you can’t buy it”; never has that wisdom rang more true. The socialist mentality of Democrats to make ‘everything equal’ is great, but then they need to apply the methods evenly and tax people evenly as well; all I see today is discriminatory actions and alienation.
In the NPR story:
“In the days they are offering $25 billion bailouts, we don’t want a 25-cent bailout. We just want the government to leave us alone to run our business the same way we’ve been doing it for 114 years” - Eric Newman, president of J.C. Newman Cigar Company
That’s something to think about…. shame on the government for cutting off their nose to spite their face.
Source:
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102486102
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 Brandon Plank
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The Day The Ink Dried (up)
Today, the Seattle PI printed its last edition and it starts as a new ‘online only’ news outlet; it will begin service as seattlepi.com. Sounds like a great plan and a wonderful way for me to get my news, but there’s something else that raises an issue: all but 20 of the staff were cut and those that remain are Web 2.0 geeks.
So what’s wrong with that, you might ask? Well, on KPLU this morning, one of the staff, Monica I think was her name, was interviewed and her comments show a sad state of affairs for those younger than me and for the future of the PI. Now I have nothing personal against this woman, but her comments shock and frighten me, as they show how the world is being dumbed down for the lowest common denominators.
The plans for the PI are to become a ‘networking news’ site and if you don’t know what that is, don’t worry; it’s a Web 2.0 word that means “user defined/shared content” sites like Twitter and Facebook. In fact, the PI employee stated that she relies heavily on the news from Twitter and Facebook.
Twitter is a site where people give updates about their personal life, like “Jane went to the store. MMM ice cream.”, in 140 words or less. Facebook is a social networking site, nothing more. So the only ‘news’ on these sites are that which others link or share, which, to be honest, is usually entertainment/niche related from my experience.
The issue is that these are not news sites. They are superfluous fluff where people can waste more of their lives, trying to dial into the inner workings of those around and connected to them; to try to convert that connectivity to news-worthy journalism is a farce and disrespectful to the men and women that write news stories. I, like many others, use an RSS reader (I happen to use Google Reader) and we dump numerous feeds from news agencies into one place to read all the world’s news; I use sites like CNBC, MSNBC, The Seattle Times, FindLaw, ThinkProgress… etc. Those are sites that have writers and produce news stories based on local and/or specific content; does the PI actually think people like me are going to RSS the feed from their bloggers or their new ‘news’ feeds that are based on user-linked content?
The problem with those who solely rely on Facebook and Twitter for their news is that they get a micro-cosmic view of the world and the news in it. Sure, you can surround yourself and be ‘friends’ with intelligent, well-read people that link to intelligent stories, so it’s plausible that you could get a healthy dose of news. But let’s be honest; that’s not likely the case, since most of us have friends, acquaintances and people we knew from high school on both. Ideally, one should read news from all outlets, like blogs and news outlets, but let’s face it; people today don’t have the attention span or drive.
I, like many in this world are college students. One of the great advancements for us today is the ability to use the internet to find exactly the information we need that is timely and current; this is important for papers and other class-related assignments, especially for any classes we may have in political science or business. But what’s equally, if not more important is how reliable the source is for news. One of the pivotal aspects of writing cogent papers is that we acquire only the most reliable information from documented and verifiable news sources; I dare say that if my professors don’t like people citing Wikipedia, they damn sure won’t want people citing Twitter-linked or Facebook material. I also know that my law professors don’t take kindly to citing sources that aren’t from a reputable legal source; though I don’t know too many that Twitter about legal matters, so that seems like a moot point. Essentially, we have a growing trend of people getting their news from second-hand sources, like blogs, rather than getting it from the people that report and write the news; not only does such regurgitated news serve no pupose in the academic community, it only furthers the bias-swaying of the general public.
So, it is with a heavy heart that I say goodbye to Seattle’s other printed paper. I may never have subscribed to the PI, because I preferred the Times, but I recognize the importance of diversified media in a city. It is with an even heavier heart that I say I’ll likely never read the PI’s website. If they do ‘go Web 2.0′, as they appear to be, I would hope they see that they have not only ceased news in the print form, but they now have ceased to deliver news altogether.
Copyright protected by Digiprove © 2010 Brandon Plank
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No love for people like this
In a recent story, radio pundit Laura Ingraham thought it would be witty to bag on John McCain’s daughter for being ‘plus sized’ (which frankly, she’s anything but).
Now, I’m not a fan of John, but his daughter is pretty hot and when we compare that to Ingraham, it sounds to me like a little jealousy. Much love to the thick girls, girls with curves and those that don’t look like a skeleton with some leathery skin stretched over it (*COUGH*INGRAHAM*COUGH*).
This pic sums it up for me:
Click for more on Skeletor attacking She-Ra.
Posted in Politics | No commentsNew Music – 2/19
Been a while, but here’s some lovelies.
-B
Mutant Clan – Inside – [SCI + TEC Digital Audio]
A- Inside
B- Outside
Lovely release. It’s a tad tribal, but has little nasty stabs here and there to make it complete
Daniel Mehlhart – Scharade – [Kindisch 22]
A1- Scharade
A2- Distracted Conscience
B- Alura
I love this damn release. It’s house-y, but has some electro elements, which makes it great.
J-Mode – The Trouble EP – [Leftroom 16]
A- The Trouble
B- The Trouble ((Jamie) Lee Curtiss Remix)
Great release. The A side is Detroit-ish and Lee’s remix is on the housier tip.
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New Music – 12/31
So as the year draws to a close, I lumped all of December into one post. There was a lot released, but frankly, it’s all been shite. There’s some stuff coming out that’s bangin, so January will bring more goodies
-B
Desonanz – Grenzfrequenz – [Nachtstromschallplatten 07]
A- Grenzfrequenz
B1- Klirrfaktor
B2- Grenzfrequenz (Variant)
Grimey techno. That is all.
Sinisa Tamamovic – Mamoth – [43 (Germany) 002]
A1- Beginnings
A2- Mamoth
B1- Wrong Way
B2- Control Me
This release is massive. All 3/4 of the tracks are bangers and even that 4th is still a great track.
Van Rivers – Pipes & Drums EP – [Islands & Islets 056]
A- Organ
B- Steelpan
The B side is the gem here.
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