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TERRY’S TIDBITS by Terry Gray
February 7, 2005

KIDS ARE IMMATURE

          Hey, you know all this hype we hear about training kids not to use drugs, not to drink alcohol, not to use tobacco, not to drive fast, to wear condoms, and all the other things we do to keep kids healthy and safe?  It doesn’t work.

          A new study, which like most studies, is not new, is telling us that kids will do things that puts them at risk because their brains haven’t matured.  This doesn’t have to do with what our schools attempt to instill in our youth, thank God, or what parents try to teach them; it has to do with the chemicals that go into making us mature.

          So the next time you hear the Phillip Morris commercials pushing for raising the tax on cigarettes to “keep them out of the hands of children”, remember this study and remember that this tax is wasted on its proposed purpose.  However, it is good for financing more propaganda, and everyone knows that the nannies love propaganda.  Heck, Hitler is just a shadow on the cross that our “do-gooders” of today carry forth.

SPEAKING OF TAXES

          Ernie is proposing some new taxes, even though he promised not to do so.  Could he be a one-term governor? 

          I’ve got a friend who is a great American beer lover.  He is a bit rebellious with his pony tail and Harley and the last person one would expect to hear say that they should raise the tax on tobacco.  I was a little shocked when he said that to me a few months ago.

          I wonder how he feels now that Ernie has decided to raise the price of alcohol right along with tobacco.  “First they came for the Jews but I said nothing because I wasn’t Jewish.”  Remember this adage?  My buddy isn’t a smoker, and he didn’t mind a tax that wouldn’t affect him.  Let’s see how the good folks sit and watch those around them take the hits as long as the hits don’t affect them.  Every tax that is passed or raised is just an invitation to pass or raise another one.  As long as the government can squeeze another nickel out of us, it won’t have to be responsible with its spending.

          So bottoms up buddy and just for your reference, if you bring a petition around here for me sign against the alcohol tax, remember that you wouldn’t sign the petition against the smoking tax or bans.  The difference is that I’ll sign your petition; I understand the big picture.

BIG BRO AND THE NANNIES

          Sounds like a 70’s band doesn’t it?  Sudafed will now be doled out sparingly to adults, if Ernie has his way, because some adults like to make crystal meth from it.  Why doesn’t the FDA step in and work to make it available by prescription only?  Big Bro likes to put his fingers in the power pie, so here is the chance for the biggest bro of all to do just that.

          Look, I’m not a crystal meth user.  And if I were, I would certainly want to make my own so I could save a few bucks and ensure its purity.  So instead of limiting Sudafed to everyone, just legalize crystal meth and dole it out.  Make it really pure and keep the price low so a shade tree meth cooker couldn’t compete. 

          Once again, we are looking at a law that creates criminals.  Those people who make crystal meth now will still make crystal meth.  They will just have their friends buy them the ingredients, or they will steal them.  If their friends buy the Sudafed, then their friends are guilty of contributing.

          Big Bro likes this part of the scenario; we’ll have to sign a log book to buy legal drugs.  Who will inspect this log book?  Who is going to be responsible for buying the books, storing the books, maintaining the books, and ensuring that everyone signs the books?  What if I have a really nasty sinus problem and my monthly allotment doesn’t quite take care of it?  I have a legitimate and serious need for more Sudafed, more Sudafed!  What will I do?  I’ll become a criminal.

          Can you imagine Mr. Jenkins, who is 55 years old and works at Kleer’s Kitchen Kabinets as a designer, needing an extra dose of Sudafed and having to go to two drug stores to get what he needs?  If the feds ever catch wind that Mr. Jenkins is buying more than his allotment of nose candy, they’ll stake him out and watch him like he was public enemy number 1.

          All of this is happening folks because drugs are illegal, drug dealers are smarter than law enforcement, and our Democratic Republic is a den of prohibitionists looking for more control.

NO MORE IRS?

          Well we’ll see.  Congressman Steve King from Iowa has introduced a resolution to repeal the 16^th amendment which will take the authority from Congress to collect income taxes. 

          Congressman King is a supporter of FairTax, a national sales tax that would replace federal income tax.

          This comes right on the heels of a ruling from the 2^nd circuit court of appeals.  The ruling spanks the IRS and defuses them.  Here is the gist of the ruling:

Schultz vs IRS:
“...absent an effort to seek enforcement through a federal court, IRS summonses apply no force to taxpayers, and no consequence whatever can befall a taxpayer who refuses, ignores, or otherwise does not comply with an IRS summons until that summons is backed by a federal court order…[a taxpayer] cannot be held in contempt, arrested, detained, or otherwise punished for refusing to comply with the original IRS summons, no matter the taxpayer's reasons, or lack of reasons for so refusing.”

          So what does this mean?  Who knows?  But the IRS has been put on notice and something is going to have to come of this.  I haven’t seen the media on the story and I wonder about that.  What good can come from any medium ignoring one of the biggest events of this millennium?

FUNNY PLEDGES

          Our governor wants to raise taxes.  Didn’t he say he wouldn’t raise taxes?  Now two of our leaders in Frankfort who signed the “No Tax Pledge” say they didn’t know that the pledge was forever.  Nothing is forever folks, but taking a no tax pledge doesn’t mean that you live by the pledge until it is convenient not to.

          I’m sure that the two “leaders” were adamant about no taxes during their campaigns.  I imagine they used their signing of the pledge to get elected.  Now that they are firmly embedded in Frankfort, their promises don’t mean anything.  I think that when you make a promise while campaigning or while in office and you break it later you should be made to leave office.  If I buy a car that is supposed to last for 10 years and it only lasts for 5, I want my money back.

          You see gentlemen, taxation is not about how you feel today.  Your stand on taxation is a principle that you live by.  Either you support tax and spend government or you don’t.  If you do support tax and spend government, don’t sign a pledge to the contrary.

          Lastly, when I sign a contract I look at the dates.  If I sign a contract to do something and there is no ending date I, as an intelligent human being, know that either I have pledged to do this thing as long as I live or I’m going to demand a termination date.  These monkeys signed an open-ended contract and should be held to it.

(Editor’s note:  The no-tax pledge includes a procedure for ending your pledge.  You must hold a press conference in an election year prior to the primary for your office and announce your intention to revoke your pledge in order to give the voters a chance to change their minds about you, too.)

TOBACCO WINS

          I’ll have more on this next week but as it stands now, the government lost its $280 billion suit against tobacco companies in a 2 to 1 federal decision.  This lawsuit was nothing but greed generated and at best a shot in the dark.

          The Iraqi war is approaching $230 billion.  That is the current price tag for freeing an entire country.  Our government was seeking to finance the entire Iraqi war and keep enough money, $50 billion, to get them through a couple of weeks of parties by laying the entire burden on private enterprise and the backs of some 70 million American smokers.  Gee.

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