March 27, 2006

What's Nobody's Business is Everybody's
By Lady Liberty

It seems that some people - in fact, most people - will give up all sorts of things if they think they're getting something desirable in return. Lately, the thing we all seem to be giving up the most of is privacy. We think we're exchanging it for cost savings or security, or for some other thing that makes sense to us at the time. What too many don't seem to realize is that we're all too often being shortchanged.

We walk into our local supermarket and hand over our "loyalty" card which we're told offers us savings. All we have to do is give up our name, address, and phone number. As an added bonus, we may also receive coupons for frequently purchased items. Now, if this happened as simply as it's explained to us, it might be worth the information we give to get it. But that's not quite how these things work. (Read the rest here)

Those Stubborn Shrubs
By Alvaro Vargas Llosa

The latest U.S. figures indicate there has been a big increase in coca cultivation in Peru over the past year and a smaller but noticeable spike in Bolivia. Even more significantly, the coca estimates for Colombia, which will be published later, are also up after three years of what looked like a successful eradication effort. Actually, this has been the pattern for the last thirty years: every time it looks like eradication is working cultivation goes back up again. Is anyone in any position of responsibility in the U.S. even considering the possibility of a totally new approach?

I hasten to add that there are signs that some officials at the State Department understand the need to deemphasize the drug issue to Latin American countries. There are even signs that Washington may be amenable to some compromise with Andean countries like Bolivia that want to increase the number of hectares of coca allowed for legal uses. (Read the rest here)

Taxes, Death and Certainty
By SARTRE

Each season when spring approaches, attention turns to the ritual of filling out tax forms. All year long paying taxes is an integral part of the daily regiment. But when it comes time to sign your permission slip for legalized thievery, your submission to indentured servitude goes public. By becoming just another number in the long line of digital compliance under the penalty of perjury, the average citizen is performing his or her financial obligation to the State. At least that is what you are told is your duty.

Listing of all the hidden taxes on every facet of life have often been documented by many astute observers of the tax game. But what is mostly ignored is that collecting taxes is unnecessary to fund governments. Look at the process from a different perspective. When sociologist Max Weber in his 1918 speech Politik als Beruf (Politics as a Vocation), coined the famous concept “monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force” he could not imagine just how efficient modern governments have perfected the practice of intimidation. All those theories that paying federal and state income taxes is a voluntary act may fly in an ivory tower, but in tax court the judge will simply assess your property or send you off to a re-education camp. (Read the rest here)

To The Moon Alice
By Ed Henry

Throwing fiscal responsibility to the wind, Congress just raised the national debt limit to almost $9 trillion. This is the fourth time they’ve raised the debt limit in the last five years.

On the same day, they also abandoned their own finance, budget, and other related committee responsibilities and approved Bush’s $2.8 trillion budget for fiscal 2007 continuing huge deficits on the road to financial disaster. (Read the rest here)

Your Feedback and Comments
The Mailbag for This Week

Do you know a good liberty centered blogs? Tell us about it!

Liberty Bloggers We Know