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It is 9 a.m. on Tuesday morning. Already on my third cup of coffee, I'm ready to begin my biweekly ritual of scouring the news for some relevant current event that contains enough energy to draw an opinion column from my fatigued brain.
Most of the time, this is a relatively simple process. With Google News and The Wall Street Journal close at hand, choosing an appropriate column topic is rarely difficult.
Today, however, serves to be an exception. After exhausting nearly every news outlet that I consider credible, I find myself stuck in the same creative rut that I sunk into two hours ago. Unable to muster the slightest urge to comment on the world of today, I'm beginning to lose hope. I blame the world for experiencing a "slow news week," although I know this isn't true.
The media hasn't slowed in the slightest since its rise to dominance. With televisions and computers in nearly every home in America, the news has done nothing but inundate citizens with endless information concerning anything imaginable. Look at any network news broadcast: endless tickers and reels fly to and fro across the screen, invoking an audiovisual seizure. It seems that there is more than enough news to go around, so why can't I find something to write about?
There is simply too much to wrap my brain around. I cannot process the volume of senseless garbage that the television hurls at my fragile being each time I turn it on. In light of this, I have chosen to opt for a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em," strategy. In the style of our modern media, I offer you my thoughtful, concise opinions on whatever happened to grab my attention this week.
The Chesapeake states held open primaries yesterday in a key portion of this year's presidential race. Republicans, in dire need of a magic electoral bullet, are hawking a man who makes Ronald Regan look sprightly and a Christian fundamentalist who simply scares the hell out of me. The Democrats have opted for a different approach in line with their catch-all philosophy, but so far have failed to meet expectations. Hillary Clinton strikes me as an overambitious political monster.
That combined with her staggering lack of competence will keep my vote well away from a Democrat ballot box. Barack Obama fares better than most but flaunts socialist tendencies that make my classically liberal heart shudder. Today's results play a major role in America's future. I can only hope that democracy chooses a future that doesn't condemn us to self-destruction, or as H.L. Mencken once said, "On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
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What is the point of the column? That's what I thought after I read it.
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The income tax, if memory serves me correctly, was actually not enacted until the middle of World War I (it was actually codified into the Constitution via amendment), and it's purpose was as a means of generating the extra revenue a wartime government needs to operate. What we have wound up with, over the years, is a bloated federal government which takes levying income taxes as its divine right. I personally would feel better if we just got rid of income taxes and relied instead on excise taxes and other taxes on imports/exports like the country used to do.
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