Self-Inflicted Tyranny: Deception, Servitude, and the Iron Boot

Reacting to the Wesley Snipes tax-avoidance verdict, Dan Riehl nails it. As you read Riehl's passage, keep in mind Harry Reid's telling and abominable remarks earlier in the month about our tax system being "voluntary":

... I'm not suggesting Snipes isn't guilty, or shouldn't go to jail, but you never hear a peep from the supposed freedom loving liberals when it comes to how government taxes and spends, thereby controlling our lives, as well as our livelihoods.

You can peace march all you want, try to persecute telco's for providing information to the government, and stage all the faux torture events you want in protest of government actions.

But what's perfectly clear in America today is one thing - you don't screw with the tax man. Never let it be said that our government doesn't know from whence its power springs.

It would be wise to consider that when debating hyper-regulative responses to issues like global warming and supporting politicians who love big government. It always comes with a price. And ultimately that price is freedom, just as much as it is dollars.

In relative terms, there will be little or no liberal hand-wringing over the Snipes conviction, which causes one to wonder if they really understand freedom at all. Snipes appears to be guilty, but he WAS striking Big Brother at its heart in a way few if any anti-war protesters ever do.

And the message is clear - Big Brother knows how to deal with threats to its collective heart when they really matter.

Issues like the above are why I genuinely question the motivations of liberals today. They claim to be championing liberty. Yet nearly everything they champion calls for more taxation and regulation. One can't do both and be intellectually consistent, or honest.

Bravo! Read the whole thing.

The most evil and insidious "trick" our Congress--which is so eager to ever greater amounts of our money--plays on the public, is to force a great majority of its employed citizens to have their taxes deducted from their paychecks throughout the year; for if all of our taxpaying citizens were allowed to let their own money earn interest for their own families over that same year--and then to be forced to write one enormous check from their savings at the end of the year--these citizens would not so easily vote for the very liars and thieves who would deprive them of even more.

I have my own business, and therefore have the "pleasure" of paying ridiculous sums of money four times per year instead of 26 (or 52...). And therefore I have a clearer--and starker--picture of what our wasteful, frivolous, pork-loving Politicians are doing to each and every one of us (at least those of us without our hands out...) It makes my blood boil, especially when I hear the Marxist bastards running our Congress (and running for President..) imply that it is the Government's money which they are graciously allowing us to keep some of--rather than the other way around.

As for Harry Reid's "voluntary" tax: I give you Mr. Wesley Snipes.