Another day, another day being misconstrued, misinterpreted and misread.
Oh well, makes for good copy I do suppose.
Before I put myself out there to be misunderstood yet again, I should say I appreciate all the dollar bills that have been put into my pocket over the past two weeks.
For those wondering what I'm talking about, I had quite a few people come up to me, give me a dollar bill, then tell me it was to feed my child. This happened at the GSU ArtsFest, in particular.
Thank y'all for the popcorn.
But, in all seriousness, I never suggested that I thought my child would go hungry or that I needed help feeding him. (If you've ever seen the size of him, you'd know). What I did say, however, is that someone else shouldn't tell me how to spend my money and that I should decide what to do with my hard-earned money. You love a dog and want to feed him? Super duper. Just don't make me do it.
(P.S. Taxes are not voluntary. Try not paying them)
Honestly, is that so wrong? For a citizen of the United States to decide what to do with every dollar they earn?
Ironically, this line of thinking is causing me to take another look at Georgia Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson's GREAT tax plan. Previously, I said I disapproved of his plan primarily because the centralization of collection would require local officials to go to Atlanta and beg hat-in-hand for the money we already sent. Not a big centralization fan.
Shocking, I know.
However, I'm beginning to lean a little more in his direction. In some ways, like Neal Boortz' Fair Tax Plan, I feel it would put more power in the hands of the individual. Want to pay less taxes? Spend less money. Simple concept.
Now, I'm not particularly enamored with all the ideas in Richardson's plan, especially the idea of taxing groceries. That, in my humble opinion, is a direct tax on the poorest of Americans. It taxes from the bottom layer of Maslow's hierarchy — physiological needs. Not something we need to do.
But, since I do believe in personal responsibility and that Americans should be concerned with taking care of themselves first, their family second and then paying their fair share of government expenses, a purchase-point tax may be worth considering.
If nothing else, it would require government to live like the rest of us — when income is down, spending goes down.
On a completely separate note, the Pope is in the house. Word.
But what's crazy is that the mainstream media seems focused on only one thing — how the Pope is going to apologize to sex abuse victims.
Let's look at recent headlines.
"Pope meets with victims of sex abuse." MSNBC.
"Pope addresses church sex abuse during open-air Washington mass." FOX News.
"Abuse scandal to shadow Pope's U.S. trip." Houston Chronicle.
"Pope confronts church sins." ABC News.
If anyone's been watching the TV coverage, it's been, "What's he going to do about sex abuse?" or "What's he saying now about sex abuse?" or "What did he just say about sex abuse?" or "What's the meaning of what he said about sex abuse?" All day, all the time.
Does anyone actually know the theme of the Pope's visit?
Christ Our Hope.
Yet, the media and many Americans are solely focused on the scandal. What ever happened to in-depth coverage? Heck, what ever happened to forgiveness?
Now, before someone goes off the deep end and misconstrues my intent, the abuses and subsequent cover-ups were dastardly. But for news organizations to focus on one topic and paint the entire church in this light is to narrow an entire organization down to one issue.
But that's the way we are here in America. We're a pigeon-hole society. We like to categorize people, positions, religions and politicians.
If you're against the war, you're a left-wing zealot.
If you're against abortion, you're a right-wing wacko.
One opinion on one issue doth not a philosophy make.
Perhaps we can all take that to heart.
Oh well, makes for good copy I do suppose.
Before I put myself out there to be misunderstood yet again, I should say I appreciate all the dollar bills that have been put into my pocket over the past two weeks.
For those wondering what I'm talking about, I had quite a few people come up to me, give me a dollar bill, then tell me it was to feed my child. This happened at the GSU ArtsFest, in particular.
Thank y'all for the popcorn.
But, in all seriousness, I never suggested that I thought my child would go hungry or that I needed help feeding him. (If you've ever seen the size of him, you'd know). What I did say, however, is that someone else shouldn't tell me how to spend my money and that I should decide what to do with my hard-earned money. You love a dog and want to feed him? Super duper. Just don't make me do it.
(P.S. Taxes are not voluntary. Try not paying them)
Honestly, is that so wrong? For a citizen of the United States to decide what to do with every dollar they earn?
Ironically, this line of thinking is causing me to take another look at Georgia Speaker of the House Glenn Richardson's GREAT tax plan. Previously, I said I disapproved of his plan primarily because the centralization of collection would require local officials to go to Atlanta and beg hat-in-hand for the money we already sent. Not a big centralization fan.
Shocking, I know.
However, I'm beginning to lean a little more in his direction. In some ways, like Neal Boortz' Fair Tax Plan, I feel it would put more power in the hands of the individual. Want to pay less taxes? Spend less money. Simple concept.
Now, I'm not particularly enamored with all the ideas in Richardson's plan, especially the idea of taxing groceries. That, in my humble opinion, is a direct tax on the poorest of Americans. It taxes from the bottom layer of Maslow's hierarchy — physiological needs. Not something we need to do.
But, since I do believe in personal responsibility and that Americans should be concerned with taking care of themselves first, their family second and then paying their fair share of government expenses, a purchase-point tax may be worth considering.
If nothing else, it would require government to live like the rest of us — when income is down, spending goes down.
On a completely separate note, the Pope is in the house. Word.
But what's crazy is that the mainstream media seems focused on only one thing — how the Pope is going to apologize to sex abuse victims.
Let's look at recent headlines.
"Pope meets with victims of sex abuse." MSNBC.
"Pope addresses church sex abuse during open-air Washington mass." FOX News.
"Abuse scandal to shadow Pope's U.S. trip." Houston Chronicle.
"Pope confronts church sins." ABC News.
If anyone's been watching the TV coverage, it's been, "What's he going to do about sex abuse?" or "What's he saying now about sex abuse?" or "What did he just say about sex abuse?" or "What's the meaning of what he said about sex abuse?" All day, all the time.
Does anyone actually know the theme of the Pope's visit?
Christ Our Hope.
Yet, the media and many Americans are solely focused on the scandal. What ever happened to in-depth coverage? Heck, what ever happened to forgiveness?
Now, before someone goes off the deep end and misconstrues my intent, the abuses and subsequent cover-ups were dastardly. But for news organizations to focus on one topic and paint the entire church in this light is to narrow an entire organization down to one issue.
But that's the way we are here in America. We're a pigeon-hole society. We like to categorize people, positions, religions and politicians.
If you're against the war, you're a left-wing zealot.
If you're against abortion, you're a right-wing wacko.
One opinion on one issue doth not a philosophy make.
Perhaps we can all take that to heart.