19.99 that's probably gonna be my refund...

What bugs me about taxes is not how much I pay, but the fact that most of the money goes to people who have more money than I do. We could probably take care of all our needy fellow citizens AND balance the budget if we didn't maintain a much larger military establishment than we need to defend this country, for the purpose of "projecting power", that is, enabling US and multinational corporations to rape the Global South (once known as the Third World) with impunity. (Also, of course, to enrich politically connected defense contractors.)

Real campaign finance reform would go a long way toward reducing excess spending, since most of the "pork-barrel" projects are kickbacks to campaign contributors.

I can dream, I guess.

From the Phantom Zone, Monster from the Id

Liz, that sucks! I at least got my money back and then some...

Monster, as you probably know, most people believe we spend a great amount on helping the poor both in and outside the United States, yet it's only an eeeeety-beeeeety leeeeetle fraction of our budget, while a huge chunk of our tax dollars go to the military establishment.

Some might say that's necessary to protect Americans, yet a few guys with some box cutters and a couple flight lessons were able to cause the worst terrorist tragedy in the nation's history. The many billions of dollars a year we spend on intelligence and missile defense and nuclear testing and weapons manufacturing and (fill in the blank) can't eliminate the threat of terrorist because it can't stop people from hating us.

The irony is, it only encourages people to hate us and become more persistent in their game plan.

We spend over a billion dollars in Iraq every week and we still can't stop some poor guys with home-made bombs from turning it into an inferno. This is what we spend our money on... not for raising up intelligent children, or for eliminating homelessness and the strain that the poverty cycle heaps on the country... we spend our money trying to run the world (and cover our behinds for making the mistake of trying to run the world).

And that's the way it will always be, unfortunately.

Actually, Drina, I'm no longer sure al-Qaida really perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. You might want to check out 911blimp.net, or the 9/11 section of tvnewslies.org . Fair warning, though; in checking out these sites, one needs the ability to distinguish bulls-eyes from bull$#|+!

From the Phantom Zone, Monster from the Id

Oh yeah--everything else you said is the stone-cold truth!

From the Phantom Zone, Monster from the Id