[QUOTE=MrDibble]
Well, if it’s riding roughshod over other nations…
[/QUOTE]
I was talking about Iceland.
[QUOTE=askeptic]
I was talking about Iceland.
[/QUOTE]
It’s geographically ice-olated.
[QUOTE=RTFirefly]
It’s geographically ice-olated.
[/QUOTE]
that was out-land-ish.
[QUOTE=askeptic]
But you better not mention Nazis in any context, apparently.
[/QUOTE]
My ass!
NAZIS FOR FREE SILVER!
[QUOTE=wring]
that was out-land-ish.
[/QUOTE]
You mean it had a space cop chasing deadly drug smuggling asteroid miners and peoples heads exploding from explosive decompresion?
[QUOTE=askeptic]
You mean it had a space cop chasing deadly drug smuggling asteroid miners and peoples heads exploding from explosive decompresion?
[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=askeptic]
I was talking about Iceland.
[/QUOTE]
I know, I was just bringing it back to the US.
[QUOTE=MrDibble]
I know, I was just bringing it back to the US.
[/QUOTE]
Trying to gloss over the fact that your point was sort of pointless?
[QUOTE=askeptic]
You mean it had a space cop chasing deadly drug smuggling asteroid miners and peoples heads exploding from explosive decompresion?
[/QUOTE]
“Heads exploding” indeed! What bullshit! Even worse than Total Recall! Mission to Mars, now, got that more or less right.
So I take it we’re all done here? (Once the puns start flying around, I know the end is near…)
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
“Heads exploding” indeed! What bullshit! Even worse than Total Recall! Mission to Mars, now, got that more or less right.
[/QUOTE]
Oh come on, it was 1981. Give em a break.
[QUOTE=Weirddave]
Jesus Christ you’re a fucking douchbag. You? A patriot? YOU??? You’re the biggest fucking traitor on these boards. You mistake criticism for content, and slavishly lust after a political philosophy of legalized theft that is an anathema to those individuals who sweated and fought and died to make this country great.
[/QUOTE]
Legalized theft? You mean, like taking our tax dollars and giving it to private contractors in Iraq? Now that’s theft. Do you denounce that?
[QUOTE=Blalron]
Legalized theft? You mean, like taking our tax dollars and giving it to private contractors in Iraq? Now that’s theft. Do you denounce that?
[/QUOTE]
You’re missing the point. Not that I’m defending contractors in Iraq, but the “legalized theft” is the “taking our tax dollars” in the first place. What’s done with the money after that is water under the bridge.
[QUOTE=Carol Stream]
Not that I’m defending contractors in Iraq, but the “legalized theft” is the “taking our tax dollars” in the first place.
[/QUOTE]
“Taxation is theft” is a slogan about on a level with “Property is theft.” “Theft” is a legal concept. If it’s “legalized,” it isn’t theft. In any case, you are aware, are you not, that taxation is an inherent sovereign power of any government worth the name? If it can’t tax, it’s not a government at all. And taxation is practiced by nearly every government regardless of political system or ideology, the sole exceptions being those governments that own the whole economy anyway (North Korea) or own their own property producing sufficient revenue to pay all government bills (Saudi Arabia). Government is not in and of itself a directly economically productive enterprise, and it costs a lot of money and must be paid for somehow. Since effective government is hardly something we can dispense with (as you will see if you look at conditions in any failed state), an argument against taxation as such is hardly even worth considering.
[QUOTE=BrainGlutton]
Since effective government is hardly something we can dispense with (as you will see if you look at conditions in any failed state), an argument against taxation as such is hardly even worth considering.
[/QUOTE]
Your cite is a wiki about Noam Chomsky! Dude, you need to get out more.
[QUOTE=Carol Stream]
Your cite is a wiki about Noam Chomsky! Dude, you need to get out more.
[/QUOTE]
The Chomsky reference is for disambiguation purposes. The page appears to be slanted toward the views of the Fund for Peace, and its neutrality is disputed. There very well may be a connection between Chomsky and the Fund for Peace. I don’t know. Do you?
It’s also irrelevant to Brain Glutton’s point, which is that taxation in society is both an inherent function of government and a necessary evil.
[QUOTE=Carol Stream]
Your cite is a wiki about Noam Chomsky!
[/QUOTE]
[John Cleese]
No, it isn’t.
[/Cleese]
ETA: Yeah, Frank, just sneak in ahead of me like that!
I bet you used your super-duper moderator powers. 
[QUOTE=Frank]
It’s also irrelevant to Brain Glutton’s point, which is that taxation in society is both an inherent function of government and a necessary evil.
[/QUOTE]
Possibly so, but not at the level you and BG want it to be.
[QUOTE=Carol Stream]
Possibly so, but not at the level you and BG want it to be.
[/QUOTE]
And that’s certainly a valid debate, but taxes are not theft. But hey, it’s your windmill. 
[QUOTE=Frank]
And that’s certainly a valid debate, but taxes are not theft. But hey, it’s your windmill.
[/QUOTE]
Confiscatory taxes, such as those that tax the successful, or those that have the misfortune of dying, for example, are theft. It’s “for each, according to his ability, to each, according to his need” writ large. No thank you.
Edited to add: Yes, I know I am tilting at windmills.