Taxed 2 Debt!

Here, let me fix that for you, 2nd edition

Here at Taxed 2 Debt, we had not weighed in on the New York Mosque debacle because mostly we see it as a New York issue, but after some strange developments with the warnings and political fallout, we thought we’d go ahead and fix it for them.

The moderate Muslims want to build a community center right on the cusp of Ground Zero, where a building stood that was hit by the wreckage.  First and foremost, the argument that this is not a faith-based building is bogus.  My church has a creek, a football stadium, a gym, and a tether-ball pole that I nearly lost an arm on; however the main idea of the place is for people to get churched.  This argument holds no water.

Secondly, the moderate Muslims are feeling as if they are being persecuted by people who are saying, “Uh, could you not do that please?”  No, persecution is being blown up by a suicide bomber, or being shot on a public soccer field because you were a girl and you went to school.  Persecution, this is not.

Lastly, if you want to fix this mess, moderate Muslims, you will need a time machine.  You’ll need to set that time machine’s dial well before this fiasco bubbled up through the press, back to the staging process of your faith center.  Your cusp-of-ground-zero Muslim center will now need to be focused on remembering the victims of 9/11.  It would be a mosque built in memory of the victims of militant Islam, with a statue or a shrine, the victim’s names on the wall.  And somewhere on the walls or somewhere outside in a centered and singular site it could read: “Never again.”

The mosque could have been built on the promise of going forth to improve relations between your faith and the west.  It’s sad that people smarter than me did not think about that.  I literally stubbed my toe on another toe today.

In other words: The goal, if you wanted a building where people of Muslim faith could come worship and then play racket ball, should have been a memorial first, and whatever label you wanted second.  This country would have let you sacrifice baby unicorns if you wanted had you done it in a way that we felt was just.

Even as much as faith plays a role in all of this, justice may be the key word missing in all of this.  9 years later and the man who orchestrated this is still believed to be free.  It wasn’t the time to try to pull one over on us and then call us obtuse.

You’re welcome.

Einstein and Global Warming

While reading Paul Johnson’s Modern Times, an account of how the world changed from the 1920′s through the 1990′s, which begins with the impact of Einstein’s theories, a question sprang up in my energy-drink-soaked mind: What would Einstein think of Man-made Global Warming?

And in order to grasp the answer, it’s important to note that as a clerk in a patent office, while formulating his theory of relativity, Einstein had a particular scientific goal: Prove himself wrong.

Here was an attitude utterly different from the dogmatism of Marx, Freud, Adler, and even more so that of their followers. Einstein was looking for crucial experiments whose agreement with his predictions would by no means establish his theory; while a disagreement, as he was the first to stress, would show his theory to be untenable. This, (Paul Johnson) felt, was the truly scientific attitude. Modern Times, Paul Johnson

You see, this is how a real scientist works; without bias, without a hope for an outcome but a hope to prove oneself wrong. Copy and paste that mindset of the greatest physicist with those in charge of the research on Global Warming and you would find the two incomparable.

The climate change specialists and leading researchers have one goal in mind: Sway public opinion.

From the Wall Street Journal: “Phil Jones, the director of the East Anglia climate center, suggested to climate scientist Michael Mann of Penn State University that skeptics’ research was unwelcome: We “will keep them out somehow — even if we have to redefine what the peer-review literature is!” Neither man could be reached for comment Sunday. Wall Street Journal, November 2009.

Here’s the problem, if there is some private company testing the effects of radiated rabbit poop, their scientific mindset is none of my concern, however if this mindset, the one opposite of Einstein, is the same mindset guiding and directing government taxation and legislation, then we have a huge problem.  It’s not science when you’re trying to convince the masses of your faith.  That’s preaching.  Let’s save that for the preachers.

Tags: government spending

Best of the Year:

We’ve been online for a year. In that year’s time we’ve learned a lot of things. We’ve grown. We now have a crack team of researchers working around the clock to come up with new jokes and philosophical insight. No, wait. Those are only the people who live in my head.

Here’s some posts you may have missed:

The Dream Police

Our Tax Dollars at Work, a perspective from the real estate industry.

Time Traveling Adventures

Taxed 2 Debt Anniversary:

Taxed 2 Debt has been up for one year, and during that time we’ve seen some disturbing trends and yet some promising hope for the near future.

This website was started after a conversation at a Whataburger in Cedar Park, Texas. If you’ve never eaten at a Whataburger, you are missing out on some good burgers and breakfast taquitos that are so good they could be used as the currency to replace the dollar.

The conversation took place in 2007. A small business owner spoke to his friend who loved to blog, and together they formulated an idea. The idea was this: that small business owners are already taxed somewhere between 40 to 60 percent on their income, and this was causing many of them to go into debt.

But it wasn’t just about small businesses, but the middle class. The more heavily taxed the middle class is the more they simply cease to exist. They are the truly endangered species, hunted by higher taxes and giant government spending.

So an idea for a book was born, along with a website, and here we are a year later with a much larger audience and even more zeal to write about lower taxes. Thanks for sticking with us. We appreciate your readership.

Our Digits: (512) 827 9579

We now have a Google number and we want to encourage readers and scoffers to leave us phone messages if you are so inclined. The best ones will be posted on the website throughout the week. Your number will not be posted on the internet or used for any commercial or spam-like purposes. Thanks!

From Around The Al Gore’s Internets:

“Philip Stricker, 21, a biology major who voted for Mr. Obama but says he has not been paying much attention to politics lately, uses a nontechnical term to describe the phenomenon. “There’s a vibe,” he said on a recent afternoon, while pumping weights at the gym. “Right now it seems like Republicans just care a lot more than Democrats.”  From NYT’s piece, Fewer Young Voters See Themselves as Democrats, Read here.

“Taxes appear to be part of the story. When the National Federation of Independent Business asked small business owners in June to list the most important problem they faced, 20% named taxes, making that the second most cited concern after weak sales. The expectation of tax increases, such as those in Mr. Obama’s plan, is on the minds of the people who should be leading the recovery.”  From the WSJ op-ed, The Small Business Tax Hike and the 97% Fallacy, Read here.

Coming soon to a political theater near you: Fiscal Conservatism

Signs are good that 2010 will be the beginning of the end for this current liberal run.

Clip from Reagan address to students:

Last Week’s Links:

Peggy Noonan’s Op Ed, We Just Don’t Understand, Wall Street Journal

Karl Rove’s Op Ed, Honey, I Shrunk My Approval Ratings, Wall Street Journal

Optimism is Infectious

When I think of great orators, the Reagans, the Billy Grahams, the Martin Luther King Jr.’s, I see lines connecting their lives and service: hope.  That’s not to say these men weren’t honest with people: Reagan talked about how we had a common enemy, the evil emipire, Graham pointed us to the eternal decision and MLK pushed social change through love, however all three were inspiring and all three knew that things were going to get better.  There was light coming after the dark night.

Today in this economic, political and social climate: The news seems disturbing and frustrating.  It’s a wonder that more people say enough with it and just stick their head in the sand, ignoring the outside world.  But in spite of this chilling news, despite a vacuum of true leadership, and despite untrustworthy news officials and political representatives, America will come through.

Before the United States of America, no country had ever embraced so many people of so many diverse backgrounds.  Remember that when someone who doesn’t agree with your fiscal political position calls you a racist.  Never before has such a middle class been built and sustained to the degree it has in the US.   And with a record time frame.  This country became the most powerful nation in the history of the world in just a little over 200 years.  Google how long it took Rome or Egypt to take power, and there was no middle class back then.  Never before have so many people been faced with so much opportunity.

So whether you are tea partier, blue dog democratic, republican or an independent: We know what we need to do, cut spending and lower taxes.  We may have to go without services and that means churches may have to take a greater role with their needy.  The state may not be able to do as much as it once did.  This is not a call to cut social security and entrenched services but a call not to add any more weight on the scale until the budget is reasonably balanced.

We are not the party of no.  We are the party of answers.  We are a people of hope, calling people of all types of backgrounds to join together and use their vote and their voice to make sure our children have the same oppurtunity.

It’s not only possible it is probable if the people who believe this country is great come out in droves and leaders step up in this great leadership vacuum.

I’m looking forward to America’s future.  God will bless us.  There may be some tough times ahead but there’s a group of people, a core group, who will lead it in the right direction.

Thanks.