Meandering Monday

America is often compared to Rome and many of those comparisons try to draw parallels between America's collapse to that of the Roman Empire. Those comparisons don't always sit well with me even though the Mexican border issue closely parallels that of the Germanic tribes freely crossing the Roman frontier toward Rome's end. America is having a bad time right now but modern Visigoths will not be sacking Washington DC any time soon. When comparing America and Rome we need to to turn the clock back several centuries to the end of the Roman Republic because we seem to be approaching that point. All that is missing so far is our Caesar. If that person comes along America will be a Fascist nation regardless of whether that person has an 'R' or a 'D' behind their name.

Of all taxes we are charged, property taxes are the most insidious. While you can limit a VAT or sales tax by reducing consumption and income taxes by not having an income, the only way to avoid property taxes is to not own property. If you fail to pay property taxes then there will be someone coming to take away your property which ultimately means that it is not yours. Real estate is the only property on which we are taxed continuously after purchase and we would do well to force our local governments to get rid of this one tax that makes otherwise free people into serfs.

One of the best exchanges from South Pacific is the conversation between a military officer and Emile, the Frenchman. I may not have the lines exact but the spirit remains:

Officer: Why, we're against the Japs of course...
Emile: But what are you for?

As criticism of conservatives, conservative-libertarians, and especially those of us with traditional Christian values grows in both volume and fury we must take time to determine not what we are against but what we are for. The better we can articulate why the free market is superior to the command economy, Christian values are better than pop culture values, and why the vision of the Founders is better than that of so-called Progressives, Socialist, Fascists, and Communists we will be that much better off.

Last night I sat through the 20th Halloween special from the Simpsons. Now the Simpsons has been one of my favorite shows for a long time. Yes, it has always had a simmering bias against Christianity in its portrayal of the always square, sometimes judgmental, pushover Ned Flanders and his 'uber-Christian' family. Ned has always been a foil for Homer and in spite of his nerdiness, he has shown nothing but Christian love and forgiveness no matter how much abuse has been heaped upon him by Homer (which is quite surprising). But since the re-advent of truly horrid and anti-Christian The Family Guy and the equally anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-traditional values American Dad, the Simpsons have upped their anti-Christian bias to remain 'edgy' and 'meaningful' on Sunday night Fox "family" programming. The Simpsons has grown less funny and last night openly attacked the concept of the Christian Communion/Catholic Eucharist. Since I don't believe in Transubstantiation (the concept that the wine/grape juice and bread actually become the blood and body of Jesus) and was irritated rather than offended, I asked myself when was the last time the Simpsons or any show made fun of the foibles of the Islamic religion or any Dharmic religion from the East.

Weekends are supposed to work to let your mind rest and refocus but I find myself more unfocused than ever on Mondays. Maybe I'll start writing Monday's blog on Friday so I can get it together and focus on one thought for the rest of the week!