I have to voice out on a political topic either people are feeling very passionate about or know nothing about. Personally, this time I wish I were on the latter end of the spectrum.

Right now people are protesting the abuse of federal income tax through these “tea party” protests where they dress like 18th century colonists or Mad Hatters and yell things at big buildings or hold up funny signs. For weeks previous to these rallies people were encouraged to send tea bags to their representatives in Washington to let them know, “Hey, we’re pissed you’re forcibly taking our hard-earned money and putting it towards programs we don’t support, assholes.” Turns out a lot of people in Washington didn’t get the ridiculous memo about the bags of orange pekoe and thought they were being poisoned with anthrax again.

I agree that federal income tax is completely unjust. I believe that the income tax is exploitative and totalitarian, and at this point the Government is doing nothing more than abusing the trust that the people have in a system that is supposed to represent them. Why people trust them to begin with, I don’t know.  I don’t think a lot of people understand that our tax money is what supports a corrupt corporate welfare system, bank bailouts, a useless space program, a dangerous drug war among other things. You know, there was a time in history when it was considered unconstitutional for the Federal Government to take income tax. The Government was a lot smaller and didn’t need to force the people of this nation to fork over their money.  Those were simpler times.

It’s not that I don’t support the intentions on the protesters, or even the protesters. I don’t necessarily think these methods are effective as much as they are…ridiculous. But that is the least of our problems.

The real problem I have with it, is that all of a sudden the Republicans have jumped upon the bandwagon and decided they are pissed about income taxes too. Never mind that their last president used the tax dollars collected from the people’s income to wipe his ass and blow his nose, this was an attack on the current administration and they had to jump in and, frankly, take over. All of a sudden Glenn Beck and the rest of the nutjobs on Fox News are covering the rallies and showing their support, and now it’s become another Republicans vs. Democrats charade. This has always been an issue in opposition to big Government, which whether they admit it or not, modern Republicans are proponents of along with their more liberal counterparts.Yeah, counterparts, not enemies. As far as I am concerned they are the same fucking thing.

Those sons of bitches came in and bogarted a very important Libertarian issue. Was anyone ever aware that these rallies happened in 2007 and 2008? Yeah, there were even more people dressing like 18th century colonists reenacting the Boston tea party, and no one paid any attention. I’m pissed.

On a similar note, I have a love/hate relationship with Glenn Beck. I know everyone thinks he is insane and hateful, and sometimes they are absolutely right. He is a Alex Jones-esque fearmonger, and because of that he fits right in on FoxNews. He is also very supportive of  Libertarian beliefs. He  regularly invites Ron Paul, Penn Jillette, Bob Barr, and other important Libertarians on his show. And then invites Toby Keith on and talks about how people are taking too many medications and drowning out the voice of God.

Ugh.

I called it. I knew that “1 in 50″ children sounded a bit like an exaggeration, and the only people who would actually believe that statistic probably don’t leave  their yuppy gated communities very often.

If we went by the National Center on Family Homelessness’s definition of “homelessness”, then I can definitely claim that I have been “homeless” several times in my life. There were points in my unstable childhood when we were living with my aunt and her kids, or my grandparents, and a point after my mom died that I was staying with friends. I got to tell you, I never thought of myself as being as “in need” as this report would have you believe I was. Have I ever been without food, shelter, clothes, shoes, education, an address,  or cable? No.

There are kids in this country whose parents are in a bad enough situation that they can’t even find say they have a family member or friend with a place for them to sleep in. They find themselves sleeping in crowded shelters and eating out of soup kitchens. The number of those kids is substantially lower than this initial report states, but in a country as prosperous as ours, it’s still no less disturbing. I know it’s cliche, but our biggest health problem is OBESITY and there are still some people in this country that can’t be guaranteed a meal. It’s…it’s a little…sad.

Poverty in America is very different from, say, poverty in Central/South America, Africa, or parts of Asia. In other parts of the world people aren’t given the opportunity to improve their situations. There isn’t enough work for people to take on, and unless you are born into a particular family or cast, access to education isn’t possible. There just aren’t any opportunities and you kind of have to accept your situation, unless you find a way to leave the country. Poverty here is very different. Poverty is not a condition that you are stuck with your entire life, it’s not a disease like some people want you to think. You can, if you stick to your guns, go to school free of charge, and even make it to college for at least 2 years with grants and scholarships, and then get a job and dig your way out and live fairly comfortably. If you work really hard and are really talented you can even become filthy rich. Literally, your fate is in your hands. What am I getting at with this? I think you can figure it out. We’ve got it pretty cushy in this country so don’t go getting all anti-super-rich-corporation, you hippy knucklehead.