Things I’ve been asked but can’t make sense of:
Someone else: “The town of Montague thinks it can control the weather by raising taxes?”
Someone else: “Huh?”
Someone else: “It was in the Recorder, apparently someone in Montague wants the town to get behind the idea that transferring even more cash and power to ‘big brother’ to affect global change.”
Me: “I think you mean climate warming.”
Someone else: “Whatevs.”
Me: “I think I know what you’re referring to. The idea is to give the state of Massachusetts, a big government that gets high marks for corruption and low marks for fiscal responsibility, more control over private business and more opportunity to extract money from taxpayer pockets.”
Someone else: “I thought those tax increases were only on ‘evil’ businesses?”
Me: “Who gets to pick the businesses that are ‘evil?’ The hand rocking that cradle is in for a serious payday. All those tax and fee increases turn to vapor. We never see any benefit.”
Someone else: “I’ll bet the vapor from evaporating taxpayer money is causing the ozone layer to harden and there’s the cause of climate frosting.”
Me: “You mean global basting?”
Someone else: “I read that this global cooling is a crisis, and if we don’t give up more of our freedoms and cash to big government, our eyeballs are gonna melt!”
Me: “Whenever you see ‘we are in crisis,’ ‘ it’s for the children,’ ‘ if it saves one life’ or other such guilt-trip driven drivel, you known you’re being fed bad policy.”
Someone else: “Golly, what ever should I do?”
Me: “Resist. Stand up against big government tyranny, stand up for right to make your own choices. When you hear ‘crisis!’ and there’s taxes, fees, rules, regulations, attached — run! The thought police are likely to be just down the street.”
Steve Constantine
Millers Falls