Here's a post I forgot about. I started it quite a while back, and then promptly lost it. I finished it today, because it was a relatively good post, and came easily, and I don't write many of those:

They've Stolen Our Freedom! Or Have They?

[My original intro, which has nothing to do with this post. However, it seemed to belong by right of association, so I left it in. Skip it if you want.] You know, if I had any suspicion that anyone besides Pieter regularly read my weblog, I'd actually write more often. It's the security of having a following-of-one (and that one not following as closely as he used to) that stifles my budding genius and hampers the flow of literary verbosity. Please don't disillusion me--I like being lazy.

I read an article about income tax today by my sometime-friend (don’t smack me, Pieter!). He argues that the income tax imposed on him amounts to nothing less than slavery. True freedom, he implies, entails the ability to do whatever you want with all of your money; not to be forced to spend it on someone else's public-education, or to pay for government-funded abortions, or to fund the private vacations of congressmen.

Of course, much as we all hate to admit it, that sort of freedom cannot exist except in a vacuum. If we want the security and (even) the benefits of living in an orderly civilization, we have to expect a price. That price takes the form of taxes, laws that hinder us even while they protect us, and, yes, sometimes even an unconstitutional amendment allowing Government to take our income. Not that I’m arguing that any of this is ideal—only that it’s to be expected.

You want security, you give up freedom. That’s the rule of thumb, and it’s a livable rule. Sure, I hate income tax too. Nothing inherently gives Government the right to snatch nearly half my income to spend at its discretion. It is, however, a right that I relinquished in favor of personal and economic security.

Which is not to say I won’t be ready to take that right back again if and when someone gets up enough gumption and national support to work towards another amendment repealing the income theft.

So...what are you waiting for, Pieter?