October 2009 Archives

 The blog here.

 What are the chances of finding a World Series ring in Australia?

 There has been for some time now a tax protester movement on the fringes of the libertarian movement. These are the people who claim tax law is illegitimate, that for statutory or constitutional reasons the income tax is illegal. It's a rather silly argument, and No Third Solution accurately reflects my views on the subject:

For the record, it doesn't matter whether a tax on wages is "legal" because as a rule, the various taxes on wage-income are handled as though they are legal and case law has been adjudicated in such a manner as to render impotent the "statutory" defenses like those raised by the Browns. So it doesn't matter if they're "legal" or not, the law has proven powerless to uphold itself.

The only appropriate tax rate is zero, and the only real argument is not whether income taxes are "legal" but rather, whether they are proper.

No man in his individual capacity would be justified in extracting "taxes" from any other man. And what would not be tolerated of any man ought not be tolerated of any men.

I've always been bemused/perplexed by the idea that people collectively can circumvent morality that applies to individuals. It takes a lot of rationalizing to believe that, yet that belief seems nearly universal.

 Previous related thoughts here.

  Scottish brewery BrewDog launched a new product last July, a beer with a potent 18.2 alcohol percentage, billed as Britains strongest. But rather than congratulating them, certain 'health campaigners'  heaped criticism:

"It is utterly irresponsible to bring out a beer which is so strong at a time when Scotland is facing unprecedented levels of alcohol-related health and social harm.

and

"Glamorising the strength of beer, or any alcoholic drink, will not deter people from drinking heavily or help alleviate the country's irresponsible binge-drinking culture.

"On the contrary, the notion of binge-drinking is to get drunk quick, so surely this beer will help people on their way? In fact, if a woman were to drink a bottle of this beer, she would be technically binge-drinking."

also

"A high alcohol percentage content is equally damaging as drinking vast quantities and I think we want to see a lot of drink producers being much more responsible about that.

BrewDog's just-so response? A new beer with a miniscule 1.1 alcohol percentage, named Nanny State.