Breaking the Code....

....The IRS Code that is. Over on my sidebar, under the "Pet Causes" heading, you will see a link to the FairTax.org website. I've been following the various debates over how to fix the tax code for several years. There have been efforts to reform or simplify the present code ranging from tweaking rates or deductions to replacement with a flat tax. They either haven't worked for long (1986 tax reform) or not gone anywhere (flat tax). The one thing all of the various proposals had in common is that they were all variations on how to tax income. What constitutes income has turned out to be a very elastic concept and the IRS Code is a system that is designed to be gamed. I think I've finally seen the solution to this problem. Stop taxing income. Tax consumption.

Congressman John Linder and Libertarian radio talk show host Neal Boortz have collaborated on the writing of a book,The FairTax Book. I bought a copy last year. It lays out the case for ditching the current tax code and replacing the income tax with a national sales tax. The details of how it works are best left to the book but some of the main points are:

The FairTax

• Abolishes the IRS
• Closes all tax loopholes and brings fairness to taxation
• Maintains our current Social Security and Medicare benefits
• Brings transparency and accountability to tax policy
• Allows American products to compete fairly
• Reimburses the tax on purchases of basic necessities for everybody up to the poverty line, so effectively the poor don't pay.
  
• Enables retirees to keep their entire pension
• Enables workers to keep their entire paycheck
• Transfers power from Washington DC back to the people, where the Founding Fathers intended it to be (oh be still my libertarian heart).
  

A question about the FairTax was on the ballot in three Georgia counties during the recent primary election. Not only did it get people out to vote in what was otherwise expeced to be a low turnout primary, it garnered 85% approval. Just this morning, I listened to a rally for the FairTax held in Orlando, Florida streamed by AM 580 WBDO. Between 10,000 and 12,000 people showed up in the Florida summer heat to show their support for this. It's got legs.

I really urge you to get the book and educate yourself about this. Don't listen to those who criticize it after first rewriting it to say what it doesn't and then proceed to critique their strawman. Go to the sources. Again those are:

FairTax.org
FairTax Groups and
The FairTax Book

Sometimes It's Better Not to Stop a Fight....

I found this post by Treppenwitz (via Hugh Hewitt) the other day. Read the whole thing but the bottom line is:

" This is one time an Arab aggressor must be allowed to be beaten so badly that every civilized nation will stand in horror, wanting desperately to step in and stop the carnage... but knowing that the fight will only truly be over when one side gives up and finally admits defeat. "

It has to be done sooner or later or we will just find ourselves right back where we started in the very near future.

More on Alt Energy

Instapundit linked to this post by Donald Sensing a couple of days ago. It is related to the post I pointed to last week by Will Collier on solar power. Sensing quotes extensively from Steven Den Beste about several forms of alternative energy. An interesting point is that there is energy and energy sources or outputs and inputs. For example, electricity is a form of energy, but it is not a source of energy. It is produced (mostly) by burning fossil fuels. Unless we are willing to look again at nuclear power, it looks like we will be dependent on coal or petroleum for a long time to come.

Villainous Company Is Good Company

I've just discovered this blog in the last couple of weeks. I really like what I am reading there and this post from today is a good example of why. It's another brilliant and whithering critique of the New York Times. The proprietress, Cassandra is a frequent poster and a good writer. From now on she is on my daily Blog Patrol. Now, go and read the whole thing (via Instapundit and Powerline).

"Alternative Energy for People Who Never Had to Take a Physics Class"

Will Collier had this great quote over at Vodkapundit "alternative energy for people who never had to take a physics class." As a former E. Cobb County resident myself I don't think I'd want Georgia paved over with solar panels either. As appealing an idea as solar energy is I don't foresee it becoming a practical large-scale power source for a very long time to come. Read the post and you'll see why.

The NY Times Takes Charge of National Security

I found this (via Instapundit) this morning. Villainous Company: Bill Keller: The Unitary Editor. It is an excellent summary of the controversy surrounding the NY Times and its penchant for publishing classified information to the detriment of our national security. I don't recall getting a chance to vote for putting Bill Keller in charge. The man needs to be muzzled. This is the second time in the last few of months (the first was the NSA data mining) that he has taken it upon himself and the NY Times to blow a secret program that was effective at identifying and tracking terrorists. Why isn't he being prosecuted?

RIP Acidman

(originally posted 6/27, toasted by Blogger 6/29)

One of my daily stops on Blog Patrol has been Acidman, a.k.a. Rob Smith. Rob passed away sometime over last Sunday night/early Monday morning. Rob was a cantankerous, politically incorrect and brutally honest guy who wore his life on his sleeve and a very good writer. We need more men like him and now we are one more short.

As difficult a character as he could be I think he was really pretty soft-hearted and it showed in the way he talked about is children, Quinton and Sam. There could be no question as to how much he loved them. It also accounts for how hard he took the betrayal of she whom we shall not name.

I never met Rob but did have a chance about 3 years ago. He was going to be at a blogmeet for Georgia bloggers up in Dahlonega. It was early Fall and I was still living in Georgia at the time. Rob put up a post asking if anyone knew what condition the foliage was in. As luck would have it I had just been on a little road trip through the North Georgia mountains and had taken some pictures. I sent a couple of likely suspects along to him so he could see for himself. I got a very gracious reply thanking me for the pictures and inviting me to drop in on the blogmeet and say 'hi.' I was going to be up in the mountains again, horseback riding with my daughter but even though I was passing close by I elected not to stop as I was running later than I thought. My mistake. My loss. I'm sorry now that I didn't do it.

Rest in peace old man. Maybe we'll meet at the great blogmeet in the sky someday.