don’t panic

So apparently there’s this couple in New Hampshire that feels that they don’t need to pay taxes.  And to make their point, they have locked themselves off from the world saying that, “We either walk out of here free or we die.”

While I can appreciate the feeling that we’re not getting our money’s worth when it comes to taxes, simply not paying them baffles me.  This is a couple who have lived in the United States for many many years (perhaps all their lives), and are doing very well financially (Over 1.9 million in income from just the wife).  So how is it that they feel they shouldn’t have to pay taxes like the rest of us (who they call the ones with the wool pulled over our eyes)? 

Do they drive a car on public roads?  A highway?

Have they ever used public parks? 

Did they go to a public school?

Ever use the Library?

Ever need the fire department?

How about the water and sewer pumped to your home?

Trash pickup?

They enjoy the freedom (as warped as it is) of being in the per capita wealthiest country in the world which is fought for and mismanaged protected by a government and military which despite it’s problems is still one of the best in the world.

Put simply – There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch, pal.  You gotta pay to play.

They say they are completely self sufficient.  Too bad we can’t just surround their “compound” (Why is it always a compound?  Who wants to live in a compound?) with some sort of force bubble that locks out everything and everyone from entering and exiting.   

Or, the feds could just come in with a radio frequency jammer and clip their cable.  Really now, how long do you think they’d last without TV?  I’d give ‘em a week before they were crawling out of their “compound” in tears screaming for American Idol and the latest gossip on Paris Hilton.

My family does okay financially.  We’re certainly not “rich”, but we aren’t in poverty either.  In the United States, we get by.  Compared to most of the world, we’re riding the good life for sure.    I understand the riches that I have and I don’t take them for granted.  I also understand that I am allowed to have those riches because of where I live and the government that exists there.  I may not like everything they do (okay, most of what they do), but it does work.  I certainly wouldn’t want to live in China, or India or (God forbid) someplace like Lebanon; where your “freedoms” are decided by who has the biggest gun.

So… It irks me to see a very wealthy “American” deciding after they have made all their wealth, that they don’t want to have to pay any more.  My solution…  Set up a radio frequency jammer, place mines all around their land, and walk away.  Declare the area uninhabitable and take the loss (or gain, depending). 

The whole Paris Hilton this is pretty nauseating, but something caught my eye this morning that really shed a light on things.

In this article found on CNN.com from the AP, they talk about how Paris and her visitors were given special treatment.  And to be fair, this doesn’t really bother me.  As much as “the rest of us” would like the heiress to be treated like any other common citizen, the fact remains that she IS a celebrity.  For her own safety she has to be treated differently.  The whole freaking world is watching.  I also don’t have a problem with the judge being hard on her.  I think celebrities should have harsher rules and penalties applied to them.  They are, after all, in the profession of influencing public opinion.  Like it or not, they are the ones telling our children how to act, what to wear, what qualifies as acceptable language, and what you can get away with.  Instead of treating them like everyone else, we should really be throwing the whole damn book at them to the maximum extent of the law.

But what got my hackles up was this line…

…Hilton was sent to a medical ward, where sheriff’s officials said it costs $1,109.78 a day to house a female inmate compared to $99.64 a day in the general population….

Mind you, these are the same sheriff’s officials who tried to send her home under house arrest.  What I wonder is, were they doing so because it’s just too expensive to house her in the medical ward (a bad reason) or because they just wanted her out of their hair (a really bad reason), and what the hell does it matter what it costs??  Either she needs to be there or she doesn’t.  $1109.78 a day for hospital care is actually pretty cheap.  But why in the world would you ever mention this?  Talk about moronic things to state to the public.

It’s like this: 

Either Paris Hilton IS having serious mental fallout for whatever reason and NEEDS to be in that ward, in which case stating that it’s too expensive is about like telling a kidney transplant patient that they can’t have the organ they need because those things cost a ton of money and they just aren’t worth it.  And sending her HOME (where she won’t get any help) was about the most irresponsible thing they could have done.  (Akin to handing a potential suicide patient a razor blade and telling them to go home and get cleaned up.)  Or…

Paris DOESN’T need to be in that ward and they screwed up by sending her there and are just trying to justify themselves by telling the press that they tried to send her home but that nasty old judge put her back, and look how much it’s costing you!  Or…

Paris Hilton, after much whining and overly dramatic screaming for mommie, has come to the conclusion that jail really does suck, but that the mental ward is slightly more comfortable and you get free drugs.

Personally, I pick door number three… with maybe a little door number two mixed in.  Then again, maybe the girl really is having a breakdown.  I mean, you’d have to be a little mental to be Paris Hilton.

You’d think, with like 500 channels on cable these days, 99% of which are complete crap, that they would be able to devote just ONE of those channels for a few hours to cover what is probably our greatest human technological achievement, namely sending someone into space.  Oh sure, all the news channels will be all over it about two minutes before launch… just in case the thing blows up.  They sure wouldn’t want to miss that…

Until then, it’s FAR more important to have live coverage of Paris Hilton being sent back to jail.