Tea Party, Anyone?

I have tried to stay away from politics and other distressing news, but a friend forwarded this article that deserves sharing. It's irreverent, long, full of expletives and arcane economic jargon, probably biased, and I don't care. It sums up my collective disgust with the idiots we elected in Washington and the idiots who are managing our money and being blessed for their incompetence with our tax dollars. So here you go, if you have the stomach for it:

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/26793903/the_big_takeover/print

I also liked Jim Jubak's column this week, entitled It wasn't a bailout, it was a heist; and it's still going on.

And I hear rumblings, even here in the hinterlands. People are PO'd, organizing "Tea Parties" across the country. Even in Tennessee, where we generally just mind our own business, and let the madness play out on the two coasts without getting too worked up about it, seven rallies are planned for April 15 across the state. If you happen to have your pitchfork handy and want to become part of the rabble at the gates, check it out at:

http://www.officialtaxdayteaparty.com/index.html

When I was in college, we were sure the "Revolution" was just around the corner. Of course, the revolution was perceived as being some version of socialism/communism, where we would all come to our collective senses and just get along. We were actually taught by our professors that Marx was right, that the workers of the world would unite, and that "from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs," was a good way to run the world. I started to get a clue when I quit school after my junior year, and went into factory work to organize my fellow proletariat. That's when I discovered that most of my colleagues were interested in some form of the America Dream, not the Brave New World of Collectivism. They wanted to get ahead, make something of their lives, and garner the blessings of capitalism in the form of a better life for their kids.

I went back to college the next year, somewhat chastened in my zeal for socialist utopia.

My final epiphany was when I became an elected official on the local school board in my forties. That's when I discovered the sheer insanity of bureaucratic institutions, the venality and self-interest of my fellow board members, and the hypocrisy of "progressive" intentions as applied to practical, real-life applications, affecting real people (children and parents, trapped in a government-run coercive monopoly) in a supremely negative way. Add to that a collective cover-your-ass mentality that actively discouraged objective evaluation of the consequences of any action or program, and my transition to anarchist was complete. Okay, maybe Libertarian. On a good day.

Since the current political and economic hierarchy seems determined to destroy what is left of liberty and initiative in this country, I find it ironic that I may yet see the "Revolution" in the form of taxpayer revolt against failed socialistic models.

Bring it on.