In Alabama, you can sell guns on any street corner but you can't sell sex toys.
That's right. Alabama is a vibrator-free state!
Well, technically you can go across state lines and buy sex toys in Georgia and Tennessee and carry them home. But the Alabama Legislature, in its infinite wisdom and in the spirit of protecting citizens from moral turpitude, a while back banned the sale of sex toys (or "marital aids" as some lawmakers coyly call them).
Today, the U.S. Supreme Court has shown a gleam of interest in this controversial state law, which has been challenged in Alabama courts by adult toy retailer Sherri Williams. She has been fighting the law for nearly 10 years.
Williams has been in district court three times on this issue and has won twice. But both times her victories were struck down by the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals. She filed a petition to the Supremes and has hired well-known First Amendment rights attorney Paul Cambria. Also joining in the appeal petition with Williams are the Free Speech Coalition and the First Amendment Lawyers Association.
(At the very least, this case seems to be a restraint-of-trade case as much as anything else, since the devices are sold in all the neighboring states. You'd think she would win on that, alone.)
Anyway, the Supremes have informed the state of Alabama that it must file an answering brief with the High Court, which is an indication that the case might be taken up in the next session. If so, I would like to be a fly on the wall when oral arguments are heard.
SCALLIA: You say that the sale of the Twizzler-Twister should be banned?
ALABAMA GUY: Yes,Your Honor.
ALITO: And the Buzzer-Master?
ALABAMA GUY: Yes, that too.
THOMAS: What about the coke can with the fake pubic hair?
ALABAMA GUY: That one doesn't vibrate, so that one's okay.
THOMAS: Whew! Thank goodness.
But seriously folks, I am hoping that y'all have stopped snickering at the Victorian attitudes of our fine Alabama lawmakers because I want to talk for a minute about sexual attitudes in the Land O' Cotton.
There is, and always has been, a strong strain of paternalism among lawmakers down here. And that paternalistic attitude makes them believe that they are the keepers of the Moral Keys. Us wee folk need protecting from sexual pleasures derived from plastic thingies made in China.
The same lawmakers also have protected Alabamians from the glittering vice dens called casinos, the dangerous Mega-Ball lotteries and betting parlors. All for our own good.
They do, however, let us have SOME fun. We have fireworks stores at every interstate exit. We can buy all manner of guns easily and openly as long as we are of legal age. And we can shoot off the aforementioned fireworks and guns pretty much wherever and whenever we want.
In other words we are free to blow ourselves up at will.We just can't blow up a dolly with big red lips and openings in her lifelike vinyl self.
Gita M. Smith is a journalist living in Alabama. Her blog may be seen at http://www.Myspace.com/gitahandley
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Gita_Smith
Friday, July 13, 2007
New Tax Protest Penalizes Patriots
Taxpayer unrest is certainly nothing new to this nation. After all, the New World was populated by people who came to resent the mega-tax policies of the British Empire. There have been plenty of Americans over the years who have fought unfair taxation with every fiber of their being.
And it's no secret that I believe that families in the U.S. are seriously overtaxed.
Despite some efforts to reduce the average family's tax burden, our tax bills remain sky high. A report from the Congressional Budget Office showed that the federal tax burden eats up 20.5 percent of our gross domestic product.
When you take into consideration not only the amount we're paying to Uncle Sam, but to state and local governments in income taxes, sales taxes, and hidden fees and charges, we may be losing more than 40 percent of our income to taxes.
In addition to direct costs, we have to deal with the costs of complying with our complicated tax code—which amounts to more than $200 billion each year. Our phone calls, plane rides, gas tanks, and even our beverages may be taxed. Indeed, federal excise taxes cost the typical taxpayer $500 each year.
And now, we're facing an additional tax burden. Call it the patriot tax.
Here's how it works: Anti-war zealots are refusing to pay their taxes because they say they don't want their money to pay for the war in Iraq. That means the rest of us are forced to make up for the shortfall. In other words, if you support our troops, you could face the prospect of an even greater tax burden, because some ideologues are refusing to pay their fair share.
Ruth Benn, who's with something called the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee in New York, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "Clearly this year we definitely had more people calling, sending e-mails about how they decided to start resisting."
Benn figures that 8,000 to 10,000 Americans are refusing to pay part or all of their federal taxes because they object to the war. The Internal Revenue Service doesn't keep track of activist deadbeats, but IRS officials estimate that non-compliance costs us $345 billion each year—an alarming figure, by any estimate.
The AP is reporting that objectors to the war in Iraq are contemplating a "mass tax resistance campaign" in April in an effort to increase pressure to end the war.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the IRS, Dianne Besunder, told the AP that the tax resisters are putting an undue burden on taxpayers who pay their fair share.
But this simply isn't a question of money. It's also a question of commitment. John Ubaldi of Move America Forward, an organization which supports both the military and the war on terror, said, "They're (The tax resisters are) showing the terrorists that America is not committed."
In other words, those who refuse to send their checks to Uncle Sam, citing differences with the Bush Administration over the war, may be unwittingly compromising America's security.
And, in irony of ironies, peace activists are now lobbying for something called the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund that would permit conscientious objectors to have their taxes used for nonmilitary purposes.
Funny how the very liberals who would deny children the religious freedom to pray in school would invoke religious liberty to avoid paying taxes.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nathan_Tabor
And it's no secret that I believe that families in the U.S. are seriously overtaxed.
Despite some efforts to reduce the average family's tax burden, our tax bills remain sky high. A report from the Congressional Budget Office showed that the federal tax burden eats up 20.5 percent of our gross domestic product.
When you take into consideration not only the amount we're paying to Uncle Sam, but to state and local governments in income taxes, sales taxes, and hidden fees and charges, we may be losing more than 40 percent of our income to taxes.
In addition to direct costs, we have to deal with the costs of complying with our complicated tax code—which amounts to more than $200 billion each year. Our phone calls, plane rides, gas tanks, and even our beverages may be taxed. Indeed, federal excise taxes cost the typical taxpayer $500 each year.
And now, we're facing an additional tax burden. Call it the patriot tax.
Here's how it works: Anti-war zealots are refusing to pay their taxes because they say they don't want their money to pay for the war in Iraq. That means the rest of us are forced to make up for the shortfall. In other words, if you support our troops, you could face the prospect of an even greater tax burden, because some ideologues are refusing to pay their fair share.
Ruth Benn, who's with something called the National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee in New York, was quoted by the Associated Press as saying, "Clearly this year we definitely had more people calling, sending e-mails about how they decided to start resisting."
Benn figures that 8,000 to 10,000 Americans are refusing to pay part or all of their federal taxes because they object to the war. The Internal Revenue Service doesn't keep track of activist deadbeats, but IRS officials estimate that non-compliance costs us $345 billion each year—an alarming figure, by any estimate.
The AP is reporting that objectors to the war in Iraq are contemplating a "mass tax resistance campaign" in April in an effort to increase pressure to end the war.
Meanwhile, a spokeswoman for the IRS, Dianne Besunder, told the AP that the tax resisters are putting an undue burden on taxpayers who pay their fair share.
But this simply isn't a question of money. It's also a question of commitment. John Ubaldi of Move America Forward, an organization which supports both the military and the war on terror, said, "They're (The tax resisters are) showing the terrorists that America is not committed."
In other words, those who refuse to send their checks to Uncle Sam, citing differences with the Bush Administration over the war, may be unwittingly compromising America's security.
And, in irony of ironies, peace activists are now lobbying for something called the Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund that would permit conscientious objectors to have their taxes used for nonmilitary purposes.
Funny how the very liberals who would deny children the religious freedom to pray in school would invoke religious liberty to avoid paying taxes.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Nathan_Tabor
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