Thursday, February 25, 2010

Payback is a Female Dog

As a resident of Sarasota, Florida who has the misfortune to be addicted to nicotine, I have endured much at the hands of the local schoolmarms who run our government. I can not smoke on the mile wide beach. I can not work for the county government: smokers need not apply. My state legislators are no better, balancing their budget on my back. And my bete noire of the moment is Congressman Vern Buchanan, who giving into personal prejudice, violated Republican ideals and voted for the Democrat cigarette tax increase forcing me to pay for the healthcare of others as well as my own. Mel Martinez only escaped my wrath by retiring.

In effect, I am paying taxes, but no one is representing my interests. Does taxation without representation sound familiar? Now just about March 16th, the local school board is looking for voters to renew an additional school tax we habitually impose on ourselves. I have always been a faithful supporter of the measure. Guess what I'm doing this year? It ain't voting "yes." If my local government considers me less than human, I won't sully their hands with my nicotine-stained dollars. Heck, if I could figure out a way to avoid paying taxes to them at all, I would.

I'm just not on a soapbox here. The School District has been spending like drunken sailors on school construction, building opulent child warehouses, when smaller schools are more effective. All of which makes it easier to just say "no."

3 comments:

Yono Senada said...

How in the world can they justify not being able to smoke outdoors? We really need a movement for term limits and we really, really need to vote the bums out.

rsnlk said...

Oh, that's because ten percent of garbage on the beach consisted of cigarette butts. The other ninety percent, I guess, was irrelevant. Personally, I'd like to ban babies. You know there have got to be quite a few diapers.

Yono Senada said...

and they're loud ... lol!

BTW, so glad you're back.