Battles with Integrity

I have a lot of contempt for right-wingers and libertarians who spout the taxation-is-theft bullshit when it comes to paying for social programs, but who are happy to have the government pick my pocket to pay for the military-industrial complex.

It's unfortunate that much of the additional revunue California hopes to gain comes from raising the sales tax and an across-the-board increase in the income tax, both of which are regressive. Also, these are sources of income that dry up in hard times, scarcely a responsible way to fund state expenditures.

That said, I found Garry Wills's account of the original Boston Tea Party (Inventing America: Jefferson's Declaration of Independence, Doubleday, 1978) to be fascinating. It was not simply a matter of a few individuals tossing small cannisters of tea into Boston Harbor — the tea chests weighed three hundred pounds apiece, and there were considerable logistical challenges to be overcome.