Taken Then Given

In a cute skit on their show Bull$hit, Penn and Teller very eerily and visually demonstrated taxation with the use of cherry pie. Penn Gillette, bombastic spokesman for the two-man group, was the waiter and he would put a piece of pie on one guy's plate. Then he would take the plate and hand it to Teller. Then he would say, "I'm not taking your pie, see? I'm giving it to Teller."

It explained, in the best way possible, how taxation really works. And, I will admit now, I love Penn & Teller and have since the 80s. I love Penn Gillette's outspoken libertarian views and most days he makes a lot of sense. They are also the ONLY act I would see if I were somehow to find myself magically put in Las Vegas, a city I've never wanted to visit.

Now we are coming up on State Party Conventions and then starting in June, the National Party Conventions. The GOP Establishment has let slip that if they don't get their way in the first vote at the convention, then they will take the nomination from whomever receives it, and give it to John Kasish of Ohio. "No, Mr. Nominee, I'm not taking your nomination to be our candidate, see? I'm giving it to the undeserving Mr. Kasich."

I will say this, I can't find myself voting for a candidate that accepted a stolen nomination. It shows how craven they are. I can't vote for Hillary or Bernie either. I hate Statist to a degree with is most reasonable. So, I will be left with Gary Johnson, Libertarian candidate. And that does not truly bother me. If Rand Paul had wanted to be president as much as so many wanted him to be president, I would have gleefully campaigned for him. I can happily vote for Johnson where I can't even grudgingly vote for any of the candidates presented by the other parties at all. I lean more libertarian than any other political philosophy anyway. I just hate their kook contingent. I can ignore them easily.

I have spent months wracking my brain, trying to figure out how this was all going to spin out and it is the exact disaster I predicted, and the GOP is doing exactly what I predicted and it sickens me. So I have decided to remove them from the equation, because I cannot balance the equation with them in it. And that's important. It's the most important. You cannot balance the equation if the GOP or Democrats are involved in it. So remove them, then see if you can balance your political philosophy. This time I'm actually happy. I can now vote without having a clothes pin on my nose.