I have no objection to my taxes being spent for legitimate functions of government. And according to the Constitution there are a hell of a lot fewer legitimate functions than most people seem to think nowadays.

I do object to dumping my life's earnings into the Treasury just so that parasites like Ted Kennedy can ride a limo down Main Street and throw coins--my coins--to the voters, who kiss his bloated feet in return for his vast generosity. If this wealth redistribution--more than half the total budget--makes me "unpatriotic," make the most of it.

Oddly, most of the same people who point fingers at those who think taxes are too high and yell "Unpatriotic!" are the same people who didn't mind at all slashing defense spending over the past decade while taxes continued to be increased. Go figure.

As I have said many times before, and will repeat until this shocking fact actually soaks into some denser-than-normal brains, the current Federal budget is over twice what it was in 1974, in constant dollars, adjusted for inflation. Considering our spending needs then, including the Cold War in full flower, compared to our needs now, it is inconceivable that this doubling of the budget is not largely waste and pork to buy votes.

Patriotism is loyalty to a specific set of principles, largely the same as those that were laid out specifically by the Founding Fathers. It is not loyalty to the Internal Revenue Service, or to politicians who believe that the proper place of a citizen is as the property of the State.

...If you don't like giving everything to the Crown (Bush, Clinton, Bush, Reagan, etc...), then flee the country with your Loyalists and create a new charter or Declaration of Independence and start over.

Tell you what, why don't we stay and kick the socialists out?

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.