Damn Yankees

NY Post columnist Eric Torbenson recently published a column entitled "Deep in the heart of taxes". The main points of the column are this:

New York, I love you — but I can’t make the math work.

Like lots of media professionals (and fashion mavens, artists, musicians, et al.), I’ve penciled out the numbers for what it would mean to take a job in New York City. There’s barely enough room on the back of the envelope for subtracting the double-dose income tax hit from the city and state, and that’s before even adjusting for cost of living.

That’s one of the reasons I’m in Dallas. You know, Texas, the state that parlayed this year’s census data into four new House seats — pinching the two lost by the Empire State — because people actually want to live here.

Lots of Texas professionals love New York this way: fly in for $200 round trip, suck down the city’s beefy marrow of culture for a weekend and jet back to live cheap and pay no income tax. It’s all the pleasure and we keep our treasure.

This isn't really a surprise. Texas acts as a tax haven from socialist hellhole states like New York. State/city income tax is the reason why Rush Limbaugh left NY for Florida. But the problem comes at the end of that assessment by Torbenson. Torbenson's idea of "beefy marrow of culture" is the kind of narrow-mindedness that's very easily illustrated.

It's meant as a parody, but seriously, this is what they think.

He elaborates:

The state still has its issues. When you have no income tax, property and sales taxes have to make up the revenue gap, and they’re pretty steep. And try not to be poor down here because the Texas approach to a social safety net can be summed up as “Meh.” Texas spends less per capita on social services than virtually any state.

The income gap here makes Texas look more like Mexico in some ways than the rest of the country, though New York is no stranger to wealth excess contrasted with subsistence living. Texas has led the country in the percentage of people lacking health care, teenage pregnancy rates and drags the bottom on educational attainment. Political discourse here remains whether Democrats are socialists or simply traitors.

Here is where Torbenson illustrates that he doesn't understand Texas at all, and should go back to NYC where he belongs.

Sales tax is not steep. 6.25% is not steep. There is no sales tax on food. That makes it much, much easier to be poor. Plus, unlike his beloved NYC, we in Texas have grocery stores and supermarkets and local markets down here - you don't have to eat out just to eat, as in NYC. NYC's sales tax, by comparison, is 8.875%.

Property tax is higher in Texas than some places because... guess what? Wealthy folks own property. To be among the "landed classes" has for millenia been one of the striving forces of people, and an indication that one is well-to-do. And if you pay a little more to own the land, well, that's just how it is. You can afford a home. Suck it up.

No one who's making $20K a year is going to feel it anywhere near as much in their pocket, though it will be passed on slightly from the landlord. The landlord, meanwhile, benefits from low sales tax and no income tax... which is why an apartment in Texas rents for $500 instead of $5000.

As a counterpoint to Mr. Torbenson - if he can come up with a way to cut property taxes and still run the state, let him run for governor. Debra Medina ran on the idea of cutting property taxes. While she had faults that led to her failure in the governor's race, the idea of changing property taxes may have some merit. Of course, this would, by all definitions, be an explicit endorsement of the landed classes - and while it would benefit those who don't own land as well - it'd require a lot more than just a whining New Yorker complaining about his rates to change.

The next thing on Torbenson's litany of complaints about his new home state is the lack of social services. Being the daft New Yorker that he is, perhaps he needs a reminder of what "social services" means:


High per-capita spending means HANDOUTS. Handouts are best summed up by on of my favorite Democrats, Grover Cleveland.

"Federal aid in such cases encourages the expectation of paternal care on the part of the Government and weakens the sturdiness of our national character. . . . "

This applies at the state/local level, too. Give handouts, and you end up with professional recipients waiting in line to be given their "due" for being poor. And where does that money come from? Someone's "stash"? No, Mr. Torbenson, it comes from citizens. It comes from the higher taxes that you and your ilk are trying to run from. Vice President Joe "Foot-in-mouth" Biden says it's patriotic to pay taxes. He says those taxes are put back in the pockets of middle-class Americans.

Mr Torbenson, why are you running from your obligations to give money to middle class New Yorkers?

The income gap doesn't make Texas look like Mexico. Mexico looks like Mexico, where the rich live in walled enclaves. Texans enjoy a basic human right that Mexicans do not. Self-defense.

Do not underestimate this. There may be great wealth disparity in Texas, but so what? The vaquero riding a ranch in west Texas or the bubba slopping hogs in east Texas all share the same protection under the law, and are all afforded the ability to defend themselves against predation. Their basic security is ensured by Texas law. Their ability to earn and improve their lot is limited only by their own potential. Their right of self defense isn't limited by connections to the mayor or governor, as in New York.

Mr. Torbenson, you fail to understand the most basic elements of human living. People in Texas can be secure in their homes and their property moreso than any New Yorker.

Texas shares a border with a third world nation that's rapidly descending into anarchy, and plays host to a few sanctuary cities that invite in third world aliens. Austin is a major offender in this category. That by itself increases the teenage pregnancy rate and the rate of people in the state without health care.

Political discourse in Texas does often consist of whether Democrats are socialists or traitors because we look at what they do. When you live on the border, you see the criminal aliens that sneak across (or are caught) and you see the effects of illegal aliens invading the country.

You also see this:
“I have only one loyalty,” he says, “and that’s to the immigrant community.”

- Illinois Democrat Congressman Luis Gutierrez

Make no mistake - he's not talking about the legal immigrant community from India or Sweden or Laos or Japan or Bangladesh or Egypt. He's talking about illegal aliens, primarily from Mexico.

His "one loyalty" isn't to his constituency. It isn't to his oath of office. It's to these guys:

Chinga tu madre, culo de perro.

Remember this... just last week?

Democrat Congressman Luis Gutierrez IS a traitor. And a socialist. Yes, a socialist.

Mr. Torbenson doesn't understand the concept of a social safety net, either. A social safety net, to a socialist leftist who lives in NYC (even if you write for the NY Post, you're probably more socialist/leftist than you are constitutionalist), means the government's gun is put up against your head and taxes are taken to be redistributed.

A social safety net, to folks in Texas, means that when your neighbor, friend, family member or fellow church parishoner or coworker or whoever needs some help - you have more of your own wealth to offer it. Culturally, you don't go begging for the government to shove a pistol in someone else's face and take their money for your "safety net". Your neighbor, or your friend, or your fellow parishoner or your relative helps you out. You aren't conditioned by the nanny state government to beg for handouts, so your social net knows when you need help, you need it. Or if you cry wolf, they ignore you, and you get nowhere - and you stop crying wolf and get a job.

In a more extreme example - in Boston, people seeing a cop being beaten walk by and don't help. New Yorkers are famous for closing their shades and ignoring a woman being murdered. In Texas, you don't even have to be home for your neighbors to defend you and your property.

Where do you feel safer? A state with a firm self defense mindset, where your physical safety is a priority to state representatives, and your financial and social safety is ensured by loving relatives, friends, coworkers, and the generous spirit of the people you know? Or a state where your "safety net" is doled out by some faceless bureaucrat, sick and tired of the incessant begging at their office?

If you're an illegal alien and burglar, feel free to relocate to New York. They have TVs there, handouts for you, and they won't shoot you - and if they did, they'd go to jail and you'd get to sue them.
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Mr. Torbenson, in the Rockies, there's a term. It's called "aspenification".

Your town doesn't even have a gay lesbian bisexual transgender crystal-channeling health center, does it, Stan DARSH!?!

It's when a good town is overrun with aliens. Not the illegal alien kind. The kind of aliens that come from California. Usually they're running from something - high taxation due to idiotic social programs, crime caused by their social programs and gun control that disarmed all the non-criminals, that kind of thing. The town is taken over by rich people (typically from California) who are socially insulated by their position and their ability to just flit about from coast to coast. They don't understand what happens around them because they're wealthy enough to avoid any ramifications. So they simply move again, and ruin another small town.

In the Rockies, they typically come in and overtax the local government and drive out all the previous residents. Then they wonder why their city collapses on them in a rush of insane living expenses, taxes, and absurd laws and regulations. Basically, they bring their own big-city baggage with them and inflict it on the new town.

The newcomers don't want to assimilate into the small town. They resent the small town because it's prosperous. They want to change their new home into their old one - and they don't understand that the reasons the new town is BETTER than their old home is because of all the bullshit they inflict on it.

In Texas, there's a term for people who aren't from Texas. It's used elsewhere in the old South, though Texans strangely even use it to refer to folks from the old South. Yankees. It has to do with newcomers. Newcomers who come to stay are called Damn Yankees. Those who don't assimilate to Texas culture and understand that the things that Texas does are for a reason* earn the name - and it's no term of endearment. Also in the old South, they're referred to as Goddamn Yankees.**

Again I recall Thomas Sowell:
"For the anointed, traditions are likely to be seen as the dead hand of the past, relics of a less enlightened age, and not as the distilled experience of millions who faced similar human vicissitudes before."

*For example: I used to live in a state with huge tracts of Forest Service and BLM land. Quite often really nice for that state, but it doesn't work in Texas. And I wouldn't want it, nor push for it, in Texas. That's just not how it works in Texas.

**In the bible belt, that's no small curse, either, though it may be lost on the philistines who populate Gotham and use "f*** you!" as a greeting - the "New York hello".

Tea Party Tomorrow

Like a lot of folks on the libertarian/classic liberal/conservative end of the spectrum, I have to work tomorrow, so I probably won't be attending one. But for those who do, some motivation:

1.2 million or so at the last big march.

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Watch out for leftists trying to marginalize and demonize you by infiltrating the Tea Party protests. First there was the union-funded Tea Party Is Over, now the Crash the Tea Parties groups, which are all about silencing you by marginalizing you.

Icon ganked from some leftist's posting. Standing for smaller govt = National Socialist Workers Party Member (Nazi)
They don't even realize Nazis are LEFTISTS.

Their plan, stated on their site, is to go out and shout the most outlandish, horrible things in order to discredit the Tea Parties. Basically to go out and do the kinds of behavior that the Tea Partiers (an orderly crowd) are already accused of by far-far-leftists.

But we already know what's up:

A Black Man's Conservative Manifesto: Frederick Douglass

Many times one is asked to take historical literature and put it in a modern context in how it applies today. One could argue that, if alive today, Frederick Douglass would be a conservative, leaning toward more liberties and less government tyrannies. The fighting spirit and frustration that Frederick Douglass felt lives on today and is probably best summed up in his words:

“I saw nothing without seeing it, I heard nothing without hearing it, and felt nothing without feeling it. It looked from every star, it smiled in every calm, breathed in every wind, and moved in every storm (Douglass).”

There are many passionate American citizens who feel this way. They watch, read, and discuss politics with such passion and search for resolve in what they stand against.

When Douglass wrote Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave, he was “between twenty-seven and twenty-eight years old.” This was an estimate because he was never given the luxury that one might take for granted - knowing his birth date. It is interesting because his age is similar to many young Americans now who are making their names heard in society and the work force. Given the circumstances Douglass was dealt, he was still able to get on the path of productiveness at a similar age to other young adults in America back then.

An imposing question one could ask is: if Frederick Douglass was alive today he would resent the class-warfare that has spurred debates? In his narrative, he wrote about being a mulatto child of a slave owner and that “the master is frequently compelled to sell this class of his slaves out of deference to the feelings of his white wife.” Now clearly this is in the context of selling children for slaves; but is there any validity that our current administration resents a certain class of people based on their family and social connections? President Obama’s preacher and mentor have made tirades towards America and white people in his sermons (Wright). Also, in President Obama’s book he stated “I knew as well that traveling down the road to self-respect my own white blood would never recede… (Obama)”

Another modern correlation, and the only real way one could relate, may be with the paradox of having an unfit master. Where as one would not want to have a master at all but a master who is incompetent could be even worse. Frederick Douglass encountered a slave holder that he described as;

“His airs, words, and actions, were the airs, words, and actions of born slave-holders, and, being assumed, were awkward enough. He was not even a good imitator. He possessed all the disposition to deceive, but wanted the power. Having no resources within himself, he was compelled to be the copyist of many, and being such, he was forever the victim of inconsistency; and of consequence he was an object of contempt (Douglass).”

Many people feel this way about the current politicians and administration that has been inconsistent and poor imitators of a leader. The owner of Douglass marrying into the situation of owning slaves had similar inexperience to a senator who served barely a year in office becoming president.

Another source of Frederick Douglass’s contempt was the hypocrisy of the Southern slaveholders. They used religion as a platform and justification for many of the horrible things they did. Assuming that Frederick Douglass was true to his creed one would be hard impressed to imagine him approving of “In God We Trust” removed from silver dollar coins. Yes, people who lean to the left are religious, but conservation of religion is usually more of a right-wing stance.

Many Americans hoped that the President’s stance on being a Christian would make him more morally sensitive to religious issues. This is just like Frederick Douglass, who “hope(d) that his conversion would lead him to emancipate his slaves, and that, if he did not do this, it would, at any rate, make him more kind and humane (Douglass).” In both cases one could argue that there is not enough Christian conservatism to meet the liking of Frederick Douglass.

Many people feel that politicians marginalize minorities into categories and usually get frustrated when minorities step outside those lines. Recently the leader of the Black Chamber of Commerce spoke out against Senator Barbara Boxer and said “She loves poor black people in their place (Alford).” In comparison, Frederick Douglass spoke of his master’s ideology towards slaves when he said,

"If you teach that nigger [speaking of myself (Douglas)] how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontented and unhappy (Douglass)."

One could say this is a prime example of some politicians’ mindsets when they assume they know what is best for the people they represent. The marginalizing lies in that when a black person or Hispanic has more conservative ideals, they are often chastised and challenged by other minorities in their communities. In comparison, Alford was commenting on Senator Barbara Boxer’s attempt to pit NCAAP against the Black Chamber of Commerce and how it was like in the south white plantation owners would pit one black preacher against the other (Alford).

The comparisons go on and on because under a socialist country, which is where many believe the United States is headed, it needs its citizens to be reliant on the government to work properly, much as a slave owner needs the slaves to rely on him or her. There are many people that resist the tyranny that can take away certain liberties and freedoms. The quote from Douglass that says, “ In learning to read, I owe almost as much to the bitter opposition of my master, as to the kindly aid of my mistress (Douglass),” Could be a metaphor for Americans who resist ruling powers, but use it’s loopholes of law as its “mistress of aid.”

Douglass envied other slaves who did not have the knowledge of the persecution of which the establishment of slavery was made. He wished at times that he did not know all that he knew because it consumed him. In this envy he still felt it upon himself to spread the knowledge of the truth because it was important that other slaves knew of the tyranny involved.

Many people under the George W. Bush administration felt purpose against the administration and used their voice and stood together to make a change. Americans voted on a new ruler but discovered that there was not more freedom - and some think less freedom. The bickering between Republicans and Democrats is similar to two slaves debating which slave master is better. Douglass realized that the real issue was the establishment of slavery as some Americans believe that government is becoming an establishment of tyranny.

The spirit and emotion that Douglass portrayed is truly inspiring to read. Douglass was a proud man, he knew the best master is being ones “own master (Douglass).” It is hard to fathom that Douglass would tolerate being overly taxed when he showed outrage in this passage from his book:

“I was compelled to deliver every cent of that money to Master Hugh. And why? Not because he earned it,--not because he had any hand in earning it,--not because I owed it to him,--nor because he possessed the slightest shadow of a right to it; but solely because he had the power to compel me to give it up (Douglass).”

Ultimately, perhaps all Americans will, sooner or later, value hard work and the liberty and freedom that is bestowed upon the individual. Probably no one put it better than Frederick Douglas himself:

“Hard work for me; but I went at it with a glad heart and a willing hand. I was now my own master. It was a happy moment, the rapture of which can be understood only by those who have been slaves. It was the first work, the reward of which was to be entirely my own. There was no Master Hugh standing ready, the moment I earned the money, to rob me of it. I worked that day with a pleasure I had never before experienced.”

Works Cited

Alford, Harry. The Factor with Bill O'Reily Bill O'reily. 20 July 2009.

Douglass, Fredrick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. NY: The Anti-Slavery Office, 1845.

Obama, Barack. Dreams from My Father. New York: Random House, 2004.

Wright, Reverend. Chicago, 5 January 2006.