August 28, 2007

THOUGHT OF THE DAY: The IRS Definitely Knows What You Did Last Summer

Outside the Beltway's James Joyner ignores Bruce Bartlett's ad hominem attacks on the Fair Tax and responds just to his "nonsensical" ones, including Bartlett's claim that the Fair Tax would require "incredible complexity and intrusiveness of tracking every American's monthly income-and creating a de facto national welfare program." From Joyner:

Gosh, a complex and intrusive system whereby the federal government tracked every American's income? There's no way in hell we'd put up with that in the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave! We'd probably give it some Big Brotherish name like Internal Revenue Service to tip us off to how sinister it was.

LEST WE FORGET: Saint Flanders

The Gospel According to The Simpsons author Mark Pinsky tells Relevant Magazine how The Simpsons reflect religion in America better than mot television shows:

One of the chief gifts of the long-running, award-winning series is that the characters' fundamental beliefs are animated but not caricatured. Sincere belief is not questioned. God is not mocked, nor is God's existence questioned. ... More than any other show on commercial television, The Simpsons mirrors the faith lives and practices of most Americans. The family says grace at meals, goes to church on Sundays and reads and refers to the Bible. They pray aloud and believe God answers their prayers. Their next-door neighbor, Ned Flanders, has become the best-known (and loved) evangelical in the country, at least among young people. Still, no one would mistake Homer Simpson and his family for saints. In many ways, in fact, they are quintessentially weak, well-meaning sinners who rely on their faith-although only when absolutely necessary. True to its reputation, The Simpsons is consistently irreverent toward organized religion's failings and excesses, as it is with most other institutions and aspects of modern life.

Posted by Conn Carroll at August 28, 2007 12:54 PM