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20 March 2003 (Thursday): glued to the radio

Lively debate going on in the comments section of the previous post. Join in if you like, but keep it respectful, please.

As I walked down the back stairwell this morning I tried to imagine bombs detonating in the distance, gunfire echoing down my street. Neighbors huddled indoors, coffeeshops and hardware stores shut down and dark, entire buildings abandoned and crumbling. We Americans have not known war on our own soil for well over a hundred years. I wonder if we'd act differently, now, if we had.

Right, and somewhere in this I'm supposed to start doing my taxes.

posted by enjelani @ 01:21 PM PST

Replies: 5 comments

Indeed.

But also worth consideration is the fact that most Americans have not known life under a truely oppressive regime. We understand totalitarianism in the abstract - but nothing in concrete.

It's very concrete to me. I can point you to gaps in my family tree; entire branches - branches with names and photographs - shorn off by the PLA in China, 'disappeared' to laogai prison camps or worse fates.

In 40-Year-Old Landmines & the Price Of Vengeance, I touched on the topic of my mixed emotions toward vengeance and China's brutal history. Though it pains me to say it - if the U.S. was on the brink of invading mainland China with the intention of crushing the infrastructure of the current leadership, I'd support the effort.

When you live in under a government that feels free to murder its own citizens for financial gain (China, protestations to the contrary notwithstanding, does a lively trade harvesting organs of prisoners and selling them to rich foreigners willing to pay for transplants), it tends to make one a bit hawkish, I suppose.

It's true I have not known war on any street I've lived on; I can't relate to Iraqi citizens on that level. But a different kind of war has forcibly visited itself onto my family, and in that regard, I think I relate with the civilians in Baghdad quite well.

In lighter news - don't feel badly about taxes. I haven't done my taxes either and will likely be burninating the midnight oil on April 14th ... :)

posted by pjammer @ 22 03 2003 08:38 AM PST

I spent three days doing mine and I have one thing to say about doing taxes: Get an Accountant!!!

AFTER I prepared my own this year (last year, I swear!), I found an additional reason to use a tax accountant: the IRS has to talk to your accountant, not you; and the IRS agent is only allowed to ask specific questions of your accountant. If the IRS talks to you directly, they can ask anything and dig as deep as they want in one session. A multi-session Q&A with you accountant is usually not worth it for those charming IRS agents - they're under the gun to wring money out of their ... customers (us).

posted by Bill @ 22 03 2003 12:12 PM PST

Right. I've never been able to suppress a smirk when remembering that IRS stands for Internal Revenue "Service."

Just what part of this is a "Service"? Too bad IRA was already taken... it should have been Infernal Revenue Agency.

Far be it from me to place all the blame in one place, though. The hydra that is Tax Law has so many sires that it's a Frankenstein's Monster of genuinely epic proportions. Can't blame the IRS for all of that...

posted by m. mellow @ 25 03 2003 11:19 AM PST

taxes.... right. damn. um... damn.

posted by soren @ 25 03 2003 11:30 AM PST

ditto.

posted by eric @ 25 03 2003 03:08 PM PST