It doesn't "burn me up," but it's a fact that our the military has become a separate society, one which is better off economically than the general middle class. Yes, salaries for soldiers go from about $50,000 a year to $80,000. This does not include officers. the military is voluntary and totally separate from the rest of us. It's a professional army. We fear the draft, but we need the draft for many reasons. No room here to talk about the many different good aspects of a draft. I like Barbara Crafton's phrase, "it burns me up." don't here that much any more. It mean, of course that some is damn mad, enough to be on fire.

Chuck Malley on January 24, 2012

Would Jesus pay taxes? No, absolutely not. By no means would he support the murdering institution--the State, the Roman state--that tortured and slaughtered him, and subsequently many of his disciples. Would he endorse or in any way support the institution that rained unspeakable torture and murder on those he loved? The State claims a monopoly on initiating the use of force without provocation against innocent people if for no other reason--and there are always many other reasons--than to collect the taxes upon which the State depends utterly for its survival. Read the parable of the Good Samaritan. The Samaritan used only his own wealth and resources to succor the stranger he found robbed, beaten and left to die along the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. The Samaritan did not apply to the State for OPM (sounds like opium, is equally addicting, stands for other people's money) to care for the stranger. Jesus concluded his explicit teaching on what it means to be charitable with this admonition: "Go, and do likewise." Redistribution by taxes relies on force. It is extortion, it is stealing. It is a violation of God's commandment: "Thou shall not steal!" His command is unequivocal. It makes no exception for the state or it tax-collecting agents, who would all be imprisoned for their behavior but for the exemption from the laws prohibiting extortion that the State grants them. When Jesus was asked, "Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar; shall we pay him?" Jesus responded, "Give Caesar what belongs to Caesar but give God what is God's." His response requires we know what Jesus thought belonged to Caesar and what belongs to God. Because Jesus consistently justified himself and his teaching by reference to sacred Jewish Scripture, we can rest assured that Jesus concurred with the division of property proclaimed in at least five places in the Old Testament, See, for example, Psalm 24, verse 1: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it..., which leaves nothing for poor old Caesar, and nothing is what Jesus meant his followers should pay in taxes. Go, and do likewise.

Ned Netterville on February 2, 2012