Reflections of An Uncommon Common Man

Marx & Engles      A friend of mine made the comment that "I oppose a flat tax because it implies that someone who earns $30,000 has the same ability to pay as someone who makes $100 million and they don't" Personally I favor a consumption tax but I would settle for a flat tax. I absolutely hate the graduated income tax which I believe has done a vast amount of damage to this country. Karl Marx advocated it as a way of pushing capitalist society to it's inevitable demise. Before I get into the flat tax or consumption tax I want to explain the history of the graduated income tax. Before the Civil War taxes were collected through various means. A direct tax of the people, such as an income tax was unconstitutional. Article 1 Section 8 of the Constitution reads The Congress shall have Power To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United States; but all Duties, Impos

Iranian women before the Islamic Revolution   A friend threw me a few curve balls the other day. Since I could write a thesis on one issue that he spoke about I wanted to address it in this way. My friend said that he agrees with Obama's Iran treaty. I don't because I look at Iran in much the same way as Ronald Reagan looked at the old Soviet Union. He called it the "Evil Empire". Iran is an evil empire wannabe. Reagan came to detest the policy of Detente with the Soviet Union. It was believed by the old power order in America that containment was the best approach to keeping the Soviet Union in line. The only result of detente was that it delayed the inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union. From it's inception the Soviet Union had always been a society on the brink of economic collapse but for the support of the west. The empire was held together by military force. A large part of its population yearned to be free but as long as the Soviets could have its

 When the Constitutional convention had concluded business a woman approached Benjamin Franklin and asked what type of government we had. He responded "A Republic, if you can keep it." All of the Founding Fathers feared the rise of a monarchy, or a dictatorship. They were also afraid, however; of Democracy or (mob rule). This is why they established a Republic. Representative government is defined as a Republic. The Constitution is supreme as well as the rule of law. Governments ruled by Democracy are defined as following the will of the majority. A Republican form of government recognizes the natural or inalienable rights of the people while Democracies are only focused on the will of the majority. If three people are dying of hunger and two of the three decide to kill and eat the third member of the group that is Democracy. In a Republic the individual rights of each person are protected. A Constitutional Republic requires the approval from the three branches of govern

These are pictures of my Uncle's Alton (Bud) Brown and Douglas Brown preaching at a revival probably in the late 1940's or early 1950"s. They were United Methodist preachers and the last picture is of them with my grandmother Ella Belle Frogge Brown. She was proud of her boys. The church is pretty humble looking.

  In the days after graduation I went into high gear preparing for our wedding day. I made arrangements with Debbie's grandmother Grace to rent her upstairs apartment. This would turn out to be the first of many mistakes that I have made in my life. One could also argue that getting married at 18 was a mistake but God has blessed me in that department. I moved from the house on McKennie to our apartment at 2001 Russell Street next to the Shelby Park golf course clubhouse. There was a steep hill on the golf course near our apartment and that hill provided many happy memories when we used it for sledding when it snowed in years past. Didi and I were arguing when I left home because she didn't like Debbie and she thought that Debbie had taken advantage of me. Especially since the time I caught her cheating on me. Didi would refer to her as "that little split tailed girl" which never made much sense to me since all girls share that same physical trait. I invited Gu