One of the things I notice

 is that government really isn't too successful unless they obey the wishes of the people. While I suppose there are a lot of people that need to be told what to do there are an awful lot of people that would do just fine with little more than some basic guidance.

What happens when government steps into things like morality is they never seem to succeed.

Right now in New Zealand they are thinking about taxing cigarettes to the tune of about $100 a pack or something ridiculous.

The first thing that came into my mind was that there is a buck to be made smuggling and setting up a black market. I've seen this before and I'll see it again. The minute the price goes up too high to buy something legally someone with a yen to make a few fast bucks comes in charging to fill in the hole.

Prostitution is illegal but you can find a hooker just about anywhere.

Drugs are illegal but they flourish and an awful lot of nice neighborhoods have heroin addicts living there. A cop I used to know let me in on the fact that there were a couple of junkies in my area. Pot can be found anywhere.

Since abortion is pretty much legal you don't hear of a lot of back alley abortionists any more, though. You used to quite a while ago.

Alcohol used to be legal then it was illegal and when it was illegal the mob made a fortune and an awful lot of people died in turf wars over bootlegging. The St. Valentine's Day Massacre was over illegal hooch. Brewers and moonshiners went to work full time working under the table and not paying taxes.

Then they made alcohol legal again and brewers and distillers went back to work legally and paid taxes.

Right now there are pot growers all over the place and you can bet that not a whole lot of them pay a dime in taxes. Even the income taxes these growers skip out on is a pretty penny and I wonder how many of them justify their existince simply by getting on the welfare rolls.

You would think that the people in government would know this and smarten up and make the system work for them instead of spending millions to fight basic human nature but then again look who ends up going into politics. Sometimes I think that the wrong people ride the short bus to school. I have met any number of Down's Syndrome kids that have a lot more social grace than most of out politicians.

As far as most of our so-called leaders go,there are not many that I would follow across the street to go to a discount liquor store with road guards posted in both lanes.

Truth is I think I do a pretty good job of running myself and I really don't need any help from some stuffed shirt in Washington.

my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/