We in the United States have many dilemmas. Some are around gas (as in gasoline for most part) and some around tax (the one that the government can levy) but off late we have seen a deadly combination of both in the form of gas tax.
They come in two varieties. One is imposed on the gas that is used to pump your car and the other is on the gas that you use to pump yourself. While we (in most states) pump our own gas it is not that activity that is drawing scrutiny. Rather the tax on soda or carbonated beverages that is item du jour. Hence the tax on gas.
It is therefore obvious to believe that we have two forms of gas tanks and both are being taxed. One for being too obese and the other for polluting the other gas that we like to breathe. Breathable gas is free and not taxable by law partly because they have not figured out how to do it. Some folks with more money than they can count use it to buy oxygen bottles so they can claim they spent on something most of us did not - breathable gas.
For that privilege they do get taxed but they also stand up and fight other taxation that is being proposed for the top 1%. All that oxygen gets their blood boiling.
Certain states and cities are increasing the tax on a bottle of Coke or Pepsi thinking it will help prevent childhood obesity. They did not mention anything about neighborhood adults that are obese. Cans were also not mentioned but they CAN change their mind about that. Neither is it clear if adults will also pay the tax. What is further unclear is how the determination will be made on what constitutes an adult. Showing a license for buying Coke would be a first. Further adds to the debate around police asking for documentation to prove if you are legal or illegal immigrant and therefore a tax cheat or simply obese.
This is a nightmare for all obese, non tax paying, illegals as well as skinny, underage, legals because no one is sure what constitues a constitutional right and how to define it from the wrong, especially if found driving on the left side.
Furthermore if found drinking and driving the state will crack down and sometimes come down hard - but its not clear what the offending beverage would be. Best advice I can offer in these dilemmatic times is to walk everywhere and carry all your tax returns in the trunk (your own of course) in case you are pulled over. Once pulled over, please, please do not FART!
This autumn the weather gods cooperated as we took a family trip in the northeast to see six states that qualify or makeup what is known colloquially in America as New England. Mass, Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut and Rhode Island (tiniest state in the union). The outing helped tally up the states we either lived in, visited or have worked in to 47. Guess which three have eluded this intrepid traveling family. Any rate the drive was all in about 1,800 miles and included some memorable geographic wonders or points of interest. Easternmost part of state of Massachusetts being one. Furthest drivable road east in Mass being another. Visit to all Ivy League schools (term harkens to a collegiate athletics conference and generally regarded as elite academic institutes of some repute worldwide) is another random bucket list item of which this trip afforded the chance to knock two more of the list. Dartmouth in Hanover, NH and Brown (and its sister institute the RISD - school f
Bill Bryson would agree..that you should walk everywhere..has commented on the non-walking American in his books.
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