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!
On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Bill Bryson would agree..that you should walk everywhere..has commented on the non-walking American in his books.
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