{"id":1312,"date":"2008-08-27T17:56:20","date_gmt":"2008-08-27T21:56:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/?p=1312"},"modified":"2008-08-27T10:00:50","modified_gmt":"2008-08-27T14:00:50","slug":"the-difference-between-the-government-and-the-mafia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/08\/27\/the-difference-between-the-government-and-the-mafia\/","title":{"rendered":"The Difference Between the Government and the Mafia"},"content":{"rendered":"

I saw this in a discussion over on Slashdot<\/a> about New York sales\/use tax<\/a> – someone mentioned that “New York has always been a bit bizzare about taxes<\/a>.” Someone else replied with:<\/p>\n

They’re not bizarre; they’re just greedy for every dollar they can get their grubby little paws on. Just remember that the only difference between the government and the Mafia is that the government controls the schools.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Funny, yes, but there is an alarming amount of truth in that statement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I saw this in a discussion over on Slashdot about New York sales\/use tax – someone mentioned that “New York has always been a bit bizzare about taxes.” Someone else replied with: They’re not bizarre; they’re just greedy for every dollar they can get their grubby little paws on. Just remember that the only difference… Continue reading The Difference Between the Government and the Mafia<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"webmentions_disabled_pings":false,"webmentions_disabled":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7,2,17],"tags":[66,137],"class_list":["post-1312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fun-stuff","category-politics","category-society","tag-slashdot","tag-tax","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pimUj-la","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2533,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/04\/23\/using-tax-money\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":0},"title":"Using Tax Money","author":"Keith Survell","date":"April 23, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"\"Using tax money to provide goods and services does two things: it hides the true cost by shifting the burden of payment onto other people and it eliminates choice. Those are both bad, but for different reasons.\"","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1042,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2008\/02\/07\/amusing-sig\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":1},"title":"Amusing .Sig","author":"Keith Survell","date":"February 7, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"A great sig, found once again on Slashdot: Oh look, its my tax dollars at work coming to arrest me.","rel":"","context":"In "fun stuff"","block_context":{"text":"fun stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":502,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/06\/us-national-identity-cards-all-but-law\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":2},"title":"U.S. National Identity Cards All But Law","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 6, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Given the recent surge in Federalism here in the US (a.k.a. \"states rights\"), I wonder how people will react to this - as it is a huge violation of states rights by the Federal Government. Not to mention that the current Federal Government has absolutely NO IDEA on how to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":496,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2005\/05\/11\/real-id-passes-us-senate-100-0\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":3},"title":"Real ID Passes U.S. Senate 100-0","author":"Keith Survell","date":"May 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Some juicy quotes from Slashdot members: \"The US was founded on state rights, hence \"The United States of America\". If you don't like a state's rules, move to another state. The federal government is heading toward \"monoculturing\" the US. Pretty soon we'll be 'Former United States of America.'\"","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1011,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2007\/12\/19\/another-great-one-%e2%80%93-from-slashdot\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":4},"title":"Another Great One \u2013 From Slashdot","author":"Keith Survell","date":"December 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm sorry, but these really do make me laugh when I run across them: I'm not tense. I'm just terribly, terribly, alert.","rel":"","context":"In "fun stuff"","block_context":{"text":"fun stuff","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/fun-stuff\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2761,"url":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/2009\/08\/12\/the-problems\/","url_meta":{"origin":1312,"position":5},"title":"The Problems","author":"Keith Survell","date":"August 12, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Found this over on a Slashdot story about how attacks on voting machines are practical (despite arguments to the contrary): The problem is our elections are supposed to be transparent by law. The problem is our elections are supposed to have public oversight. The problem is a private company can\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "politics"","block_context":{"text":"politics","link":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/category\/politics\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1312\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.starkeith.net\/coredump\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}