i'll take taxes

nothing certain but death and taxes?

needless to say, i am paying my taxes today with a smile.

the alternative really sucks. no one on one with the grim reaper for me, but that hospital pork loin and jello made things real enough so that i am not about to complain about sending money to washington this year. and i think i'll skip the whining next year as well.

one bright side of the birther movement and intellectual heavyweights like michelle bachman is that there aren't lots of undecideds out there these days.

everyone has a politician they can detest. and they are proud of it. not many people have pictures of rush limbaugh AND rachel maddow over their beds.

glenn beck and keith oberman are not going to prom together anytime soon.

and either sarah palin or tina fey will 30 rock your world, but not both.

but today i am feeling quite patriotic. this is arguably a day when being an american is toughest. unless you have something against hot dogs and fireworks in july.

but there has always been a price to pay for freedom. sending a check is the easy part. too many families have paid in dearer coin.

and my family pedigree goes back to a father and mother who sent me to montgomery alabama in 1965 when i was days away from my 17th birthday to see martin luther king speak at the biggest civil rights rally ever held in the south.

my country. may she always be right. but right or wrong, my country.

who knew that a guy who was at the washington monument in 1969 would still be weepy at times watching them play hail to the chief and seeing barak obama appear not carrying a tray of dishes. i don't delude myself into thinking that my friends all share my political philosophy. sometimes i'm ornery enough not to know what that philosphy is myself. but i'd like to think that today we can find something we can agree on.

scarlett says in that great southern accent, "death, taxes, and childbirth--there's never a convenient time for any of them." if we can survive an inconvenince like the civil war we should be able to prefer taxes today to death. no matter what the political commentators say. i know that it will be an easy vote for me. and i can't say that very often.