Rendell, the illustrious governor of my Commonwealth, has proposed to bridge the $3.2 billion budget gap by raising income taxes for a three years.  As a second term lame duck in this world-wide recession, he can get away with that suggestion, but that still doesn’t mean it’s going to fly.

Personally, I don’t really have a problem paying higher taxes for a few years, especially considering the alternative of living in a major city without the appropriate civic services of education, police, fire, etc.  The argument against is that we will quickly fall down the ever-popular ‘slippery slope’ and taxes will never go down.  I simply don’t think that is a concern when politicians must stand for election and taxes are a total no-brainer for the elctorate.

But it made another idea jump into my head.  We should be paying higher taxes and we should have been paying higher taxes starting back in 2003, when our elected federal governemnt decided we sould go to war in Iraq.  Residents of this country have been getting their heads blown off and having their internal organs reduced to a pulpy mess of blood and sinew ever since that decision was made.  From the moment we went to war, we should have been compelled to make sacrifices and to pay higher taxes.  But instead, we all sat home and watched reality TV.

Reality TV is bad for you.  American Idol is bad for you.  Cigarettes are bad for you.  Are you starting to get the picture?  Tax viewers of American Idol and you’ll accomplish two important goals.  You’ll raise revenue and you’ll make the show go away.