Josephine County, Oregon: Your New Libertarian Paradise!
Move over Galt's Gulch! Get out of here, Somalia! Josephine County, Oregon, is here to show you how real rugged individualists do: by refusing to vote to raise property taxes, even though the county ain't got no more police outside of regular business hours, and the sheriff says "every day" someone is the victim of a crime he cain't stop (because criminals seem to have figured out this whole "business hours" thing), and by the way, if you're planning on being the victim of a crime, he suggests (very nicely, really!) that you move.
Wait, you mean taxes might serve a purpose, like keeping this young lady from getting raped by the same ex-boyfriend who'd recently put her in the hospital, while she waited for the police that couldn't come, because it was the weekend? Well perhaps she should have taken a little personal responsibility, and not been born a girl, did she ever think of that?
Josephine County has a household income below Oregon's state average , so we are willing to give them the TINIEST benefit of the doubt about why they just, this week, voted against some new property taxes to restore public safety services. (Which went away when federal funding did, because you know how those conservative counties like to take care of themselves, and no takesies.) But if we are doing our math right, which we sincerely doubt, the average homeowner would have seen his property taxes under the new assessments triple. To $358. For the year.
ABOLISH THE IRS AND STUFF! AND FEDERAL SPENDING! AND ALL LAWS, FOREVER!
Amen.
[ ThinkProgress, via Slog ]
Good point. The same people who don't want fluoride in their tap water probably wouldn't use tap water for anything but putting out a fire.
The sad fact is, and I know this from the head of marketing at a major firearms manufacturer, guns are often the most expensive possession of their owners.