Alex - Sorry about that. It's McVeigh, right? I have obviously been suffering from a mental block (or fatigue) on that particular spelling. (Strange...I'm usually so meticulous on stuff like that...maybe it's the musicians' names I was remembering.). I guess I was in a hurry or something.

Troll - I find your suggestion about making victims of such violent crimes exempt from all taxes a bit odd. Why all taxes? And why only them?

If they're disabled, then they should get a disability pension.

God knows, there are times when I would like to be exempt from taxes! And for any number of good reasons.

Like me, a lot of people are opposed to the building of more nuclear weapons and/or nuclear power plants. Why shouldn't those people be exempt from the part of their taxes which goes toward that particular industry?

I am extremely opposed to the present government of Ontario, its whole vicious social policy, and its whole friggin' attitude toward the public, and I DIDN'T vote for them! Why shouldn't I be exempt from all Ontario taxes till they are out of office? They are a dictatorship until the next election, and they DID NOT receive a majority of the votes cast!!! (They received a plurality. More people didn't want them than did, but they still beat out the other 2 parties in a majority of ridings...the usual story around here.)

I am opposed to the present penal system in either the USA or Canada, and consider it counterproductive. Why shouldn't I be exempt from funding it?

I'll tell you why. It's too damned complicated to figure out such exemptions, to apportion them out fairly, to determine if they're really justified, and on what basis, etc., etc., ad infinitum.

It's a totally unworkable idea in a practical sense.

Besides, if the government gave you back the fraction of a penny that it costs you to keep Timothy McVeigh (or any other particular felon) in jail for a year, it would be so small that you wouldn't be able to see it with a industrial sized magnifying glass.

I wish I could say the same for the portion of your taxes that goes toward high tech weaponry...like nuclear missiles. That chunk you would be able to see just fine, and those are the potential instruments of genocide.

So that's my philosophical response to your tax proposal. I know that neither one of us, of course, is going to get what he wants out of this situation.

- LH