My far left politics are pretty well known. I try not to beat anyone over the head with them in my posts (just in comments).

“From each according to his ability, to each according to his need” is a great adage in theory. In reality, it only works for very small communities, like a family or maybe a small tribe. When you apply it to societies large enough to have people who don’t know or care about each other, it falls apart. Human nature. You’ll get greedy people on both ends who won’t contribute, either by exploiting others for riches or by avoiding work even though they are able. And either feeds into the case of the other.

A better phrase would be “A society will be judged by how it treats it weakest members.” I don’t begrudge people their wealth. I would like to be a wealthy person someday. But I also hope that money never becomes more important to me than freedom, justice, and giving children a decent start in life.

I thought so, but I'm not as familiar with them as I should be. I got that from Boing Boing.

Ha! I never would have caught that one. Now I need to go wash my typing fingers and fix that.

People have been forced to pay taxes for a long time. I suppose you could find a country that doesn't levy taxes to move to, but you wouldn't have police protection, public schools, roads, or medical facilities.

Bill Gates has also probably paid more taxes in one year than I will in a lifetime. Neither of us are in any danger of starving.

mav, I assume they are all paying taxes. I don't want to bring anyone down, but yes, those who have more than they need should chip in a little to make sure no child starves or goes without learning to read. We all benefit from helping out the weakest members of society.

Padraig, we are always on the lookout for great humanitarian stories to pass along here!

Ba dum dum!

Another idea: I think we should do away with the old custom of throwing a shower for someone who is getting married. The way it works these days, we should help two people have a yard sale when they move in together, and give them a shower when they divorce, because that's when they lose all their stuff!

Is that a question, CheeseDuck? I don't understand the question. Do you think this child is abused?

What is it? A robe made from a blanket? Nice.

I limit myself to 12 cups (one pot) a day.

I believe that is an instrument of torture.

Streaming acceptance speech:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/live-campaign-coverage

Congratulations, President Obama!

Sorry about that -fixed!