St. Paul and I Agree...
Taxation is not theft: "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God. Therefore whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves." -- Romans 13 The key idea implicit here, and the one that turned me on the subject of whether or not taxation is theft, is that "every soul" owes obedience to the "governing authorities." Now, if that is a debt I truly owe , then, when those authorities levy the taxes they need to do the job of governing, I owe them those taxes, and attempts to collect them certainly do not constitute acts of theft. And obviously it doesn't matter at all, from this point of view, whether or not I "signed" any sort of "social contract." (In fact, the history of political thought since the Reformation can be read as an attempt to find a secular rep...
Man, now you've got me examining stool samples?
ReplyDeleteI would guess that they are from either a scavenging dog (small or medium-sized) or from a raccoon. The reason is the consistency (long and firm, or in cylindrical chunks), that they both have similar digestive tracts, as well as the variation in color (both animals tend to have a varied diet that results in these color variations). Also, both animals are quite territorial with regard to their bowel movements in that they will continue to poo in the same general area until there is reason not to. I can't really be certain unless I am able to smell it. Raccoon poo is very distinctive, making it easily identifiable. Dogs also have a distinctive smell to their poo, but not nearly as much as raccoon poo.
Actually, I'm going to go with a raccoon, because dogs don't generally move much when they poo, whereas raccoons do.
ReplyDeleteDog.
ReplyDeleteI swear my dog walks like 10-20 feet while doing one poo. It's comical. Well, except that we have to scoop it.
ReplyDeleteAndy I'm leaning racoon:
Delete1) These were small (you guys couldn't tell from the photo!) and
2) There aren't many dogs likely to be in my yard: I am close to only one house, and there dog is always fenced in.