March

Every now and then, in a newspaper comic strip, the characters in the comic will notice, acknowledge, or otherwise deal with the fact that they ARE characters in a newspaper comic strip. They might climb up the frame at the edge of a panel, gaze across at some other comic strip, or simply make a comment acknowledging the fact that they are comic strip characters drawn by someone else, with no independent existence. A week or two ago, Beetle Bailey addressed complaints about his lines directly to "Mort", the writer of the comic strip. (I realize that I am making these statements as though the characters DID have some sort of independent existence or at least free will. Bear with me.) I generally enjoy this phenomenon.

I am unaware of any character in a book ever expressing awareness that they are simply characters in a book, but I suppose it has happened. There have definitely been cases of TV and movie characters expressing awareness of their setting, and sometimes interacting with or even attempting to break free. (Again, I am writing as if the characters existed outside of the writers, directors, actors and whatever, but I am still leading to a point.)

There is a relationship between form and content that we often strive or desire to keep hidden. A well-done book or television show or movie (or perhaps even comic strip) can make someone feel that it is real, and they are experiencing the experiences themselves, rather than merely reading or viewing something. Other times, such as when comic strip characters become aware of their surroundings on the newspaper page, the results can be quite interesting, amusing, or enjoyable.

Much of my personal artistic experience has been as an instrumental musician. Often, musicians must do their best to ignore the setting, and what may be going on around them, and focus on the music. Other times, interacting with the listeners may be a very important component of the performance.

This all leads me to the subject of this still-evolving blog. Up to this point, this blog has not been intended to be a journal of my day-to-day existence. In fact, most of the entries so far have been totally unrelated to day-to-day activities, concentrating instead on general ideas. I also have tried not to pay much attention to the fact that this IS a "blog". For that matter, a major purpose of this blog so far is for ME to better understand the entire concept of "blogging". Incidentally, at some point I will probably have to deal with the fact that since I do not tell anyone about this blog, nor post anything about it anywhere, I suspect it gets very, very few visitors -- though as far as I can tell, there has been ONE legitimate "comment", from a REAL person. For now, I am fine with the lack of blog traffic (though since I am already talking about comic strips, I must admit that over the past few weeks I have noticed that Jon in "Garfield" has been writing a blog, and a big part of the joke is that no one reads it).

So here I am, like Beetle Bailey, admitting that I am aware that this IS a blog rather than just a collection of ideas, AND realizing that the blog is not totally isolated from my real life. Specifically, I realize that I have not posted much yet in 2010, and not AT ALL during the month of March 2010. There is a complicated mix of reasons for the lack of posting, including things as simple as computer problems. Most of the other reasons result in a general lack of time. Though the time situation is still pretty bad, I am going to try to get back to posting more regularly -- at least once a week.

Notice how I am writing this as if someone is actually going to be READING it? Truth is complicated.

Taxes

Mid-April is the traditional deadline for citizens of the United States of America to file their income tax returns.

On a philosophical level, I accept that if people choose to live together under governments, their government is probably going to require some sort of funding. Whether our specific system is good, or even tolerable, remains an open question. I also have a multitude of questions about the specific ways our government chooses to spend MY money.

In April, though, my most pressing tax complaints are simply procedural. Specifically, I find it abhorrent that the government requires me to keep financial records -- or for that matter, ANY records. If the government wants to send me a bill and demand that I pay it, fine. To require ME to keep a detailed accounting of my financial records, and then submit it to the government, to me smacks of self-incrimination, adding insult to injury, and a form of torture. I realize that many, perhaps most, Americans do not give this much thought, or just assume our government has a right to require us to keep records. This, to me, is frightening.

Another thing that frightens me is that many Americans focus on the April pleasure of receiving a tax "refund". An income tax refund is actually YOUR money that the government was wrong to have possessed in the first place, but many people view it as a sort of "gift" from their generous government. I suppose there is something to be said for "looking at the positive", but the money was rightfully yours all along, and the government is just giving it back.

In the interest of philosophical completeness, I guess I should mention that there are a lot of frightening things about taxes. People who question the legality of the current federal income tax are often viewed with ridicule, yet even casual study of the issues involved reveals there are at least some legitimate questions regarding the IRS. While it is true that the legality of the IRS has been upheld in various court cases, courts have often used logic along the lines of: We have had the IRS for quite awhile, and it is really important, therefore it is legal, regardless of what the Constitution might say. Not exactly the most convincing argument in favor of the legality of our current tax code.

I honestly did not intend for this to be a rant about current politics, but I must also mention that with our politicians currently in power in a mood to spend money like drunken sailors -- and they will be spending OUR money, since there is no such thing as "government money" -- they will need to come up with more and more money to pay their bills. Frightening.