Robert E. Lee's birthday

VA has a good post up commemorating the day of the birth of General Robert E. Lee, most famously known as the commanding general of the confederate army during the war between the states.

Since VA has disabled comments to her posts apparently indefinately, and since I cannot access her forum, I'll say a couple of things here:

First, with not the slightest bit of embarrassment I join with VA in recognizing the accomplishments of this truly great and noble man. I know a few "conservatives," who despise the man because he led the southern army. Frankly I think these individuals need to re-check their political leanings, as well as brush up on their history a bit. And in the words of Forrest Gump, that's all I got to say about thaat.

Second, VA quotes an article which in part states the following:

Many are appalled the state forces them to help maintain the hundred year old statue of Robert E. Lee. The group called for schools to stop portraying Lee as a virtuous hero. They also criticized the General Assembly for sponsoring Lee's birthday celebration.

Let me respond to this by saying that I'm willing to bet that many, if not most, of those "appalled" at being "forced" to help maintain the statue of General Lee aren't, in actuality, being forced to help maintain anything, including this statue. I'm willing to bet this, and I think I'm on pretty safe ground in doing so, precisely because I don't believe that many of these protestors, or most for that matter, are net taxpayers. And if you're not a net taxpayer, you're not being forced to do anything you don't want to with your tax dollars. In other words, you ain't got no beef, particularly when your beef amounts to a false claim which cannot be substantiated.

How is it that people come to believe that if the money they spend (irregardless of where this money comes from) goes toward taxes of any kind, they are therefore net taxpayers being forced by the state to support something they disagree with? The answer is that they are liberals, and this is what liberalism teaches them. This is a very consistent fundamental doctrine of liberalism. It teaches that everyone is a contributor, no matter how much negative contribution he makes, or is it the net contribution of others that they take? rest of post here