About Me

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e. l . wood is a native of birmingham, alabama. he grew up on the urban streets of dallas, texas before attending college at houston baptist university where he earned a b. a. in english and psychology. after a year of teaching high school english in the public schools of houston, e. l. wood attended sam houston state university where he earned a master’s degree in english. after bouncing around the deep south for several years, he finished his ph. d. in american literature before 1900 at the university of southern mississippi. e. l. wood has been teaching in some capacity since 1992 and has taught for a local community college since 1995. in his spare time, e.l. wood enjoys reading, movies, and the outdoors. he is personally acquainted with several search and rescue teams around the southeast. he is married to the lovely and gracious a. c. they have a daughter (special k), and one dog. They reside in h'burg, deep south. in addition to being the sole proprietor of the gandy dancer billiard parlor, e. l. wood dabbles in folk art and the occasional cultivation of a handlebar mustache.

Friday, April 09, 2010

Happy Tax Freedom Day April 9, 2010

Whooohoooo! Happy Tax Freedom Day to you and yours. If you live and work in the US, prior to today, the money you made this year went to the federal government. After today, you get to keep what you earn! What a concept. Keeping what you earn.

Jonah Goldberg has a great op ed piece in USA Today on April 6, 2010. In the article, Goldberg asks us to "(i)magine for a moment that Tax Freedom Day was Dec. 31. In other words, picture working 365 days a year for the government. Now, the government would 'give' you a place to sleep, food to eat and clothes to wear, but all your income would really be Washington's income to allocate as it saw fit. Some romantics might call this sort of arrangement 'socialism' or 'communism.' But another perfectly good word for it is 'slavery' or, if you prefer, involuntary servitude."


We could do worse than remember the wisdom of Aesop. "Better to starve free than be a fat slave."

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