(closed) Off-topic content. Click to see this comments.POLITICAL HUMOR: why Romney is hiding his tax returns

so why bring up any political anything on a wood working site lets keep it a woodworking site and not a bs venue

-- wizzardofwood..... "ITS MY JOB TO AMAZE YOU"

-- keeping myself entertained

I worry less about Romney’s money – which he earned legally and ethically – than i do about a president that has not been able to revive this economy and wants to take my money and give it to others.

-- Have a blessed day!

pashley:
“wants to take my money and give it to others.”
This money goes to society, not to others. Since you are part of society it is a win, win situation.

-- Thor and Odin are the greatest of Gods.

Meaning what? I’m giving it to the government to give back to me (minus 98%)?

-- Have a blessed day!

Two things pashley, first just because he earned it legally doesn’t even remotely make it ethical and/or moral. Never confuse ethics with legal as they will frequently miss each other completely. Half of what wall street does is legal, at one time so was buy and selling slaves, legal has nothing to do with ethics.

second, you taxes go to pay for a lot more then others who may or may not actually need it, things like our national defense, infrastructure and paying for all the deadbeats that fill the seats in DC. I find it interesting that you would use the word blessed in your signature, a typically Christian word, while at the same time denigrating those who may need assistance both in this post and in another; a very unchristian act.

-- --Rev. Russ in NY-- A posse ad esse

This is more of a philosophical issue – Obama is all about “Spreading it around”
It is not about infrastructure spending or defense.

This quote from OBama in Roanoke Virgina campaigning on Saturday speaks VOLUMES about what our role is.

“If you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that,” Obama told the crowd. “Somebody else made that happen.”

“If you’ve been successful, you didn’t get there on your own,” he said. “You didn’t get there on your own.”

This country has a long history of people making things happen, taking chances and striking off on their own endeavors. The notion that everything you do or find success in is a result of someone elses work is BS

-- "_If we did all the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astonish ourselves_." Edison

-- keeping myself entertained

Sorry Rev. Russ, but I gotta disagree with you. A nations legal system tries to reflect it’s ideas of morality and ethics, but will never achieve that goal simply because there are no universal definitions of moral or ethical behavior.

For example, Islamic law has provisions which we find odd – if not completely abhorrent. Who’s right? Is a practicing Muslim following a legal code which reflects his ideas of morality and ethics wrong because it doesn’t agree with our own? Who makes that decision?

Closer to home, the Catholic church (and several other denominations) have long been opposed to abortion and most forms of birth control. In their view, these are not only immoral and unethical, but are outright sinful and will sentence you to hell for eternity. Many of their followers reject these beliefs while still following the religion. Are they immoral or unethical?

While you are free to make different financial decisions than Romney because his decisions don’t fit your standards of morality and ethics, does that right extend to allowing you to condem him because he disagrees?

I’m far from religious, but seem to recall something from the bible about “Judge not, lest you be judged”. – lol

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

For all of the people that thinks spreading the wealth is a good idea I have one question. How much of this spreading are you planning on doing? Call me what you want I don’t care but if I’m struggling to pay my own bills, how is it a good idea to give some of my hard earned money and give it to someone who is unwilling to put forth an effort to secure their well being?

Cirvin -
The “spread the wealth” advocates assume that they’ll be receiving. Their position would take a 180 if they had to give. – lol

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

The reason he is resisting the release of more of his tax returns is because one of the following, and I will save my best guess for last.
1. He doesn’t want the tax returns turned into a witch hunt, kind of like the Holder grilling where they asked for documents and them poured over them trying to find the smoking gun proving that there was some kind of conspiracy, and opening up more and more questions and further demands for more documents.
2. He knows there is something in them that could cause him votes because its shows that he omitted or lied about something that could be criminal. Something that John McCain’s campaign found when they were vetting him for VP consideration.
3.(My Favorite)He doesn’t want the Mormon church to know what he made, because they know how much he gave to them and what the percentage should be.

If he can’t be open and honest with the American public about this, for what ever reason, then how could you trust his administration to be open or honest.

-- Mel

Well said Mel ..
I thought of the Mormon avenue myself
..
3.(My Favorite)He doesn’t want the Mormon church to know what he made, because they know how much he gave to them and what the percentage should be.
...

-- keeping myself entertained

DrDirt -
Yes, he made those statements, but you need to put them in context. As much as I hate to admit it, he was largely correct. Almost every successful person in recent history can (or should) attribute some of their success to the existence of a system that provided a lot of “hidden” support for their enterprise.

Without the internet, USPS, Fed Ex, UPS, etc, Jeff Bezos would be a nobody and we would never have heard of Amazon. Without the “no sales taxes” provisions for internet companies in almost every state, he might have made it, but probably nowhere as much as he has.

Without the USAF developing a distributed command and control system for their ICBM’s in the mid-60s, the internet might not have been developed and all the internet based gazillionaires would have been forced to find more traditional jobs.

What I heard Obama say was that “nobody does it alone” – and he’s right.

-- Adversity doesn't build character...................it reveals it.

Sawkerf, you make very good points and what is moral and ethical does change over time and even within nations and so there are no direct lines for what is moral or ethical that is true. However I would argue that our legal system actually has very little concern for what is moral and ethical, I believe it has slowly transformed from a justice to a legal system; while justice tries to keep an eye on morals and ethics legal doesn’t always feel the need to. In addition while our courts may have bestowed a basic form of personhood upon corporations that doesn’t mean that corporations even remotely concern themselves with morals or ethics particularly if they get in the way of the bottom line. Our history is filled with companies that spent a lot of time skirting the law, circumventing it, or outright ignoring it in the name of the almighty dollar. So while he may have legally obtained his money it doesn’t mean that he ethically obtained it. Finally I would point out that I never actually condemned him for the money he earned, I just pointed out that just cause he earned it doesn’t mean that he ethically earned it, only that he legally earned it I hope.

-- --Rev. Russ in NY-- A posse ad esse