Tax day: How to remind Americans that paying taxes is a conservative value

To help create a political climate in which Americans can talk sensibly about taxes, let's start with kids: It?s time to make The Tax Talk with our kids just as much a part of our culture as The Sex Talk or The Drugs Talk.

As we left our local zoo three years ago, my son, then 8, asked what wealthy family had built all the exhibits, stocked them with elephants and monkeys and giraffes, then invited the public to come and enjoy them.

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The family behind the zoo, I was happy to tell my boy, was actually our own. Acting alone, our household couldn?t have hoped to create such a wonder. But by chipping in a little money each year, and combining it with the money that thousands of other fellow residents contributed, we made the zoo possible.

As I mentioned to my son, the money that made our zoo was a special kind of payment called a tax. He was impressed that a community could be so clever, collecting a few dollars from so many purses and wallets to create something so wonderful.

?That?s a good tax,? he shouted, licking his ice cream cone in satisfaction.

I?m thinking about my son today as taxpayers across the country race to meet this year?s filing deadline for their federal income taxes. When?s the last time, after all, that you?ve heard anyone mention a good tax?

I can be as grumpy as the next guy when it?s time to file my federal and state income tax returns ? or when my local property tax bill arrives, somewhat cruelly, around Christmas each year.

But as I?ve often told both of my children, quoting from Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, taxes are the price we pay for civilized society. Ever since his epiphany at the gates of the zoo, I?ve tried to teach my son, now 11, and his 16-year-old sister about many other things our taxes pay for. The library where we get books for free isn?t really free at all; taxes keep the doors open. The streets we drive to school and the shopping mall didn?t sprout like toadstools in some fairy-tale past. Taxes built them, and taxes keep them repaired.

Taxes, I?ve told my kids, pay our soldiers and teachers and police officers, fund our local universities, and send our astronauts into space. Taxes help keep our food safe and our water clean. Taxes pay for the parks where we play, and the scientists who explore the heavens and the sea.

When a local tax election looms, we discuss it at the dinner table, parsing out what our family might stand to gain if it?s approved, and how much it will cost us. Sometimes, our children accompany us into the voting booth as we cast our ballots. I?ve shown our kids my tax bill, so that they?ll know there?s really no free lunch. When they spend their allowances on bubblegum, video games, or designer clothes, I remind my youngsters that they?ve become taxpayers, too, through the sales tax charges on their receipts.

What I?m attempting to do, I suppose, is help my son and daughter see taxes not as a textbook abstraction on a civics test, but as a practical reality of their daily lives ? and something worthy of serious thought, not silly sloganeering.

My children have grown up in a political climate in which millions of people seem to reflexively regard taxes as a social evil. Taxes have never been popular, nor will they ever be. But the rhetorical absolutism of the current campaign season has given too many of us, I?m afraid, the illusion that government either has no price tag ? or that its price can be paid by someone else.

I am, by habit and virtue of residence in a red state, fairly conservative. As a journalist the whole of my adult life, I?ve also been vigilant in sounding the alarm about government waste and inefficiency. But I also embrace the conservative principle that citizens should pay their bills, including the cost of what their government provides.

To help create a political climate in which Americans can talk sensibly about taxes, we have to start by talking sensibly about taxes with our children. Many of us have already acknowledged the wisdom of having The Sex Talk or The Drugs Talk or The Bullying Talk with our sons and daughters when the right time comes. Maybe it?s also time to make The Tax Talk with our kids a part of the popular culture.

Today, as millions of Americans file their taxes, seems as good a time as any.

Danny Heitman, a columnist for The Baton Rouge Advocate, is the author of ?A Summer of Birds: John James Audubon at Oakley House.?

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Dick Clark Dead At 82

'American Bandstand' host has been a TV staple for more than 50 years.
By Gil Kaufman


Dick Clark in 1958
Photo: Getty Images

One of television's most enduring personalities, Dick Clark, died on Wednesday (April 18) after suffering from a massive heart attack. According to TMZ, the longtime host of "American Bandstand" and "New Year's Rockin' Eve" had been in a Los Angeles hospital undergoing an outpatient procedure when the heart attack struck, killing him at age 82.

Clark had weathered a number of serious ailments since 2004, when he suffered a major stroke, forcing him to retire from "Rockin' Eve," which he had hosted since 1972. His death comes after the man known as "America's Oldest Teenager" spent a long career building some of the most iconic brands in television, from "American Bandstand" and "Rockin' Eve" to the American Music Awards and such popular shows as the "$25,000 Pyramid" and "TV's Bloopers and Practical Jokes."

Photos: The life and career of Dick Clark

But it was "Bandstand" that helped Clark stake a claim as one of the people who helped put rock and roll on the map, and, more importantly, into people's homes on TV. After taking over a low-rated afternoon show featuring teens dancing to the day's hits on an interim basis, Clark was bumped up to full-time host in 1956. The show went national on ABC as "American Bandstand" and became a sensation, helping to advance the careers of dozens of early rock stars such as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Chuck Berry thanks to his "rate-a-record" segment, which helped Clark earn a reputation as a musical tastemaker.

The show ran daily Monday-Friday until 1963 and then once-a-week on Saturdays through 1989. Once Clark made the move to Hollywood in 1963 his Dick Clark Productions became a TV powerhouse, producing TV shows as well as made-for-TV movies.

Though he was known for his sharp business acumen and fierce dedication to his signature shows — he returned sporadically to "Rockin' Eve" beginning in 2006 despite suffering some speech problems due to the stroke — Clark was, above all, the consummate on-camera professional. With his charming, unflappable style, Clark yearned to stay forever young.

Born Richard Wagstaff Clark in Mount Vernon, New York, on November 30, 1929, Clark was destined for a career in the entertainment business. He began working in the mailroom of the WRUN radio station in upstate New York before he graduated from high school, working for his father and eventually taking on the job of weatherman and announcer.

After spinning records on the college station during his time at Syracuse University, Clark graduated in 1951 with a degree in business and worked a number of radio jobs before landing the "Bandstand" gig.

According to ABC News the Museum of Broadcast Communication calculated that Dick Clark Productions had churned out more than 7,500 hours of TV programming, including more than 30 series, 250 specials and 20 TV and big screen films. That volume of material not only brought Clark untold millions, but also earned him induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Emmys, Grammys and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

As Clark himself would have said it with his signature catchphrase, "For now, Dick Clark ... so long."

Share your condolences for Clark's family, friends and fans on our Facebook page.

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Apple eMate 300 prototype pops up on eBay, buy it now for $8,500

Apple eMate 300 prototype pops up on eBay, buy it now for $8,5000

?At this point we kind of just expect vintage Apple machines to surface on eBay: just last month we came across a WALT prototype, followed by a Macintosh 128k a few days ago. Now, the fresh face at eBay's auction party is Apple's eMate 300, which is said to be in "good working order" and showing no signs of wear. There's no bidding war going on at the moment, but there is a "Buy it now" option that's got the laptop priced at a whopping $8,500. Of course, you're likely to get your money's worth, with a 25 MHz ARM 710a RISC processor, a 480 x 320 display and an almighty stylus pen -- all while being powered by Cupertino's Newton OS. Think this is worth adding to your fancy collector's shelf? We'll let you chew on that while you pore over the sell-off page.

Apple eMate 300 prototype pops up on eBay, buy it now for $8,500 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Who Needs a Bike When Your SUV Has a Built-In Exercise Machine? [Overkill]

We've all seen these ridiculously-equipped SUVs designed for the one percent before. They're full of stained wood accents, plush leather seating, and everything from big-screen TVs to coffee makers. But this is the first time we've seen one with a full-on exercise machine inside. More »


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Term Paper: Personal Development Matrix

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Competency Current Ability Potential Application Core Concepts
Self Management Competency Selected

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Stress Management & Personal Resilience

One of the fundamental measures and components that need to be considered in this category is that a person in order to manage or lead a team that works under his / her subordination, must first possess the ability and potential of managing himself / herself in a proper an appropriate manner. The process of self-management includes various factors which comprise of characteristics like punctuality and above all the application of methods and strategies that help in achieving goals in the most convenient way possible.

My ability of Stress management and personal resilience is balanced and normal. I:

  • used to relax through meditation or regular exercise
  • Say no to unacceptable work overloads, stand up to the boss, and delegate responsibility to subordinates
  • building resistance to stress through regular sleep, good eating and health habits, and discussing the stressful situation with coworkers, family, and friends
My priority for improvement in this area is:
  • Managing stress through performance feedback and clear job expectations, job decision latitudes, and social support
  • Improve techniques like having other interests, maintaining a sense of humor, keeping in shape, keeping a balance in life, deciding not to let things bother and not taking matters too seriously

These improvements would help me to improve my stress management and personal resilience skills.

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Goldstein & Strube, 1994

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