It's all goin' to the guvmint, right?

I finally got around to watching my recorded episode of "My Name is Earl" from Thursday. In the episode, Earl realizes he never paid $500 worth of taxes. He decides to atone for this by writing a check. When he goes to the offices of "the government" to pay for it, they can't accept his check because they don't know what it's for.

After some failed attempts to repay his taxes by filling potholes or entering prison, he decides the best way to repay it is to commit a crime with a fine of $500. He and his brother climb a water tower, fall through the tower's roof and are rescued by the combined efforts of a police officer, a city employee and a firefighter. Earl then happily goes to pay his $500 fine at the same government office which denied his check earlier. Happy ending, right?

Except most of Cole Slaw Blog's readers will note that Earl hasn't actually paid his taxes. He paid $500 for his violation of the law _ namely trespassing on the water tower. I know it seems humorless and priggish to be annoyed by this. But in a nation of people who exhibit near-total ignorance of the basics of the Constitution, things like this don't help matters.

This is as close as I'll ever get to griping about the effect of popular culture on the general welfare of the nation. But when it comes to principles of law, won't someone please think of the children?