Sept. 19, 2003 - 18:17 MDT

THE WONDERING JEW

Dingbat Tax

All over the land are the cloud castle folks, often they are the ones who think up among other weird things, the crying, dying problem of what to tax next. I think, or am I just paranoid ?

Guess the folks in Seattle had sense enough to reject a dime a cup tax on the upscale type of coffee beverage that many of us are mildly addicted to. I am glad they did. Great balls of fire they have taxed everything else, booze, cigarettes, gasoline, sales taxes on most things sold, including automobiles.

I guess maybe this feeble minded man is too dumb to understand the convoluted, complicated plans to suck money out of us average Joes, but I will say that I don't understand. Seems that I remember luxury tax on yachts etc. almost sinking that industry. Now some dumb people apparently feel a cup of fancy Joe merits a luxury tax. Already many of us are willing to pay x bucks for a nice cup of Mocha. Why ? Because that is what we like and lacking the facilities of home during the work day, we pay extra for the extra flavor of our coffee. Now they want to tax that ? Gee, I sure hope that idea doesn't migrate to Denver.

Its not that I spend so very much, it is just to me that I wonder if I will soon be paying more tax on the air I breathe.

There are of course aficionados of coffee who can not only tell the country their coffee is from, but which side of the hill where it was grown and more, what year it was harvested. They can also tell if it was brewed a bit too long and all the other niggling things that a true coffee professor can detect. When we go to clinic, if there early enough I treat myself to a jumbo Mocha. I like it. I pay for it, gladly. It is a treat that I can't afford often.

At home I have a bottle of Hershey's Dark Chocolate syrup, a push pot with the appropriate grind of coffee wherein I can make it as strong as I like, add the chocolate syrup and milk -- putting it in the microwave to heat it up to temperature and have my own treat at home. It is neat to belly up to the bar and ask the barista for a Jumbe Mocha and not have to do more than just pay for it. That anyone should feel that a tax be added per cup is ridiculous in the extreme and that they probably feel that the people who patronize Barstux have enough dough to blow off a dime a cup have this dude to answer to.

Maybe some of us commoners should push hard for a Dingbat Tax . . . . . . . .

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