QUOTE(JonTheSavage @ May 17 2008, 03:13 AM)

I'm not anti-government. I am anti-big-corrupt-criminal government.

There is no such thing as a non-corrupt government. You guys across the pond fought us tyrannical Brits in a war for 'freedom' back in the day but now look -- you have one of the most corrupt governments and the largest standing army by a very wide margin (one thing that your fore-fathers agreed on was the lack of a standing army). Even the organisations with the best of intentions turn into something bad and this is because positions of power only attract - and can only attract - one type of person -- a person who wants to use that power to control others.
Taxes are theft by coercion and violence. Governments, at least not super-small ones, cannot survive without taxing the subjects (btw, point of interest: you are officially, by definition not a CITIZEN but a SUBJECT) to fund their monopoly over whatever the hell they want to.
As far as I'm concerned governments are useful for providing justice (but not drawing up laws) and defence (but not having a military presence in 130 countries in the world in the case of the US -- let's make that just ONE), handing off the smaller tasks like road maintenance and maybe trash pick-up to the micro governments (the state governments, etc.).
Back to the topic at hand, however.

I know the media would like to think that they are controlling my mind like a marionette but this is just not so. Maybe because I rarely watch any TV nowadays because let's face it, it's pure garbage. Over here the format for a successful TV show is "
Talent Oriented Reality Show", "
Talent Oriented Reality Show (feat. CELEBRITIES)" or, if you're really lucky "
Documentary About an irrelevant Celebrity and their Equally as Boring Children" that the ignorati seem to lap up.
If the media want to control my mind, they gotta get me to pay attention to it first.