The Toulouse Child Killer: Another Case of Welfare Being Used to Subsidize Terrorism?

I’m not a big fan of welfare programs, in part because I sympathize with taxpayers (check out these outrageous examples of waste) but mostly because redistribution programs subsidize poverty and trap people in lives of despair.

But as I wrote in 2010, the most perverse form of welfare is when governments give handouts to Islamo-fascist radicals. This has happened in the United Kingdom and Germany, and the video at the link about the taxpayer-financed radical cleric in Australia is absolutely horrifying.

It seems like this foolishness is happening in France as well. In a story about the recent horrific murders by Mohammed Merah, the New York Post included this blurb.

All the while, Merah, a petty criminal on welfare, was ostensibly under surveillance by French intelligence.

And a New Zealand TV station included this tidbit.

Etelin said he knew Merah since he was about 17, and described his life as typical for many teenagers and young men in poor French housing projects who get involved in criminal activity. “His mother couldn’t control him, his father was totally absent, his sister … also told me that she couldn’t exercise any influence over him,” the lawyer said.

Isn’t that so typical. Not only welfare, but also government housing, and a system of handouts that facilitates an absent father.

I’m not saying – or even implying – that welfare programs cause terrorism. Millions of people live off government and never go out and murder others. And it may turn out that Merah and his family were low-level moochers, making this aspect of the story worthy of nothing other than an asterisk.

But I am saying that welfare breeds idleness and despair, and in some cases it enables reprehensible behavior (as seen by this story about a couple of disgusting leeches who wanted to impregnate a 12-year old girl in hopes of getting a bigger handout).

For those interested, this video looks at the broader issue of welfare, and it includes this graph showing how the so-called War on Poverty has probably resulted in more destitution.

And here’s one final story, from the U.K., about the horrible human cost of the welfare state.

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Here’s a Song for All Americans: F-Blank-Blank-the-IRS

I’m rather clueless on matters of popular culture, but I know the IRS is a vicious and needless bureaucracy that plagues the American people (though IRS agents could learn something from their Pakistani counterparts)

So I’m obviously a fan of this song that several people have sent me.

About a month ago, I made fun of the IRS for wanting to squander $15 million of our tax dollars on a PR campaign.  What’s great about this song is that it presumably is akin to a big PR campaign against the IRS jackboots.

And remember, while most of the blame for a terrible tax system should be directed against the clowns in Congress and the White House, the IRS goes above and beyond legislative requirements to hassle and torture Americans. Heck, sometimes it simply decides to ignore the law!

This video has some of the ugly details.

But let’s not end this post on a depressing note. Here’s some IRS humor to brighten your day, including the IRS version of the quadratic formula, a new Obama 1040 form, a list of tax day tips from David Letterman, a cartoon of how GPS would work if operated by the IRS, an IRS-designed pencil sharpener, two Obamacare/IRS cartoons (here and here), a sale on 1040-form toilet paper (a real product), a song about the tax agency, and (my favorite) a joke about a Rabbi and an IRS agent.

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