Stephen L. Goldstein The Sun-Sentinel

December 4, 2009

Stephen L. Goldstein
The Sun-Sentinel
200 East Las Olas Boulevard
Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33301

RE: Beware of what you ask Santa for Christmas. There may be more in the stocking than you bargained for. Some comments on your column of 12/4/09.

My dear Professor,

First, let me extend a sincere non-denominational Season’s Greetings to you.

Second, let me congratulate you for writing, yet again, a column unencumbered by facts. This one was about the inadequacy of the state tax system. Of course, it goes without saying, which is why I must say it that you find it woefully inadequate in that it doesn’t take all the money produced by the citizens of Florida.

The basic premise of each of your columns is that life would be good, better, indeed it could be heaven on earth, just like that noted labor leader, Jake Kite, said “All them corn fields and ballet at night”, if we could exile every Republican to a minor moon of Jupiter. I say exile because modern American Liberals are opposed to capital punishment – except in the case of Ricky Ray Rector. I wonder if the bullets issued to the American troops who will spearhead Obama’s Afghanistan “surge” will be non-lethal?

Your solution to every political, economic, culinary, cultural, and ethical question is simple: Raise taxes!

What caught my eye as I was wading through your rhetorical incontinence this A.M. was the following throwaway line.

“In addition, it’s about time that Florida taxed internet sales.”

Thank you for giving me, however unintentionally, a “teaching moment”.

It may well be time to tax internet sales.

The problem will not be solved in the legislature. It begins with overturning Gibbons v Ogden. G v O should be a TV series. It involves New Jersey, my home state, and Surprise! Surprise! political corruption. It also involves taxation. Long before Chris Matthews talked about a thrill going up his leg the thought of raising taxes was always greeted by you with a tumescent look of anticipation.

You may remember the questions asked of Judge Roberts and Judge Alito at their confirmation hearings. The term “settled law” was often used. The real question was always about abortion. Would they vote to overturn Roe v Wade?

We were lectured, perhaps hectored is a better word, that Roe v Wade was “settled law”. Some of the more glib modern American Liberals used the term “stare decisis”.

The “settled law” part of Gibbons v Ogden is that no state may tax the transactions of any other state. It has been around much, much longer than Roe v Wade. I’m not sure if seniority attaches to “settled law” but why not?

The Dred Scott case was “settled law”. It was overturned on the field of battle in less than 7 years.

Plessy v Ferguson was “settled law”. It was overturned by the Supreme Court 59 years after it became “settled law”. I would be remiss if I did not point out that the Court that overturned it was led by a former Republican Governor who was appointed by a Republican President. Surely you remember that one of the leading Democrats on that Court, Hugo Black, was a member of the KuKluxKlan.

Who was it who said that they best way to repeal an old law is to enforce it?

Alas, from your viewpoint, the process needed to tax internet sales is the same to undo Roe v Wade.

In the spirit of a “teaching moment” I present you with a choice that only Hobson would relish.

Which would you prefer?

If the people in their wisdom overturn Gibbons v Ogden and give you a tsunami of new tax revenue with which you can fight bullying and non-gendered discrimination would you be OK with Roe v Wade being overturned?


Kevin Smith


PS – Speaking in a reverential tone of things that are “settled”, what’s up with all this cheating on Climate Change? You may recall that the Ptolemaic universe was “settled science”. So was the Piltdown man. We went from Global Cooling to Global Warming to Climate Change before anything could be “settled”. I just hope that all this change doesn’t become too audacious. I wouldn’t want it disrupt your manatee suffrage plan.