This week I got a nice present in the mail. I was so moved, so overcome with glee when a tax bill for the cigarettes that I bought online came in. The grand total for me venturing to purchase goods online, was $7,795.13. The Great State of Rhode Island decided that they should be able to tax me on cigarettes purchased from another state in the union.

This is weird, that they should be able to do so, since I already paid the tax for the Great State of Kentucky, on said cigarettes. I know that it probably makes no difference to you, either because you: don't smoke (and think that all smokers should pay extra, just for existing in your world), live in another state, or just have enough of your own problems to deal with. But, could you imagine getting hit with such a bill and only having 10 days to pay it, or face more penalties?

Over one thousand dollars of this money is interest. Can you imagine that? One thousand dollars of my money had to be savagely ripped out of my hands and taken out of my three year old son’s college fund, just so I could pay interest on some tax that I never new existed before!

I never knew that if you purchase a product from another state (other than the one you live in) you have to pay two state taxes. I never would have bought said products, if I knew that this were the case. My son may never go to college because some "fat cat" politician thought it was a "neato" idea, to blind side the smokers in the State of Rhode Island.

Someone at the Statehouse may have had a thought one day. It probably went something like this, "Gee, I gots an idea on how "we all" can get more money to make up for us bein inept "N" such. We can wait a few years whilst everyone thinks it’s legal "and all" to purchase "smokes" online. That’s when we lower the boom and make "em" pay! We make um pay, since they don’t know the law "likin" we do, soe’s they havin to pay us whats we want!" "Uhaaa, Uhaaa,….Yuk, Yuk!" ( If! That was the attitude of the genius that thought this plan out, I have but one thing to say to him: The day of the Lord comes swiftly neighbor and on that day, you will be held accountable for this action.)

I don't like it when politicians mess with "Average Joe" (I.E, Me). Because when they take from me (unjustly in my eyes), they are not just taking from me alone; they are taking from my son and my wife. Before you know it, it will be you and yours that they will be messing with. They will be looking for the next "Fall Guy" to screw. They will be taking someone else into their sights to take the fall for their inadequacies. They will be looking for the next innocuous group to "financially fleece" in the town square.

I apologize if I have made politicians sound like a bunch of real crooked jerks. I know there are probably some real good men and women out there trying to do their jobs and I am not opposed to giving my local, state or federal government their due. The money that we pay in taxes goes to our roads and schools (or at least it is supposed to). The money we pay in taxes goes to feeding and sheltering the homeless. I have always been in favor of: "rendering unto Caesar what is Caesar’s", I just get really upset when I see what seems to be a premeditated plan to rip off the hard working citizens of this state. If my local government wanted to, I am sure that they could have made it crystal clear to myself and others, that purchasing products online, would result in getting blind sided by having to pay two state taxes and having to pay one of them in a lump sum, plus penalties and interest, within ten days.