Happy Father's Day to my Dad, John R. Taylor, and to dads everywhere. Fathers grow more important; the years bring a heightened appreciation for their role. Many folks no longer have a living father; I am blessed and I hope you are too.

Young folks who think their dad is uninformed or behind the times will be surprised at how much smarter he will become as they grow older.

I've never thought that about my Dad. I still rely on him and value his opinion. Be sure to visit your dad on Father's Day. A call is nice, but I betcha he'd rather see you darken his door.
Kudos to Madisonville for arriving at the end of their budget year with money left over. Not many governments can say that today. According to Michael Thomason in The Advocate & Democrat the city will have around $100,000 left when the fiscal year ends June 30.

Madisonville's tax rate will stay the same to fund the $2.9 million budget but funding for non-profits will be cut $6,000. That is two-tenths of one percent of the budget which must be really tight if that small percentage makes a difference. But if you want to have dollars you gotta watch your pennies.
Speaking of dollars, the State of Tennessee and Uncle Sam are craving yours. The Volunteer State has raised unemployment taxes on businesses. What a misnomer - all tax is paid by the customers of businesses. It is impossible to levy a tax on anything other than on people who make their own way.

Tennessee is considering other ways to get in your pocket, but our legislature is a minuscule threat compared to the greed of power-hungry Washington. There is not enough room in this paper to list the many ways they are scheming to take your earnings and control every aspect of your life.
The folks in Nashville have things on their mind other than the budget, including the usual party line bickering.

Republicans recently blocked the erection of statues of Cordell Hull and Al Gore on the capitol grounds, planned in recognition of them as Nobel Peace Prize winners. Hull won as the "father of the United Nations" and Gore was recognized for his proselytizing of global warming. They objected to a statue of a living man.

The statues would have joined that of Democrat, Ward Carmack who was elected to the Tennessee House in 1884, the U.S. House in 1896 and as a Senator in 1900.
Carmack was a controversial figure, a title earned not in politics but as a newspaperman. He was editor-in-chief of the Nashville American and the Memphis Commercial, (now The Commercial Appeal). He allegedly used editorials to incite ill feelings toward his African-American-owned competition.

One of those editorials is cited as instigating a riot that resulted in the burning of a business they owned and the lynching of four of the owners. He later editorialized that lynching was "justifiable to keep certain people in their place." And this "man" has a statue on the Tennessee Capitol grounds?
Now some of the Democrats are really mad about Gore not getting his statue. Too bad they were never in charge so they could have torn down the memorial to Carmack. Oh, seventy plus years?
Anyway, they can still put up their Gore statute. Why not erect it at the bank where he keeps the millions he's making with his global warming priesthood?

taylormadetalk@yahoo.com