Millionaire father of billionaire pleads -- tax away our money!

William Gates, Sr., father of Microsoft mogul and leading candidate for Anti- Christ Bill Gates, had a little piece in the Chronicle calling for more social programs and increased estate taxes. It is part of his never-ending crusade to tax money that has already been taxed multiple times just because it is there and available to tax. He goes on at length about the need for the richest Americans to "give back" a part of their wealth to the country that made such wealth possible.

What a rich socialist like Gates is unable to grasp is that such folks have already given back. Wages were taxed as income. Every capital gain was taxed. Real property was taxed continuously. And that doesn't even begin to consider the "giving back" that resulted from their investments in enterprises that provided employment, goods, and services, or their charitable and philanthropic contributions and activities. Sorry, old man, but all that is giving back.

But I'll tell you what -- it seems fair to say that you feel you have not given enough of your wealth to the government. Fine. Write a check to the treasury for as much more as you feel you need to give. Better yet, leave all of your fortune to the government as the ultimate sign of your belief that wealth should not be passed from generation to generation.

But keep your hands off of what the rest of the American people have.