From an article at MSNBC.com on the elimination of the taxes on telephone calls:
Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who won approval of the ban in the Senate Finance Committee, said he didn’t want the Internet to fall victim to taxes like the telephone tax enacted for the Spanish-American War.
“That war ended two centuries ago, and Congress is just now getting around to getting rid of the tax,” Wyden said.
Senator Wyden apparently thinks that there were telephones around in 1806 and that the Spanish-American War (you know, the one with Teddy Roosevelt charging San Juan Hill) predated the War of 1812 (the one with Andrew Jackson and the Battle of New Orleans). Either that or he thinks it’s the year 2098.
Geez…
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Cross-posted to Random Fate.