[hellosailor]

Rockter-
"I am very surprised that you would defend such punitive boat taxes"
Who says I'm defending the taxes?

It may surprise you to know that the US is *supposed* to be, by charter, a federal republic with (50 now) sovereign states in it. Each sovereign state is supposed to do things their own way, and our federal government is basically supposed to coin a common currency, fight the British, fight the Indians, and stay the hell out of most everything else.

Now that we have credit cards, the British are busy with karma as their far-flung conquests all try to "come home" to England (a very different place than it was 30-40 years ago!), and our Indians seem to think exclusives on casino gambling are a better deal than pony raids...I'm pretty amazed that our federal government keeps getting bigger, instead of shrivelling up. (OK, not really.[g])

If the folks in SC want to make sure visitors keep on passing through and not sojourning...that's their right. I don't have to agree with the policy or defend it, to say that it is their right to set their own terms in their own sovereign state.

Much the same way that I may think that Bermuda is a bit offensive for not allowing immigration or land ownership by foreigners, it is still their right to run their own state. Each of our states is, by the laws that founded our nation, a Sovereign State with most of the same rights and privileges as any other nation--like France or Switzerland or Iceland. (Tempered only by our federal charters, which many of us argue have been taken way past where they were ever intended to go.)