It's tax day and one's thoughts naturally turn to the political abuse of the IRS to target government enemies. That, and the fact that we're paying too much in return for too little of what we want, as well as an overabundance of disincentives to the basic notion that we can and should, as much as possible, take care of ourselves.

Talking about the complexity of the tax code may lack drama--until you look at the ramifications. In the early 1980s when Ronald Reagan simplified the code, it was possible to estimate what you'd owe--even if you were running your own business and had a few mutual funds. Now, forget it. The rev'nuers are forcing the complexity of accounting for large corporations onto the backs of sole proprietors. "Better hire an accountant, bub."

And if your business succeeds, and you're able to hire employees--think twice. Once you reach 11, you're on the hook for OSHA compliance. At 15, you'll be writing an EEOC compliance plan instead of running your business. Of course you can then hire a team of human resources professionals to help you keep up with the constant stream of regulations and advisory notices.

Don't forget legal liability. As Glenn Reynolds likes to remind us, prosecutors joke that they can find a way to sue a ham sandwich if they want to. 1000-page federal bills are the norm, each one requiring a team of specialized consultants to decipher it. Yet these monstrosities affect the way you pay your doctors' bills and prevent your bank from offering you free checking.

It's too much. It's out of hand. Keep it simple, stupid--that's a basic principle that almost everyone can relate to. Down with bureaucrats, we don't need no stinkin experts. Mother, please, I'd rather do it myself!

The French host blocking the road to Calais was magnificent; 10 - 20 thousand knights, over a thousand mounted. The English force that must somehow go through them seemed ludicrous; a few hundred knights, all on foot, with Henry V front and center, flanked by 6 or 7 thousand bowmen. These archers were common Englishmen, not worth any ransom, to whom no quarter would be given. They had trained once a week "at the butts" since they were 12, so that their forearms were like Popeye's. In their hands was a bow as tall as they were, cut from a yew so that the inner side was heartwood, and the pull was over 100 pounds. Their arrows had Bodkin tips, tapering down to a needle point.

LOOSE! Thousands of arrows rained down on the French, launched at 45 degrees. At 300 yards not many were lethal, but they proved quite the irritant, especially to horses. "Petits morceaux de merde! EN AVANT!" The French closed to within a 100 yards.

LOOSE! The arrows were now point blank, and armor-piercing. The rear ranks jammed into the front, and the front into the dead and dying. The sodden field turned into ooze a foot deep. Still the serried ranks came on, finally reaching the English line.

The Archers dropped their bows, picked up war hammers, axes, and pikes, and the real slaughter began. They would have gotten no quarter, and so none was given. They say chivalry died in the mud on that day, but a bond between a prince and his people was born. It is not a fluke that for centuries the chamber holding the power of the realm in the "Mother of Parliaments" has been called the House of COMMONS.

"We few, we happy few; we band of brothers; For he today that sheds his blood with me shall be my brother; Be he ne'er so vile, this day shall gentle his condition; And gentlemen in England now-a-bed shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here; and hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks that fought with us upon Saint Crispin's Day."

Shakespeare, HENRY V, Act IV, Scene 3.

Near Cold Harbor, 2 June, 1864, 2100 hrs - The smell of pork fat cooking with crushed hardtack over the supper fires is in the air, mingled with strong coffee and a hint of chicory. A chorus of frogs wafts in from the Chicahominy River and Boatswain's Swamp. A harmonica is softly playing a tune that reminds the boys of life back home - a life many of them have not known for three long years of bloody fighting. There are other sounds in the night air; sounds that chill their souls. They are close enough to hear the Rebel axes and shovels building breastworks. It is no secret that they will be ordered to attack those works at dawn - ACROSS THE OPEN GROUND.

Why are several of them hunched over in their shirtsleeves, fiddling with their jackets? Is it mending time? No, they are pinning bits of paper or cloth to their backs with their names and home towns written on them. You see, there were no dog tags back then. In the morning, as they offer themselves up to be shredded by minie balls and canister, they don't want their last thoughts to be that no one back home will know what happened to them. For there was a multitude of brave boys in grey and butternut on the other side who were willing to die for the idea that there was no such thing as the UNITED States of America, and no "Yankee government" was going to tell them how to live, or tell them they had to stop holding African Americans in bondage. So they built their ramparts that night and waited - ACROSS THE OPEN GROUND.

The next day the attack would fail to take the Rebel works, and and over 7000 Union soldiers would be killed or wounded - going ACROSS THE OPEN GROUND.

The man who called this nation "the last best hope of earth" admonished us to "take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave their last full measure of devotion." Our unique way of life was purchased at a dear price; by men who somehow found it within themselves to get up, form up, and go ACROSS THE OPEN GROUND.

Maybe the MacArthur Foundation, the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and Syracuse University can get their money back.

Nice we don't have problems like that at Liberty Island.

So Disney/Marvel pulled off the multi-platform meta-narrative, interweaving Captain America 2 with the show in a fairly elegant way.

I've heard some complaints that the show is being used to pump up the movies.

My response is "so?"

It's being done well.

The newest installment of the Captain America saga revealed that SHIELD, an agency dedicated to protecting peace and freedom, was actually infiltrated by HYDRA, a fascistic organization bent on world dominance. In Agents of Shield, the story took up during HYDRA's coup and had some nifty twists. And I'm sure it will lay groundwork for Avengers 2 and then go forth from the events in that movie.

Vince McMahon modeled this with the cable shows of WWE acting as lead-ins for his pay per view specials. Essentially, he was using USA Network for highly rated commercials.

It works.

Haters will hate but for a geek like me, I'm pretty happy to see what Disney/Marvel is doing.