I love you, Camille Paglia, but yes...

What's fair for the goose is fair for the gander, no?

Hilarious comment. Check out this cite from Wikipedia:

"In antiquity, publicans (Latin publicanus (singular); publicani (plural)) were public contractors, in which role they often supplied the Roman legions and military, managed the collection of port duties, and oversaw public building projects. In addition, they served as tax collectors for the Republic (and later the Roman Empire), bidding on contracts (from the Senate in Rome) for the collection of various types of taxes. Importantly, this role as tax collectors was not emphasized until late into the history of the Republic (c. 1st century BC). The publicans were usually of the class of equites...


By New Testament times, publicans were seen chiefly as tax collectors by provincial peoples. It is in this sense that the term is used in Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the Publican. However, their role as public contractors, especially as regards building projects, was still significant. ..

By the time of the Renaissance, the word "publican" meant a tavernkeeper (the licensed landlord of a public house), and by extension a slang term for a p!mp.

In England in the late 12th century there existed a religious sect called the publicani. Among their beliefs was the view that procreation was a sin. This sect was thought heretical and was commonly persecuted in the 1180-1190s by Archbishop William of Rheims (reigned 1176-1202).[1] This is mentioned in Banks and Binns' introduction to the Otia Imperialia, a 13th century work by Gervase of Tilbury."

Tax collectors? P!mps? How appropriate! (And if you add "Re" to it, it just means they want to do it to us over and over again.)

Speaking as a Libertarian, I couldn't agree more.