Author: David

Today’s FairTax screed is from Terry Dillard of The Right Track

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As I see it, the main problem with the Income Tax is that it is virtually impossible to enforce completely and fairly. Compliance with the Income Tax depends on taxpayer truthfulness, which generally is motivated either by a) good character, or b) fear of an IRS audit. With the FairTax, the tax is collected when the money is spent, from everyone, with greatly reduced opportunities for non-compliance by the public.

For instance, what about the criminal element in our country? Have you ever heard of the Mafia? Or the drug dealer? Do you think that these people report 100% of their income? Of course not! They get out of paying a huge percentage of their actual tax bill by the simple expedient of not reporting all of their income. But these same individuals still have to pay utility bills, purchase prescription drugs, visit doctors, and buy food. And if they believe in the “high life” of new cars, fancy clothes and jewelry, and new homes, they’re going to pay more than “Joe Six-pack” who chooses to drive a used car, or purchase a home that’s not brand new.

And it’s not just individuals who are managing to avoid paying taxes these days. Everyone in America has heard of the rush to move American companies “offshore”, whether in whole or in part. Think about it — have you ever seen an American-flagged commercial vessel? Oh sure, we’ve got our warships, but what about commercial boats that carry cargo or cruise passengers? Most of these are flying the flag of Liberia or Panama — low-tax nations.

In the mid-1950s, about 33% of all income taxes collected were paid by American corporations. Today that number is down to approximately 10%. From “The FairTax Book” by Boortz and Linder:

“That plunge is a major factor in our recent soaring deficits. Indeed, international corporations are essentially “voluntary” taxpayers today, paying only that amount in taxes that they believe will avoid attracting embarrassing news coverage. These corporations believe that our draconian tax structures make their actions necessary. The OFCs [offshore financial centers, or banks – TD] make their plans feasible” [Emphasis added – TD]

Boortz and Linder make the point that if we eliminated all taxes on capital and labor, (which the FairTax does), the United States would become the world’s tax haven.

We have the most stable economy, the most liquid and trusted markets, and the highest rates of labor productivity in the world — and the trillions of dollars in those OFCs would flow back home to the United States for the very reason they found themselves offshore to start with.

And we’re not just talking about American businesses coming home, we’re talking about wooing corporations based in other countries into America. Think of the economic benefits! More productivity, lower unemployment, higher wages, and all occurring within a tax system that allows you at least partly to choose whether to pay taxes! Buy it new, pay a tax, buy it used and don’t!

The FairTax Blogburst is jointly produced by Terry of The Right Track Blog and Jonathan of Publius Rendezvous. If you would like to host the weekly postings on your blog, please e-mail Terry. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll.

TD

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Tb-posted @ Diane’s Stuff OTA Wednesday

Yep, it’s that time of week again. Show me how smart you are. Link me (to this post) with your best shot and track back. More after the IQ-destructor below…

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Click this link and watch the video. If simply watching it doesn’t subtract 3-IQ points from your brainpower, then the guys who made the video are smarter than you are. And we all know that’s not possible…

🙂

(It reminded me of a school district administrator explaining why it was the sensible thing to do to break the law by comingling classroom instruction funds and construction funds. “Wow! He sher do know lotsa big words, don’t he, Ma?”)

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As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Oh, and Lyn, at Bloggin’ Outloud, has some great tips and links for tracking back in this post. (As Lyn pointed out in comments, I meant this post.)

This is an open trackbacks post. Link to this post and track back. After yesterday’s resounding success with SPAM “poetry” for Academia Nut Fruitcakes, here’s some more “creative genius” (and I almost typed that with a straight face, I did. Almost.) More below the brilliant poetry following…

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Thanks to Angel at Woman Honor Thyself (although she may delist me from her blogroll for saying it :-)), the bit of genius below sprang full blown from my forehead:

Anyone recall the Burma Shave signs of the 50s? Each line of a 5/6-line piece of doggerel (usually ending in line six with “Burma Shave”) was on a separate small roadside sign, so that reading them was simple time-lapse roadside entertainment.

An example:

“He tried
To cross
As fast train neared
Death didn’t draft him
He volunteered
Burma-Shave”

Updated for today?

“He tried
To cross
Undercover
Got shot dead
He’ll not recover
Guarded Borders.”

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As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

(The Neverending Post–updates edited in. *heh*)

Well, my weekend break for silliness mixed with seriousness is over… for now. Time for a Guard the Borders post. Since the gals at Euphoric Reality are “off” for a bit, my humble offering will have to suffice.

Start your week off by visiting NumbersUSA. I would suggest, though, that instead of sending the form faxes and emails that NumbersUSA offers, instead you take their form faxes and emails and use them as templates and examples to write your OWN faxes and emails. Then send them to YOUR congresscritters—your representative and senators—as appropriate. Send words of encouragement to your congresscritters if they are working (and have worked) to limit immigration and deny amnesty to alien invaders. Send (polite) excoriations to your congresscritters if they have voted the Quisling Ticket on thse issues.

But make the faxes and emails your own, in your own voice. Masses of form letters do have an impact, but I have been told by experienced pols that similar masses of individual letters, emails and faxes that are not part of an organized camplaign can have far more impact.

And call. Call the White House (202-456-1111) and express your displeasure with President Bush’s stance of appeasing a foreign aggressor invading our country with its masses of unwanted underemployed illiterates. Yeh, that’s our good friend Mexico. And express even greater displeasure with the administrations unconscionably lax approach to enforcing the law… and our borders.

Now, despite the fact that at first blush it may not seem applicable to our border/immigration issues (it is) this poignant plea from a British immigrant from Nigeria bemoaning the denigration of British culture by multiculturalists. (h.t. Intergalactic Source of Truth)

It amazed me greatly after the July bombing that the majority of the media and British, white public were so shocked that ‘our’ own people could do this. I certainly was not shocked. What this part of the country needs to realise is because of the promotion of multiculturalism, THERE IS NO LONGER AN ‘US’. There now exist separate identities living under the umbrella of Britain/United Kingdom, but who certainly do not view themselves as British.

Yeh, and here? Viva la raza, baby… The face of “multiculturalism” in the USA:

(Gee, the picture even leans left. I wonder why?)

And this in from Grunt Doc (via The Other Side of Kim):

Hubris

Senior Citizen from Mexico is brought in by a relative, accompanied by CT scans, ultrasound reports and the announcement “(loved one) needs a surgery”.

Well, this was worked up in Mexico, didn’t they want to do the surgery there?

“Yes, but… “

Read the rest at the link, but be warned: put breakables out of easy reach and take your BP meds first.

Noted at Committees of Correspondence, Bloggin’ Outloud

This is my Open Trackbacks post for Monday. Link to this post and track back. More below the *cough* literary genius that follows.

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Since imitation is the sincerest flattery, then imitation that surpasses that which it flatters must obviously be exceedingly great flattery, eh?

So, herewith my sincere flattery of the type of modern “poetry” so loved by typical Academia Nut Fruitcakes. I “wrote” it by combining the first line out of each of about 1/10 of the spam comments I recieved on this blog Saturday, since that way I was able to glean literary gems that each in and of itself far, far surpassed the literary genius of the post-post-modern deconstructivists populating many of our Academia Nut Fruitcake Bakeries today.

With no further ado, I give you,

In Honor of Academia Nut Fruitcakes

Busting black caper So apples
black paint ball Busting Left
case Enemy World Going lion
title caper book Stop again
Shove Sleep book paint little
It gold Left title So
fury oranges strike oranges It
keys It book Take show
leave little So Busting for
movies lion Shove case lion
Sleep So buck fury entire
Are Enemy Sleep book again
World Open keys Here book
mouse The oranges for black
buck strike Are Shove oranges
Going ball in And gold
leave It Busting And love
lemons lemons To for strike
It Busting black ball Stop
keys leave leave title leave
Are buck caper lemons keys
paint Are fury little Here
monitor It love show buck
rock My love Are We
Stop leave World lion Going
Balls It for fury lemons

Thank you. No applause, please. Just throw money.

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As I said, this is an open trackback post. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out

Also note the other fine blogs featuring linkfests at Linkfest Haven.

Angel, at Woman Honor Thyself, just posted news of Turkey acting, well, like a turkey in banning Winnie the Pooh (yeh, that childhood icon named after potty-training by-product).

…Which spurred me to finally take a picture of a sign that has been troubling me for the past coupla years…

Does that bother anyone else as much as it does me? First, the obvious *shudder*. But then, it’s been posted on a power pole outside a local elementary school for the past two years!

If it’s a misspelling of “corner” and has gone 2 years uncorrected outside a public school (posted at the overflow parking), that’s bad enough. but what if… what if it’s NOT a misspelling?

?!?!?!?

What if it refers to this:

(warning: disturbing image; be careful what you click on!)

Continue reading “Disturbing…”

…shouldn’t you go to a drive-in?

Just askin’…

A mini-sorta-roundup of disparate but related bits n pieces from ’round n about…

John Leo beats the obvious about the head and shoulders: The Left promotes assertions that turn out to be false. Oh, and the comments are not to be missed, for example, this snippet from one commenter:

One is tempted to rant about the poor quality of public education in this country, or the cognitive effects of a childhood watching television, or some such. I think our public schools do a rather poor job, and I’m appalled by most television, but I doubt they’re the explanation. [I demur–they are part of the situation–ed.]…

…The voter isn’t being dumb about current events because he is dumb; he’s being dumb about current events because, as one out of 100 million voters, he has made a quite rational (if unconscious) decision that it just isn’t worth making the considerable effort required to be smarter about current events. His vote make so little difference that it doesn’t seem like it’s worth making the effort to use more wisely.

I’m tempted to suggest that this is an argument for federalism. Perhaps voters will take more time to be informed if the important decisions are made closer to home, where an individual voter has more influence… [and where the consequences are much more immediate–ed]

That matches well with my take on a central curative for public education: remove the remote management by educrats and politicians from the picture and see what happens when people are perforce compelled to really manage their own schools.

And more faux liberal betrayal of truth (a VDH gem among other related thoughts) is noted in Alexandra’s own lil differently-themed omnibus post today.

And strangely central to the theme of this post (though it’s perhaps not immediately obvious how it is), Doug Wilson’s “God-centered Worship?” (Hint: we all tend to avoid looking the truth squarely in the eye at times. It’s the human consdition, ya know.) And, Alexandra again, “Does Society Set The Standard For God’s Law” As is often the case, much of the meat is in comments there.

Don Surber (sorry ’bout the earlier typo, Don) notes what happens when The Emperor’s New Clothes becomes public policy.

*sigh*

And from my recommendation for Book of the Month, The Graves of Academe, by Richard Mitchell comes this gem:

The intellectual climate of the public schools, which must inevitably become the intellectual climate of the nation, does not seem to be conducive to the spread of what Jefferson called informed discretion. The intellectual climate of the nation today came from the public schools, where almost every one of us was schooled in the work of the mind. We are a people who imagine that we are weighing important issues when we exchange generalizations and well-known opinions. We decide how to vote or what to buy according to whim or fancied self-interest, either of which is easily engendered in us by the manipulation of language, which we have neither the will nor the ability to analyze. We believe that we can reach conclusions without having the faintest idea of the difference between inferences and statements of fact, often without any suspicions that there are such things and that they are different. We are easily persuaded and repersuaded by what seems authoritative, without any notion of those attributes and abilities that characterize authority. We do not notice elementary fallacies in logic; it doesn’t even occur to us to look for them; few of us are even aware that such things exist. We make no regular distinctions between those kinds of things that can be known and objectively verified and those that can only be believed or not. Nor are we likely to examine, when we believe or not, the induced predispositions that may make us do the one or the other. We are easy prey.

Easy prey? Sheeple to the slaughter.

Oh, the underlying theme of this post? Check the links above then… Continue reading ““Fire up the omnibus, Ma. We’re headed fer the hills!””

Here’s an interesting lil tool for bloggers: Flock Browser. I’m using it to write this post, even though I haven’t really explored the functionality much, yet (inserting pics, media files and fine-tuning html, etc.—haven’t a clue about doing thaose things via Flock, yet).

It seems to be a reasonably responsive browser, reasonably good 9so far) at page rendering, etc. Don’t know yet if it has all the functionality Opera has taught me to expect from a browser. But I do like this lil WYSIWYG popup blog editor.

Ah, just looked at the bottom of this window (duh!). “Editor” is this WYSIWYG view and “Source” gives me html fine-tuning views I like. Very nice. Now, if I could only use my sooper-dooper editing plugins… There’s no real blockquote function in the lil toolbar, but it has an indent function that gives a similar effect (and i can always add the blockquote tag in the Source view, it looks like).

None of the category or timestamp or trackback functions show (yet–maybe after some fine-tuning in Options). Ahh, categories show up when I hit the Publish button.

Maybe good enough for a quick post.

Apart from the blogging utility, it pretty much looks like recent Firefox iterations, and indeed, it installs Firefox extensions (with the typical install facility, behavior and possible browser breakage of Firefox extension installs *heh*).

So, just a Firefox wrap/enhancement like so many Internet Exploder-based browsers? Looks like. Still interesting, if only for the integrated blogging utility…

Mending Walls: Faith

The word “faith” is bruited about quite a bit in common talk, in the public arena, in churches, schools and the media. Every venue has a different take on what faith is, how it operates, its value to society, etc.

And mostly, even in Christian churches, the meaning ascribed to the word today, and its ascribed value to society by various groups, is so far off base that I wonder whether “mending” this wall is worth the effort. Perhaps building an entirely new wall and calling it “pfeffernoogle” would be better.

*sigh*

Let me back off a bit with a set of current denotative definitions that describe the word as it is in use today, ‘K?

• Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing.
• Belief that does not rest on logical proof or material evidence. See Synonyms at belief. See Synonyms at trust.
• Loyalty to a person or thing; allegiance: keeping faith with one’s supporters.
  often Faith Christianity. The theological virtue defined as secure belief in God and a trusting acceptance of God’s will.
• The body of dogma of a religion: the Muslim faith.
• A set of principles or beliefs.

I’ll not fisk those definitions directly for the evidence of pejoration amounting to almost complete loss of the meaning of the word itself. Instead, in this “Mending Walls: Faith, Part 1” post (yes, there is a part 2), I want to very simply and briefly look at the formation and use of the word “faith” and its antecedents (and the words it is used to translate, in a couple of important cases) as drawn from the Graeco-Roman and Judeo-Christian roots that largely formed the basis of Western Civilization… and provided us with a concept of faith that the modern world has lost.

Part 2 will deal with what our loss of the concept means to our society today… and perhaps what it means concerning our destination as a society.

So, if you’re still with me, for the rest of part 1 CLICK Continue reading “Mending Walls: Faith, Part 1”