"In a democracy (‘rule by mob’), those who refuse to learn from history will be the majority and will dictate that everyone else suffer for their ignorance."
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Well, I’m not planning to take over the world, in the manner of the Brain, but I have been pondering several things recently. Continue reading “OTA/Are you pondering what I’m pondering, Pinky?”
Crossposted from Stop The ACLU
Imagine if a Church used the power of its tax exemption as a lever towards political campaigns. Can you imagine the outrage from groups like the ACLU if a Church used its tax exempt donations to create political ads opposing candidates that did not adhere to certain “American values” as interpreted by that Church? What if a Christian Religious organization were to use its official title to oppose certain political issues such as abortion?
We don’t have to imagine, the ACLU’s history shows us. They would challenge that Church’s tax exempt status.
“In 1970, the year after the ACLU issued its first policy opposing the tax exempt status for churches; it accepted the advice of church and state extremist Leo Pfeffer and drafted a brief opposing tax exemptions in Waltz v. Tax Commission. In 1987, the ACLU Foundation and the New York Civil Liberties Union filed an amicus brief in support of Abortion Rights Mobilization to secure standing in a suit challenging the tax exempt status of the Catholic Church. The Catholic Church was charged with violating its tax-exempt status by taking a stand against abortion.”Source
From youth to what now feels like semi-senescence *heh*, I’ve held a variety of jobs. So? Here’re 13 of them, in no particular order. I could have included a number of others–including ditch digger–though I never had to do exactly what Tennessee Ernie Ford sang about in “Sixteen Tons”. 😉
1. Pocket presser.
2. Broom-pusher & toilet swabby.
3. Chess tutor.
4. Voice coach.
5. School bus driver.
6. Youth minister
7. Music director.
8. Pizza delivery.
9. Newspaper delivery (route).
10. Bit Bucket Tuner.
11. School teacher.
12. Silk screener for ad art.
13. Insurance agent.
Linked to the Thursday Thirteen “hub” post for this week.
More important mthan North Korean nuclear bombs: the Fair Tax. Seriously. In addition to being an Open Trackbacks Alliance post, this is also a Fair Tax blogburst post. Link to this post and then track back. If you want to host your own linkfests, check out the Open Trackbacks Alliance.
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by TD of The Right Track
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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UPDATE: I recieved a link to the following TSA/Airport security parody last night. It makes a good (wildly exaggerated, perhaps… perhaps) intro to the rant below:
Some very smart people have observed the “security theater” that is the goon squad disingenuously labeled “TSA”. Martin Roesch of Security Sauce has commented,
What are we to suppose is the duty cycle of a baggage screener in a typical American airport with a rate of data flow of 172 passengers per hour with two shoes and two carry-ons per passenger? The screener gets a whopping 5.2 seconds to pattern match for the entire set of bad things per item per passenger. I’m not taking account of time spent in spool up/spool down periods for starting/stopping the belt either, so we’re probably talking about half that effectively. 2.6 seconds. My laptop bag currently contains a PowerBook, Airport Express, digital camera, airplane power adapter, iPod, EVDO PCMCIA card, cell phone, two laptop batteries, 80GB portable firewire hard drive, laptop power adapter and a bag filled with various wires and other widgetry to make it all plug together. Not to mention books, pens and other business stuff. 2.6 seconds to positively identify all of that as non-dangerous. Let’s be generous and call it 3 seconds. If the set of things that need to be detected (signatures) is constrained to guns, knives and bomb materials, I’d say grudgingly that a motivated screener could maintain alertness through their entire period manning the machine to have a reasonable probability of detection of the things in the set of threats. Once you extend that signature set to, well, pretty much everything that’s not paper or cloth you’re going to have an analysts nightmare…
Well, d’oh. Even assuming the mythic “motivated screener,” remember that these workers aren’t necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer to begin with
My US Marine Corps son returned from Iraq last week with all ten fingers and ten toes (I counted ’em). When his batallion stopped over in Maine for fuel and customs, they ran them through TSA security for some stupid reason before they got back on their rented 747.
Now imagine this, a USMC Lance Corporal with a M16A4, a M249 and a bayonet in a sheath at his belt, going through TSA security. They ignored the machine guns and the foot long bayonet. However, they took away his tube of toothpaste as it violated their rules ! What is the TSA thinking ? My thought is that we have a bunch of idiots in the TSA.
Dumbasses, indeed.
“When a stupid man does something he knows is wrong, he always says it is his duty.”
Is there anyone out there with enough neurons to make a synapse who can honestly say that the security theater the TSA provides really results in any net increase in airport security? Stupid people doing stupid things, stupidly. But that’s all right. The real purpose of the TSA is to train citizens into subjects, sheeple and it does that very well, indeed.
h.t. Chaos Manor Musings
[This week’s Guard the Borders post is authored by my “second blogmom” and blog “angel”–the Lady Diane of Diane’s Stuff. It has previously appeared here at third world county as a crosspost from Diane’s Stuff and is now this week’s Guard the Borders featured post.—mnmus]
By Diane of Diane’s Stuff, via third world county
As I’ve said countless times on my own blog, I am not a very political animal. I have my opinions on things of a political nature, but I rarely express them, and I very seldom post on anything political because I don’t feel as if I’m well enough informed on particular issues. I do have an opinion on whether or not there should be a fence along the border between Mexico and the States, and it has always seemed like a very good idea to me.
Living in Texas I see a lot of illegals and every time I see someone that’s clearly Hispanic in front of me in the grocery store, paying for their food with a LoneStar Card (plastic food stamps) or presenting a WIC form, I have to wonder how much of that is going to sustain illegal cousins, brothers, aunts, uncles, etc. I’m not naive enough to think that the only nationality that can use our Southern borders as a crossing is Mexican, but let’s be honest here for a minute; aren’t they the main concern?
I posted some time ago about Governor Rick Perry’s “Virtual Border Watch Program†and I thought that too was a good idea.
With voluntary participation of private landowners, Texas will use $5 million to begin placing hundreds of surveillance cameras along criminal hotspots and common routes used to enter this country. Perry said the cameras will cover vast stretches of farm and ranchland located directly on the border where criminal activity is known to occur, and “not the neighborhoods where families will continue to enjoy their privacy.â€
“Landowners will be able to monitor and defend their property from those who might endanger their families. We will make the video feed available to state, local and federal law enforcement agencies so they can respond swiftly and appropriately,†Perry said. “And we will post this video on the Internet – in real time – so that concerned Americans can help protect our nation through online neighborhood watch programs.â€
The video will be available 24 hours a day and cameras will be equipped with night vision capabilities. When citizens witness a crime taking place, they will be able to call an 800 number and be routed to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
It just so happens that I have friends who have a 700-acre ranch that also includes a 1/2 mile of river frontage on the Rio Grande. While small by Texas standards, their nearest neighbor is 6 miles away, and the closest town of any size is Presidio where there is a Point of Entry via an International Bridge. Naturally, there is also an Immigration office. This town is approximately 28 miles from my friends’ ranch, and the other nearby towns are Ruidosa, population 19 and Candelaria, population estimated at 55. They don’t live down there, they’re hoping to retire there though, and they go several times a year to camp out and stay for a week or two at a time. Here is a picture taken on their ranch.
And another-
As you can see it’s very isolated.
I was visiting with these friends a few days ago and the conversation got around to the ranch and when they were going again and as I know the property is right on the border I asked their opinion of building a fence. Below is a quote sent to me via email after I’d asked a few more questions prior to beginning this post.
Candelaria is the last town on Hwy 170 or “river road†as it is known. The population there is a bit bigger I would guess around 30 or so. It is about 20 miles or so after Ruidosa. There is a sign when you get there that “State Maintenance Ends Hereâ€. The dirt road goes on from there to El Paso, about 140 miles I was told, but you ain’t gonna get there unless you have a 4 x 4, extra gas and tires. The dirt road is where I was telling you about the trolleys that go across the river and the religious icons stuff set in small caves along the road. People out there still live in adobe houses and have no phone, lights or other essentials. Our very own 3rd world.
Another interesting fact about Candelaria is the foot bridge from the States to Mexico there (not an authorized crossing). The bridge was paid for with Russian humanitarian aid money! Can you believe that shit… 🙂
Once you get past the town they couldn’t even get the equipment in there to build the damn fence. Plus all the cattle ranchers on the river from Presidio on would just cut it to allow their cattle to get to the river for water…. it is the desert after all and water is a very scarce resource. A few are lucky enough to have artesian wells but most rely on what rain water they can trap and the river.
As you can tell from that quote they don’t have much faith in a fence doing any good. I asked then what their opinion of the Minutemen was and was told that “Their hearts are in the right place, and they have the right idea, but they’re spread too thin to do a whole lot of good.†So of course I asked what they thought would work. Guards, guards and more guards. An armed border.
One of the reasons they gave me for this was that even if someone saw the illegal crossers climbing or cutting through a fence, say, via Texas Governor Rick Perry’s camera idea, or the Minutemen calling someone, they would be long gone before anyone in authority arrived, particularly in their area where the road is far from straight, two-laned, and often has livestock wandering around. They say that it’s just too desolate to do any good without men on the ground, and then you have the water/rancher/cattle factor to deal with also.
They tell me that at night you can see lights back and forth all night and that while they feel fairly safe during the day, only seeing a few people with bags ready to swim across when they’re down on the riverfront also swimming, that it’s dangerous to be there alone. My friend’s mother recently stated that she wanted to get away, go down there and camp on her own, and they told her absolutely not, no way, even though she’s the best shot they know. There are too many drug runners mixed in with illegal wannabes, and even though there’s the INS station less than 30 miles away in Presidio, that they very seldom see anyone on patrol and we’re only talking here about a very, very small portion of the TEXAS border.
So what’s the solution? To fence or not to fence? Armed guards? It’s a tough one, but I agree, something MUST be done. I think my piranha idea is sounding better all the time.
This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our Blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to admin at guardtheborders dot com.
While Lovely Daughter was visiting, Saturday, a kitten wandered up, begging for attention. *sigh* She gave it plenty. We got up Sunday morning, and it was still hanging on our front porch, trying to get in every time we went in or out, doing everything in its power to be stepped on.
Please don’t tell anyone, but I finally fed it. Yeh. Right. Like we need another cat. *sigh* Looking for a good home for it today. Heck, any home but ours will do.
Cos it was still there this a.m.
And I fed it again.
Sucker.
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The amount of SPAM I recieve varies a great deal from day to day and from one venue to another. My oldest active email address collects about 1,000 SPAM emails a day in its junk folder. I never bother to screen it. I do screen the SPAM I recieve in my blog comments filters. That can range–depending upon the day, weather, sunspots and demonic activity, from several hiundred a day to well over (on peak days) a thousand.
I do try to screen it all, in hopes of catching the two or three genuine comments caught amongst the dross.
SPAM, though massively packed with electronic cholesterol, can sometimes provide a sort of toxic amusement. Continue reading “My “fav” SPAM/Open Post”
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Meanwhile, the locusts loom on the horizon for today as well, so hie thyself to Stop the ACLU and read about the latest from The Enemies of Democracy (unless by “democracy” one were to accept—as apparently the Ninth Circuit Court does— the ACLU’s definition of “democracy” as rule by a mob of illegal aliens… )
[Note: The video below is obviously a very abbreviated excerpt from a longer video. If I can track down the original, full video, I’ll update this post with that info. —mnmus]
16By their fruits shall you know them. Do you gather grapes from thorns, or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree produces good fruit; but the corrupt tree produces evil fruit. 18 A good tree can’t produce evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree produce good fruit.”—Matthew 7:16-18
Crossposted from Stop The ACLU
Hat tip: Ban The ACLU This was found on youtube and it’s pretty short at 3 minutes. I wish I could find more footage somewhere. It is an accurate account of the ACLU’s founding. Does the ACLU’s communist founding mean anything about what the ACLU is today? Well, if you plant a lemon seed would you expect the tree to produce peaches? Compare their current goals to the 45 communist goals in the Congressional Record and decide for yourself.
One of the greatest myths about the ACLU is that they started out as a noble cause. The roots of a tree go deep. There is no question that it was founded on communist/socialist principles. There is no question to the founder of the ACLU, Roger Baldwin’s, ideals.
“I have been to Europe several times, mostly in connection with international radical activities…and have traveled in the United States to areas of conflict over workers rights to strike and organize. My chief aversion is the system of greed, private profit, privilege and violence which makes up the control of the world today, and which has brought it to the tragic crisis of unprecedented hunger and unemployment…Therefore, I am for Socialism, disarmament and ultimately, for the abolishing of the State itself…I seek the social ownership of property, the abolition of the propertied class and sole control of those who produce wealth. Communism is the goal.â€
Only after the Nazi-Soviet Non-Agression Pact of 1939, which allowed Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party to take over much of Eastern Europe, did Mr. Baldwin become disenchanted with the Soviet version of Communism. Yet Baldwin held Communist/Socialist sympathies to the end of his life. Later in life, he said,…
“Anti-communism never affected our civil liberties very much. And the Communist party in the United States was certainly never strong enough to be a menace at any time in any way. The only menace was the people who believed in a Communist dictatorship, which is a denial of civil liberties. They did not belong with us in a leadership position.”Source
Baldwin rid the ACLU board of overt Communists because of his anger about the Nazi-Soviet pact, establishing a policy that read, in part: “The Board of Directors and the National Committee of the American Civil Liberties Union….hold it inappropriate for any person to serve on the governing committees of the Union or its staff, who is a member of any political organization which supports totalitarian dictatorship in any country, or who by his public declarations indicates his support of such a principle.” Source
While Mr. Baldwin made a great show of the Communist purge in 1940 he never let go of his passion for socialist ideals. Neither did the ACLU. In 1961 numerous communist connections were entered into the Congressional Record. In November of 1964 the ACLU came to the defense of Communist-front organizations. The Union argued that there was a fundamental difference between a Communist-action organization and a Communist-front group.
Throughout the 1960s many members of the ACLU took umbrage at the principles of the 1940 Resolution. According to William Donohue’s book, The Politics of the American Civil Liberties Union, a 1967 Resolution was viewed by many on the board that voted for it to supersede and effectively rendered the 1940 Resolution impotent. In April of 1967 the ACLU board voted to rescind the 1940 decision of ousting Elizabeth Gurley Flynn for her uncompromising support for Communism. More important than the vote to recognize Flynn was the board’s conclusion that “the expulsion of Ms. Flynn was not consonant with the basic principles on which the ACLU was founded and has acted for fifty-four years.” The board also agreed that language should be drafted to indicate its happiness with the removal of the 1940 Resolution from the ACLU constitution in 1967.”
Today’s ACLU still espouses the ideals of socialism under the guise of liberalism. They still defend Communist propaganda. One of the goals of the Communist agenda is to abolish all loyalty oaths. It is interesting that the ACLU celebrate the fact that they will not sign oaths promising not to support terrorism.
Whether today’s ACLU is a communist/socialist organization or not their goals most definitely align with the ideologies of socialism. Regardless of what one label today’s ACLU there are many dangerous positions in practice that have never changed with them. Their unflinching support of abortion, euthanasia, their strange position on the Second Amendment and their open border policy are just a few examples. They consistently work to thwart the government’s efforts to protect its citizens, undermine America’s sovereignty, and defend America’s enemies. They have defended traitors funding Hamas, the PLO, and confessed Al-Qaeda operatives. All of these seem to support their founder’s goal of abolishing of the State itself.
This was a production of Stop The ACLU Blogburst. If you would like to join us, please email Jay at Jay@stoptheaclu.com or Gribbit at GribbitR@gmail.com. You will be added to our mailing list and blogroll. Over 200 blogs already on-board.