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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 17 April 2001 | Vol. II #51 | ||
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| Dr. David Marlett, Editor | 17 April 2001 | Vol. II #51 | ||
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The Libertarian Party used this tax deadline day to remind Americans about all the "ridiculous" ways that politicians will use to "squander" taxpayers' money.
Libertarian Party national director Steve Dasbach released the "Top 10 Most Ridiculous Things That Politicians Are Spending Your Money On This Year."
1. A retirement program for chimpanzees. Congress has created the Chimpanzee Health Improvement, Maintenance and Protection Act (CHIMP), which will spend $45,000 per animal in 2001. "Proving that once again, politicians are making a monkey out of the taxpayer," Dasbach said.
2. Turning your (taxpayer) money into dung. Congress voted to give $4 million to the International Fertilizer Development Center for waste research.
3. Subsidizing politicians' erections. "Congress's health insurance program actually covers Viagra, which demonstrates that the worst case of electile dysfunction in the world can be found here in Washington," said Dasbach.
4. Paying teenagers not to have sex. An "emergency" spending provision in the 2001 military construction bill includes $20 million to pay for a teenage abstinence program.
5. A Dr. Seuss memorial. The HUD (Housing and Urban Development) bill contains $400,000 for a memorial to the author of "Green Eggs and Ham." Dasbach called it "a classic case of Pork-I-Am."
6. Spying on your e-mail. The FBI's Carnivore computer snoopware program threatens to take the bite out of your privacy and devour the Fourth Amendment.
7. Looking at you naked. U.S Customs officials at dozens of airports are now using the high-tech Bodysearch scanner, which can see body contours right through your clothes. "These X-rated X-rays have turned airport bureaucrats into peeping Toms and are stripping innocent Americans of their privacy," said Dasbach.
8. Subsidizing a bug lab. Republican (Senator) Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) stung taxpayers for $5 million when he inserted money into an agriculture bill to build an insect laboratory in his home state of Mississippi, which explains why Americans are bugged by high taxes.
9. Subsidizing religion. "President Bush's plan to funnel tax dollars to faith-based charities shows that what politicians really worship is Big Government," said Dasbach.
10. Urging fat people to walk. The Centers for Disease Control spent $14,900 to decorate a stairwell to encourage obese employees to walk, rather than take the elevator.
The Tax Foundation said Monday that Americans have to work from Jan. 1 to May 3 just to pay their federal, state and local taxes. Every year since 1992, the first day of "tax freedom" gets later and later.
"Since 1992, when Tax Freedom Day fell on April 18, the total tax burden has grown markedly," observed the Tax Foundation's Scott Moody, who attributes the growth to higher federal tax collections.
In 2001, Americans had to work an average of 50 days to pay income tax and another 29 days to pay Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes.
Unfortunately for proponents of President Bush's pending $1.6 trillion tax cut package, the Tax Foundation reports that a one-time reduction in tax rates will only briefly halt Tax Freedom Day from advancing further into May.
"Because the federal tax system depends so much on the income tax, which is progressively designed, when you have strong economic growth like we've had the last ten years, people's real income tends to go up...and [they] are pushed into higher tax brackets," Moody explained.
Though income tax brackets are adjusted for inflation, they are not adjusted for annual growth in real income. "If you wanted to stop [bracket creep] in the long run, you would need to move to a flat rate system," or cut taxes every year, he said.
Midnight tonight is the deadline to file federal and state income taxes. Because April 15, the usual tax deadline, fell on a Sunday this year, the IRS extended the deadline by one day.
[ CNS ]
According to a U.S. State Department source, the United States and China agreed on a date for the Chinese government to allow U.S. Air Force access to the E-P3 surveillance plane. "We're expecting that our people will be able to get it off Hainan Island by April 30th," says the source. "The Chinese said basically, a week after the crew leaves, you can have your plane back."
Apparently that was good enough for President Bush and other senior White House officials who were involved in the negotiations over how and when the 24-member crew would be released. Once that deal was struck, the plane's return was less important. "We wanted those men and women home," the source adds. "We're confident that the Chinese cannot successfully unlock all of the secrets of that plane, and given what the last administration may or may not have allowed the Chinese access to, who knows? Maybe what they are seeing is nothing new."
[ Washington Prowler ]
WASHINGTON, DC -- Warning: You can go to jail for moving frogs. That's right, frogs. Transferring certain little green slimy creatures from one place to another is now a federal felony. That's what John J. Zentner found out in 1999 when he moved about 60 red-legged frogs and 500 tadpoles from a stream to a pond in California.
Although Zentner moved the frogs so they wouldn't be harmed by a building project where he worked as a consultant, he violated a federal law, since the red-legged frog is classified as an endangered species. So moving them is a crime, even if no frogs were harmed by the relocation.
As punishment, the federal Department of Frogs -- oops, the Department of Justice -- demanded a 10-day jail term because of the "serious nature" of the frog-moving crime. A local judge, however, had mercy, and in February sentenced Zentner to only 200 hours of community service, and imposed a $65,000 fine on his company and a $10,000 personal fine. But either punishment is too extreme, the Libertarian Party says.
"Any law that could put people in jail for gently moving some frogs is a load of bull ... bullfrogs, that is," said the party's press secretary, George Getz. "There's no way you can kiss this frog of a law and turn it into a prince." Unfortunately, red-legged frogs aren't the only species the federal government likes better than people, noted Getz.
Under the guise of protecting endangered species, federal bureaucrats are now giving special treatment to:
* Flies: After the federal government designated the Delhi Sands fly an endangered species, San Bernardino County, California had to spend $10 million to build a special 10-acre "preserve" for the buzzing bugs. In 1999, the Interior Department demanded an additional 2,200 acres be set aside for the fly -- land that cost more than $200 million.
* Angry grizzly bears: In 1993, the Environmental Protection Agency banned an Alaskan pepper-spray called BearGuard that people used to deter attacking bears. The product, similar to pepper sprays that can be legally used against human muggers, is irritating but not harmful. Despite the fact that two people in Alaska had been killed by bears the previous year -- and although the EPA admits the spray is safe enough to eat -- it was banned under the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act.
* Rats: The federal Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) designated 77,000 acres in Riverside, California as a "rat preserve" to protect the kangaroo rat. Homeowners were threatened with $100,000 fines if they cleared brush from around their properties, since it might inconvenience the rodents. As a result, dozens of homes burned to the ground in 1993 after the piles of dry brush caught on fire.
* Theoretical birds: The FWS told 75-year-old Margaret Rector of Texas that she could not develop her property because the golden-cheeked warbler "might" one day alight on it. The bird, an endangered species, had never actually been seen on Rector's property -- but the fact that it could, theoretically, one day visit her land was enough to qualify it as "suitable habitat." The ruling caused her property to drop in value by 95%.
What do all these examples have in common? "Thanks to federal regulations, rats, bugs, and frogs now have more rights than the people who own property in this country," said Getz. "This proves once again that the federal government is one strange animal -- and the frog police are the strangest species of all."
[ Sent to J.A.I.L. by John Morgan Duty II, (WA. State) ]
The superintendent of a suburban Fort Worth school district said a third-grade teacher confiscated Bibles that were presented as gifts by a student during an Easter party because they weren't approved for distribution.
In a statement Friday, Superintendent Edd Bigbee of the Azle school district said Bibles and other materials distributed in a classroom must first be approved by either the principal or the superintendent.
The incident occurred Thursday at Azle's Eagle HeightsElementary, when a girl in the class began handing out Bibles. Before the children even had the Bibles unwrapped, the teacher asked for them back.
The unidentified parents of the pupil said they didn't see a problem with students giving classmates Bibles.
Parent Dorothy Dethample said she was curious to know why the Bibles were confiscated while other items, mostly food, were not.
"They didn't understand why and neither did I," Dethample said.
Azle is 15 miles northwest of Fort Worth.
[ AP ]
White House officials didn't balk at Jesse Jackson's offer to help negotiate the release of the U.S. servicemen and women held by the Chinese just because they thought he would embarrass the Bush administration were he successful. "That certainly played into it," says one White House staffer. "But also, Mr. Jackson has had a lot on his mind lately, and seems a bit detached. We were concerned that this might not be the best time for him to be undertaking international hostage negotiations."
[ Washington Prowler ]
By David Kupelian
Having spent a good part of the last month researching the "tax-honesty movement," I can tell you that without a doubt, there are some of the most sincere, patriotically-motivated people among their number -- as well as some of the craziest, most egotistical and dangerous (to you, if you listen) pied pipers you will ever encounter.
Allow me to make a few observations. First, about the court battles.
Many who take it on themselves to fight the IRS in court are possessed of a belief -- an almost religious faith among this small fraternity -- that goes something like this: America's court system, although corrupt, is inherently bound to obey the law, if only one utters the right words, presents the right law, pleads the right argument. According to this belief system, the gates of judicial Heaven will mystically fall down, just as the walls of Jericho did on the seventh day of the Israelites' silent encirclement of that doomed city, and justice will be delivered to the complainant.
They are half right. The judicial system is corrupt, and it does not abide by nor enforce the Constitution.
After all, the highest court in the land -- the United States Supreme Court -- ruled in 1973, in effect, that abortion shall be legal, regardless of state laws, from the moment of conception up to the moment of birth. In almost three decades, the Supreme Court has not seen fit to undo what it did then.
Now, if the highest court in the land can condemn innocent babies to death -- with the attendant skull-crushing and brain-sucking and limb-ripping often involved -- how can it be trusted to annihilate the very mechanism that feeds it: the United States taxing authority?
Or what of the Second Amendment? Has America's judicial establishment ever affirmed conclusively the obvious -- that the Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights guarantees the individual an unfettered right to keep and bear arms? The argument that this short and unambiguous amendment refers to a "collective right" -- itself a meaningless phrase -- is just a fantasy with no historical backing. All of the contemporary discussion and sentiment regarding firearms indicates unequivocally that the Founding Fathers cherished and insisted on an individual right to own firearms. And, of course, since the other nine rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights refer explicitly to individual protections from government, how could the Second Amendment alone confer a mythical "collective" right -- that is, literally a right of government?
If, then, the judicial system cannot get such basic things straight as that Americans have a right to self-defense, and that the murder of innocent human babies shouldn't be allowed, how can any thinking American trust the court system to rule adversely against its own master?
The day the court recognizes that babies are human, and that Americans have the right to defend themselves, that just might be the day one could begin to hope the courts would uphold the Constitution in other areas as well.
Of course, when David fought Goliath, that also was considered to be a fight against impossible odds. And, without a doubt, we still have some Davids left in this world -- guided by the invisible hand of God to slay evil giants and establish righteous rule. But if you aspire to be a David and fight a Goliath, remember that the biblical giant-killer was able to prevail only because of his total reliance on God.
Which brings me to the next -- and most important -- point, concerning the people who take it on themselves to challenge the government.
"There are two types of people that get involved in all these causes -- like the gun-rights movement or the tax-protest movement or the patriot movement," a friend and national talk-show host recently told me, "the righteous angry, and the angry angry."
His observation, based on his prior experience as a leader in the pro-2nd Amendment movement in California, was right on. Both groups espoused essentially the same beliefs, he said, and yet they were as different as night and day.
The "righteous angry" are those who are righteously outraged, indignant at the constant advance of tyranny, chipping away -- or more likely, nowadays, hacking away -- at the fundamental rights, values and humanity of Americans. They are motivated, at their core, by love of God and goodness and decency and justice.
The "angry angry," on the other hand, are people for whom the primary motivation is not love of truth and justice and goodness but, rather, intense and abiding hatred of government or some other real or perceived evil. Often they are carrying forward discontent from their childhood. (Radical feminists are a perfect example of this. They hate men -- all men -- for the earlier injustices of their own fathers or husbands. To avoid having to face the hurt and anger they bring with them into adulthood, they instead create a scapegoat to blame and hate. Whites who hate blacks, same thing. Blacks who hate whites, same thing.)
They exist on hatred, rage, upset, resentment, victimhood. It is their life-breath, and a very unworthy substitute for true righteous motivation.
At its extreme, hatred of the government ultimately turns you into a Tim McVeigh -- you become an enemy of the very thing you believe you are defending.
In truth, one righteous person-of-action has the force of 10 or 100 ordinary people. The problem is, when we're angry, ticked off, upset and full of rage and adrenaline, we feel as though we're strong and noble and powerful and heroic. We feel like soldiers striking a blow for liberty, when in reality, in the worst cases of this corrupt state of mind, we blow up a building and kill 168 of our countrymen thinking we're patriots, when we've actually joined the enemy. (Even the dead children in the daycare center were dismissed by McVeigh as "collateral damage.")
Here's the problem: The American people have been seduced and corrupted over the last couple of generations, to the point that we are today a dim reflection of what we once were -- which itself was only a dim reflection of what we all could be.
In fact, right now the government we have is just a reflection of us. Even Bill Clinton was a perfect reflection of us.
You don't think so?
Do you really believe a righteous people could have a government like we've got? Could they have endured a criminal rogue like Bill Clinton for eight years, and then sent him packing with sky-high approval ratings, giving speeches for $100,000 to $150,000 per night? But Clinton's not the problem -- he's our creation.
Try this little test to see if you're a part of the problem or part of the solution.
Can you look at yourself in the mirror and say: "I myself am partly responsible for our government, for our culture, for the miserable world I live in. The unawareness, weakness, resentment, self-indulgence and just plain selfishness that have made up the fabric of most of my life is no different -- except perhaps in degree -- from the self-seeking, uncaring, power-hungry spirit that animates spineless congressmen, bullying IRS agents and corrupt judges"?
Even if you're a good bloke now, in your earlier, more foolish days, you hurt and corrupted people, you were impatient with people, you were selfish -- weren't you? Then you were part of the problem you see reflected in all of our institutions today. It's all made of the same stuff -- sin.
OK. How many people at this point think I'm defending tyrannical government, just because I'm saying, "Don't hate it"? If you raised your hand, you're part of the problem.
Just as Ghandi told his followers he wanted to wake up their adversaries, not kill them for faults we all possess, I say that the day we all can look in the mirror and say, "I barely know what love really is," that's the day we'll be close to real freedom. We're talking about real love here -- such as Jesus showed on the cross when he was tortured and killed and yet said, through his pain, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."
The day we can recognize that we barely have a glimmer of what real love is about -- and believe me, that's the stuff that will transform this nation, not all of our frustration and rage and anger -- we will truly be on a sure path toward national redemption.
The reality of our situation, dear readers, is that there are many battles that must be fought before good people can take back the culture and institutions of this nation.
It's going to start with the self-awakening of individual Americans in whose hearts the fire of goodness, repentance and renewal has begun to burn. And then, motivated by grace, they move, act and create another world within this world. Just as the seamy subculture of yesteryear has crept out of the pit and become the dominant American culture today, tomorrow's subculture of goodness must grow to the point that it becomes -- again -- the dominant culture.
It will be a long, difficult and glorious uphill battle in which every institution must be retaken by good people. One of those institutions is the news media. I'd like to think that WorldNetDaily.com and WorldNet magazine are involved in that fight.
There is no question that a dignified, love-based challenge to America's horrendous -- and yes, evil -- income-tax system would likely hasten the day we see radical reform in that area. A truly credible messenger with a truly credible message makes an unbeatable combination.
Two thousand years ago, Barabbas and the other zealots wanted to kill the Romans and purchase their people's freedom with their swords. Jesus tried to persuade them that the kingdom of Heaven would be won through different means -- by change within. The crowd chose Barabbas. What about us?
[ WND ]
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