This part?
Posted on 03/23/2010 4:39:59 PM PDT by Federation 2005
Much has been made over the recent developments in the United States and the growing dysfunctionality of its "representative" body, its looming insolvency and the progressive loss of credibility of its governing institutions.
Though cast in the language of "Us versus Them", each side pointing the fingers at one another; this isn't about partisanship. The issue runs far deeper than the latest topic of the day, whether it be health care, the bank failures, the Republicans' spending splurge c. 2004-2008 or the Democrats' splurge c. 2006-now.
Like most other nations on Earth, the United States has gone deeper into debt; having done so (according to the Bureau of Public Debt) every single year since the Eisenhower Administration. This has taken place over the course of all combinations of administrations of its two parties and ideological polarities; Republican & Democratic. It has taken place in the midst of revolutions on both sides of the conservi-liberal spectrum, be it the 1960's era Johnson war on poverty, the 1980's "Morning in America" polyannish nonsense. The Public Debt has gone up 10-fold, almost like clockwork, nearly every 20 years since the early 1900's.
During that time, particularly in the last few years and decades, we have seen the rise of registries throughout the land for scarlet-letter "deviants", the ballooning of a small "pay as you go" (and voluntary) contribution to social security into a regressive 15% tax, the rise of de-facto citizenship ID's, the imprisonment of a larger portion of the adult population (mostly on non-violent offenses) than in any other major develped country by far, the rise into prominence citizen registries (e.g. the credit bureau) run by unelected authorities and other unelected bodies holding substantial power, the recent legalization of broadcasting of advertising by what are little more than legalized drug dealers (commercials for prescription medications that are forbidden in nearly every other developed nation), the erection of de facto prison walls around the borders, the erosion of privacy rights, the implementation of legalized torture, courts that have lost their credibility selling away the public airwaves to the large collectives (be they unions or corporations), the threat of citizen registries for those merely accused of being "deviants" (as nearly happened recently in Ohio), and so on.
Now, the latest in the long litany of indignities includes a measure that will impose a Life Tax on the population of the United States. Unlike other taxes, this is not a tax levied against you based on how much you have or make. Rather, it is a tax imposed on you simply for being alive. Like the rent a sharecropper pays for being allowed to farm his or her land, or the cost a serf pays simply for staying on a manor in the Middle Ages, the United States is now ordering you to pay a fee simply for existing.
Whether it is paid to the plutarchy that the corporate elite have become in this country, or paid as a fine to what would otherwise be a socialist oligarchy is irrelevant. It means the same thing in both cases, and it IS the same thing.
No legitimate government anywhere on this earth has the right to impose a Life Tax on its people. You may take this as the acid test for and definition of legitimacy, itself.
A government with a Life Tax is a government that has given up its right to exist.
References:
1. The Public Debt, 1789-now, The Bureau of Public Debt
The Public Debt has gone up each year since 1959, including during the time of the so-called "surplus" near the turn of the century.
2. "On Being the Right Size", J.B.S. Haldane, The World of Mathematics, Volume 2, 952-957
Discusses the break-down of scale-symmetry in animals, societies and political institutions.
3. The Third Wave (aka Future Shock II; 1979, Toffler)
(The chapters "The Political Mausoleum" and "21st Century Democracy" are early presages of this article)
4. Revolutionary Wealth (aka Future Shock IV; 2006, Toffler)
Links and Notes:
1. Revoke Congressional Budgetary Powers.
talk.politics.misc, 2008 November 4
Introduces the concept of Popular Mandate Democracy
2. The US as a 0 Party State: Revoking public recognition of all political parties
talk.politics.misc, 2008 November 3
3. The Parables of the Torn Fabric and the Two Ropes,
talk.politics.misc, 2009 April 24
4. World War III,
sci.econ, 1995 April 19; 2010 March 22
The budgetary collapse as an after-effect of World War III (aka the Cold War).
Not very good choices this month.
Awesomely awesome choice, Mr. Sionnsar!!
It looks like home. Kinda.
The nice thing about FileZilla is that I already use it on my home Linux machine. So if I use it on my work Windows machine I only have to know one utility, not two. And the old purchased one was always a little bit clunky.
This part?
They ain’t like they used to be. But as Billy Bob Shakespeare once said: Tis not deep, but twill serve”
I need to replace my security/virus blocker. What is the best anti-virus package out there?
OooohYAH!!!
Linux Xubuntu 9.04.
No, just kidding. Seriously, I do not know but my giant employer puts McAfee on all our machines, and they're big enough to have a group of IT folks who could easily be this specialized. But even then they prefer that when we connect to the Internet we VPN into the corporate intranet. (Although we can bypass that if we want.)
LOL — that’s no spud gun!
LoM uses AVG and hasn’t had problems.
It’s a fine place to stay for a month. :-)
Thanks, Sion.
I am using Avira.
2c.
That’s a really beautiful image. Do you mind if I copy it to play around with?
Thanks.
AVG. Free version does a pretty good job. Not opening un-expected attachments takes care of the rest...
You have been busy of late ;-)
Can be done, but wouldn't you rather home looked like that?
Just wait, tomorrow is April Fools day...
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