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Howell-at-the-Moon !Libertarian Rants! John Wingspread Howell
IRS to Monitor Credit Card Transactions No Big Surprise, But Will We Stand for This? Makes You Want to Go Underground Forget Worrying About Identity Theft... July 27,2008 I have to check this out, but I have it from a reliable source that the headline is the new policy at the Illegal Robbery Service. So your government is spying on citizens on two fronts now: communications and purchase transactions. As bad as the former is, I would expect the latter to be much worse for more people. Expect to receive a letter from the tax collectors something like this: Dear Taxpayer, We note that you declared $50K of income for the previous tax year, however during the same period you charged twice that amount on your credit cards. We believe this is credible evidence that you have been under-reporting your income. According to our calculations, based on demographic tables and the rule of 28, your credit card transactions indicate that your actual income for the previous tax-year is $154,547. With the adjusted tax rate, Alternative Minimum Tax, interest, penalties, FICA adjustments and retroactive underpayment surcharges, you currently owe an additional $154,548. Interest and penalties accrue and compound daily. By the time you receive this letter you will owe $165,373. As you probably don't know but will soon learn, you are guilty until proven innocent where tax collection is concerned. Therefore we demand that you send the revised amount of tax owed within thirty days or we will notify your employer you are a tax cheat, begin action to garnish your wages, freeze your bank accounts and file leins on all your real property and capital. Have a wonderful day. Sincerely, Your Servants at the Internal Revenue Service P.S. We are here to serve you. Please take a moment to go online and complete our customer satisfaction survey. As our gift for helping us with your comments, we will send you a coupon good for one free night at any Super 8 Motel for use once we have padlocked your home, or at any other time, as you please. We recommend you act now and find yourself a good tax lawyer. This letter is coming. It's only a matter of time. Only the Libertarian Party can save you. The IRS is at the top of our list of government agencies to eliminate in the first 100 days of a Libertairan Admnistration. Howooooo! (John Howell-at-the-Moon) Transportation Security
Airport Harassment
Highway Robbery
But it won't spoil my vacation!
July 17, 2008
I just got back from a three-city air circuit and am getting ready to take my family on a ten day, six thousand mile circle tour of the American West in the SUV we bought this past April. It takes a lot of determination to hold on to the American Dream of free travel (and I mean free in the sense of liberty, not the absence of cost) but dammit, I'm going to!
You could say this is a continuation of my column on attitude. The United States has led the world in prosperity and power for most of our history because we have been a nation of persistence, determination, and optimism. We never met a crisis we couldn't endure. We have been undaunted by obstacles. We have found away around road blocks. We have reinvented the wheel whenever we've needed a better mousetrap. And we have traveled when, where, and how we have wanted to no matter what!
I remember as a kid, the Chevy commercials: "See the USA in your Chevrolet. America is asking you to call." I think of all the lore around Route 66. And I think of the airports as they were before September eleven-- in fact, as they were in the sixties and before, when anyone could go to the gate area to see someone off or welcome someone or just go to watch the planes come and go. That's the real America! Driving cross country. Flying cross country. Planes coming and going. People coming and going watching planes coming and going. Not being treated like terrorists in our own country.
As I suffer the "Transportation Security Agency" every time I fly, I wonder if this is the administration's idea of trying to make people feel safe. Certainly even the Bush administration can't seriously believe we are stopping one terrorist by what we're doing in the airports. We are probably stopping numerous lawful citizens from even attempting to travel, but the terrorists are not only undaunted, they are thrilled that we have played into their hands so nicely and stopped being America. Meanwhile, they may be plotting their next attack-- which will have absolutely nothing to do with airplanes or airports.
Like any other "card carrying Libertarian" worth their card, I'm all for the immediate dismantling of the entire Homeland Security Department and the TSA. But-- if they have to do something, why aren't they going through shipping containers the way they took apart my suitcase yesterday? Why aren't they watching the water supply or the nuclear plants? And why isn't anyone who wants to watch the planes land or greet Aunt Sue at the gate, able to do so? Now that's a great way to fight terrorism. Stick it to them. Hit them where it really hurts! Like not being afraid of them. Not letting them cramp our style. Open up the airports like it's 1966. That would go a long way toward putting the fun back in travel again.
Now as far as seeing the USA in the Chevrolet, for our family it will be the Lincoln SUV that we bought for cash in a fire sale. The price of gas finally got high enough to make these babies a real bargain even with the price of gas factored in! The cost of gas is far outweighed by the great deal on a nearly new luxury vehicle with all the bells and whistles and all-wheel-drive for the Illinois winters. So I'm taking my eleven year old daughter who's never been West of the Mississippi, and my wife who's never been on the ground between Iowa and California for an old fashioned American road trip.
We're starting at Mt. Rushmore, going through the Rockies and cruising down the Pacific Coast Highway (if it's not still on fire) and we're going to have the time of our lives being Americans, seeing America, enjoying our liberty, our freedom to travel. We'll put a big sign on the back of the Aviator that reads What Price of Gas? And since we'll be making our own family "Western," how about this: "Hybrids? We don't need no stinking hybrids!"
Now, this is not about denying the depletion of oil reserves or the ozone layer. Most Libertarians are as concerned about both as Al Gore is (with different solutions, perhaps), present company included. It's about being undaunted. Making lemonade from lemons. Refusing to let circumstances beat us. Resolving to be free, to be joyful, optimistic, and to celebrate the moment! That's what freedom, liberty, and being American is all about. And the only party you can trust to protect that for you, regardless of what the others may say-- as the vote to allow spying on citizens, is the Libertarian Party.
So... since I'll be touring, don't expect any new content for a couple of weeks, but we'll be back with a travelogue in early August.
In the meantime, help me out by sending me your TSA horror stories, your fantasies about how to frustrate the airport security system, and your best acronyms using the initials TSA. I'll publish them all! (And lets see if the data miners flag this email and start spying on me!)
Note: Here's the first TSA horror story reply, from Sean Haugh. See his submission at the Liberty For All blog. http://www.libertyforall.net/?p=1190
Happy trails!
Howoooooo!
(John Howell-at-the-Moon) blog archive (you will be directed to LibertarianAdvocate.com, click on link at that site to return here)
The United Whiners of America?
(Yes, Mr. Gramm, but we said it First!)
What Ever Happened to American Ingenuity... Optimism... "Can Do" Spirit?
How the Mighty Have Fallen
A Nation of Energy Vampires!
Reposted July 10, 2008 Editor's Note: As much as it creeps us out to side with Phil Gramm, we said the same thing two weeks before he did. In fact, he's probably plaguerising us. But the media, who fan the flames of our national whining, don't get it, so they castigate him.They miss the point. Since it's dominating the current news cycle, we thought we'd repost what we said on the subject.
June 23, 2008
The news today, any news. From Fox to CNN, NPR, it doesn't matter. Oil and food prices, airline woes, subprime mortgages, layoffs. The tone and slant is the same. We're drowning. We're losing. We're broke. We hear story after story of how someone can't afford to shop at Whole Foods, others cancel vacations or staying close to home. It's a mess. Life's tough all over.
And our politicians pander. They play to this. They try to outdo each other with attacks on speculators, oil companies, the government for not doing something about it. They toss windfall profits taxes and suspension of gasoline tax at us like candy to children as the political parade comes past. And therein lies the problem.
We have become a nation of children. Dependent, whiny children. Complaining about "the Man." "Life sucks" because the Man let the price of gas go too high, and the price of food. The Man leaves us on our own to pay for health care, to cope with fluctuations in employment That poor Man has a big job, takes a lot of abuse, makes a convenient excuse for us to savor our suffering instead of acting like Americans and standing up and doing something about what's wrong with our lives, our economy, our country.
Tom Brokaw called the World War II generation "the greatest generation." I would agree. Those people didn't cave, certainly didn't whine, They rallied. They did what they had to do individually and collectively and rid the world of its heretofore greatest threat.
We seem to do well when it comes to military threats, real, imagined, or hyped. Good old America, always gets up for a war. If there's a dictator to hate, a empire to fear, an "Axis of Evil"--we stand at attention and put our hands on our hearts. But when the enemy is a down economy,a shortage of energy, a crash in key markets, we cry like children. We're helpless. Pathetic. The Media loves to drive this point home for those of us who haven't gotten it yet. All we hear is sob stories from people who have given up.
John Gordon's book The Energy Bus has a term for people who are always negative, always saying can't, always whining, "Energy Vampires." Gordon tells us to stay away from these people. They'll suck the life out of us faster than the other kind of vampire. And unlike literary vampires, these guys are real! These gals can really kill you. (See related article on our Libertarian Spirituality page. Click for link)
If we had reacted to Hitler the way we react to our current economic news, we'd all be speaking German. If we had approached the Soviet threat by cowering in fear in our fallout shelters, we'd be celebrating May Day. So what's gotten into us? We can bring down the Axis powers but we can't find a better way to get to work? We can bring down the Berlin Wall but we can't bring down our cost of living? We're drowning in our fears when we could be riding a new wave of opportunity.
Opportunity. In every crisis there is danger and opportunity. We've milked the danger angle. It's about time opportunity got equal time. We're Americans for crying out loud! Are we going to let the price of oil determine our quality of life? Are we going to wait for some mythical "Man" to solve these problems by edict?
Oh, that would really help. Remember Nixon? Wage and price controls? Now there was a Man! The Man really came through for us. Froze us in our misery. That was a plan! But isn't that what people are asking for today? Raise the minimum wage! Roll back the price of gasoline! Rescue me from my mortgage! Subsidize the airlines! Uncle Sam, save me! You think you've got something to whine about now? Just wait, if your prayers are answered!
The Man isn't the answer. Whomever he is, he can't help you. Government. "Corporate America." Whomever. Whatever. Remember the quote from the cartoon., "We've met the enemy and they're us?" Well...?? We've met the Man and he's us. The Man. The Woman. The Superhero. The Savior!
For every problem we are whining ourselves hoarse over nowadays there must be a hundred decent solutions, some inside the box, some (probably the better ones) outside the box. For every pink slip there are at least ten options for starting a business. For every shortage there is a complimentary surplus. For every dead end job there are teen more business ideas. For everyone lacking health insurance there are at least three solutions to the health care "crisis." Our crises are of our own creation. One part neglect. One part excess. Two parts a deficit of initiative.
When it gets dark there are those who shudder in fear, those who barrel on forward, blind off the edge of a cliff, those who freeze, stand impotent, bemoaning the shortage of light, those who go shopping for flashlights and those who light a fire with whatever kindling can be quickly collected.
You know which ones are the True Americans. We know how to light fires, make sparks, shine light on the situation. We don't whine, we adapt, we invent, we defy the danger in search of the opportunity. We fight for our freedom, dream for our children, refuse to accept defeat. We take responsibility for our own problems and take the credit for our victories. In the end there is only victory because we have learned over and over since 1776 that we are a people who create reality by declaring it. We declared independence. We declared our liberty. We declared our prosperity.
And yes, sometimes we've gone too far, declaring War. War is war, by the way. The War on Poverty.The War on Drugs.The War on Terror. War is war. It is the one declaration that is un-American to declare, when you think about it. It is the one declaration that ends with people dying needlessly, with carnage,with lose/lose. OK, you say, I get that when it's literal war but what about the others?
What about the others? Who died form the War on Poverty? Generations died on Welfare, clinging to the floating donut but unable to climb up on the ship.
Who died from the War on Drugs? Who Died? Innocent children caught in the crossfire of warring gangs, the dreams of dependents of people rotting in Federal prison on the taxpayer's dime for nothing but drug offenses. Who died from the War on Terror? How about Lady Liberty? The American Way. The rights of any American audacious enough to expect that privacy i this nation is sacrosanct, that one should be able to hop on a plane without being strip searched.
Who's alive and well? The terrorists. They got the America they fought for. Crippled by fear, boiling with rage, whining like toddlers because something doesn't go right. How did we become so helpless? So shameless?
So lets get over it. The price of gas or Gouda is what it is. We aren't going to die from our gasoline bill or our grocery bill. Mortgage rates are not fatal, or foreclosure notices. We'll die from negativity, impotence, from waiting for Godot, the Ice Man, the Man. We'll die from giving up. FDR was right about one thing at least. Fear is the only thing that can kill us. Fear is something we allow to consume us or something we can choose to defy. When conventional wisdom no longer works, it's time to get unconventional. When the mold no longer works, break it. When the dollar tanks and the price of oil goes through the roof, start burning your money and investing your gas. We're Americans! We have an answer for everything.We just haven't found them all yet.
But remember, it's about your individual liberty. It's about being our own Man or Woman. It's about taking responsibility for your own wellbeing. The Government isn't going to save us. The Government has created these problems by subsidizing certain types of energy and not others, by manipulating markets, regulating commerce, always tinkering with the economy, by corruption, incompetence and inefficiency. The government will deceive you into thinking It is the Man, and will keep you in the rat race, throwing you an occasional crumb, until you figure it out. Then you become the enemy. They they have to kill you. Unless you get them first.
This is America, not Zimbabwe. The political opposition isn't killed here in any literal sense, just metaphorically. But if they get you, you're just as dead in any real sense. Unless you choose not to be.
It's all about choice. What kind of life do you choose? What opportunities will you take? Will you choose faith? Will you choose to act? Will you create? We have the life we want, the world we want, by beginning to live as if we have already achieved it. And before you know it, we have achieved it.
No more whining!
--Howoooooo!--
(John Howell-at-the-Moon)
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