LIBERTY: If 10 percent is good enough for the Baptist Church

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/
2006/12/13/the_fairtax_book

http://tinyurl.com/ylnrks

The FairTax Book
By Walter E. Williams
Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Dr. Williams serves on the faculty of George Mason University as John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and is the author of More Liberty Means Less Government: Our Founders Knew This Well.

***Begin Quote***

You say, “What’s Williams’ solution?” My solution is an amendment limiting federal spending to a fixed percentage, say, 10 percent of the gross domestic product. You say, “Why 10 percent?” If 10 percent is good enough for the Baptist Church, it certainly ought to be good enough for Congress.

***End Quote***

Well, I have to disagree with Professor Williams again.

Why should anyone accept being a ten percent slave?

At least, he was quick enough to detect that this abomination would give us BOTH a “Fair Tax” and eventually an income tax.

The government is force. And force is anathema to libertarians. There’s no rationale that would allow me to agree to make me and my fellow citizens slaves by any percentage.

If the government, which more rightly should be called gubamint or gooferment, has worthwhile services to offer than it should offer them in a free market.

The free market is the ultimate expression of the will of the people. All buyers and sellers freely exchange based on their own internal assessment of value. Unlike an election where there are winners and losers, the marketplace allows everyone to “win”.

Other significant objections to the Fair Tax that Professor Williams didn’t cite was:

* the prebate of zero bracket amount (i.e, the refund to poor people of taxes paid) makes everyone into a “welfare queen” and trains them to get a month check (or eft) from the government. In the marketplace, it is only by satisfying the needs of another that we “get a check”.

* the States and businesses become tax collectors for the Federal government. True the get paid to do it, but States are sovereign. And, business shouldn’t be placed in the position of robbing their customers.

* while it eliminates he social security / medicare tax, it doesn’t kill the programs or even restructure them.

* it does nothing to limit the size or growth of the Federal Government.

* we don’t have honest money so all economic calculations are using a flawed yardstick.

* It doesn’t do anything about State income taxes. (Although one could assume that repealing the 16th would make the state income taxes unconstitutional. Since the 10th is a dead letter after the 14th, the States would have to conform. Maybe?)

* The 20 -23 – 30 percent rate is dubious at best.

* It just renames the IRS.

* It hides the tax that we pay.

* It’s progressive. (That’s socialism!)

and on, and on, and on …

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Posted by reinkefj

XPfails – luggable – Resume from hibernate runs like sludge

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Today after resuming, the box is running like sludge. Perhaps a reboot will recover.

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: CARBONITE tried a save

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

—–Original Message—–
From: Alison O’Brien @ Cabonite
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 1:36 PM
To: ReinkeFJ
Subject: Carbonite

Hello and thank you for your email –

Sorry you had trouble with your restore. We ask for serial numbers when passwords have been

forgotten as a security measure. If you can tell me the some other information to help verify you, I can reset your

password for you. If you can provide the name of the PC you installed Carbonite on and the date (roughly) that you installed it,

I can go ahead and reset your password for you.

Thank You,
Alison O’Brien
Carbonite Customer Support

—- My Response —

No need; I just wrote it off.

You may want to think how your offering will be used. When the source machine “burns”, it will be unlikely that the user will have access to any old stuff. Serial number, email, and passwords may all be gone.

And, when I gave it the serial number, that I carefully copied from the live screen, it still wouldn’t reset the password.

So, I gave up on a restore.

Luckily, this was just a test. I was planning to sign up but when the process failed. And rescue was complicated by a need to go to you. I decided it wasn’t for me.

Good luck.

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Posted by reinkefj

GUN: Who has one? Who doesn’t? the criminal’s dilemma

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

http://www.mchenryidpa.com/special/pro-gun/youarenot.jpg

This picture makes the essential point FOR concealed carry.

The bad guys have no clue who is or who is not packing heat.

If they guess wrong, they could be over matched and wind up dead, crippled, or arrested. It also creates a “bystander problem” for them. If they are assaulting someone, one has to be foolish to try and intervene. But when the bystander is carry concealed, they can bring an overwhelming amount of force to the situation from an unexpected direction. So now the bad guy not only has to worry about the victim presenting, but he also has to worry that a passer by might not just pass by. Worst case, the bad guy could wind up dead.

Certainly, we know that the police aren’t everywhere and can’t get somewhere fast enough. If they intervene, it’s by luck. But, there are always witnesses. And, if someone is carrying concealed, they have invested time, money, and effort in their skill. They have a self-image. And, I want them to feel free to help me.

We will need to retrain the police and gubamint that the citizens are the masters!

2 Comments | GUNS | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: CARBONITE not recommended

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Well, I tried the restore again. I went back to the primary desktop, which if this was a real test would not be there to go back to, and got the serial number. However, on the restoring pc, I could not get past the pc password reset. In a real disaster, when you have nothing working, it will be unlikely that you’ll be able to get your files back from the cloud without heroic effort imho. Hence, it’s not for me and I wouldn’t recommend it. Guess I’ll look for another solution.

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Posted by reinkefj

INTERESTING: Government happened

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

*** begin quote ***

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

What happened?

*** end quote ***

In yesterday’s post from my Luddite friend, his forward posed the question “what happened”.

Easy, the people stopped watching the politicians. They thought they could get something for nothing. Beginning with FDR and the Great Depression, which was caused by the Smoot Hawley Tariffs, the country adopted socialism. And, like the Pilgrim story, socialism leads to death by starvation. The Communists demonstrated in a 70 years “lab experiment” that “from each according to his abilities, to each according to his needs” is a recipe for disaster! We even had side by side comparison in East and West Germany. And, we demonstrated in Katrina that anyone, who depends on government, dies. And, we demonstrate in Waco, that the government kills people.

So we need honest money, an end to making the nation stupid with “public education”, and an end to the dole (welfare in all its forms).

Leave a Comment » | INTERESTING | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

RANT: Yesterday’s State Worker’s rally had some elements of truth in it

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

The TV assaulted us with the state workers demanding their “rights” to the taxpayer’s wallet yesterday. They kept chanting that they weren’t “the problem”. To a certain extent I agree.

But like the tale of the two wolves and a lamb voting on what’s for dinner, they may have over played their hand.

As a taxpayer, I can’t afford those state workers with their pensions and benefits.

Then, let’s look at the “teacher’s union”, trying — even though their particular ox wasn’t being gored — to demonstrate that they were the “he bull” of all the state unions. Certain of their members left their students high and dry. (Fire them!) But, they demonstrated that we taxpayers can’t afford them either.

So, let’s have a forty year plan to end state workers and state education.

State workers are easy. Convert their pension obligation to an insurance policy and end pension & benefits for all part-timers (How the politicians unjustly enrich themselves!) and all future workers. Oh, and throw in, that if you get a felony defrauding the state, you lose your pension. (Another favorite of the politicians!)

Education is harder. We can’t afford it. So we need a forty year exit strategy. First twenty years, privatize by vouchers to create a viable private market in education. The second twenty years, reduce the state’s funding to zero.

That’ll solve the state’s property tax problem!

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Posted by reinkefj

RANT: The baseline for any intervention into Iraq, with no guarantee of success

Monday, December 11, 2006

http://www.d-n-i.net/fcs/christie_iraq_vietnam.htm

http://tinyurl.com/yldxc9

*** begin quote ***

Throughout the 1990’s various commanding generals of U.S. Central Command ran a number of war games and determined that 400,000 troops were the baseline for any intervention into Iraq, with no guarantee of success. How this was to be accomplished by ground forces that had shrunk from 18 Army and 3 Marine divisions in 1991 to 10 Army and not quite 2 Marine divisions in 2003 was the crucial question.

*** end quote ***

Amazing, if this is correct, then “we” figured out the right number, but “we” did something else! Wow, how stupid!

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Posted by reinkefj

TECHNOLOGY: CARBONITE testing

Monday, December 11, 2006

OK, prior to becoming a pay for customer, I decided to test a restore.

Assume that my pc is wiped out, (I actually left it home today), let’s see if I could restore a key file to my work notebook without anything.

Stumbling block one was the carbonite password. No problem I’ll ask for reset.

Stumbling block two was the email. I set this up on a non-trivial email id. But I was able to find that in my gmail message store.

Stumbling block three carbonite asks for a serial number in password reset. Huh? Who knows that.

Restore failed. I’ll try again tomorrow!

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Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: Do not relax; It’s time to apply the inheritance tax.

Monday, December 11, 2006

FROM MY LUDDITE FRIEND WHO CAN’T COMMENT:

***Begin Quote***

Hmmm….

—– Forwarded by JF/CHarrlotte on 12/11/2006 11:01 AM —–

Subject: Taxes

What Happened?

Be sure to read all the way to the end!

Tax his land,
Tax his bed,
Tax the table
At which he’s fed.

Tax his tractor,
Tax his mule,
Teach him taxes
Are the rule.

Tax his cow,
Tax his goat,
Tax his pants,
Tax his coat.

Tax his ties,
Tax his shirt,
Tax his work,
Tax his dirt.

Tax his tobacco,
Tax his drink,
Tax him if he
Tries to think.

Tax his cigars,
Tax his beers,
If he cries, then
Tax his tears.

Tax his car,
Tax his gas,
Find other ways
To tax his ass

Tax all he has
Then let him know
That you won’t be done
Till he has no dough.

When he screams and hollers,
Then tax him some more,
Tax him till
He’s good and sore.

Then tax his coffin,
Tax his grave,
Tax the sod in
Which he’s laid.

Put these words
Upon his tomb,
“Taxes drove me
To my doom…”

When he’s gone,
Do not relax,Its time to apply
The inheritance tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax
Building Permit Tax
CDL license Tax
Cigarette Tax
Corporate Income Tax
Dog License Tax
Federal Income Tax
Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)
Fishing License Tax
Food License Tax,
Fuel permit tax
Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon)
Hunting License Tax
Inheritance Tax
Interest expense
Inventory tax
IRS Interest Charges IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Service charge taxes Social Security Tax Road usage taxes Sales Tax Recreational Vehicle Tax School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone federal excise tax Telephone federal universal service fee tax Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax Telephone state and local tax Telephone usage charge tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax

COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago, And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.
We had absolutely no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids.
What happened?

And I still have to “press 1” for English!

***End Quote***

Hey don’t gripe at me! I’m a libertarian. I’ve been telling you for eons that taxes are theft.

2 Comments | LIBERTY | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

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