Taxpayers should be allowed to allocate a portion of their taxes

America is a land of taxation that was founded to avoid taxation. -- Dr. Laurence J. Peter

May 4, 2008 Actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison on tax charges. Prosecutors went after him with a vengeance. After all, if Snipes could get away with not paying taxes, the IRS and Federal Prosecutors might have to look for a job. Therefore the prosecutors wanted to get plenty of publicity by prosecuting a well known actor. They wanted to send a message that jail was waiting for anyone who tried to keep what they earned.

His three convictions were all misdemeanors. Snipes had no previous criminal record. Despite this, a federal judge sentenced Snipes to 3 years in prison, for 3 misdemeanors!

U.S. District Judge William Terrell Hodges should have recused himself from the sentencing because he has a conflict of interest. Judge Hodges, like the federal prosecutors, get their income from taxpayers. There is no way a federal judge can be unbiased when it comes to the source of income for his own livelihood.

Some in the past have argued for a voluntary tax. This is unlikely to ever be approved. Though many organizations exist on voluntary contributions, and a State could also, it does not allow for legal plunder and one main purpose for which the current government exists, and that is simply, income redistribution.

A better way to insure tax collections and have a participatory government is to allow taxpayers to designate which agencies or departments they want their taxes to go. The taxpayer could allocate his taxes to 10 different departments or agencies. This would eliminate the power of lobbyists and individual committee chairs in congress.

Taxpayers in 2008 can allot a voluntary contribution of $3 on their IRS Form 1040 towards public campaign financing. This shows the taxpayers will voluntary fund things they believe are important.

Allocating your taxes to 10 different departments might not be approved either. Another option would be to have half of your taxes go to the general treasury. The other half you will be able to allocate to 5 different department or agencies. This would give taxpayers a say in how their confiscated production is spent by the mob who confiscates it.

Charles Tolleson, the plundered

Cops get away with another killing

If someone does something we disapprove of, we regard him as bad if we believe we can deter him from persisting in his conduct, but we regard him as mad if we believe we cannot. -Thomas Szasz

Another senseless and unnecessary cop shooting, and the cops go free! Unnecessary because they were undercover cops doing a sting on "suspected" prostitution. Prostitution is a victimless crime. It should not be illegal. Certainly an innocent man should not be killed over prostitution.

Killing an innocent man over a vice such as prostitution is like killing innocent people in no knock raids looking for drugs. Taking a drug should not be illegal. You own yourself. Your body does not belong to the Mob. Yet you could get killed by the mob if you ingest something they do not approve.

April 25, 2008, Civil rights leaders demanded a federal investigation and vowed to march through the streets in protest after three police officers were cleared of all charges Friday in the killing of an unarmed man cut down in a hail of 50 bullets on his wedding day.

The verdict by Justice Arthur Cooperman elicited gasps as well as tears of joy and sorrow. Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, wept at the defense table, while the mother of victim Sean Bell cried in the packed courtroom. Shouts of "Murderers! Murderers!" and "KKK!" rang out on the courthouse steps.

Bell, a 23-year-old black man, was killed outside a seedy strip club in Queens in 2006 as he was leaving his bachelor party with two friends. The officers — undercover detectives who were investigating reports of prostitution at the club — said they thought one of the men had a gun.

Accidental births and random events

On another group I belong, one poster is often glorifying war. Some others have a strong desire to invade and kill Muslims in their countries. Still others advocate for Universal Health Care, and other big government programs. There are those who also believe in the Rapture.

I submit all these people and their views are accidents of birth and victims of random events. They were accidentally born into their health, by their DNA. They were accidentally born into their religion, language, and the country they would pledge allegiance to.

None of these decisions were made by them. Most of their opinions were formed for them by the words of others, and their experiences. They reacted in whatever environment they were born, to what was in their best interest. If they were born into an evil environment they practiced evil. If they were born into a virtuous environment they practiced virtue.

If they were born male, they behaved and made choices based on the accidental odds of nature that decided their gender. If they were born females nature also made them make choices based on nature.

If a man came from the womb of a French peasant woman in 1795 he might have fought for Napoleon at Waterloo and lost. If he had been born instead to an English peasant woman he might have fought for Wellington at Waterloo and won. Both births were random events.

There are American advocates today who hope their sons will go kill Muslims. If these advocates had been born Muslims they would be hoping their sons would kill Americans.

If you chose 20 years ago, between two financially strong companies, to work for one that has since gone out of business and you are unemployed, you made a bad choice. It was a random event that would not have happened if you had been born a day earlier, or from a different womb.

Some people somehow think there is a mystical god somewhere that we cannot; touch, see, hear, taste, or smell that determines who will be born enemies to each other. There is no proof of this theory. Our lives are accidents, or else God is very cruel.

We were not some ethereal thought floating around in space trying to decide whose sperm and egg we would use to become a flesh and blood creature. If so, we would have all selected a womb that would have provided us with a life of leisure and pleasure.

Those who think we have free will, the will to make choices, are correct. However, the choices are in a culture and environment that is a result of our accidental birth and the subsequent events that happened as a child which we had no control over.
As the world has more globalization, interracial and inter religious marriages, the accidental births will have less distinctions between the birth of a Muslim and the birth of a Jew.
Charles Tolleson, an accident
“When I consider the short duration of my life, swallowed up in the eternity before and after, the little space I fill, and even can see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of space of which I am ignorant, and which knows me not, I am frightened, and am astonished at being here rather than there, why now rather than then?” Blaise Pascal

"I might be an accident, but taxes are not." Richard Tolleson, b.1961

Comments on the news, Texas takes the kids

"An atheist is a man who has no invisible means of support." John Buchan

The American Sociological Association http://www.asanet.org/galleries/default-file/Apr08ASRFeature.pdf published a study that showed older Americans are happier than younger Americans. The study did not include those older Americans in nursing homes. Therefore, assuming relative health, older people are happier than younger people.

They should be. Older people do not have to get up and drive in traffic and put up with the stress of making a living. Older people have the younger workers provide for them. Free or reduced lunches, senior centers, Medicare, social security, free transportation-all go a long way to make one happy. And, with the AARP as a lobbying tool, American senior citizens will continue to be one of the most privileged and slothful group of people the earth has known.

Another news story is about the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS). A Texas judge said Friday night that 416 children are better off in state custody than with their parents, who belong to a controversial polygamous sect. The Texas Child Prison, er- Protective Services, used just four witnesses to persuade the judge that a polygamous community where underage girls sometimes marry is a threat to all children. How many children held by the Texas CPS end up pregnant, dead, abused, or in prison? If one looks at the statistical data, one could say the future of the 416 children who are now in the Texas Child Prison Services does not augur well.

It is also the Texas Child Prison Service that takes children from their fathers on a routine basis in divorce, even allowing the mother to move the children a thousand miles away from the father. How many of those children raised by single mothers end up pregnant before 18, or end up as criminals?

The Texas Cult used to allow girls to marry as young as 14. Come to think of it, nature has allowed girls to mate and produce children when they become capable, for the past million years. Now the Texas Child Prison Services Cult has a better way.

Some will say the FLDS is a cult. I agree, but, the people who run the Texas Child Prison Services, CPS, are also members of a cult. Their cults are the protestant and catholic churches. One can see how some cults have more power than other cults. Some cults have the power to stamp out the competition from other cults.

I just saw on TV some of the Papal Mass by Pope Benedict XVI as he preached Saturday in St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City. An old man dressed in a costume with a pointed crown, as the flocks of human sheep genuflect. Now that is some cult!

Charles Tolleson, The Happy Skeptic

The Pope comes to America

For some, the experience of Mass with Benedict was overwhelming. It made Barbara Loh of Williamsburg, VA., tear up. "I've been Catholic all my life," she said. "My dream has always been to see the pope."

To some people, even President Bush, the Pope seems like a rock star. People simply want to see the old man dressed in a funny costume wearing a pointed crown that looks like a dunce cap. The Pope's Alitalia Airlines flight's call sign is "Shepherd One". That means the rest of us are his sheep. Not me, thank you. However, many people need a shepherd, hence, they like the Pope to be their number one shepherd. I have more respect for someone who wants to be a shepherd than I do for someone who wants a shepherd. I fear the flock more than I fear the shepherd.

The media treats this preacher, who is the head of a church, as if he makes policy for the world and has a standing army of millions. He is the head of a cult. His church is located in Vatican City, a country generously granted by Italy, and a country that is only 108 acres in size, and has less than a thousand citizens. Yet, the head of this tiny country is greeted at a U.S. Military base, Andrews Air Force Base, by the President of the United States!

The Pope exhorts America to create a foreign policy based on morals. Sounds good. That's not what the church said when they wanted America to fight wars to protect the Catholic Church's property in Europe and South East Asia against communist seizure in the 20th century.

The Catholic Church has little or no property in the Muslim Middle East. If it did the Pope would be demanding the U.S. Military fight for the usual; freedoms, etc, when the Pope would only be wanting to protect its property and membership, which makes donations, donations to his power and opulent life style.

The Pope comes to America to shore up its declining loyal support by its members. During the past 7 years, since the sex scandals of Catholic priests, there have been 1300 Catholic schools closed in the U.S. New immigrants are keeping up the membership, but they cannot afford the tuition, though low, to the private Catholic schools. http://www.pewforum.org/docs/?DocID=293 Old members are not as faithful to the Catholic dogma.

The Pope is on a marketing mission, trying to sell the values of the church. The Catholic Church just named some new sins. One new sin, designed to recruit new members is- Pollution! Another new sin is, Social Injustice! That may even convert some liberal socialist to Catholicism.

When the Pope says, in a speech at the White House, "God bless America", you know the purpose of his sojourn to America is recruitment.

A recent survey shows that 16% of Americans admit to being skeptic, atheists or not affiliated with any religion. This number grows larger each decade. The Pope and other religious leaders see a decline in their power and opulent life styles. During Voltaire's time admitting to being an atheists brought death.

The controversial Reverend Wright of Chicago sure knows the good life.- http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0408/0408revwrightluxury.htm "The details of Reverend Wright's retirement package paid for by the good people of Trinity United Church of Christ? Well, I thought you would never ask! Try this on for size: 10,000+ square feet of luxurious living space, four bedrooms, and a total price tag of $1.6 million. But wait ... there's more! This is not all the Reverend wins on today's episode of Overly Vocal Hate Peddlers. Nope. The church also has a $10 million credit line attached to the property for purposes unknown reports Jeff Goldblatt."
"The Christian faith from the beginning, is sacrifice: the sacrifice of all freedom, all pride, all self-confidence of spirit; it is at the same time subjection, a self-derision, and self-mutilation". Friedrich Nietzsche

Charles Tolleson, The Happy Skeptic

10 Year Foreclosure Rates

One would think, from the doom and gloom news, that the home foreclosure rate is the highest ever. But, only 1 out of 538 households does not seem high. What is higher is the percentage of mortgages made that were subprime. These bad credit risks are now 20% of the market thanks to government organizations like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that insure bad loans. Now the government wants to increase the size of loans the government agencies will insure. The government employees never learn, or they may just be looking out for their own careers.

"The number of U.S. homes receiving at least one foreclosure filing jumped 57 percent in March to 234,685, compared with 149,150 properties a year earlier. Filings include default notices, auction sale notices and bank repossessions.
The overall foreclosure rate is 5 percent higher than in February, which saw an unexpected month-to-month decline over January. March marked the 27th consecutive month of year-over-year increases in national foreclosure filings.
That meant one in every 538 households received a filing during the month. Forty-four percent were households that slipped into default for the first time and more than a fifth were homes banks took back."

The problem with the housing market in 2007-08 was a typical 'bubble', like the Tulip Mania bubble of 1635. http://www.econlib.org/library/mackay/macExContents.html Like the Tulip Mania bubble that burst, the housing bubble had to burst.

One thing about housing, it is cyclical. If there is too much inventory there will be less new construction and renovation. After the housing bubble of 2005-08 the number of new housing starts was the lowest in 17 years! "The Commerce Department said US March housing starts fell 11.9 percent to a 947,000 unit annual rate, down from an upwardly revised 1.075 million units in February. That pace was the lowest level since March 1991."
Why did we not hear much about the foreclosure rates in 2000. People were able to refinance. The stock market was at an all time high. The following year 9/11 happened, along with the stock market bubble bursting. The following year 2002, was the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan. The following year, 2003, the media was focused on the Iraq war. Today, 2008, the media has little to talk about, so they are preaching doom and gloom in the housing market, a market where only 1 house in 500 is in foreclosure.
Charles Tolleson, The Happy Misanthrope

The U.S. is fighting Israel's religious war

Charles Krauthammer's idea is better than attacking Iran. His holocaust declaration saying we will nuke any country that nukes Israel will act as a deterrent. Mr. Krauthammer has long supported a Wilsonian type foreign policy. I think he may be reevaluating his strategy. His, and many other people's first priority for the U.S. is, the security of Israel.

Our primary objective is to promote Judea/Christian values throughout the world. That was why we helped South Korea against the atheist communists from the north. Now South Korea boasts one of the largest Christian missionary communities. Twenty three were captured and released last year in Afghanistan.

The same was true of Vietnam. We could not let the atheist North Vietnamese Communist take over the South. Senator John Kennedy had met and respected Ngo Dinh Diem, a Catholic. http://www.reformation.org/chapter7.html ("One of the first moves was the selection of a man fit for the task. This was ready at hand. His name Ngo Dinh Diem. Diem had been carefully groomed by the Catholic establishment, was an ardently religious person, a fanatical anti-Communist, and a ruthless religious and political dogmatist. He had been watched for some time, both by the Vatican and certain individuals in the U.S. When the moment for the choice came, the decision was taken, mostly by American Catholics, the best known of these being Cardinal Spellman, Joe Kennedy and his son the future President John F. Kennedy, and last but not least, by John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles, and their secret entourage.")

In 2007 Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was in Vietnam asking them to allow more religious freedoms. I doubt if she wants Islam to be the religion that grows in Vietnam.

We have supported Buddhist, Muslim and Christian tyrants, but never an atheist. We allied with the Russian atheists to defeat Hitler. As soon as the victory was complete we declared Russia an enemy.

But why should I be forced to support one religious group in their centuries old war? It was a mistake to support the state of Israel in 1947 without the consent of the other countries in the region. Too many people in the west felt guilty about not preventing the holocaust, as they should.

The west was anti Semitic in the 30s and 40s. Only after the holocaust did western guilt set in. The west thought it would be a good thing to give the Jews a country of their own. Then the Jews would be thousands of miles away, in the desert. Out of sight, out of mind.

Israel started out as an underdog. During her 60 years of existences she has never lost a war. Now she has lost world support because of her power and aggression. The result is to have the United States fight her wars, like the United States fought for the Catholic Church in the Vietnam War.

You are forced to chose sides and contribute money to a religious state in a religious war. If you voluntarily give money to Israel's enemies you may go to jail. The Muslims who hate Israel immigrate to America and are forced to pay taxes that support Israel!

I think any Jew who owned private land, even if it was one hectare, had the right in 1947 to declare their independence and call their state Israel, no matter where they lived. They did not have the right to compel me to provide them support and protection.

If we wanted to protect the Jews, we should allow them to immigrate to America and give them part of New Jersey. In a few years peace will return to the Middle East and Jews will be visiting the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem, and living a safe and prosperous life in their new homeland, New Israel.

A conservative estimate of the Iraq war cost is now $500 billion per year. http://zfacts.com/p/447.html That amount, paying each employee $100,000 per year, would employ 5 million people to staff our border patrol, coast guard, and immigration ports! Keeping the Muslims out would go a long way toward protecting the U.S. However that would not be protecting Israel. Spending $500 billion here, in the U.S. would be a Keynesian dream. That would be some economic stimulus package.

And you thought religious wars ended in 1648. People will argue against my theory that religion is a big factor in the U.S. involvement in Israel's affairs. Suppose all Jews were atheists, or Muslim. Would there ever have been a Zionist state created? Of course not. This does not mean atheists are peace loving people. Stalin and Mao were non religious, brutal, tyrants.

The Catholic lobby supported and encouraged German Catholics, under Hitler, to fight against Russian communism. The Catholic lobby urged the U.S. to fight against communism in Asia to protect 400 years of Catholic growth in the area. Now the Israel lobby is entangling the U.S. in their war.

Communism failed to make inroads in America during the 1930s and 40s because the American workers were devoutly Catholic or Protestant. President Roosevelt deftly diluted the lure of communism by enacting his own communistic programs, while remaining a Christian nation.

Today, April 15, 2008, Pope Benedict XVI arrived in the United States. President Bush made the unusual gesture of greeting Benedict at Andrews Air Force Base — the first time he has welcomed a foreign leader there. Now that's power, when the head of a religious state, Vatican City, that is .17 square miles in size and with a population of less than a 1000, can command the President of the United States greets him.

Maybe the wars were really not about dogma. Maybe they were about property. If the communist had taken over Germany or Asia, they would have seized a fortune in Catholic property. The communist mob rulers and the Catholic mob rulers went to war over property and an opulent lifestyle. The mobs' foot soldiers fought for dogma and patriotism.

Onward, Christian soldiers, marching as to war,
with the cross of Jesus going on before.
Christ, the royal Master, leads against the foe;
forward into battle see his banners go!

Charles Tolleson

Atlas Shrugged, required reading

A gift by a large business to colleges comes with a stipulation that Ayn Rand's libertarian opus, "Atlas Shrugged" will be required reading. I think this is great. I have a few more libertarian books that should be required reading for high school seniors and colleges student.

Liberal college professors resent being told they have to teach capitalism. They will take the money though, only to teach capitalism as a negative, and pick apart Rand's opus. That Rand was also an atheist makes her an enemy even to many capitalist.

Do universities teach capitalism as much as they teach socialism? It's been a long time since I was in college, so I don't know. Of course, our education system itself is very socialistic.

The authors of this blog say college professors are more leftists and politically correct.
http://www.becker-posner-blog.com/archives/2007/10/intellectuals_f.html

Charles Tolleson

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http://www.wral.com/news/state/story/2692047/BB&T Gifts With Ayn Rand Requirements Draw Criticism at Schools By PAM KELLEY AND CHRISTINA REX RODE The Charlotte Observer
Posted: Apr. 6, 2008

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - As a college student in Chapel Hill, John Allison stumbled across a collection of essays by Ayn Rand and was hooked by her philosophy of self-interest and limited government. As he rose over the decades to chief executive of BB&T, one of the country's leading regional banks, Rand remained his muse.

The Charlotte Observer reports that he's trying to replicate that encounter through the charitable arm of his Winston-Salem-based company, which since 1999 has awarded more than $28 million to 27 colleges to support the study of capitalism from a moral perspective.

But on at least 17 of those campuses, including UNC Charlotte, North Carolina State and Johnson C. Smith University, the gifts come with an unusual stipulation: Rand's novel, "Atlas Shrugged," is included in a course as required reading.

The schools' agreements have drawn criticism from some faculty, who say it compromises academic integrity. In higher education, the power to decide course content is supposed to rest with professors, not donors. Debate about the gifts, which arose at UNCC in March, illustrates tensions that exist over corporate influence on college campuses.

UNCC received its $1 million gift pledge in 2005, but details about the "Atlas Shrugged" requirement came to light as the school dedicated an Ayn Rand reading room March 12.

Do greedy borrowers need to be protected?

Controlling greed will always be a winning issue for any politician. Sen. Feinstein and Sen. Martinez thinks mortgage brokers need to be licensed, tested, and regulated. They think this will protect the consumer from "unscrupulous" brokers. The Senators refuse to hold the borrowers accountable for not reading a contract obligating the borrowers to repay a loan.

The Senators should be asking why the government schools, with 12 years of teaching, failed to teach borrowers how to read a loan contract.

What the senators are trying to do is protect us from our own greed! It will not happen, but governments always try to control human frailties. The governments destroy liberty and free choice in the attempt to do good. People want to control the greed of others, while allowing free reign of their own greed.

Throughout history people have fallen for get rich quick schemes. Even the buyers in the story below admit to buying a house "out of reach". Buying a bigger house or car, one the consumer cannot afford, is nothing new. What is new with the housing crisis is house prices declined. The buyers thought their house values would continue to increase.

"a friend sent a mortgage broker their way, who pushed them into two loans". Notice the word 'pushed', as if the borrower had no control over their own decisions.

Below are excerpts from the story. http://tinyurl.com/3let2r

Charles Tolleson
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U.S. Mortgage Industry Needs to be Monitored Fresno Bee Thursday, March 6, 2008 By: Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Mel Martinez

Steve and Valvina found their dream home in Fresno's Fig Garden district in 2006. But at more than $250,000, it seemed out of reach.

They had bad credit, two teens to raise. And Steve's income from the assembly line, and Valvina's as an office assistant, only went so far.

Then a friend sent a mortgage broker their way, who pushed them into two loans, totaling $250,000, with only $1,000 down and an adjustable interest rate.
This broker didn't have their best interest at heart. Valvina says she had questions, but the broker insisted everything was OK.

They signed the papers, and the broker pocketed $10,000. Soon, they were overwhelmed by loan payments, property tax bills they thought were factored into their loan and repairs they couldn't afford.

We believe the time has come for Congress to do something about it, to ensure that the bad actors in the mortgage industry are no longer allowed to operate freely. Today, there are no national standards for mortgage brokers and lenders.

This has allowed unscrupulous brokers to take advantage of borrowers.

We believe Congress should require that all residential mortgage loan brokers and lenders obtain a state license. This would include providing fingerprints and a summary of work experience and consenting to a background check by authorities.

To be licensed, these brokers and lenders must:

Have no felony convictions.

Have had no similar license revoked.

Demonstrate a record of financial responsibility.

Pass a written exam after taking courses in federal lending laws, ethics, consumer protection and subprime mortgage lending.

And brokers and lenders who become licensed should be listed on a database that's easily accessible to the public. This will allow consumers to verify whether or not brokers or lenders they're thinking of working with have the proper credentials and are licensed.

If the subprime mortgage crisis has taught us anything, it is this: American home buyers are vulnerable to unscrupulous brokers and lenders.