Sunday, June 29, 2014
Saturday, June 28, 2014
Snippets of Wisdom
Good intentions will always be pleaded
for any assumption of power. The
Constitution was made to guard the people against the dangers of good
intentions. There are men in all ages
who mean to govern well, but they mean to govern. They promise to be good masters, but they
mean to be masters.
. . . Daniel Webster
While
legislation obviously is political, we now have allowed regulation to become
politicized, which we believe will likely lead to some bad outcomes.
. . . Jamie
Dimon
Tyranny
is always better organized than freedom.
. . . Charles Peguy
Wouldn't It Be Interesting?
What if large numbers of Americans next April claimed to be unable to file income tax returns or pay any income taxes?
What if they instead sent apologetic letters to the IRS explaining that they could not complete a return or calculate what, if any, taxes they owed because the information necessary to do that had been stored on, but disappeared from their computers . . . and furthermore the information could not be recovered because their hard drives had been destroyed and recycled? In addition, the information could not be retrieved from its half-dozen original sources because, lo and behold, each of the sources' computers coincidentally had be wiped out by similar catastrophic malfunctions.
The smashed hard drives could be submitted with the letter, which also might include an invitation for the IRS to attempt to recover the data.
This would have the potential for bringing down the entire rotting and corrupt structure that the American government has become.
What if they instead sent apologetic letters to the IRS explaining that they could not complete a return or calculate what, if any, taxes they owed because the information necessary to do that had been stored on, but disappeared from their computers . . . and furthermore the information could not be recovered because their hard drives had been destroyed and recycled? In addition, the information could not be retrieved from its half-dozen original sources because, lo and behold, each of the sources' computers coincidentally had be wiped out by similar catastrophic malfunctions.
The smashed hard drives could be submitted with the letter, which also might include an invitation for the IRS to attempt to recover the data.
This would have the potential for bringing down the entire rotting and corrupt structure that the American government has become.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Human Progress ? ? ? ?
Not too many generations ago war was a limited affair involving relatively few people.
When a ruler went to war, he marched into battle at the head of a column of his retainers. Subservient noblemen perhaps supported him by leading their own retainers into the fray. Relatively few people were involved and the carnage, though horrendous, was limited.
Today, decisions to go to war are made by aging politicians who then, ensconced in sumptuous situation rooms partaking of fine food and drink, watch the offspring of lower economic classes shed their blood and endure the privations inherent in their assigned missions.
Personally, I prefer the old way -- requiring those with war making authority to risk their own skins and the skins of their own children in the game.
In addition, the limited wars of old seem to me to have been preferable to the wars we have today that with modern weapons wreak widespread and unlimited havoc and destruction on people who just want to be left alone to live their lives.
What all of this boils down to is the possibility that our species in some respects has not progressed but instead actually has regressed.
But then, our current popular culture suggests that evolution also is a two way street and that homo sapiens have been devolving in recent decades.
When a ruler went to war, he marched into battle at the head of a column of his retainers. Subservient noblemen perhaps supported him by leading their own retainers into the fray. Relatively few people were involved and the carnage, though horrendous, was limited.
Today, decisions to go to war are made by aging politicians who then, ensconced in sumptuous situation rooms partaking of fine food and drink, watch the offspring of lower economic classes shed their blood and endure the privations inherent in their assigned missions.
Personally, I prefer the old way -- requiring those with war making authority to risk their own skins and the skins of their own children in the game.
In addition, the limited wars of old seem to me to have been preferable to the wars we have today that with modern weapons wreak widespread and unlimited havoc and destruction on people who just want to be left alone to live their lives.
What all of this boils down to is the possibility that our species in some respects has not progressed but instead actually has regressed.
But then, our current popular culture suggests that evolution also is a two way street and that homo sapiens have been devolving in recent decades.
Friday, June 20, 2014
What If?
What if next April, instead of filing income tax returns and paying income taxes, multitudes of Americans sent to the IRS apologetic letters explaining that they could not prepare any returns or calculate what, if any, taxes they owed because of crashes and subsequent destruction of the hard drives of their computers? Furthermore, the apologetic missives might explain, efforts to retrieve the necessary data from the information's half-dozen or so original sources had been thwarted because each of the sources' computers had coincidentally sustained similar catastrophes.
Were just a few individuals to do this, he or she would end up in deep yogurt, proving that there is one set of rules for our rulers (those perched high in governmental and IRS officialdom) and an altogether different set for those who are ruled (the rest of us). Nor am I suggesting that anyone do any such thing as that might be construed as encouraging a conspiracy to break the law . . . the rulers' rules.
But it would be interesting to see what would happen if great numbers of people followed the example of the IRS . . . even though I have yet to find a single person doltish enough to believe the clownish explanation put forth by the Service for its immaculately disappeared e-mails. Following the example might overwhelm the system and perhaps even bring down the cowardly and corrupt swinish frauds who assume we are stupid and apathetic enough to accept with docility their rule and any outrageous claims they deign to proffer.
Wouldn't it be fun to show them that Americans have not yet become that supine?
Were just a few individuals to do this, he or she would end up in deep yogurt, proving that there is one set of rules for our rulers (those perched high in governmental and IRS officialdom) and an altogether different set for those who are ruled (the rest of us). Nor am I suggesting that anyone do any such thing as that might be construed as encouraging a conspiracy to break the law . . . the rulers' rules.
But it would be interesting to see what would happen if great numbers of people followed the example of the IRS . . . even though I have yet to find a single person doltish enough to believe the clownish explanation put forth by the Service for its immaculately disappeared e-mails. Following the example might overwhelm the system and perhaps even bring down the cowardly and corrupt swinish frauds who assume we are stupid and apathetic enough to accept with docility their rule and any outrageous claims they deign to proffer.
Wouldn't it be fun to show them that Americans have not yet become that supine?
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