I Hate Taxes!
Austin Dispatches 
No. 36
Mar. 9, 2002
Longtime readers recall my travails last year as the job market curdled. I hustled. I obtained short-term work with a trio of companies offering good money for interesting work. I negotiated directly, without using personnel services. For a few weeks, I was self-employed, flourishing by my wits.

My reward? The IRS is raping me out of more than $1,100. In the few weeks I was a self-employed entrepreneur in fact (not just in spirit), my earnings qualified as Form 1040 Schedule C income — taxed at 15 percent. No refund. That's money I set aside in case I don't have another job lined up after I'm done at Bowne JFS. 

And some of you wonder why I spend so much time riled about politics. I scramble to pay my own way through life. I don't recall the IRS helping me any. Like the Mafia, it just skims a piece off the top of everything I work for.1 What a racket the feds have with the withholding tax. That's a "temporary" measure they imposed during World War II.2 That war's over, but the withholding remains. And they expect gratitude when they give back some of what they took — a "refund" of what amounts to an interest-free loan.

Others can best expound the income tax's incompatibility with the spirit of the Constitution;3 the questions as to its actual ratification;4 the routine, systemic abuses by the IRS and its agents;5 and the tax's disastrous effects, both economic and social,6 as the engine of the managerial-therapeutic, warfare-welfare state.7

Behind all of it, the State's usurping attitude. Temporally, I'm my own boss. Even my work for others is a series of contractual, voluntary agreements. Furthermore, the State and I are separate entities. I am not the State. The State is not an "us."9 At best, the State is a moderately useful service organization that derives its just powers from my consent.10

Nowadays, there's nothing the feds fear more than an American standing on his own. In this context, the IRS, and the congressmen it reports to, have developed a severe, inverted misunderstanding of what "we" want, and of who serves who.11 As employees, they need a major attitude adjustment.12 Some say you've got to keep a fire lit under their feet. Actually, you need to place the fire higher than that.13

Indeed, that's one reason I'm proud to manage Paul Farris' campaign for U.S. House of Representatives in District 11. Farris understands the principles I've described. As such, he will provide the voters a choice, not an echo,14 against incumbent Chet Edwards, a minion of evil.15

Cultural Canapés

So Elton John trashes the pop music industry during an interview and his one regret in his vast career is a concert disc of his greatest hits?16  How about his collaboration on "The Lion King," which Disney deposited like a steaming, syphilitic turd on the buffet line of world culture?17  Or his execrable performance on bluegrass banjo master Earl Scruggs' newest album,18 the 21st century's answer to the Sinatra "Duets"?19  That mincing limey cokehead20 will have to repent far more if he wants to cast the first disc.21

Police arrested comedian Kevin Meaney at the San Francisco airport after a scuffle with a National Guardsman.22 Each party accused the other of "acting like a crazy personnnn!" Meaney's prison meal included New York imported cheesecake.23

The Austin Chronicle reports director Quentin Tarantino will film his next movie in Austin.24 Look for Tarantino, cast and crew to spend their free time in hip hangouts learning what to call a Quarter Pounder in Texan. (A: an appetizer)25
 
E-mail: deisler1@swbell.net
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NOTES
1 Sifakis, Carl. The Mafia Encyclopedia, rev. ed. New York City: Facts on File, 1999.
2 Frazer, William Johnson. Power and Ideas: Milton Friedman and the Big U-Turn, Vol. II: The U-Turn. Gainesville, Fla. Gulf/Atlantic Pub. Co., 1988: 504-505.
3 Chodorov, Frank [Fishel Chodorowsky]. The Income Tax: Root of All Evil. New York City: Devin-Adair Co., 1954: vi-vii.
4 Benson, Bill, and M.J. "Red" Beckman. The Law That Never Was: The Fraud of the 16th Amendment and Personal Income Tax, Vol. I-II. South Holland, Ill.: Constitutional Research Associates, 1985-86.
5 Burnham, David. A Law Unto Itself: Power, Politics, and the IRS. New York City: Random House, 1989.
6 Adams, Charles. Those Dirty Rotten Taxes: The Tax Revolts That Built America. New York City: Simon & Schuster, 1998: 135-230; Bartley, Robert L. The Seven Fats Years – and How to Do It Again, rev. ed. New York City: The Free Press, 1995: Ch. 2; Greene, Bill. Win Your Personal Tax Revolt. San Francisco: Harbor Pub., 1981; Nisbet, Robert A. The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America. New York City: Harper & Row, 1988; Wanniski, Jude. The Way the World Works, rev. 4th ed. Washington, D.C.: Regnery Publishing, 1998: Ch. 7, 12.
7 Bergland, David. “Running Third.” Reason Nov. 1984: 33-36.
8 Van Dun, Frank. “Natural Law, Liberalism, and Christianity.” JLS Summer 2001: 1-36.
9 Rothbard, Muray N. “The Anatomy of the State.” Rampart Journal Summer 1965. Rpt. Egalitarianism as a Revolt Against Nature and Other Essays. 1974. Rpt. Auburn, Ala.: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2000: 55-88.
10 Declaration of Independence. 1776. Rpt. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. Washington, D.C.: Cato Institute, 1998: 9.
11 Sobran, Joseph. How Tyranny Came to America. Audio cassette. Vienna, Va.: The Vere Co., 1994.
12 “Attitude Adjustment.” All-Time Greatest Hits of Hank Williams Jr. Curb 77944, 1999.
13 Reeves, Richard. “Will California Send Them a Message on Cutting Taxes?” Esquire 23 May 1978: 31-33.
14 Schlafly, Phyllis. A Choice Not an Echo. Alton, Ill. Pere Marquette Press, 1964.
15 Barone, Michael, Richard E. Cohen, and Charles E. Cook Jr. Almanac of American Politics 2002. Washington, D.C.: National Journal Inc., 2001: 1472-1475.
16 Eldredge, Richard L. "Elton Down on Disposable Pop." Atlanta Constitution-Journal 22 Feb. 2002: E2.
17 EAD No. 9 (Oct. 23, 1999).
18 Earl Scruggs and Friends. MCA 170189, 2001.
19 Clarke, Donald. All or Nothing at All: A Life of Frank Sinatra. New York City: Fromm International, 1997: 256-257.
20 Norman, Philip. Elton John. New York City: Harmony Books, 1992.
21 Jn 8:7 Peshitta. But see also Peshitta, 1063n2.
22 “Comic Arrested in U.S. Airport Row.” Toronto Star. 5 May 2002: D6.
23 Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, Vol. 2. Rhino Home Video, 1995.
24 Moser, Stephen MacMillan. “After a Fashion.” AC 1 Mar. 2002: 33.
25 Pulp Fiction: A Quentin Tarantino Screenplay. New York City: Miramax Books/Hyperion, 1994: 14-15; Rice, Dale. “A Half-Century on the Grill.” XL 8 Jun. 2000: 26+.