Unpopularity has scuttled the extra-constitutional, extra-judicial Christmas tree tax (see below video for a sample). Now the Department of Agriculture had proposed this tax, and of course they went about it in a completely wrong way. First, they should have the IRS collect it. Second, they should only impose it on US citizens living outside the borders of the United States, and recent immigrants, for example, people who have come from India in the last 10 years. That way it only hits those who don’t have representation in Congress or small persecuted minority groups. Then, a line should be added to the 1040NR form asking, “Did you have a foreign Christmas tree this year at any time during the year?” In the explanations of this line, it should say that if the answer to the question is yes, then each person filing must fill out a disclosure form DA-FCT1025365NR for the Department of Agriculture which must be received by the 30th of June on the year that the foreign Christmas tree was used. It should be mentioned that non-wilful failure to disclose whether one had a Christmas tree could result in a $10,000 fine per infringement, per tree (so that if two spouses filing jointly or separately would each have to make a disclosure). Wilful failure of disclosure can result in prison sentences and huge fines that are so stupendous that it requires the implicit waiver of the 8th amendment, let’s say as much as 300% of your personal wealth. Finally, this disclosure must be retroactive for the last six years.
Americans getting group therapy at U.S. Consulate in Toronto
Hi Obama, Geitner, Senator Levin? Are any of you aware that the Toronto consulate explained to a group of 22 Americans how to jump the New Berlin Wall last month. The Globe and Mail has an article telling about this group therapy session. The illness: American citizenship. The cure: Renunciation of citizenship.
The salient quote:
A U.S. embassy official played down the significance of the renunciation meeting. He said consular officials were responding to calls and requests for information prompted by a flurry of media coverage about the tax crackdown.
“We simply decided it was more efficient to have everybody come as a group and talk to everyone at once, rather than doing it individually,” the official said. “It was simply a time-management decision.”
For those interested in therapy, the cost is $450 per renunciation.
Mental midgets at IRS and US Department of Treasury may cost US 10,000,000 jobs
Hi, I'm an economic know-nothing
Ok. Here is where I am so angry at what the Congress, the IRS, Obama and Tim Geitner have done to me that I claim that you US persons are dumb and getting dumber by the minute. An article in the Washington Times yesterday claims that the mental midgets running Washington are implementing regulations that will cause the flight of $14 trillion of foreign investment capital out of the US. This will cause the loss of as many as 10,000,000 jobs. Read it and weep. Here is a salient excerpt:
Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat, and the other economic-know-nothings who proposed these measures claim – without any basis in fact – that the United States is losing $100 billion annually because of foreign account tax avoidance or evasion. Private foreign investment in the U.S. is about $14 trillion. So $100 billion is less than 1 percent of the private foreign investment, yet the mental midgets in Congress and the administration are willing to risk trillions of dollars in job-creating foreign investment in exchange for a phony $100 billion. Well over 10 million American jobs are at risk because of this foolishness.
Phil Hodgen reports on the backlog of people who want to renounce their US citizenship. The US citizens living abroad now find that US citizenship is a liability not an asset and want out. We want our Declaration of Independence.
How not to fund raise for a Christian project
I’ve been on both the seeking and the giving side of fundraising. While I don’t know the how to fund raise, I know some things not to do. This is from my perspective as a giver?
What not to do (every one of these has happened to us):
(1) Don’t insult your donor. We invited a recipient of a large scholarship to our house and he began to insult our manner of speaking English. Our church had a vacation bible camp which featured a fictional quest for a “blue-cheeked-bee-eater”. The man didn’t know about this bird, and so he said that if the bird didn’t exist that we were liars. He told us that our sparkling water was a “waste of money” when we could get free water out of the tap. Needless to say, we took offence. Also, if you are a school, don’t unnecessarily berate an alumnus and refuse any action to rectify the situation, as Prof. John Stackhouse did to me, and then later the director of development of Regent College contacted me to ask if my wife and I were planning to give to the school. Hello!
(2) Don’t casually break an appointment with a donor or break off part of the appointment. Yesterday, the director of a Canadian branch of an international mission organization came to a church after accepting an invitation to speak with lunch following. Apparently he forgot the lunch and booked a trip to Ethiopia. He couldn’t stay for the lunch because he left his luggage in Waterloo and his flight left at 4:00 pm. Why not re-schedule so that those who prepared the lunch would be standing there looking like idiots for having spent money on the food? Or why not bring the luggage along, saving a minimum of two hours driving time? The mission group wanted to expose the rest of the church to this mission, so some of us spent our own money to prepare this lunch. It is bad form, and unfortunately, this mission will likely not be the recipient of too much more from our church.
(3) Don’t fail to live up to your end of the bargain. A few of the recipients of scholarships, for which we’ve helped pay, have failed explicit agreements to return to Africa after their studies. If you say you are going to go back to Africa, then go back to Africa. And just for the benefit of the sending churches in Africa and elsewhere: don’t send someone who isn’t going to return because the funding for such ventures will dry up fast. You are sending liars and scoundrels.
(4) Don’t start promoting communism, socialism, global warming, leftist politics, statism, or relativistic moral standards. If you do, then don’t be surprised if your donors, who are generally hard-working business people with conservative values, become upset and shut down the funds. Consider that we pay sufficient in taxes already, and we don’t need more government regulation and taxes. That will only make our generosity dry up. Instead, lobby against statism. Then your generous donors will have more still to give to you. Don’t be idiots. We worship an all-powerful god not an all-benevolent government. We are theists not statists. If a socialist comes begging me for charitable money, I just say, “I gave at the office”–which is literally true because of withholding taxes. Also, a school we’ve given to has a adjunct professor who says that Jack Layton knew Jesus because he helped a lesbien couple find an apartment. Time to get rid of that professor or lose donors, don’t you think?
(5) Don’t negotiate in bad faith. This means don’t tell your donor that you are going to break your previous agreement if he doesn’t fork over even more money and better arrangements for you.
Well, these are some of the “don’t”s that I’ve personally encountered. Perhaps you could add some more. Or perhaps you disagree. The comments are open.
James Grant on Money: Gold money news
James Grant seems to be one of the brighter people in the financial industry with a good grasp of history and money. Here is an interview with Gold Money News, a little dated, but timeless. The best line is his quote of reader of the Financial Times who writes that he finally understands QE, but now he is not quite sure what money is.
The Righteous Investor 