Confusion Prevails

A loquacious little boy – talkative, voluble, communicative, expansive, garrulous, unreserved, chatty, gossipy, gossiping, informal, the gift of gab, gabby, gassy, motor-mouthed, talky, windy.

        

-- How great is this kid? 

-- Let’s elect the intrusionary little bastard! 

-- Wait a minute, that’s not being fair of me. 

-- How do I know he’s a little bastard? 

What’s the story on all this stuff? We’ve got Democrats agreeing with Republicans; Republicans agreeing with Democrats; the Los Angeles Times condemning the IRS; the New York Times bad mouthing the Left; the Left agreeing with the New York Times; and everyone out there agreeing with Eric Holder when he keeps saying he doesn’t know anything about what’s going on. But, when the head of the FBI says he doesn’t know who’s in charge of his investigation of the IRS, one wonders (that would be me wondering out loud, or lewd if you prefer) who’s in charge of anything our government is supposed to be in charge of.

Why don’t the people who are supposed to be in charge just Google what they’re claiming to be investigating, or what, in many cases, we elected them to do as the so-called servants of the people?

I don’t understand why we can’t merely dismiss the people who aren’t doing their jobs. Both sides of the aisle agree about how difficult it is to fire a government worker. They say that if it was an easy task to let a government employee go, there would be the chance that wholesale firings might take place. Again, I find myself in a state of wonderment. Would something like that really be that bad?

da harv Takes a Personal Test.

Question: What would I do without the post office?

Answer:  United Parcel Service, Federal Express, Electronic Transfer, e-mail, fax, iPhone

Question:  What if we did away with the Internal Revenue Service?

Answers:  (Far too many benefits for me to list at this time, but I’ll try)

• We would be eliminating an enormous cost to the taxpayer.

• We would immediately remove the people who are perhaps the most odious group of public employees in the history of western civilization. They are rude, deceitful, pompous, heartless, and far too powerful, unconstitutionally so. Without hesitation, an IRS agent will inform you they plan on placing a lien on every piece of property you might own, and if you choose to file for bankruptcy in order to seek protection from them, it won’t work because they don’t have to abide by any of the rules.

• No longer will there be groups of people taking expensive trips paid for with the same tax dollars gleaned from you by exerting extreme duress.

By installing a flat tax system, or a consumption tax for all point of purchase transaction sites, goods, or services, Congressmen are quick to point out what a complicated procedure this would be. Only the truly uninformed, or those void of any business acumen, are willing to accept this plain and unadulterated bullshit they insist on handing us from both sides of the isle. Any of the top accounting firms could easily figure it out and, within a very short period of time, come up with a program we could all understand!

Think about it -- whether they are a Democrat, Republican, or Libertarian -- what would our Congress have to do in the event that their legislation was limited to the subject at hand?

In other words… Remove the pork.

Personally, I don’t see or understand how getting healthy might become a problem. Imagine going to your daily job and not having to be sidetracked by an elected official or any civil servant intruding in your life or the lives of your family and friends.

The nature of my work requires me to see many people. (If you’d like to know and have a rather complete understanding of what da harv does for a living, Google me. There isn’t too much by way of secrets about me at this stage of my life.)

The numbers of members in our acting community that I see on a regular basis, would stagger the imagination of any normal civilian-type person. When we’re busy, (the way it used to be when the economy was sound) I’d audition between fifty and one hundred actors each and every day of the week. We have a rather unique relationship. By that, I mean the nature of the actor-director relationship is one of creativity and search; we’re attempting to find the hidden magic that makes winners out of all of us. And, during this process, I involuntarily become privy to what a wide variety of families must deal with daily. For those who have shared the depths of their personal lives with me, they do so with the knowledge that I value their privacy, and that their personal information is sacrosanct.

        

What I’ve learned from and about actors during the course of my many years in this, the industry of my choice, is certainly far more revealing than that of what an average man may be privileged to absorb.

Our makeup, as people who labor within the confines of a creative world, is one of sharing emotions -- either after much deliberation, shooting from the hip, or as a merry picaresque character marching in life’s parade without an apparent care in the world.  

I’ve observed that folks, who have a problem with placing their emotions on display, usually fall by the wayside. While the vast majority of journeyman actors earn very little money during their thespian lifetime, it has nothing to do with the high degree of skill it takes to even become a borderline successful actor. The general public’s love affair with the publicized celebrities rarely comes with any understanding of the real men and women directly responsible for making our industry work. The journeyman actor has been, and will always remain, the bulwark of our entertainment society.

The blatant differences between acting and being a politician become more apparent to me as our recent governmental fiascos unfold. I wonder what would happen, if a few rules and regulations were made to apply to our elected officials…

What If’s?

• What if our elected officials were required to audition on a regular basis, conducted without the customary legal formalities?

At our place of business, on time means early. If I call a press conference, I don’t keep the press or the general public waiting for me to arrive. Here’s the concept: I’m being paid to provide a service.

• What if, when voters don’t turn out for an election, those running for office are disqualified?

When audiences don’t attend a performance, the play closes.

• What if politicians were required to read and understand any and all legislation before being allowed to vote on said legislation?

Can you imagine the result if an actor refused to read their script?

• What if politicians were docked for not being present?

• What if our elected officials didn’t receive any benefits unless the budgets they presented were balanced, and on time?

• What if elected officials, as well as all civil servants, were required to tell the truth, with failure to do so resulting in automatic dismissal from their position, as well as the responsibility of paying a penalty for lying under oath?

I find it odd that our officials are required to (re)take their oath when brought before a Congressional investigating committee. What about the oath of office that is administered when our servants are sworn in accordance with the Constitution of the United States?

I don’t know about you, but by now it has to have become obvious, this guy (me) is tired of our elected officials, and the pure and plain arrogance they conduct themselves with.

When I ask a colleague a simple question, more often than not that colleague effortlessly offers a reasonable answer, regardless of the subject matter and regardless of whether or not we share a similar political bend. We are, after all, human beings first and foremost. When I ask a guy or gal what they think, I really don’t care to worry about a partisan answer.

“How’s your kid in college doing?” I’ll often ask. There’s always the parents mutuality popping up. The general woes of what it’s like to have a teenager or a kid away at school. No form of ingenuineness enters our conversation. That isn’t the case, however, when I turn on the television and watch the proceedings of one scandal after another being investigated by individuals who could easily be on the other side of the investigation.

A woman stands and agrees to tell the truth. She makes a preemptive statement and announces that she has no intention of answering any of the questions being posed.

When she made her opening statement, she concurrently waived her rights, according to the Constitution, of preventing self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment. So, what did our elected officials do, you might ask? Absolutely nothing, they sat there with egg on their faces!

• Our tax dollars are paying for the proceedings.

• Our tax dollars are paying the woman’s salary.

• The woman is removed from her position, yet her salary continues. You guessed it -- our tax dollars will continue to secure her lifestyle, that of the rich and famous.

Not to worry gang, our distinguished investigative body, known as the Federal Bureau Of Investigation, is on it. The head guy himself steps up to the table, raises his right hand and swears to tell us the truth. When he’s asked who was assigned as the lead FBI investigator looking into the now-admitted wrong doings of the IRS, he responds with a degree of vacancy strong enough to raise J. Edgar Hoover from his grave. The man says he doesn’t know.

I find myself troubled by all of this. Everything transpiring, with regard to our welfare, that is administered by our elected leaders and their appointees, appears to be in a state of flummox. Were it merely bewilderment that governed the answers being made and not being made by our elected and appointed servants, as one of the taxpayers footing the bill, I might not be registering the degree of indignation that currently grips my soul. My dearest friends, what troubles me to the core is our leaders’ apparent lack of caring. I object to the way they are conducting my country’s business. What I’m getting from this gargantuan malaise of ineptitude is an underbelly of deceit. The people my tax dollars are paying to investigate people, who are unmitigated liars, are equally inept at what they purport to be doing.    

A lifetime ago, a man named Frank Sinatra best summed up my feelings, as a man living in a country veering from the foundation that made us what and who we are today.

Note: Frank Sinatra was one of the most admirably patriotic Americans ever. He never thought being in love with his country was the least bit cornball. He practiced what he preached without hubris.

In private, and then without reservation, he referred to those who received their coin by the work of others, as beings pimps and whores -- parasites to the core.

Frank Sinatra admittedly had been an ardent Democrat his entire adult life. When he found himself at odds with some of his chosen party’s doctrines, he changed allegiances and moved on. Although I was a much younger man at the time, I was aware of the political environment and can say, without exception, that no one questioned Mr. Sinatra’s position as being insincere.  

        

I’ve chosen to mention Frank Sinatra in this piece almost entirely out of pure frustration. At rise, I referred to my feelings by way of my title:  “CONFUSION PREVAILS.”

As a child growing up on the streets of Brooklyn, New York, it wasn’t uncommon to hear a friend spouting off to another friend, “Hey we’re in America. This is a free country, ain’t it? I get to say whatever I like.”

We grew up under the guise of our American Constitution, hearing our leaders profess to the greatness of our country and the “Four Freedoms” it has provided us with. And, as that same child, I watched and listened to my baseball heroes take leave of the game we all loved, in order to serve our country. People like Ted Williams and my favorite, Pee Wee Reese, stood up for our truth and let the world know and understand that we weren’t going to be stepped on. We had right on our side. We knew the truth. We weren’t confused!

Today, confusion prevails. Mere logic can’t seem to answer my logical questions. Imbalance in our society continues to breed upon imbalance.

A few logical questions:

(Is it my right?)

• To expect an employee to answer my questions truthfully?

• As an employer to dismiss an untrustworthy employee?

• To not have my right of privacy infringed upon?

• To run my own, honest business free from governmental intervention? 

• To expect my government to protect me from harm? 

• To operate my business and affairs safely, and free from the unmerciful duress applied by our own Internal Revenue Service?

The Internal Revenue Service

As my first order of descriptive business, I feel it important to bring forth the accepted definition of the word “duress.”

duress |d(y)oŏˈres|

noun

threats, violence, constraints, or other action brought to bear on someone to do something against their will or better judgment: confessions extracted under duress.

ORIGIN Middle English (in the sense ‘harshness, severity, cruel treatment’)

I do believe that the dictionary definition of the word “duress” is spelled out clearly enough for even an entry-level member of our government, especially an agent of the IRS, to comprehend. As a matter of fact, our Attorney General, our chief of the Federal Bureau Of Investigation, or our former Secretary of State would not be able to say that they don’t know anything about the word “duress.”

Imbalance and Duress

(What a combo)

In this great country of ours, some families, for what ever their reasons may be, offer up much more in the form of service to country than others. Keep in mind, I’m not complaining, just merely pointing out a fact of life. Service to our country is something we do. We are not forced to do so by means of duress. Believe it or not, some of us actually love our country. When Frank Sinatra sang to me, “…This is my country, to have and to hold,” it lit my fire. And, guess what -- that fire burns stronger today than ever before. Perhaps the burning is what fosters much of my confusion, concern, and frustration. (Sounds like a perfect name for a Congressional Committee; they’d be known as the CCF.)

My brother-in-law served in the Air Force during WW2. He was shot down over Germany, and bailed out of his plane with shrapnel wounds in both legs. A German doctor operated on him after administering a local anesthetic. He was wide-awake as the doctor removed the metal from both of his legs while referring to him as Sergeant Judaea. Al received the Distinguished Flying Cross, with bronze stars, and the Purple Heart. He died at age eighty-nine, and was buried at Arlington National Cemetery with full honors.

Cathy’s Dad served with honor as a United States Marine during the Korean War. He was seriously wounded, ultimately losing a kidney and eventually succumbing to the effects of his wounds. Ron was forty-six years old at the time of his death.

I joined the army at nineteen. While in Korea, on three separate occasions, I came close to buying it for good. Charming way to put it, but that’s the vernacular of the era. Buying it was another term for being killed. Obviously, God was on my side. Truth be told, I have nothing more than some minor mental and physical remembrances to deal with. I’m sure my brother-in-law Al and my father-in-law Ron share a similar feeling: if we had to do it all over again, we’d probably do as we did during our first go-around. I guess it would be nice to compare notes, but that will never be. What will be the case, however, is an imbalance remaining forever.

Three of us, not remotely under any form of duress, without the pressure of a governmental body telling us what to do, and at the time not even knowing one another, managed to join and become proud members of one of the greatest organizations the world has ever known. We three were in the service of the United States of America. That, my friend, is not an imbalance; it is a call to arms in order to do what we three were trained to do by immigrant parents. To love and fight for our families and our country; to take a knee and thank a higher power for our blessings here on earth.

        

The most interesting part about being a veteran is how all of us rarely complain about having to have served our country. On the holidays, when a great number of us are present, a highlight for me is always getting to shake as many hands as I can as we thank each other for our service to the country. There’s no imbalance amongst us other than the degree of severity of wounds having been suffered by some in attendance. The talk is about survival. Meeting a man who had served as a soldier in your same theater of operations is indeed a revelation. At the last event, I chatted with a guy who had served on a hillside in Korea that was less than a few hundred yards from where I was at the very same moment in time.

“How are you doing?” he asked.

When I responded with, “I’d be fine if not for the IRS audit I’ve been under going for the past three years,” a new dam opened. My goodness, did we have a great deal in common. Not only had we served in the Army and in Korea at the exact time and location, but we were both part of our government’s perpetration of an unfair imbalance.

In common:

• Neither of us were monetarily rich men.

• Multiple audits during our lifetime.

Note: We are now coming to the end of an almost three year ordeal with this insidious group sent to us by our federal government. During this time period, the IRS did everything possible to unnerve us with direct threats of what they would be taking away from my wife and me in the event we didn’t pay up. They made numerous mistakes in their calculations and consequently, on several occasions during the course of their onslaught, lowered the total amount they required us to pay.

During the last three years, we were in contact with a series of different people than the ones the IRS originally assigned to our case. I distinctly remember the stupidity and lack of communication skills on display by the first agent they sent out for the audit. It was laughable. The lady had such a thick accent, that it was difficult at best to understand her. Hard to believe that an IRS audit was being conducted on American citizens by a woman who could barely speak the language. And, she was a tricky little devil. During the full day she spent at our in-home office, she proceeded to ask questions as if we were crooked.

“Do you ever go to the Marina Del Ray docks? Do you have a boat?”

I could go on and on, but there would be a danger of me using four letter words as I described, in detail, the total arrogance of these power-hungry parasites we refer to as the IRS. I’ll leave it in Frank Sinatra’s capable hands; pimps and whores is quite descriptive.

This makes four times in my life I have undergone an IRS inquisition. That is an imbalance. There are times when even I get tired of fighting the fight. But if people like me don’t stand up, who out there is willing to join me?

Think about the truth of the matter. If you get a letter from the IRS, you’re going to have to defend yourself. The mongrels our government sends out have one purpose in life -- to extract as much money from you and your family as they can. Think about that fact when you hear about the Internal Revenue Service spending millions upon millions of dollars taking trips to exotic places, using our money to do so. And guess what, according to the federal workers union that they have strongly in place, the people working at the IRS are about to receive one of their largest salary increases ever.

Isn’t it about time we get rid of all of them? If not, put some extra money aside in order to pay for an accountant or tax attorney. Our government has no provision for helping you. They audit, you pay. The whole system is broken. You send them taxes in advance on a predetermined formula; they don’t pay you interest on the money sent to them. If you should happen to pay late, our same IRS hits you with a compounded interest penalty. There will be no negotiations. They say, you pay, and pay, and pay.

You all have a great choice to make. Our country still allows you to raise hell over the terms and conditions created by the mutual covenants of ineptitude on parade down both sides of the aisle. I implore you – let’s band together and fire, dismiss, dislodge, and, in general, trash the folks we have given our hard-earned dollars to. They may be members of Congress, but I no longer want them working for me. They claim to be patriotic. If that is truly the case, let ‘em all take a hike. By the way… when they do finally take leave from our midst, da harv won’t be thanking them for their service, as that would be an enactment of true imbalance.

If you agree with what I have scribed, please pass my words on to another fellow American regardless of what part of the world they happen to be in. All I ask from you is a word of encouragement. I sometimes wonder if this microphone is turned on. Besides our government, is anyone out there reading what I have written?

Government Within Our Country

Our Korean professor made his point with utmost certainty:

“The United States of America is a republic; meaning the supreme power is in the hands of the people, and the elected officials said people elect to serve them.”

It was late 1953, or early 1954. The place was a school lecture hall on campus at the University of Seoul, Republic of South Korea, ROK.

PROFESSOR: “Our Korean Republic is modeled much like that of the United States. Because of the United States and the soldiers they have sent in order to help us fight for our freedom, this guarantees that one day our economy and our people will become the safest and most productive in the world.”

Today, more than ever before, I take great pride in the fact that I was one of the soldiers our Asian professor referred to on campus at the University of Seoul in South Korea, so very long ago. Studying Political Science taught by a Korean professor is perhaps best described as an experience of a lifetime. It sticks in my mind how the professor always made it a point to qualify his answers to any questions as either his personal opinion, or a fact that he deemed historically correct.

“When free people struggle to maintain their freedoms, frequent change may reveal itself as the key ingredient for their success. People who find themselves with lasting, prevailing powers, will most likely succumb to the corruption that adjoins their positions of authority. Of great commonality amongst the dictatorial leader is their inability to serve the people as opposed to themselves.”

Note: The South Koreans, on their continual march towards a successful economy as well as a secure freedom for all society, have had many changes in their government since those early days of the 1950’s. Make no mistake, they have had their share of corrupt politicians. They acknowledge that it goes with the territory, a fact of life we Americans have trouble admitting to be it a Democrat or Republican culprit.

At the time, the real significance of what our professor would ultimately impart bordered on the abstract. As time rapidly evaporated during my years on this planet, so did my previous notions of what was or wasn’t an abstraction. While the class being taught was labeled “Political Science,” in actuality, it might have rightfully been titled “World History.”

***

Historical Question: Aside from being dictators, what did Hitler, Mussolini, and Stalin have in common?

Answer:

• All three were socialists.

• All three were progressives.

• All three were opposed to Judeo Christian beliefs.

• All three came into power at a time when the economy of their respective countries was in the doldrums.

• Hitler and his criminal gang hated the rich, the capitalists, the Jews, the Christian Churches, and “ The System.”

• The three gained power through their purposeful support of the unions.

• The association between unions and Leftism is of course historic; Hitler made great efforts to enlist unions as supporters of his party.

• In Chapter 12 of Mein Kampf, Hitler goes to great lengths to stress the importance of unions.

Three separate countries, three separate dictatorships, all shared the same and similar beliefs of the Nazi Party. Praise for strong bodies and strong peoples, developing as a force to rid the world of anything short of Aryan superiority – including the Jews, the mentally ill, the gays, the blacks, and those who bore any code of difference to the rise of the Third Reich. Their credo, “They must be eradicated.”

It’s all there in the history books. Our Greatest Generation stood up behind our red, white, and blue with a common cause. “Not on our watch,” was the verbal hymn of the American masses.

        

Where are they all off to? A little boy of eight wondered.

They’re on their way to enlist in the Army, he was told.

Over night, the neighborhoods’ young men disappeared. It became a city of the old, the impaired, the very young, and the women. Fully, half of the Greatest Generation was away at war.

And across the pond there arose…

Perhaps the most substantive voice of the ages, Sir Winston Churchill fought for and won the right to lead his country, and perhaps the world, towards ultimate victory. The man who would rally England and the world was also renowned for his reflections. Winston Churchill understood and studied history and was able to bring it forward to the present as no other man before him. He believed no real leader would ever step back from the truth of the past, for the past carries with it the dictation of our future.

It may be that the most glorious chapters of our history have yet to be written. Indeed, the very problems and dangers that encompass our country and us ought to make English men and women of this generation glad to be here at such a time. We ought to rejoice at the responsibilities with which destiny has honored us, and be proud that we are guardians of our country in an age when her life is at stake.

-- Winston Spencer Churchill, April 1933

Sir Winston Churchill with FDR

The world around him was a crumbling mess. The folks at his side had witnessed the deceit perpetrated by men who only claimed to be leaders – those who ignored the truth that history foretold – men who succumbed to the false promises of the world’s dictators, hoping against hope for these despots to have their quests satiated.

Churchill warned that a step backwards was a country lost. And, as the bombs rained down on his country’s villages and cities, Winston Churchill walked those city streets, bolstering the spirits of his countrymen. 

“ASK WINNIE” - AN HISTORICAL ADVENTURE

What if Sir Winston Churchill was miraculously alive today? What if we could turn to him? What if we could ask him to draw comparisons of his past to our present and delve well into his thoughts of our future as Americans? What would one of the greatest statesmen of all time have to offer us? What would he say to bolster our spirits?

As a matter of fact, it was just yesterday that I last conversed with Sir Winston. He was with me up at “da villa on da hilla,” as we kicked back with our splendid glasses of thirty-year-old single malt scotch. Since Lady Catherine was not present, I allowed Winnie (he loves when I call him Winnie) to smoke his Cuban cigar as we chatted.

Winnie: Too bad your John Wayne isn’t around to help out.

How so?

Winnie: He was one of us, you know. A real first-class spirited fighter… especially when he got together with his friend Ward Bond.

You knew him?

Winnie: Indeed, we were personal friends and, of course, he was one of us politically. When I came to beg FDR for help, he was one of my biggest Hollywood supporters – him and Jimmy Stewart.

I thought FDR was a big help to England during the war?

Winnie: Not in the beginning. We literally emptied our treasury paying you Yank’s for everything we needed. Even the French emptied their gold storage into the USA. In case you weren’t aware da harv, the United States was in a deep depression at the time. Overnight, the French and us brought you out of it by buying war machine necessities.

All this time I thought we were the ones who offered you the help.

Winnie: Not so. We had to beg. And it’s a sad thing to report, most of our diplomats despised being sent to work at any of the American embassies. Not that we were such nice gentlemen. As another matter of fact, I didn’t care for most of my emissaries either. Almost all of them were lords. Kind of like your Obama – out of touch with the common man. He must one day learn that an enemy’s bombs fall on one and all. 

Were there any Americans that you happened to really like at the time, other than John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart?

Winnie: Yes, without a doubt, Roosevelt’s emissary to Britain at the time, Harry Hopkins, was not only my favorite but also the man who captured the hearts of every Brit he came in contact with. Harry’s official title was Secretary of Commerce. A little known fact was that Harry actually lived at the White House for a prolonged period of time.

 

Sir Winston Churchill says farewell to Mr. Harry Hopkins after meeting about Britain's needs for the war. January 26, 1941.

So you would say he was of value to you?

Winnie: Without Harry Hopkins, there was a good chance I might not have been able to charm the proverbial pants off FDR.

Sounds like you weren’t exactly in love with our then president.

Winnie: Let’s just say your press was more than fair to him. Mr. Roosevelt wasn’t exactly forthcoming about many things.

And speaking of journalism and politicians being forthcoming, or as we put it today, being transparent, how would you handle our current lack of political transparency?

Winnie: Well it is quite a bit different than what we had to deal with in my time. While you have worldwide instant communications, including people taking movies of everything as it is happening, we had nothing of the sort. I remember when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the Japanese Imperial Armies were taking over the Philippines, and our allied losses were staggering, we silenced the Press reporting to our people – yours and mine – by merely asking them to be silent about the bad news for fear that the public couldn’t handle it.

Your Federal Bureau of Investigation was established to protect the populous. There was little worry about foreign terrorists flying into our buildings. The CIA had not yet been established. There was no cause for the President to attend press conferences because such a thing was not in existence. In our time, a radio address by a head of state was a major accomplishment. FDR was known for his fireside chats with the American public.

I get what you’re saying, but that still doesn’t help me understand our current problems.

Winnie: When we had a scandal, we got to the bottom of it and removed the culprit as expeditiously as possible. It was much easier for us than it is for you. For whatever the reasons may be, your politicians have many more opportunities to color the truth than ours had.  We were busy fighting a war, not spying on our own people. The Chancellor of the Exchequer protects the financial welfare of the British people. It appears your Internal Revenue Service has gone far askew from the original intent of your Congress. The most powerful elected office in our kingdom is that of the Prime Minister – second in line is The Chancellor of the Exchequer who, in many countries, is known as the Secretary of the Treasury. This person answers directly to our Prime Minister. In your case, the Secretary of the Treasury answers directly to the President of the United States.

When you were in office as the Prime Minister would it have been possible for your Chancellor to investigate the opposition party without your knowledge?

Winnie: You mean as is the case with your IRS investigating and disallowing tax relief charters without President Obama being aware? …I think you call some of those souls, “The Tea Party.”

Yes.

Winnie: No. Do you have any more single malt scotch? If not, a rightfully aged Cognac will do.

***

 
Roosevelt and Churchill first met in August 1941 aboard a ship off the coast of Newfoundland. They issued the Atlantic Charter, a statement of the postwar aims of the United States and the United Kingdom. After the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt and Churchill conferred in Washington, D.C. The two leaders felt that Germany was a nearer and far more dangerous enemy than Japan. They decided to concentrate on defeating Germany first.

I've Decided

By executive order, I hereby instruct my newly appointed Attorney General, Catherine Kalmenson, to disband the organization now known as the Internal Revenue Service with total prejudice and malice.

• I hereby immediately dissolve the federal agency known as The Internal Revenue Service.    

• By executive order, I hereby establish a new American Army, to function separately from our existing military.

• Former IRS employees will man this Army.

• Service in this new Army will be mandatory.

• Failure by ex-IRS agents and employees to serve in said military will be punishable by forfeiture of all rights as American citizens.

• Compensation in this new military will be based on the former IRS’ repayment of all monies squandered by said agents during the course of their governmental service.

• All liens enacted by the IRS – on any and all personal property earned by any and all citizens during any form of legal commerce – is hereby removed and forgiven. 

• Personal Income Tax would become a National Consumption Tax levied on all goods and services at point of purchase.

 

After these doctrines, established by my imperial order, have been enforced, I will tender my resignation upon the holding of a new national election.

It was good being KING – don’t you think?

Politically Speaking

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I hate politics with a passion.

The system has turned into one our Founding Fathers could not have possibly envisioned. As I grow older, the despising becomes more intense. Politicians appear to take great pride in their cultivated abilities to never answer questions directly.

Ask a politician a direct question and their first response will be in the genre of seeking clarity. They always want to be advised if the person asking the question is a Democrat or a Republican. Do they honestly think none of us could merely be interested in the betterment of the country and themselves without being a lefty or righty?

I think not.

Politician #1

How are you today?

Politician #2

What do you mean by that?

Everything becomes a pain-in-the-ass cover-their-butt problem. Should they or shouldn’t they respond? What will the outcome be if they give the questioner a direct and straight-from-the-shoulder answer?

And the beat goes on.

Day in and day out, the main thrust of those in the political life is to get reelected. As a businessman, I must follow the credo of always paying attention and serving the needs of my customers. It’s quite a simple premise – they pay us, and we do it.

Within our government, our taxes go towards the salaries of those who are supposed to be working for us. I do believe these folks are referred to as “civil servants.” Of course, elected or appointed politicians are excluded from this premise. Politicians are not civil servants.

As defined:

… the permanent professional branches of a government’s administration, excluding military and judicial branches and elected politicians.

Again – the bottom line – the way I see it is a rather simple premise. I take you back to the oath I swore to when I became an official member of the United States Army. It’s not much different than the oath administered to our congressmen and women or to the big guy who gets elected to the presidency. Personally, I felt duty bound to serve my country even before the oath was taken.

At the time, we all raised our right hand in the air and said: “I, _____, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God.”

Never having been a Boy Scout, it still occurs to me that much of what they have those young men agree to as their God-like duties are very similar to those we pledged ourselves to in the Army.

The other day I heard the former head of the Internal Revenue Service say the only wrongdoing he could possibly be aware of was the poor customer service provided under his watch; much of what they did was foolishness.

Being an honest man, and definitely not a politician, I must tell you my thoughts at the moment of the former directors allowance. I feel qualified to debate the term “customer” after going through four audits by our supposed civil servants.

1 a person or organization that buys goods or services from a store or business : Mr. Harrison was a regular customer at the Golden Lion | [as adj. ] customer service.

2 a person or thing of a specified kind that one has to deal with: the fish is a slippery customer and very hard to catch

Each and every time I have been audited by IRS, I never experienced any feeling of being a “customer.” Customer service? Don’t make me laugh. Pep Boys provides me with customer service.

Who in the world is he kidding? From the moment a person receives an envelope in the mail with the ominous return address of the Internal Revenue Service emblazoned on the upper left hand corner, the adversarial relationship is under way. Do any of you out there feel warm and fuzzy tingles about our public servants at the IRS?

Once again, I think not. Without exception, people are fearful of them.

The tables seem to have turned ever so slightly. At long last, the people at IRS are being forced to answer some extremely important and telling questions.

I appeal to all of you who receive this blog – now is the time to step up without fear and perhaps rectify the fearful relationships our servants have been providing. Write to your elected congressman or congresswoman. If you have any degree of displeasure concerning the customer service you’ve received, or have been receiving from our civil servants, speak up. Email, telephone, old-fashioned mail – it will all get there.

Just think of what I’ve done by affixing my hand to this document. It’s almost as powerful as when I stepped forward and accepted my appointment as a member of our United States Army. Take the step. This one is a lot easier – no one will be shooting at you.

There are some fifty thousand who will be reading what I’ve scribed. I know there will be those who will ask if I have gone stark raving mad. The mere thought of challenging the single most powerful group in our country might shiver the timbers of some. Then, there will be others who will enjoy the excitement of a great and single moment that only you are able to take. The IRS has proven to be a world-class big bully. I want them out of my house. How about you?

Not Democrat or Republican, liberal, conservative or an innocent bystander – we’re American people who have become tired of the government intruding into our lives. If you like, forward this blog to your representatives. Not to worry, they already know who I am.

Good day, God bless you and yours, and God Bless the United States of America.

***

         (Sorry, but I just had to a few more words)

When I was a child (eight to ten) and the family attended a patriotic event, it was almost impossible to find anyone who would dare to offer anything but the most positive of thoughts about the United States of America. Our heroes were all in the service of the country. The comic books we read depicted our soldiers as the most invincible in the world. We kids knew the names of anything and everything having to do with the military. World War Two permeated our lives. It was the lead story for everyone, without exception.

Imagine, if you will, a neighborhood where every family worried about a relative or friend who was away in a foreign land. Try it on for size…

While you’re reading this piece, the phone rings – no music or ringtone, just one of the earlier phones with a sound not designed to comfort. You answer. It’s a cousin calling to give you the good, or bad, news. You’re able to tell by the ring what the nature of the call entails.

Today, the news is a welcome relief. The two of you hear each other’s sighs. There’s relief, but it bears no permanence. Tomorrow, or the next day, the tribulation will be relived. And, though the air is fresh with spring this day, somehow the fragrance of all that is new isn’t quite the same. You whisper the words thank God, and move on with your day.

Certainly, it was a different time than the aspects of our lives today. What we had then may never ever be repeated. Never before in the history of the world have the people of any one nation come and banded together in order to purse veer with such great mutuality. Every family had been touched; the epic proportions of the most heinous crimes the world had never seen before, influenced all.

***

It had been just another yesterday…

On May 20, 2013, Cathy and I shared in the patriotic festivities of Memorial Day number 146. Our hillside had been decorated as always, festooned with Old Glory flying and perched in every appropriate space possible.

How would you quantify spirituality? Row upon row of American people sitting together and each in our own way saying thanks to our neighbors for sharing in the love and support of our country. This day I thanked many for their service to our country, and many young and old thanked me in return. We all wore our hearts on our sleeves. There were laughs and an abundance of tears shed by one and all. Those of us who had been in the service took our turns standing proudly when our branch of the armed forces was recognized.

This young woman came by where I was standing, scurrying to get to where her family was seated. I commented on the World War Two Army cap she was wearing.

“It belonged to my Father. He’s been gone for a while now, but I put it on every chance I get. Thank you for your service.”

She had noticed the hat I was wearing and allowed her Father-in-law might have served at the same time I did. We smiled, wiped away yet another tear, hugged, and moved on with our day as strangers with a bond.