It is a rule book and a political philosophy for the Americna people. If the freedom enumderated in tfhe Ten Amendments are only safe from infringement by the Feds they are not safe at all. If your state or your city can infringe upon them without consequence what freedom do you reall have? No but Archer believes that are freedoms under the Constitution can be taken away or nullified by any other political unit. What a warped guy you are Archer! I agree to the WE the people discussion and WE the people say in the Constitution and throuhg the Constitution that the Freedoms enumerated will exist and be enforced throughout the nation.It is a rule book for a way of life that we call American.

Good counter point Ken. As far as the hill people it wasn't that they did not want to have slaves or that they were more morally pure they just had not had the opportunity to exploit that aveneue of economic success. Read "Absalom, Absalom" by Faulkner to learn of a hard scrabble mountain man who made good with slavery by moving from the "worthless" Piedmont to the fertile bottom land of the Tidewater. As far as corruption we need to keep pointing it out, it will always be with us. But first let us never to forget to find the corruption in our own lives be it in correct tax filing. to trash pollution, law avoidance etecera. When we all do this rather than trying to get away with something we will have the country and society we wish.

Mike if I used "them" I am sorry I really meant "WE". I think my analysis of the effect of the 14th is more nearly correct. It guarantees that the rights enumerated in the First Ten and any others in the Constitution will be upheld and not infringed upon not only by the Federal Government but any subdivision within its pruview or jurisdiction. My friend you do not think for a moment do you? that a state, city or an individual can close down the press do you and get away with it. The Constitution and its Amendments was not just written to control the Feds. That is just some radical right wing dogma you have latched on to. You do love latching on to your dogmas. No, the Constitution and its Bill of Rights describe how WE are going to live in this country. A true American in my view subscribes to these inalienable truths and upholds them for all. Archer failed to retract his statement "books are written by the victors" after I proved to him simply by quoting Jim above who said a book "Lincoln Unmasked" is a good read. Now I humbly and respectfull ask is that book written by a "Winner or Loser". Secondly I suggest that an intelligent person does not see the world or persons as victors and losers, an intelligent person treats both those imposters just the same. Read your Kipling, Archer and then keep on reading after that, read both "victors" and "losers" and maybe you will be become enlightened.

Mike is obviously not on the road. He fails to start with a clear and unbiased mind. He is on a jihad agaisnt something he calls democracy, life style, etcetera. Wake up my friend to the errors of you thought processes.

Goes with the first quote I believe.

Mike I opened a book predicated on the notion that we carry to much baggage. When we travel and in our lives. Jesus said to take his burden, that his burden is light. And the Bible says that "All are fed by His hands". From the birds to us higher forms of existence. After all do you or I know anymore than a bird how the wheat grows or comes to be on our table? Having this faith and trust is what I think Buddha is talking about. My wife is to much of a planner and I (according to her) to happy go lucky, but there is a place somewhere in the middle where you do what you can do to prepare but a place where you just go and trust and relax. Now this all may just be mind games or psychology but it feels good to relax and not worry and feel always dependent on others.

Obviously Archer lives with blinders on. In my post above I said and I repeat that the 14th made it imperative (okay under the force of the Feds) that states, cities and individuals must also adnered to the Constitution and to the First Ten Amendments and of course any to follow. We all believe I think that freedom of speech, religion etc is not a concept forced upon only the Feds, the President, the Congress, the courts. It is forced upon all of us. Before the 14th states did depirve individuals of these things. C'mon Archer, Jim and others get with it and start reading the posts and the quotes in depth.

The 14th guaranteed that the Bill of Rights was appicable to the states also. Not only therefore were the Feds forbidden to interfere with Speech, Religion, Guns but the states and supposedle cities, and even individuals could be called to task for interfereing also. What is wrong with that? Any one and every one can write history and does as attested to above by Jim's reading suggestions. Obviously Archer is very unread. By way of proof and example, how many books have been written by the losers from the Confederate States of America, I ask you?

Voltaire was not speaking about the chruch involvement in goverment only. The Chruch owned 10% of all French property etcetera. It was a dictatorship outside of "government".

I am so glad I pulled your chain Ken and it is so nice to hear you are still ruminating. The Bible says that the sins or crimes of the fathers shall be visited about the sons under the fourth generation (I think it was the forth). The fact remains that sin, crime, wrong doing, you what goes around comes around is true.

I am sure but who defines crime. Voltaire said in French "Crush the infamous thing.!" meaning The Church (Catholic)? In the fight for freedom from racism and sexism, for example, many a white male has been hurt, discrinated agaisnt or passed over. The overriding greater good in my view is for a world free of racism and sexism so I and other withe males may have suffered for it. Unfortunately we live in an imperfect world of ying and yang.

Dear old Benjamine has never met some of the bloggers on liberty-tree who never seem to receive or at least sublimate and never speak The Truth.

The Tea Parties are falling apart because the really have no cause celebre, raison d'etre. They came into existence the summer after Obama's election and the Democrat landslide in Congress. They are just reactionaires to that event.

Archer you can read about it in Publication 17, "Your Income Tax". Simply google it! Ever heard of google?

We have experienced this free expression so greatly this past Congressional year with the wide spread discussion of Health Care, Wall Street reform etcetera. The folly of our broken health care and financial systems has died. The secretive politics of the Bush-Cheney era has given way to the wisdom of the people. What he is talking about here is transparency in government. We are moving in the right direction. Now on to taxes and the debt.

The revolt at Boston was not a "tax revolt" it was a "lack of representation revolt". The people did not have a voice in their own governance. Pure "economic" freedom, in which individuals have no part with each other in the ownership of common things has probably never existed in the history of man. As far as the quote I give it a 5. The patriots now are Koffee Klatchers, real people telling truth about our national debt problems and accounts not the air heads in the Tea Party.

Mike all I am saying is the money that the IRS collects for the Treasury is under law the Treasuries money. The IRS nor the government wants a penny that is not theirs. What is theirs is determined by the aciton of laws passed by the American People and yes they want what is theirs every last dime of it. When you go to work or open a business you have a silent partner who under law is due a portion be it 10% up to 35% of your income after allowable deductions, In their generosity the American people have said that folk with kids, heavy health bills etcetera can pay a little bit less. Should we not be thankful for such a charitable system. The money you pay your fed and state governments is not yours, never way. IT IS THEIR's and don't get caught withholding it from them.

The IRS does not take your money. A portion of every dollar you take in belongs to the Federal Treasury and generally to a State Treasury by law. The IRS is simply an org dedicated to see that the law is followed. Cops don't make you stop at stop signs, the law does. Cops are there to see that the law is obeyed. Why can you not dig this Zeitgeist. I understand that I am giving you a new way of talking and a new way of thinking, but that is what you need. Please don't give up, it is a pleasure to converse with you.

Zeitgeist do you know of anyone whose books and records have been audited. Check it out the IRS does not charge for that service. CPA audits are expensive very expensive. The public needs to be able to rely on the financial statements of businesses and of individuals in order to due honest business. Agian the IRS does not charge you for determing that your accounting is correct. A CPA however will charge you. What exactly is it that you do not get! Sometimes the IRS may charge an auditee a penalty for getting the accounting to wrong and some may look at this penalty charge by IRS as a fee. As far as any taxes due and interest thereon these are simply matters of law and common sense.

What use is gold and silver J?

Of course there is some truth in what the gentleman says, but the fact is we want public solutions to some of societies problems. Always have always will. It is difficult for individuals to build roads and dams and armies etcetera. As far as the army involved in the "tax industry" it is nothing compared to other industries. Consider for a moment that the IRS with its approx. 90,000 employs and just 25,000 field agents must examine an economy that has banks which employ more people than that. The Bank of America (just one bank among hundreds or thousands) employs 100,000. The motor companies each employ more than the puny IRS and there are numerous of them etcetera. Also consider that the IRS is the only agency of the goverment that does not cost anything IT PAYS!. For every dollar allocated to its budget it brings in $10. And consider this if you hired a CPA to audit your company or your personal records he would charge you a fee and usually a pretty steep fee. the IRS performs its audits totally free as a Service to the American public. Remember that Service is their last name.

I have been paying off my F250 Diesel for 5 years. I will finish the "debt" in three months. The thing will be mine with no more debt. As long as the seller accepts this fact I am happy. If 8500 pounds of cold hard steel that folk say will give me 500,000 to a million miles (according to whom you talk to) is not precious metal for which I exchanged Federal Reserve Notes is not a good deal I don't know what is. And since they accepted the paper it is just as good as if I had paid them a couple of bags of gold. The minds of the parties is more than good enough for me. I don't know what this guy is talking about and I don't think he does either.

No legal tender is needed when dealing maybe with your neighbor or fellow villagers but what happens if I travel cross state or out of state. Will Californians accept the same "money" that Vermonters accept in my local Vermont village. Who defines what "money" is. If I go to Europe will they accept my California "money". Mediums of exchange are based on faith. The greatest faith today is in the US Dollar. Liberty-tree has a penchant for jerky quotes. I would hate to have to haul my precious metal around the world or onto a cruise ship. Can imagine hauling it in to and out of a casino.

The man is an idiot. Just complains and makes no suggestions. I suggest that we cut expenses by cutting our European military in half. (My military friends say that the Germans would hate that because they thrive on our and our troops expenditures over there. Tut tut) Take some of the savings and the qualified military and beef up the IRS. More enforcement would close the 300 billion dollar tax gap, read about by googling "tax gap". Those are only two suggestions. Two more than Dick Armery or his conservative friends ever make. Republicans have no ideas and voted against Obama's Tax Commision now headed by the former Senator from Wyoming. And the guys who voted against the commission and still have no suggestions or leadership are saying "let's wait and see what Obama's commission has to say". There ought to be a law and a jail term for these jerks of politicians we have.

Enough has been said about Armey. As far as reforming the the tax code that has been done ad infinitem. The big rewrite was during Reagan's torturous reign. Then Bush reformed it in 2001. Thanks to these guys WE went further and further into debt and wound up with more billionaires and millionaires. Now the coward Saxby Chambliss gives a speech saying our children and grand children will have to pay higher taxes. Duh he doesn't mention that it is these guys fault and cowardly omits that "If we would pay higher taxes we could thereby help our children and grandchildren" Throw these bums and their ill out in November.