Keep it Metal!, QOTSA, State Rape, Tax

How fair is that?

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Yesterday I opened a letter from my bank informing me that they had recommenced raping my bank account—at the behest of the IRD. “Fair” enough, I suppose. It’s the IRD’s job to be fair. Why me? I guess I must “owe” them money because I don’t “PAYE” them anything.

Then I watched BBC World News. I was flabbergasted to learn that the Cypriot government is proposing to rape the bank accounts of literally everyone with an onshore bank account. Luckily, it’s a one-time tax, in which Cypriots stand to lose 7%-10% of their life savings in one hit, rather than the easy weekly payments I have to contend with. How fair is that?

Robert Tracinski says

The news broke over the weekend that in exchange for a bailout—or “bail-in,” whatever that means—of banks in Cyprus, bank deposits would be hit with a one-time “wealth tax” of 7% to 10%, depending on the size of the account. One expert sums up the reaction in the markets: “traders and investors are aghast.” So are depositors, who quickly emptied the island’s cash machines.

This is one of the biggest bank heists in history, and it is being carried out, not by the crew of charming rogues in your favorite caper flick, but by finance ministers. So it’s an inside job.

For an informed analysis of this latest episode in the Eurozone crisis, read Liberty Scott’s latest post. Scott notes that

The Cypriot Parliament, which must vote on this law, wont do so until Friday. Cypriot banks will remain closed until then. Will this trigger panic more widely? What would you do?

WWJD? (Trick question, Jesus never had a bank account.) To my mind, the proposal is so unthinkable that it’s unthinkable even to propose it. It’s goddamn communism! Let’s hope this proposal isn’t adopted but, even if it’s not, as Scott notes, “the damage is done to Cypriot banking.” Deposit funds into account with Bank of Cyprus? Yeah right.

Lindsay Mitchell has just the right quote

Any government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take away everything you have.

and Queens of the Stone Age have just the right song.

First it giveth
Then it taketh away

Luke, New Testament, Tax

Zacchaeus the Tax Collector

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Zacchaeus in the Scyamore Tree Luke 19:2-5

Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. A man was there by the name of Zacchaeus; he was a chief tax collector and was wealthy. He wanted to see who Jesus was, but because he was short he could not see over the crowd. So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore-fig tree to see him, since Jesus was coming that way.

When Jesus reached the spot, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today.” So he came down at once and welcomed him gladly.

All the people saw this and began to mutter, “He has gone to be the guest of a sinner.”

But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord! Here and now I give half of my possessions to the poor, and if I have cheated anybody out of anything, I will pay back four times the amount.”

Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because this man, too, is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (NIV)

Green Party

Are the Greens communists? (Part 1)

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The image below is iconic. It’s a satellite image of North Korea and South Korea at night. (You’ve seen it before, unless you’ve been hiding under a rock or lying in a puddle.)

koreas_at_night

Here’s another iconic image. (See my previous post.) This time it’s a satellite image of Haiti and the Dominican Republic during the day.

haiti_dominican_republic

The Dominican Republic on the right is green, verdant, forested. The Dominican Republic uses fossil fuels. Haiti on the left is brown, desolate, deforested. Haiti uses renewable “green” energy.

Are the Greens communists? Yes or no, Green energy policies lead to the same outcomes as communist ideologies, viz., misery, poverty and death.

Iron Maiden, Keep it Metal!

RIP Clive Burr

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clive-burr

RIP Clive Burr (8 March 1957 – 12 March 2013)

I’m waiting in my cold cell when the bell begins to chime
Reflecting on my past life and it doesn’t have much time
‘Cause at 5’o’clock they take me to the Gallows Pole
The sands of time for me are running low

When the priest comes to read me the last rites
I take a look through the bars at the last sights
Of a world that has gone very wrong for me

Can it be that there’s some sort of error?
Hard to stop the surmounting terror
Is it really the end, not some crazy dream?

Somebody please tell me that I’m dreaming
It’s not easy to stop from screaming
But words escape me when I try to speak

Tears fall but why am I crying?
After all I’m not afraid of dying
Don’t I believe that there never is an end?

As the guards march me out to the courtyard
Somebody cries from a cell “God be with you”
If there’s a God then why has he let me go?

As I walk all my life drifts before me
And though the end is near I’m not sorry
Catch my soul ’cause it’s willing to fly away

Mark my words please believe my soul lives on
Please don’t worry now that I have gone
I’ve gone beyond to see the truth

When you know that your time is close at hand
Maybe then you’ll begin to understand
Life down here is just a strange illusion

Yeah, yeah, yeah … Hallowed be Thy name
Yeah, yeah, yeah … Hallowed be Thy name

Yeah!

Christian Libertarianism, Justice, King James Bible, Socialism

“By the sweat of thy brow thou shalt eat bread”

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mondays

^^^That’s quite sad. That’s writing off 9/14ths of your year/life! People need to value their jobs more…even if they think their jobs are menial, because living by the sweat of your own brow is virtuous.
It means you live by your own self reliant effort… not off the sweat/slavery of others. And that is morally right. Plus when you choose to buy a new record, or a beer, or go on holiday you have every right because you earned your money and it is not for other people to say how you spend it. It is a fact that Socialism does not teach children or workers the virtue of work. They preach it as a form of slavery. they promote envy, jealousy and hatred of the wealthy. They would have you believe that a life of ease/ sloth/ non-production/ consumption is something we ought to desire, when in reality that is a very shallow and empty, and ‘cheap’ notion of life… not Manly at all!

For the Christian The virtue of work is a God- ordained reality. It is a mistake to think that the Bible says that work is a form of punishment for sin…. man having been kicked out of the Garden of Eden… no more to ‘Freely Eat’ of The Fruit therein.
The truth is that when God made man and put him in the Garden, his ‘job’ was to tend it! (Gen1-Gen 3)

And 4000 years later St Paul tells Christians…
“For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat.”

And in the Future dispensation when Christ returns and establishes his Kingdom on Earth contrary to what many Christians have been taught…. Christ’s Kingdom will not be a Communist Utopia!
The Bible says that during the Kingdom reign that…
“They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.”
Isaiah 65:22

engineer

^^^Yes Work actually is one way we emulate our creator… it is one of our attributes which shows we are created in his Image.
When we work, we exercise God-like creative powers. Mind over Matter.

Thus the Bible does not support socialism at all!
Thus we can see why Socialist atheists Blaspheme the Bible as being “a tool to enslave the worker to the Capitalist Greed”….etc.
They say this because The Bible gives a positive value to independent self reliance, self responsibility.
It condemns the unearned redistribution of wealth, and says work is dignified and not slavery at all!
Tim Wikiriwhi
Christian Libertarian.

Read more about CHristian Libertarian Work ethic and work culture Here:

Easy Listening, Revolution, Uncategorized

Viva Rodriguez!

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sixto rodreguez

INNER CITY BLUES

Going down a dirty inner city side road
I plotted
Madness passed me by, she smiled hi
I nodded
Looked up as the sky began to cry
She shot it

Met a girl from Dearborn, early six o’clock this morn
A cold fact
Asked about her bag, suburbia’s such a drag
Won’t go back
‘Cos Papa don’t allow no new ideas here
And now he sees the news, but the picture’s not too clear

Mama, Papa, stop
Treasure what you got
Soon you may be caught
Without it
The curfew’s set for eight
Will it ever all be straight
I doubt it

Seven jealous fools playing by her rules
Can’t believe her
He feels so in between, can’t break the scene
It would grieve her
And that’s the reason why he must cry
He’ll never leave her

Crooked children, yellow chalk
writing on the concrete walk
Their King died
Drinking from a Judas cup
looking down but seeing up
Sweet red wine
‘Cos Papa don’t allow no new ideas here
And now you hear the music
but the words don’t sound too clear

Mama, Papa, stop
Treasure what you got
Soon you may be caught
Without it
The curfew’s set for eight
Will it ever all be straight
I doubt it

Going down a dusty, Georgian side road
I wonder
The wind splashed in my face
can smell a trace
Of thunder

THIS IS NOT A SONG IT’S AN OUTBURST: OR THE ESTABLISHMENT BLUES

The mayor hides the crime rate
council woman hesitates
Public gets irate but forget the vote date
Weatherman complaining, predicted sun, it’s raining
Everyone’s protesting, boyfriend keeps suggesting
you’re not like all of the rest

Garbage ain’t collected, women ain’t protected
Politicians using, people they’re abusing
The mafia’s getting bigger, like pollution in the river
And you tell me that this is where it’s at

Woke up this morning with an ache in my head
I splashed on my clothes as I spilled out of bed
I opened the window to listen to the news
But all I heard was the Establishment’s Blues.

Gun sales are soaring, housewives find life boring
Divorce the only answer smoking causes cancer
This system’s gonna fall soon, to an angry young tune
And that’s a concrete cold fact

The pope digs population, freedom from taxation
Teeny Bops are uptight, drinking at a stoplight
Miniskirt is flirting I can’t stop so I’m hurting
Spinster sells her hopeless chest

Adultery plays the kitchen, bigot cops non-fiction
The little man gets shafted, sons and monies drafted
Living by a time piece, new war in the Far East
Can you pass the Rorschach test?

It’s a hassle it’s an educated guess.
Well, frankly I couldn’t care less.

Jihad on Drugs™, Luke, New Testament, NORML

Second Coming (the Return of Chrisf)

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At the NORML New Zealand conference at Tokaanu last Saturday, Chris Fowlie was elected unopposed to the position of President. As it is written

And then shall they see the Son of Mr. and Mrs. Fowlie coming in a cloud of smoke with power and great glory. (RSG)

conf-Large

That’s Chris third from the right (at the back) standing behind me on the far right (LOL!) and Phil Saxby second from the right. From NORML’s post-conference press release

Regulate cannabis like alcohol, says reform group

New Zealand should regulate cannabis like alcohol and save at least $300 million per year, says the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, New Zealand Inc (NORML).

At its weekend conference at Tokaanu, delegates elected Chris Fowlie of Auckland as President, and Phil Saxby of Wellington as Secretary.

Chris Fowlie was previously President of NORML from 1997-2008 during which time NZ came tantalisingly close to cannabis law reform, has owned and managed The Hempstore for 16 years, and regularly appears in court as an independent cannabis expert witness.

NORML is optimistic New Zealand is entering a period where cannabis law reform will finally happen here, and so am I, particularly now that we have competent, committed, convivial people with proven track records of activism such as Chris (and Phil, Billy, Gary, Dakta, …) running the National Organisation for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. It really is high time.

Justice, Righteous Rants

Contempt of Court

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Proverbs 3:30-32
Do not contend with a man without cause,
If he has done you no harm.
Do not envy a man of violence

And do not choose any of his ways.
For the devious are an abomination to the LORD;

But He is intimate with the upright.

I took a dispute to the Disputes Tribunal which was heard yesterday. I found the experience extremely disappointing.

The Tribunal has a policy of encouraging people to settle their disputes by negotiation rather than making rulings – this policy favours men of violence, bullies and disadvantages the weak and vulnerable. This policy also says to me that the Tribunal is not confident in its own ability to make just rulings.

My opponent was articulate and he did not share my impediment of having to tell the truth (note to self: don’t envy the man of violence). At my hearing the Judge made it obvious that he was favouring my opponent and he encouraged me to settle by crushing any hope I had that the evidence (not that my opponent presented any evidence other than his “professional” opinion which the Judge seemed to be lapping up) and arguments would be examined methodically and carefully enough to expose the truth and the Judge also crushed any faith I had in the Tribunal system.

My opponent caused me to lose a few thousand dollars but the loss I suffered from the Tribunal was greater. I lost confidence that the Court will be there to reliably enforce any contract that I make.

Give me Liberty, or give me Death!