Chaos Magnet

The world is a scary place

I spent the weekend at powwow, which was absolutely fantastic, but I'm a little bit freaked out by some things I heard regarding the government. I mean, if you read this journal you know that I'm not a big fan of Team Bush, but this was much more scary.

I was "treated" to a disertation on the financial structure of the US by a government employee getting ready to retire. The gist of it was that the Federal Reserve is not a part of the federal government but rather an independant corporation, which I knew, and that essentially, the "national debt" was a debt to the Federal Reserve, and that if the US were to default on that debt, that corporation would own all of the buildings, parks, and other properties that are currently under Federal control. Gotta check that one out.

He also provided me a little more information on this idea that there is no law actually authorizing income taxes. I knew that income taxes first arose in the early 1900's, but the claim from this guy was that they were supposedly to pay for WWI, and that they were supposed to "sunset" after 6 months. (You know, the same way that key provisions of the Patriot Act are supposed to expire in a year or two.) Allegedly, Congress never removed the sunset provision, but the IRS continues to collect taxes. He pointed out that when people are charged with tax fraud, they're actually charged with perjury, and not with violating any particular tax law, since there isn't one. Gotta check that one out too, 'cause it sounds pretty fishy to me.

I'll let you know what I find out, when I look into it.