The Ides of March, A.K.A. March 15, is the 74th day in the ancient Roman calendar. It was a religious holiday involving various rituals and gatherings. The Ides of March was also the traditional day for the settling of debts.
Perhaps the “settling of debts” was why the Roman senators who conspired to murder Julius Caesar chose the Ides of March (44 BC) for his assassination; perhaps it was because the senate would be gathering together that day for one of the ritual observances so it was a convenient venue.
I tend to begin working on my income tax return around the Ides of March since just about all of the tax forms have arrived by then, and I like to make sure I get everything together well before April 15, the Ides of April.
Wait—the Ides of April? Is that even a thing? Encyclopedia Britannica is here to help:
The Romans tracked time much differently than we do now, with months divided into groupings of days counted before certain named days: the Kalends at the beginning of the month, the Ides at the middle, and the Nones between them. In a 31-day month such as March, the Kalends was day 1, with days 2–6 being counted as simply “before the Nones.” The Nones fell on day 7, with days 8–14 “before the Ides” and the 15th as the Ides. Afterward the days were counted as “before the Kalends” of the next month. In shorter months these days were shifted accordingly.
So the Ides of April might be reckoned as the 14th or the 15th, but either way, that date strikes more fear in the hearts of American taxpayers than the Etruscan soothsayer’s warning about March 15 struck in the heart of Julius Caesar.
Back to the concept of the “settling of debts.” No doubt that the US government views the Ides of April that way—it’s the day we productive people pay the government what we “owe” them, ya know, our fair share.
Julius Caesar once was simply one of the Senate’s equals, then the First among Equals, but then he grasped for more power.
A few senators cut him down to prevent his ascension to Emperor/God, But the Roman Republic wasn’t saved with that desperate act; it’s only that a new dictator rose up to take the place that Julius Caesar had created for himself. F.A. Hayek wrote on why totalitarianism inevitably allows the worst tyrants to rise to the top, even if the original intent of empowering one man was to be beneficial to society as a whole. Hitler didn’t make the 1920s-1940s German society that way; the government structure that the society clamored for made a shitstain like Hitler possible at that time.
What I am saying is that who was the dictator didn’t really matter; it was that the Roman citizens had allowed things to get to the point to where they accepted an Emperor, a Dictator. They grumbled when taxes went up, and up again, but when they were given bread and circuses they quieted down for the most part. Not worth dying for at that point.
Likewise, we continue to pay the tax on the Ides of April each year. The taxes never decrease, you know. When will the productive class be so sapped of resources that the Elites can no longer take enough from them to give out sufficient bread and circuses to pacify the dependent masses?
When the Pharisees wanted to entrap Jesus of Nazareth – that pesky guy who threatened their political power, even though all of Palestine (the Roman province named for the Philistines who originally lived there) including the Hebrew Pharisees were under the thumb of Rome at the time (33 AD) – they baited him with this question:
Is it right to pay the imperial tax to Caesar or not? Should we pay or shouldn’t we?
Whether Jesus was divine or not, he was wise and wary.
Continuing…
But Jesus knew their hypocrisy. “Why are you trying to trap me?” he asked. “Bring me a denarius and let me look at it.” They brought the coin, and he asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”
“Caesar’s,” they replied.
Then Jesus said to them, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.”
And they were amazed at him.
Of course, the Caesar he was referring to was not Julius Caesar, who’d been cut down decades earlier; by the time the Pharisees tried to entrap Jesus, “Caesar” was a position, a position with many would-be future occupants vying for their shot at it. The phrase, “A republic, if you can keep it” comes to mind. The United States is on paper a republic but is increasingly governed by presidential directives (“executive orders”) and unelected bureaucrats adding regulations, creating more parasitic jobs for more bureaucrats, etc. One difference in our situation from that of the ancient Romans is that they did not have a vast and expanding dependent class to whom wealth of the productive class was transferred in exchange for their lending the Elites an illusion of legitimacy through voting.
As a result of this government expansion (it’s never a shrinkage), we taxpayers have rendered unto Caesar far more than what is Caesar’s. And despite the proposed spending increase is not about aqueducts, durable roads, the common defense. It’s now about lots of graft for the ruling elite but even worse, it’s to the point that rendering to Caesar activity undermines and runs counter to rendering to God.
And if you don’t believe in God, substitute Ethics, Principles, Morality, your family, the Universe or whatever you stand by, and ask yourself how you can hand over the fruits of your labor to a government that wants to destroy everything you labor for. The IRS reaches into your wallet to fund agencies that violate your rights, your privacy, limit your options, even fund things that you find morally abhorrent.
What can we do? I wish it the solution were as simple as an Ides of March (or April) event. But it wasn’t that simple for Rome and it’s not that simple for us.
Education seems to be the most promising front to slow down the trend and eventually to reverse it. Homeschooling and quality private schooling or charter schools are a great start, but not many can afford it. We also could educate our friends through conversations and debates, although the increasing divisiveness and vitriol of debate makes this nearly impossible and at the very least, stressful.
Perhaps it is too late to stop the trend. The culture has become decadent, the nuclear family has all but disappeared from many communities, and many people who recognize the decline of America have simply withdrawn from the world, myself included.
If you’ve slogged through this editorial this long, I apologize that I don’t have a plan or even an uplifting message. I am going to file my taxes on the Ides of April, just like every year.
I’ll leave you with a final image: the present state of the Roman building, Largo di Torre Argentina, where Julius Caesar met his ignominious end. Infrastructure didn’t last forever back then either, and the conquering tribes who inevitably took advantage of Rome’s decline didn’t share Rome’s architecture and engineering expertise. Nor did they share the values that had made Rome great at its height. But in the end, neither did the Romans.
I don’t like this answer, but it is one I have a hard time avoiding. For the nonce, joining the forlorn hope in a last stand against the encroaching barbarians would be career-limiting, and I’m not quite there, But after? Right now, I’m just tired, and I find culture warriors of any stripe seem to inevitably show their partisan stripes, and are just tedious.
I started writing a response to your comment, but it kept getting longer and more wide-ranging, and now I am now wondering if it wouldn’t make a good first article submission.
The TL/DR version is that the last several years have brought me to similar thoughts as you and hayeks’. I fear the country is well on it’s way down a very bad path, and I don’t know how much strength I have to make a futile attempt at reversing it.
I expect, or perhaps more correctly – I hope, to live to a peaceful passing from this life. I fear that eventually I’m going to have to kill some people to teach them the errors of their ways.
“…which is the way he wants it”.
“…which is the way he wants it”.
“Well, he gets it.
And I don’t like it anymore than you men.”
[narrator] That’s EXACTLY the way the prison boss likes it.
I would like to see a Mike S. article.
It would be interesting.
Do it!
Seconded. It sounds like you have a lot of the same concerns I’ve been ruminating over lately and it would be good to hear someone else’s thoughts.
Good job to hayeksplosives (best screen name on the site). I really like having this place of like minded people to bounce our frustrations off of. I think a lot of us are feeling impotent watching what was already a mind-bogglingly bad ruling class manage to become exponentially worse seemingly everyday. It does seem like the golden goose maybe in the oven already and we’re just watching the empire (the republic died a century ago) throw itself off a cliff.
I think I’ve just decided to take the Irish Democracy route. Pay lip service to our masters while undercutting them at every turn. Not sure it accomplishes anything, but it should be pretty cathartic.
Fabulous, if depressing.
…even if the original intent of empowering one man was to be beneficial to society as a whole.
The term tribalism gets used as an epithet, mostly. But I wonder if the solution isn’t more tribalism, not less.
Even Jesus wasn’t “in charge”. He was sent to spread the Word, not rule the kingdom.
Lots of stuff to think about here, HE. Like RC Dean, all of this shit makes me tired. If there was a clear enemy to fight, that would be one thing, but the hits are coming from so many directions.
Part of trouble with this is that I have a number of tribes. I have my Glibs, my martial arts, and my dinner nights tribe. Tribes constrain as well as support.
See, also, civil society.
You can’t join every church, every club, every anything. So?
There’s also the various subcultures and the like.
If we take Christ’s teachings as our basis, then no, it is not morally wrong. While Christ taught about stewardship and one’s money, he also advocated giving up everything to the poor and following him. While he did not bash rich men, he did teach that poverty was of no consequence.
Now, I am not disparaging Christ’s teachings as communism. I’m saying his priorities were different, and his priority was God, serving God (by serving others and carrying the message of God), giving all to God, so that God will recognize you in the afterlife. His focus was eternal life and life here was basically a blip and gathering money wasn’t the objective.
Therefore, giving unto Caesar what is Caesar’s meant giving EVERYTHING back to Caesar because it was ALL Caesar’s, and thus, moral.
For about 25 years I have been wanting to write an essay entitled “On Being Caesar”. The point being, in a democracy, we are Caesar. Then the question becomes not should we pay our taxes, but how much should we tax?
The point being, in a democracy, we are Caesar.
I disagree. The government is not “us”. It is an organization that has its own membership and goals. Most importantly, like any organization its highest priority is itself, not us. Government is not “the things we do together”. It is what the government does to us, for, ultimately, its own benefit.
Democracy, at best, means that what the government can do to us for its own benefit is constrained because we can cause some of its members to lose their position.
Yes.
Government is Caesar because Caesar means government. Neither a triumvirate nor the tetrarchy raised any serious theological questions about who Jesus was talking about when he said “Caesar”. Government is simply the men who rule us. The men who rule us are the exact same men whom Jesus meant when he said “Caesar”. The pretense of “democracy” changes nothing. You pay taxes to government because government demands it. Government is your earthly lord and you are its earthly subject. You have no more power over government today than the average Roman citizen did in Christ’s time. Anything else is pretense. Kings too had some measure of public sentiment and would account for it in their decision-making.
You get it. I think the best description of government is the group of people that make the rules and more importantly, make the exceptions to the rules. My theory is that oligarchy is the only system of government that actually exists. You can attempt to change the method that the rulers are selected by, but the ambitious and less morally-restricted people will always find a way to get to the power center. “Democracy” has actually given far to much cover and decreased the accountability to nothing for the people with the actual power by tricking plebs into thinking that they have a say and that they’re both participating and consenting. What you’re consenting to has almost nothing to do with the actual power structure or policies enacted. When did we all get to vote on endless war, corporate welfare, medical tyranny, ect? This is why I believe the ONLY solution to battling the people who tirelessly conspire to rule us is to decentralize at every opportunity.
Yeah, this. I think I mentioned the other day I’m noodling over submitting an article relating biblical tax structures to the original taxing powers in the Constitution. But yeah, as Christians, voting for the most common kinds of taxes today is a sin.
Can you elaborate?
I can, but by the time I finish, it will end up as another diatribe in favor of the the Single Land Tax.
It is the Henry George argument, all other forms of taxation are immoral.
In my opinion (which isn’t a majority opinion, even on this site), land taxation is the only deontologically sound tax.
All others tax the fruits of our labor (directly or indirectly).
Well, govt is supposed to exist to secure our right to property… so it has that going for it. But even the theory of property presupposes you have mixed your labor to land in order to have a valid claim to it, so you aren’t really avoiding a labor tax.
I don’t buy the “mixed labor with land” theory. I think there is no natural right to land ownership (following Mises), which is why I find the George argument sound.
Government owns all land – you do not own your home, your farm, your shop. The Government will let you rent it, for a while.
At least you’re finally admitting the only arguments in favor of the Single Land Tax are nothing more than diatribes. :-p
I’ll elaborate without trying to utterly, totally explain it:
– What’s not necessarily a sin are things one can avoid by avoiding a particular jurisdiction or market: taxation-in-fee, duties, etc.
– Poll taxes (apportioned evenly by population) aren’t necessarily either.
– Income taxes or property taxes are. Those are gun-to-the-head theft.
The 16th Amendment does not repeal the 8th Commandment.
taxes == theft ∴ voting for taxes == voting to steal from someone else?
If that is the case, then I can see your argument, and where it differentiates from mine.
Basically, yes.
Most voting is sinful, regardless of the choice being voted for. It is idolatrous (democracy is a false god) and vain (your vote will not affect the outcome). This does not mean that every vote cast is a sin, but that the way people have been conditioned to view voting leads them to sin when they do it.
You may have a point if your views are indistinguishable from the majority, in that the collective “you” is ruling other people. But I am only barely ruling my dog. And the people doing the ruling of humans are not even vaguely equivalent to me.
charter schools are a great start, but not many can afford it
The major expense is driving your kid to school.
My daughter’s charter is $130 per year. The rest they get from the public school funds (and fundraisers).
Ok, some charter schools are funded from the same pot of money as public schools.
Sadly, most public school teachers unions are successful at blocking the creation of charter schools, leaving expensive private schools the only other non-homeschooling option.
“that date strikes more fear in the hearts of American taxpayers”
It does that. I hate being in debt, for any reason. While the morality of taxes may be in question the consequences of non payment are not. I like to get my taxes done ASAP. I took care of business on about the first of March. Now I can breathe easier for a year or until property taxes are due.
Another reason is that I don’t get the missus involved at all. While ours are relatively simple, with Turbo, she has other things to worry about, like my lunch.
Now I can breathe easier for a year or until property taxes are due.
Income, payroll, real property, personal property, gas, sales, utility, … taxes are constantly due
And these are all due after they’ve already pulled all the taxes out of your paycheck before you even received it.
Sammich time!
You made me hungry! Firehouse subs for lunch.
I’m not sure the date does strike fear in the hearts of most Americans (taxpayer or not). Most people withhold more then needed, and are then are excited to be getting their rebate back in April. They consider it found money, not just getting their own money back.
+1 When I get my taxes back I’m byuin me a Big Screen TV!
Hell, I’ve heard, ‘When my ex-girlfriend gets her taxes back she’s gonna pay my bail!’ So many people don’t fathom taxes are things paid, they are payments received. Bread and circuses!
Some people get other people’s money back.
SomeMany people get other people’s money back.As it was designed to do.
And people don’t even see the payroll taxes that their employer pays directly to the govt.
Yep. But anyone who’s worked on a 1099 knows.
The payroll processor for my company puts employer paid payroll taxes on my paystub.
Did all the good Milton Friedman did outweigh his one big mistake?
He is the one primarily responsible for withholding existing.
In Milton’s defense, he was trying to prevent another Great Depression that he feared would result at the close of WW-2 if the government were to pay for the war by printing money.
Remember, at that point the U.S. had been in depression for more than a decade, and the next one would probably be even longer had they repeated the mistakes of WW-I.
Naturally it would all come to naught. The U.S. taxed the shit out of everyone and printed money to pay for the Vietnam war, and we got our depression in the 1970’s.
Yet all the taxing, money printing and warring has only increased exponentially since then. We managed to make all the (unconstitutional) depression fighting tools permanent. Did we manage to permanently eliminate depressions yet?
KMW would probably answer no: https://reason.com/2016/04/18/milton-friedman-helped-invent-income-tax/
TB(partially)F to Friedman, it was to deal with a specific issue at a specific time.
That wasn’t his worst mistake. His assertion of managing the money supply tops that by a considerable margin.
This is my thought exactly.
Bingo. We wouldn’t have successfully converted to MMT without Uncle Milty leading the way. His hubris wasn’t much less than Keynes (which is probably why he was ever allowed in statist circles in the first place.) Hayek should have bitch-slapped some sense into him when he had the chance.
We havent converted to MMT (yet).
Even Krugman thinks MMT is bullshit.
There’s a fresh 10 trillion dollars off of the Fed’s printers that say otherwise. They may not be calling it that, but the idea that they can print as much money as they want to pay for anything they want (including the interest!) is now the status quo in DC. They’re all drunk on it and now officially dependent. It’s not going anywhere.
In fairness to MF – what the Fed is doing isn’t according to his plan.
We tend to focus on Caesar and forget Sulla. The decline of the republic was slow until it was fast.
I believe Caesar rose to power because the Republic was, practically, dead when he took over. Less than a lifetime separated Sulla from Caesar. The republic wasn’t a form of government conducive to an Empire. And Rome chose the latter. Oddly, Americans used to understand that principle. Hell, I remember my Dad telling me as much when I was young.
The terrible legacy of winning WWII is truly losing the Republic.
John Glubb would argue that it was going to happen anyhow, Empires run their course in about 10 generations before collapsing into a heap of decadence, greed, and corruption.
I’ll have 2, please?
It’s also important holistically to grok that whenever somebody asked Jesus a “gotcha” question, and this is one, he refused to give them a straight answer. His answers were to simultaneously confound them and to describe something of the kingdom of God.
So this is not a straight “taxes are perfectly fine” thing – which some errant teachers try to turn it into.
See by analogy Matthew 5:39-42. “But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles.” Nobody’s dumb enough to argue that it’s good to be the aggressor in any of those situations, but they get stupid over taxes. “Pay your taxes” doesn’t mean that taxing others is OK any more than those verses mean that assault or kidnapping are.
Thoughtful answer! I hadn’t made that connection.
Same.
Thanks, Mr. Tree!
increasingly governed by presidential directives (“executive orders”) and unelected bureaucrats adding regulations, creating more parasitic jobs for more bureaucrats
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance.
Heh
+1 Drug Czar.
^Treasonous Russian Propagandist confirmed.
I have admired this guy’s answer for about 10 years now:
https://sniggle.net/TPL/index5.php
He simply stopped paying taxes and structured his life around not paying them. It is not for me…yet. But, I admire him for taking that stand.
He simply stopped paying taxes and structured his life around not paying them. It is not for me…yet. But, I admire him for taking that stand.
It’s fairly common around here. There’s an unlicensed contractor down the road like that. Takes cash at the end of each week. Does really great work. His wife’s name is on their house deed and car title so has no assets, no records, and a steady cash flow of income.
A bunch of other guys work odd jobs for cash 50 weeks out of the year and then find a W2 job for 2 weeks to get the EIC credit.
a W2 job for 2 weeks to get the EIC credit.
And just like that my respect for them vanished.
Mine stopped here.
Why do you find it distasteful that his assets are in his wife’s name instead of co-titled?
It’s a very common tactic used by those who want to stay off the radar. They usually use a mother-in-law instead, but the wife in this case is common law, so there is no recorded association.
Because the assets are there, just in someone else’s name.
The taxes are still being paid. The only thing that’s different is in whose name they’re being paid. If they file jointly, he escapes nothing. If they file singly, the burden is in her name and she is solely responsible for it. So either way, the wife is on the hook while the husband is not.
I’m not following at all. There is no income tax being paid on cash. It’s not being paid in the wife’s name. The cash is hidden.
Assets are placed in a third party’s name to hide them not to stop from paying real estate or property tax. The tax owed on that is pennies compared to income tax. The wife or MIL doesn’t care if the husband stops contributing and skips town… the person left $600 in real estate tax tis also holding the deed to a $100k home she could sell at any time.
The risk in these scenarios is 100% on the cash payer who has zero equity in any assets to their name, not the person named on the deed or title.
I. Fucking. Wish.
Start by putting a zero on the end of that. That’s one of my three property tax bills I have to pay.
I. Fucking. Wish.
Start by putting a zero on the end of that. That’s one of my three property tax bills I have to pay.
That’s insane. I was being generous at $600. My 2021 real estate bill was under $400 for my typical 3 bdr 2 house, 4 car garage/workshop, and immediate yard. That doesn’t include the property tax on my fields, which is mostly written off by a farming exemption.
The system will follow up with you if you submit a low income return and don’t claim the EIC Credit. Slightly before my marriage to Ms. Lawn. she was only working occasional 1099 jobs, which totaled within the EIC area, and was filing Single. Since she didn’t believe that taking the credit was right for her place in life, it wasn’t claimed. But the IRS form letters followed up multiple times with “Do you know you qualify for XXX, why aren’t you taking it?..” with an implied, “we audit these sort of discrepancies, and your behavior has been noted”.
Yeah, that’s not creepy, at all.
I was told once that the IRS EXPECTS you to take as many deductions and exploit as many loopholes as you possibly can (implied: without cross a line). Every deduction I take, I can explain why I took it.
It’s not that difficult for SS recipients to pay no tax.
1. Have income under $25.1k excluding SSI, so under the current standard deduction
2. SSI is not taxed when other income is under…$32k (?)
So that’s basically $50k a year tax free.
^That was for a married couple
HOLY SHIT! I GREW UP WITH THAT GUY!
He was a couple years older than me, but his brother and I ran in the same circles. Wow. Small world.
Well, if you see him. Tell him there is an arrogant, jaded prick in Duloot that admires the cut of his jib.
Filling out a government survey on difficulties hiring new employees.
Survey question – “List things that negatively affected your ability to hire new employees over the past 18 months:”
Me – “The government.”
child labor laws are not going away deal with it
The orphans are not employees as they are not paid.
Perhaps it is too late to stop the trend. The culture has become decadent, the nuclear family has all but disappeared from many communities, and many people who recognize the decline of America have simply withdrawn from the world, myself included.
I’m reminded of the Remnant. And I think that preaching to a political equivalent of that remnant is what so many of us do.
I think we live in America’s Imperial Age. The problem is that the Imperial Age is usually the last one before the fall. How long will that be? I really don’t know. It could be months, years, or decades. But, I do believe it will fall.
The sorts of qualities that make for success in the Imperial Age are those of the Courtier – an ability to appeal to power, cleverness at symbolic manipulation, and adeptness at wielding power on behalf of the Court. And those seem mostly to be the qualities that are winning the day today.
Thanks, H.
Lot’s to think about.
I know I have to pay taxes, and I know much of the money will be wasted either through inefficiency or on projects that are stupid (like studying the effect of cocaine on the mating habits of Japanese quail).
What really gets me is paying taxes to fund things that I find morally repugnant, like Planned Parenthood or lifelong multigenerational welfare, salaries of people who undermine our culture.
I’m sure many lefties would call my stance on lifelong welfare heartless, but I truly believe it is not only a waste of money but it’s leads to a waste of human beings; they have no purpose in life, no sense of accomplishment. Temporary safety nets to get back on one’s feet are a different matter, which I still think private funding would do a better job of allocating, but I can compromise on letting some tax dollars go to that…reluctantly.
you are worse than Hitler
I cannot understand the thought process that leads to people thinking lifelong welfare is beneficial, outside the extremely disabled I suppose.
It frees them from the wretched existence under capitalist exploitation, and the payment of taxes on the meagre wages.
It allows people to pursue their dreams of being an artist.
and if everyone did that? and what about my dream to afford better scotch
“Capitalism sucks.”
/spotted in the description of more than one record album I’ve recently browsed.
“That’ll be $9.99.”
??
If by “people” you mean career politicians, then the answer is “buying votes.”
If by “people” you mean career politicians – I don’t
then again I never know what people believe vs what they signal
People who are far removed from the welfare dependency zones (or native reservations) have the naive idea that poor people need help (true) and that giving them a steady source of money with no requirement of work is helpful (not true; it’s even harmful.)
I read something, can’t remember if it was a book excerpt or a magazine article, titled something like “When your helping hurts” and talks about how charity, sometimes even private charity, can have detrimental effects.
One example was a poor village somewhere in Africa. A man and his wife took on extra labor above what they needed to grow food for their own family. They sold it to others and got enough to buy a couple of chickens. The chickens laid eggs which they sold and bought more chicken feed and chickens, and they had a good, albeit humble, thing going.
Then a foreign charity came in and gave away eggs to the villagers. The couple couldn’t sell eggs while a charity gave away free eggs, so they went out of business and slaughtered most of their chickens, keeping only enough to feed themselves.
Powerful lesson.
I believe that was the documentary, “Poverty, Inc.”
https://www.povertyinc.org/
I thought it was well done.
Thanks for the rec! I will watch that.
“When Charity Destroys Dignity” might be what I dimly remember.
Steyn has a couple of good essays too, including “The Post-Work Economy”
https://www.nationalreview.com/2013/12/post-work-economy-mark-steyn/amp/
But there it is! Altruism at the government level is a slippery slope. You agree that an extremely disable person deserves this government altruism at your expense – who is next? And who decides what disabled is? Suddenly an entire superstructure of graft is built around how to and where to dispense your altruistic dollars. And I am not being heartless here – I personally choose to help the downtrodden voluntarily, damn near monthly with my own personal time and targeted resources. And that is how it should work. The second any intermediary party gets in between you and your intended target your effectiveness drops, or goes away entirely.
You agree that an extremely disable person deserves this government altruism at your expense – I don’t necessarily but understand the though process of someone who might.
ok I think you were talking generically not me me
No, not you in particular. Just the idea that people support any altruism through government means, and how that degrades the entire purpose of our altruism which is best done at the individual level. My communications skills are poor.
studying the effect of cocaine on the mating habits of Japanese quail
And? How does cocaine affect the mating habits of Japanese quail?
the females were unimpressed
It’s hard to snort coke off a quail’s ass. It gets lost in the feathers.
Sounds like you already did the leg work in that study without any cost to the taxpayer. On behalf of everyone here, I thank you. Maybe we can get a pool going to help you replace the lost coke. And then maybe we can organize a party to help celebrate your acquisition of coke. I’ll head over now.
That was one of Rand Paul’s Festivus Airing of Grievances a few years back:
https://mobile.twitter.com/randpaul/status/1397223838547648520
The illustration is worth the click.
Holy shit! Hilarious (and maddening)
Been there.
https://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/florida-constitutional-carry-dies-for-third-consecutive-year-under-republican-leadership/
Feckless fuckers.
From the north coast…
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs bill allowing people to carry concealed firearms without training or permits
June 12th, Ohio will allow Constitutional Carry (while following this story, I was surprised to learn that Ohio allows open carry).
Nice.
That is irritating. The larger picture is better than you think. This map in Statistica shows just how many states have expanded gun rights vs. the few dinosaurs who don’t believe in the right to self defense.
https://www.statista.com/chart/20047/gun-carry-laws-in-us-states/
Sorry, I thought this was America’s Wang.
At least it preserved the value of my FL CCP. For some reason I got it last year.
Lots of similarities we have going on here:
Race / Suffrage: When the Roman Republic was functioning properly, only land-owning Roman (pretty much the residents of a big town) men were allowed to vote. By Caesar’s time, most free men in Italy were able to vote. By the end of the Empire, hordes of foreigners were streaming across the borders.
Money: The Republic had classes – but the wealth divides were pretty small. They had a very practical, middle-class outlook on life. Then some Romans got fabulously wealthy off of conquests. Caesar was the richest man in the world (slave trade) after Crassus got himself killed. All that new wealth corrupted the political class beyond repair.
Rules: Republics work when people follow the rules. When they stop, it breaks down – that simple. The Romans had stopped following the rules long before Caesar took power. Sulla came along and enforced the rules with violence, but as soon as he was gone, so were the rules.
I believe that most Romans knew the Republic was dead when Caesar took over. Most Americans know at least instinctively that something is very wrong with our republic. Those who think much about realize that it’s as dead as the Roman Republic. It’s a bitter black pill to swallow.
The question I have is whether there is the means to build a republican class to “wait it out”. Like I say above, I think the Imperial period is the final before the fall. What’s there in the aftermath will determine the future.
They would probably be hunted down if they were not very low profile about it.
What would there be to hunt down?
Really, all you’d be seeing is a network of people, probably in different locations, exchanging ideas, maybe skills, views on local institutions and figures about who and what is reliable in a pinch, etc. Nothing in what I’m suggesting would be explicitly political, at least it wouldn’t until things went sideways. And it wouldn’t even be explicitly “survivalist”. Really, what would be important is building a class of men and women prepared to build whatever it was that would come next. And, honestly, I don’t think the people who’d be calling the hunting down have thought that much ahead.
Really, what would be important is building a class of men and women prepared to build whatever it was that would come next. And, honestly, I don’t think the people who’d be calling the hunting down have thought that much ahead.
They have. People interested in any sort of survivalist/homesteading/etc adjacent skillsets are being targeted as potential domestic terrorists. This was one of the warning signs in a DHS guidance document someone shared last year. There have also been anecdotal screenshots of Facebook doing something to gardening and canning groups. I don’t recall exactly what the screenshots showed, but it indicated they are thinking that far ahead. What they’ll do with it remains to be seen.
I believe we can survive a lot because of the distributed nature of the states. The federal government will fail and the states will have to pick up the slack.
Nuclear war, however, is not in that list of survivable things. In it’s desperate effort to save itself, DC will try to get us into more wars as a self-justification. I’m just hoping they have some sense of self-preservation in their narcissistic psychopathy.
Okay, but how long did the empire last? At least as long as the Republic, and potentially quite a bit longer (Byzantium).
Moar scritches.
Adorbs.
My last dog would do something like that – she’d present her belly for belly rubs and the paw at you should you dare to stop.
The Big Dumb One just walks up to me, sits down, and starts punching me on the leg until I rub his head.
My cat sits on my lap—only in the evenings; it’s a ritual—and stretches out his front legs, then puts them around my wrist/forearm and pulls until I give him scritches and massage his toes, which he spreads out wide for that purpose, one paw at a time.
Well trained, you are.
Yeah, he’s got me where he wants me. But I enjoy it too.
Perhaps it is too late to stop the trend. The culture has become decadent, the nuclear family has all but disappeared from many communities, and many people who recognize the decline of America have simply withdrawn from the world, myself included.
I have pretty much succumbed to the sad conclusion we are past our sell-by date. It was a pretty good run.
Also- well done Ms Splosives
Reading through some of the comments above, this erected itself in my brain.
The entire notion of levying taxes (first) in order to do things (afterward) is ass backward, no less than if I pointed a gun at you and said, “Gimme a hunnert bucks, and maybe I’ll make something for you.” Absent government revenue based on voluntary fee-for-service payments, I’m pretty well stuck on “taxation is theft.”
That’s an interesting way to look at it. Let them propose a budget, then let us know how much each of us would have to pay in taxes to cover it.
Well, Obama openly admitted that some of his tax policy was to take money away from people who had enough. It had nothing to do with funding government.
Yep. Right before he took $65M from Netflix.
To be fair, he’s going to get most of that $65m during peak inflation. That deal will actually only be worth about $4500 in 2018 dollars by the time it’s paid out.
Got to love when the meeting host has ramped up their mic gain too much.
Good point.
Let’s suggest this to our Congresscritters and all have a good laugh 🙁
And- directed t no one in particular: The claim “The productive pay for the government” is pretty well outdated.
Full faith and credit, baby. Especially credit. One of these days, the audience will tire of clapping, and Tinkerbell will plummet to earth.
I’m glad I don’t have kids.
I have a kid. And she goes to public school, and I pay my local school taxes. Which are never properly accounted for – where did they go? How much went to an overly excessive managerial structure? How much actually went to students? I tried to have this conversation with a leftist friend of mine, who literally accused me of being selfish for even asking where all the money went. And when I said “If I put my child in a private school, why should I continue to pay school taxes? And what of people who have no children but must support this public structure?” Asking these questions is verboten, followed by a lecture about how awesome public schools are. Total avoidance of my point.
You can look up the budget
You can, but your won’t be happy. My last school district wasted a hundred million making security updates, and then abandoned in person learning for two years. Oops.
You should feel so lucky. Our school district hasn’t published a budget since the 18-19 budget.
Like I said, that was two years ago. I haven’t tried to look it up since, and now I don’t have to worry about it.
Not public schools. Government schools.
Yes. That is correct terminology.
I’m sure it’s not selfish when you name something they don’t want to pay for.
If nobody else did this, I haz much disappoint in you lot.
I mean the 15th means the Ides of March
*For the longest time I thought it was Earth, Wind, and Fire
Real Ides of March
And nice article. Articulates thoughts in my head that I’m not eloquent enough to convey.
Thank you all for reading my article and for the encouragement, as well as the good discussions.
RC Dean, when I read your piece yesterday, I chuckled because we seem to be in about the same headspace, right down to use of the word “withdraw”.
We’re all bozos on this bus.
And props to Tonio for converting this into WordPress from my Word doc!! Much as Gracias!
Very thoughtful piece Hayeksplosives.
“…and many people who recognize the decline of America have simply withdrawn from the world, myself included.”
And therein lies the rub. We, and I include myself in this, have backed away from much of civil life, and at the same time, we libertarians are the carriers of Liberty. People don’t want liberty in the abstract, they want liberty for themselves, as long as it isn’t too hard, or clashes with their tie. But, when we go away to hide or take the black pill or whatever, we are letting in the people who think that other things are more important. We cannot take that step back, we need to always be pushing the liberty option.
I know that some of us, and this includes me, are not in a position to put our politics out there, at least not in a public way. We have spouses, jobs, kids, all of which may prevent us from sticking our necks too far out. But others of us don’t have those positions. ‘Splosives mentioned being caught up in a Team Red political event, and I think this is good, as I think that right now that team is the closest to liberty, mostly as they are the underdog. Personally, I don’t care about liberalism vs. conservatism, as the nation will seesaw back and forth between the two. I care about liberty. So this is how I vote. But, I have been taking pains with my (mostly) liberal family and friends to explain 1) what I believe in, 2) where I see the strongest signs of that, and, finally, 3) where that leads me, currently. I do have to hold their hands in this, but I find this actually works. But, yes I do pick my battles. I may not mention who I voted for, but I will ask Socratic questions if I think that person will be recalcitrant.
I also blackmail them with “do you love me?” BS. A man gotta eat.
Zwak,
I have been feeling the same way recently. I think I am for the first time in a long time depressed about the future or at least frustrated with the world we are in today. I have to try to remain positive in my day to day, but it has been hard lately.
The liberty argument needs to continue to be promoted and discussed with friends, family and others. Finding areas where others have blind spots are good places to start. One recent example in my life was the concerns others have with a return of a Trump presidency. They may feel that if he is able to return to power he will be come a dictator, have the power to circumvent congress, and change the country with out accountability. Here is a good opportunity to discuss separation of powers and the erosion over time, first me then you (iron law), and that new executive and regulatory power never goes away. Point out without lecturing or attacking that when you cheer for your guy using powers and approaches in a similar way it can and will bite you back when or if the next OMB comes into office.
This might open them up to further arguments or hopefully discussions. If not, then it was worth a try.
I’ve made a hardcore proggie democrat teacher admit that giving more federal money to their school has provided perverse incentives and that it has harmed the kids overall. The teachers and administrators have less control over what they learn. They are now slaves to the money as soon as the school hires more teachers and mostly administrators to meet the new standards, programs, and requirements. There is no going back without firing a lot of people (hard to do as those who should be fired are the ones making the decisions) and or cutting programs like shop and music programs (easier to do).
FYI, I’ve failed more often than succeeded.
Education seems to be the most promising front to slow down the trend and eventually to reverse it. Homeschooling and quality private schooling or charter schools are a great start, but not many can afford it. We also could educate our friends through conversations and debates, although the increasing divisiveness and vitriol of debate makes this nearly impossible and at the very least, stressful.
I’ve brought up, in various groups related to pushing back on lockdown and other current/recent insanity, parents needing to support abolition of the public schools if they want to have control over the education of their kids. It goes over surprisingly well.
It will continue going over well the more the teachers unions screech about not wanting to return to in-person teaching, or going on about VERY early, very explicit sex education, or telling parents they don’t have the right to know what their kids hear in class.
The movement of parents wanting to find out what their kids are learning is one of the most positive developments I’ve seen in years. And it’s just started. A lot of folks are going to get their eyes opened.
Almost gives me hope.
public schools
C’mon, gang. Government schools. Let’s try to nudge that Overton Window on this one.
Jussie’s lawyers realize he still has cash left:
https://nypost.com/2022/03/15/jussie-smolletts-legal-team-demands-emergency-release/
Well, that’s polite letting everyone else living in Cook County know that they’re only of secondary concern.
BTW: The black-and-white photo is a screenshot from the 1953 movie version of Julius Caesar (famously starring Marlon Brando as Marc Antony), which will be on TCM tomorrow at 11:45 AM ET.
Still working on this health insurance clusterfuck. I really hate Obama for the ACA.
Finished up the Scott Horton interview on Jocko Unraveled.
Even better than I expected. As usual with Scott, it was like drinking from a firehose, but he did an excellent job.
Just started. Jocko’s intro is brutal and should be mandatory listening for everyone pushing war.
Yep. So simple and honest.
If you aren’t willing to kill a shit-ton of innocents, you cannot have modern war. So take your NFZ and shove it straight up your ass
Scott Horton…. grates on my nerves for some reason.
There, I said it. And stop so embarrassingly slobbering all over his taint, David Smith!
Agree on Jocko’s intro. Truth can sometimes be brutal.
Come on.
Scott is doing great work with the entirety of the corporate press, establishment fuckos and too many libertarians arrayed against him.
Brave as fuck to go on major platforms and speak truths. Even Kennedy got a little snippy last night.
Isn’t that worth a little personal annoyance?
Brave? Sure. Good work? Sure. Worth a bit of personal annoyance? Sure. Doesn’t mean I can’t be annoyed by him at the same time.
I get a bit of the “it’s always the United States fault”; which is often true and I haven’t seen him stray into the “ignore the evil that other countries do to oppose the US” that a lot of people who fall into that camp reflexively do. He does often seem to stray into “It’s all Israel’s fault” in the mideast. But I haven’t listened to everything he’s done, and I’ll certainly listen to this interview in full and likely agree with him a majority of the time. Doesn’t mean he doesn’t come across as an arrogant dick sometimes.
Have you read Enough Already? It helped me get past the things that irritated me.
Woot! Work is celebrating St. Paddy’s with corned beef, cabbage, and dropping mask requirements.
We are going more traditional. Im gonna smoke a lamb
Do you use really, really big rolling papers, or just a great big pipe?
.338 Lapua at 1600 meters.
Once you go lamb, you don’t go baaaaaaaaaaahhck…
Are ewe serious?
I try to make it a pointnot to wear green on March 17. This year it’ll be a red sweatshirt and my Bayern München hat.
Just like I always bust out a French tricolor tie for Cinco de Mayo, I always wear an orange tie for St. Patrick’s day.
An ORANGE tie on St Patrick’s day?!?
Them’s fightin’ colors in certain corners!!
If I happen to be in a pub, I also buy rounds. Which, if the various factions in Ireland had tried that, I bet it would have worked.
So I’ve got that going for me.
Covid knows when it’s St. Paddy’s Day.
Been binging glibs today, do not sure it’s as relevant here or Dean’s article.
But withdraw is not an option. They don’t want to leave you alone. They try their best to make it illegal to withdraw, particularly if you have children, but even if you just want to live in a hut in the forest by yourself.
I agree. Kids or not, you will not be allowed to just disengage (particularly when currency is tightly controlled).
Which glibs were you banging today?
I didn’t expect anything good from the government today and yet…
BREAKING: Senate passes bill to make Daylight Saving Time permanent
It’s a ruse.
They’re gonna really fuck us on something else…
I much prefer regular time, but still better than shifting an hour one way or another every 6+/- months
Whether you like “daylight saving” time or regular time mostly defends on where you live within the time zone (Eastern or Western edge) and how much of a morning person you are.
Exactly. I’m a morning person, so clearly it needs to be light out earlier, not later. Hard to fall asleep at 8pm if it’s gonna be bright out for two more hours.
It works for me, I am a night person so having daylight until 9pm-ish is nice. Especially when I go on a smoker bender.
Well, it’s over. If they pass that law, the Democrats are a lock for a permanent majority starting in November 2022.
DST puts me on California time. Do not like. Would rather they make standard time permanent. Its right there in the name, dammit!
It should be the other way around. At least in Boston DST is equivalent to the Atlantic Standard time.
Arizona doesn’t move its clocks. When everyone else is on standard time, we line up with the Mountain states. When everyone else is on DST, we line up with California.
I don’t understand how Boston isn’t on the same time zone as the rest of the East Coast.
Presumably AZ would just go onto M(NS)T – Mountain New Standard Time? Or you think they’d stay on the ‘old’ MST and hence be on the old PDT all the time?
Honestly, would be best of they just said – Standard time is standard time. Single time, standard, throughout the year. Done.
w00t!!!