{"id":168,"date":"2008-06-19T09:54:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-19T09:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/?p=168"},"modified":"2008-06-19T09:54:00","modified_gmt":"2008-06-19T09:54:00","slug":"what-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/2008\/06\/what-a-joke\/","title":{"rendered":"What a Joke"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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Warning: 100% pure political stuff forthcoming. Sorry, I couldn’t restrain myself. This eclipsed every other event today<\/span><\/div>\n
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Today I had the stomach churning task of calling the IRS (to request a copy of my incorporated status\u2026 thing). After waiting a half hour, I heard this little gem:<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease be patient, our representatives are assisting other customers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Really? Because I thought customers were what you earned by competing on the open market. Not by using threats and force on your own citizens.<\/p>\n

I almost swallowed my own tongue in disgust and amazement.<\/p>\n

Case in point: about a month back I got a notice from The State saying, effectively, \u201cYou owe us $15,450 and if you don\u2019t pay it in nine days we\u2019re going to seize your possessions, bank accounts and maybe throw you in jail if we please.\u201d Turns out it was more like $36. And probably even then a mistake on the part of the humongous bureaucracy that a notice was sent at all. When asked, the response was that they had simply assumed I was a giant toy manufacturer. <\/p><\/div>\n

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(PS- this little gem arrived on a Friday so I got to wring my hands about it over the weekend).<\/p>\n

I wasn\u2019t even worth a phone call, or even sixty seconds of consideration.<\/p>\n

This is the contempt the tick has for the dog.<\/p>\n

To all those that are within the sound of my voice I say this to you: You are being taken care of by your government. The same way cattle are cared for by the farmer. Make no mistake, you have been numbered and tagged and the stockades are in place.<\/p>\n

I have been treated worse as a small businessman than (I imagine) a petty criminal. Case in point: the maximum fine for a Class A Felony is $15,000.<\/p>\n

So, when I see them smile broadly or call me \u201cfriend\u201d my heart swells with contempt. These are my fellow men who are complicit in a system that loots the common man.<\/p>\n

When I watch \u201cthe news\u201d I only see dancing jesters and men with white-tipped batons.
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And what is almost worse is to think that for many, many years I was at home playing video games instead of getting informed. I\u2019m still working on it. I don\u2019t pretend to know everything, but the more pieces I get into place the more revolted I am at the picture.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve got to do something, anything. Rebellion can\u2019t manifest as non-involvement. Vote Independent. Vote Libertarian. Get a book, any book. <\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n

Don’t shrug your shoulders. Go do something!<\/p>\n

I recommend <\/span>this book.<\/span><\/a> Ron Paul’s “Revolution: a Manifesto”. And by the by this is in reference to the American Revolution. I have read it straight through twice and the good parts three or more times.<\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Warning: 100% pure political stuff forthcoming. Sorry, I couldn’t restrain myself. This eclipsed every other event today Today I had the stomach churning task of calling the IRS (to request a copy of my incorporated status\u2026 thing). After waiting a half hour, I heard this little gem: \u201cPlease be patient, our representatives are assisting other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.bluetablepainting.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}