Claire Wolfe on the Dangers of Lifestyle Purity Perfectionism

Some bits and pieces from here and there:

  • Claire Wolfe has written a good meditation on the dangers of lifestyle purity perfectionism. I have a lot of admiration for folks who go to eccentric extremes to root out even the tiniest vestages of collaboration from their lives. I also think that keeping our faces turned in the direction of always becoming a little better in this regard is good exercise in staying conscious and conscientious (at least that way if you decide to compromise, you won’t do it unconsciously or with self-deception). That said, I think it’s probably true that there are diminishing returns after a while from this approach and it can become a sort of self-indulgent ethical yoga.
  • , Alassane Ouattara apparently won the presidential election in Ivory Coast over incumbent Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo disagrees and refuses to leave office. Ouattara called on the citizens of Ivory Coast to discontinue paying taxes to the Gbagbo government.
  • The website Financial Integrity is holding a writing competition. “Around the world people are aligning their spending with their values. They’re trusting their own choices more than what the advertisers put forth. People are emphasizing financial integrity. Stories are being made, as real people make real choices and experience the bumps and bruises and triumphs of transforming their relationship with money.” Perhaps the story of your conscientious tax resistance is the winner they’re looking for.
  • Fred Reed on the American Monkey Trap.
  • Kevin Zeese on the courageous stand of Bradley Manning.

Here’s another rare example of paleocon tax resistance in the Vivien Kellems / J. Bracken Lee mold, from the Hendersonville, North Carolina Times-News:

Foe of Income Tax Refuses Bid for Bond, Jailed

Chicago, . (U.P.) — Mrs. Irene Whetsone, fiery opponent of the federal government in income tax matters, was free after a professional bondsman put up the required $1,500 bond.

Mrs. Whetsone, 55, went to jail rather than pay a $1,400 income tax payment for and said she would “sit in jail for six months” rather than pay the amount. She was jailed for contempt .

Federal Judge J. Sam Perry, who said when sentencing Mrs. Whetsone that he would rather send himself to jail, offered to let her sign her own bond with her daughter as security.

Mrs. Whetsone shouted at Perry that she would not sign her own bond “and I do not want my own daughter to be surity on my bond.”

Mrs. Whetsone has refused to pay the eight-year-old tax bill on the grounds that the Constitution of the United States does not allow tax-collected funds to be used to aid foreign countries.

If you’re researching, note that most sources give her name as “Whetstone.” I wasn’t able to find much about her in free, on-line sources, though there are some references in Google Books snippets and pay-per-view Chicago Tribune archives that I didn’t delve into.