Mary Theroux Includes No Check with Her Letter to I.R.S.

Mary Theroux wrote a letter to the tax collectors instead of sending a check. She starts by explaining:

Rather than my usual practice of remitting taxes to you, I am writing to request a return of all monies previously remitted, for non-performance of services promised.

Then she goes on to show how in such basic areas as national security, education, transportation, and police services, her government has proven to be utterly inept.

In sum, please refund the taxes collected fraudulently for services never provided. If you need additional evidence, please do not hesitate to ask: there’s plenty more where this came from.


Charles Madigan throws down the gauntlet to the “tea party” tax protesters:

Let’s go back to two of the most valiant protesters of the Vietnam War era, the Berrigan brothers, Daniel, the Jesuit and Philip, the former priest (now dead), who were at the center of lots of disruption as the anti-war movement found its way. I’m not here to argue about those positions. But the Berrigans at least were effective.

That was because they were willing to give up everything they had, including their freedom, for their causes. You don’t take a hammer to the nose of a warplane unless you are willing to spend some time in a prison cell. You don’t spill blood on draft board records, or burn them with homemade napalm, unless you understand there are consequences, and those consequences become part of the protest effort.

So, here’s my question: Are you angry enough about taxes to go to jail? Are you angry enough about taxes to forfeit some of the federal benefits you might collect, starting with Social Security and including Medicare (if that relates in your case) or any other benefits? Are you angry enough to go stand at the gates of Ft. Bragg and set fire to copies of your taxes to protest federal spending on the military? Are you angry enough to break into an IRS office and spill cow blood on some records?

His conclusion: “Will the tax protests become more serious? No. The problem with getting the right-of-center middle class involved in much of anything is that it likes too much being right-of-center middle class.” Well, tea partiers? You gonna take that kind of abuse?


Some notes from here and there:

I’ve since learned that the International Conference mentioned below will be held from . — ♇

  • I’ve just received word that the 13th International Conference on War Tax Resistance and Peace Tax Campaigns will be held in (early April? early July? the announcement was unclear) in Sandefjord, Norway.
  • Siobhan Phillips tries an experiment: “My husband and I would eat conscientiously for a month, not just on our regular grocery allotment but on the government-defined, food-stamp minimum: $248 for two people in our hometown of New Haven, Conn. We would choose the SOLE-est products available — that is, the sustainable, organic, local or ethical alternative. We would start from a bare pantry, shop only at places that took food stamps and could be reached on foot, and use only basic appliances.” Follow the link to read how it turned out.
  • If you tell someone that they’re a good person, will that make them more likely to do good things? Maybe just the opposite. “Primed to think about what a good person you are, your most likely reaction is to think you’ve paid your morality dues and go on about your business.” In other news: the United States is the is the greatest, freest and most decent society in existence. Perhaps you’ve heard.