Norwegian Quaker Imprisoned Five Times For Refusing to Pay “Blood Tax”

Some bits and pieces from here and there:

• “Gov’t™” at in the howling waste of a wilderness writes about his past several years of a chosen life of “voluntary poverty” which was partially chosen “in protest of taxes used to fund militarism, imperialism, and war.”
• The IRS has a new version of its Publication 17 guide for individual income tax filers in the upcoming tax season, in case you need to update your spreadsheets or double-check which credits and deductions you qualify for.
• Italy’s “Northern League” is the latest european group to call for tax resistance against new taxes to pay foreign creditors and shore up austerity budgets.

The 29 December 1910 edition of The Friend reprinted a paragraph from the Episcopal Reporter. Excerpts:

The Society of Friends has practically passed from Europe, as conscription makes their presence there next to impossible. In Holland, where they were once so numerous, they can no longer live, and only a few are left in France, Germany, Denmark, and Norway. In other European countries they have been called upon to endure many and grievous persecutions because of their refusal to serve in the army, but, as was expected, they have remained true to their principles. In Scandinavia, they are well treated and never persecuted, though in Norway they have often suffered severely. One Friend in Norway has been imprisoned five times for refusing to pay the “blood-tax.”