Patrick Moony want the "Doreen Filed" story retracted

[iplawyer]

An Open Letter to the Detroit News in particular and All Concerned Americans in general;


After having read the latest online story (Tax Protester: Order to Claim Income Sickens Her) by your cub reporter, Mr. Paul Egan, I must write to express how disappointed I am at the quality of the reporting and the editorial decision-making that ultimately encourages such trash to be written and displayed on your website and in print.

You, members of the editorial staff, have failed to properly check the facts of Mr. Egan’s story and you behave in a grossly negligent fashion by allowing that tripe to remain visible, at present, on your website.

The factual errors are:

1) Peter and Doreen Hendrickson are not TAX PROTESTORS.

They have not made one political statement whatsoever on any TAX DOCUMENT filed with the Internal Revenue Service. This is FACT-CHECKABLE, and a crucial fact at that, for no legal penalty can remove the fact that Peter’s tax returns have never been proven to be false in a court of law by the IRS or DOJ. Nor is Peter’s book, Cracking the Code, The Fascinating Truth About Taxation in America, a treatise on political rebellion or literature promoting the construction of “abusive tax shelters”, as the DOJ once tried to assert in its many attempts to suppress and discredit his book. The book s simply an excellent exposition on what the tax laws of the federal government really say, and the implications of that message for any American who values the rule of law. This also, is fact-checkable.

But I doubt anyone covering this story from your organization has even read Peter’s book. What kind of responsible journalism is that? If you had read his book, or demanded that Mr. Egan perform his craft ethically, you would see that Peter’s actions in his case are 100% lawful and that the government is actually using the COLOR OF LAW as a PRETEXT to suppress the freedoms that are the natural right and property of Mr. Hendrickson and his wife. The book simply explains what the law says, which (in brief) is as follows:

I. The income tax is not a tax based on the receipt of money, like most Americans are led to believe (in part, thanks to reporting such as your own). The income tax is a constitutional, 100% lawful tax. It is an excise tax, based on participation in specifically enumerated activities or through the use of federal property or privilege exercised for gain or profit (the liability of which is then calculated based on the amount of revenue taken in.) This is what the courts have consistently upheld Mr. Egan…nothing more…and Pete is in complete agreement with the way the Supreme Court has upheld this understanding.

However, in order to remain a constitutional excise tax, the tax must be avoidable, (otherwise, it becomes a direct tax on property, or capitation, which is forbidden by law everywhere unless it conforms to the strict constitutional limits of apportionment among the several states of the Union), and is onerous, despicable and detestable by any American who says they love the law and what this country stands for.

(What the Supreme Court is avoiding, however, is hearing any of Pete’s cases directly because it would force them to acknowledge the correctness of his understanding…which is based on their rulings and the law itself… on a very large stage…which would ultimately mean the end of the income tax as most people understand it…and the joyful atrophy of Federal power from every freedom loving nook in this country and around the world.)


II. Through machinations of deceptions and intrigue not too different from the kind of reporting on display by Mr. Egan, the government has waged an all-out, generational, propaganda war to pressure Americans into paying a tax of which they legally do not owe. In other words, like Mrs. Hendrickson, most Americans are forced or tricked under duress to declare that “money” received for the exercise of their human and constitutional rights to work and provide for their own welfare is somehow taxable when it is not. A study of the facts in relation to the history of revenue collections once the 16th Amendment was ratified ought to prove instructive if any of you are still open to instruction, and haven’t completely sold your soul to the devil (or the banker that finances him).


III. A MAJORITY of Americans fall into the category that the Hendrickson’s find themselves in. What makes Peter’s story so HEROIC, and not political or criminal, is that he discovered the despicable means by which this theft through conversion takes place. He then summoned the uncommon quality of true American courage and refused to sign his name, or endorse the government’s constructive fraud, on the “dotted line” of their 1040 information returns.

IV. WITHOUT PETER”S SIGNATURE ON THOSE FORMS, the government’s claim that Peter has a tax liability that he has failed to satisfy CAN NOT HOLD UP IN A COURT OF LAW. In other words, the government has no evidence of a crime being committed in the first place, and yet Peter is behind bars. They desperately need his signature to make him and this story go away. This is why undue political pressure has been placed on Peter and he finds himself behind bars at present. Make no mistake about it, Peter Hendrickson is a POLITICAL PRISONER.

Doreen is not behind bars because she caved into that enormous pressure (and as a mother with two young children, she can’t be faulted for that choice), though it should be quite clear to your readers and yourselves that Doreen does not believe anything she was forced to sign in order to avoid incarceration (including your appellation as a tax protestor).

As an aside here, it is so sad to see Mr. Egan’s story, covered by the supposedly FREE press, choose to take the angle of the government being correct in the first place and simply dismissing this story as a “tax protestor” case, instead of dutifully outlining the information I am presenting here to you, of which you should already be aware. If not, your responsibility to be aware is certainly being avoided in a way that can be construed as grossly and/or criminally negligent. It is my hope that your company is made to pay for its negligence through costly legal actions if you continue to fail to satisfy the obligations of your position.

In case you have forgotten that, you guys are supposed to check the facts and report them to the public. Besides failing on that basic point, you’re also failing on the larger mission of the free press to inform the free people of this country with information necessary to conduct the lawful exercise of their rights and liberties from undue GOVERNMENT INTRUSION. That Mrs. Hendrickson was FORCED to sign a DOCUMENT, the contents of which are based on an individual’s knowledge and BELIEF, should be front page news in your newspapers and media outlets.

Is this really the good old USA anymore? What kind of country are we living in now where people can be forced to say things they don’t really mean? Didn’t we sacrifice a lot of good human lives over the last 221 years, and are presently doing so all over the world today, so that this very thing WOULD NOT HAPPEN HERE?!!!

PLEASE FEEL INTO YOUR HEART AND KNOW WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS WRONG.

That you instead have chosen to spin the story with a negative slant toward the Hendrickson’s is telling as to where your allegiances lie. Being in the newspaper business, I can’t imagine that you are well paid these days. What’s the incentive for taking Big Government’s side of the story? Are any of you being threatened to report the story in the fashion you are doing? If so, I, Peter, or any other concerned American will be happy to assist you in breaking out of your conceptual prison so that you can tell the truth with a free, open and happy heart. The reward will measure more than the scraps upon which you must exist miserably with at present.

Back to the facts, of which Mr. Egan is expert at turning a blind eye towards:

V. Mr. Hendrickson worked for a private sector company. In his position with that company, Peter did not engage in any federally taxable activity. He merely exercised his HUMAN right to WORK for his livelihood and that of his family’s.

However, like most private sector companies that choose to remain ignorant of the laws of this country (and are exposing themselves to massive lawsuits at the same time, should this info ever become widespread), Peter received an “information return” from his company that incorrectly stated the money he received was from the exercise of a federal privilege or the participation in a federally taxable activity. Most of your readers commonly know these documents as W-2s and 1099s.

VI. Understanding the law better than most Americans, Peter knew that his tax return could nullify those incorrect information returns by simply declaring them to be untrue and then legally attesting to that fact via his signed 1040 tax return. The IRS even provides forms for correcting erroneous W-2s, called form 4852, which Peter dutifully filled out to reflect the truth of his situation.


VII. On the form 4852 (or a corrected 1099 if he used that, too), Peter declared that the money received was not of a federally taxable nature, as he did not engage in any federal taxable activity, upon which a tax liability could arise. Remember, the income tax is not based on the amount of money an individual receives in a given year. The money, if it is to be taxable, must come from legally specified
sources…not any source…as the government would rather have you believe.

VIII. All the government had to do to shut down this case and put Peter behind bars a long time ago was to simply show evidence that Mr. Hendrickson engaged in taxable activity. Once Peter filed his 1040, he legally nullified the erroneous information returns issued to him by the company for which he performed work. This means that the government could no longer, legally, rely on those information returns as a basis for assessing his tax liability.

Yet this is exactly what Jude Rosen and Judge Edmonds allowed the DOJ to do. This is a crime (literally) that demands immediate prosecution and your newspaper, if it were an honest one, would be calling for their heads on a silver platter, along with the prosecuting attorneys of the DOJ.

IX. It is important to underscore, for the edification of your newspaper and media outlets, that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER PROVEN IN A COURT OF LAW THAT PETER HENDRICKSON ACTUALLY OWES THEM ANY TAX MONEY.

X. Instead, the facts weigh HEAVILY on the side of a great crime taking place right in front of our eyes, of which the Detroit News and others seem more than happy to avoid reporting on. That crime is the Federal Government committing EXTORTION on the majority of Americans, as well as a CONSPIRACY to rob the country blind and destroy its very freedom and liberties. You are aiding and abetting that crime.

What your readers will do in response to that, and what the American people in general will do in response to this, once it becomes widely known and understood, won’t look pretty or feel pretty.

You are banking on the fact that most Americans are TOO STUPID to understand any of this, TOO APATHETIC to even care, and most importantly, TOO COWARDLY to fight. This is why you are taking the easy road of supporting the sloppy reporting of Mr. Egan and being a disguised establishment mouthpiece for this all-too oppressive system.

On a pragmatic level, maybe some people would support your choice to whore your souls and talents away like that, given the nature of the ignorant public you helped to engineer. But I am betting that you will be on the wrong side of history on this one.

It certainly is possible to rig a jury with the help of a corrupt judge like Rosen and a corrupt citizenry with reporter like Mr. Egan. It might be possible to do it a handful of times…but the cat is out of the bag now. In a short time, you won’t find a jury anywhere in this country that will decide in favor of the federal government.

Thanks to the social-networking power of the internet, newspapers and media outlets such as yours are now fully exposed as ministers of propaganda. As your declining readership and advertising revenues indicate, you’ve lost us…thankfully so.

We know how to think for ourselves now…we know how to discover the truth…we know why people work so hard to block the truth…we are not going to take it anymore.

Hopefully, you will have a change of heart and decide that covering the story of the American Restoration, where the federal government is finally ARRESTED from its violent rape of the constitution, is a much more compelling story, with greater human interest, than winding up as a cubicle jokey, whipping out lies and distortions like Orwell’s Ministry of Truth, as you are doing right now.

I simply refuse to believe that most humans are willing to ACTIVELY and CONSCIOUSLY work for their own suffering and destruction. There is a mechanism in place for all that, to be sure, but it only works as long as you can keep people deceived.

You, to whom this letter is addressed (both the staff of the Detroit News and all readers of this story by email in general) can no longer consider yourselves a part of that category.

May god or the gods, or quite simply and beautifully, your heart…lead you to discover the courage that only truth can bring. The 21st century is going to be a great one for America and the world…it’s the time where we stop being led around like helpless babies and being molested by our “dear” Uncle Sam.

You can demonstrate your change of heart by firing Mr. Egan, printing a retraction of your story, and then putting an honest team of reporters on this story to get the facts straight and see the Hendrickson’s vindicated. A very GREAT AMERICAN is sitting behind bars right now in the Milan Federal prison in Milan, Michigan. This man, when history is finished with him, will stand in the same pantheon of American Greats as any of our Founding Fathers ever did.

The story of human oppression is old and tired. Lend your talents instead to the writing of the greatest period of unfolding human freedom ever witnessed.

By any and all decency, have the courage to work for the truth where you can to the best of your ability.

Mr. Egan’s work is far short of my noble aspirations, to be sure, but he is also falling well short of any of the standards for good journalism, to which you ought to at least pretend to share concern.

Happy Saturday..or whatever day or time your Higher Self chose for you to receive this testimony of a first-hand witness to this terrible tragedy. That feeling inside you right now is your conscience. Listen to it. The tide is truly turning now.

Sincerely,

Patrick M. Mooney
Lovingston, VA

Suggested FACTS commonly left out of reporting on Income Taxation:

http://www.losthorizons.com/NewsletterF ... ge.htm#STW

From:
http://www.losthorizons.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2621




http://www.losthorizons.com/Newsletter/ ... wchart.pdf

[Famspear]

Patrick Michael Mooney wrote:

Peter and Doreen Hendrickson are not TAX PROTESTORS.

Yes, they are. The term "tax protester" is a term used by the courts to describe people like Peter and Doreen Hendrickson.

They have not made one political statement whatsoever on any TAX DOCUMENT filed with the Internal Revenue Service.

That's very nice, but the presence or absence of a "political statement" on a tax return or other tax document does not determine whether the person is a tax protester.

......for no legal penalty can remove the fact that Peter’s tax returns have never been proven to be false in a court of law by the IRS or DOJ.

Wrong. Hendrickson was found guilty by a jury of willfully filing false documents (including federal income tax returns) under 26 USC 7206(1), and was sentenced to prison. He is now in prison.

The book [Cracking the Code is] simply an excellent exposition on what the tax laws of the federal government really say...

No, it's not. It's not an excellent exposition on what the tax laws say. It's largely nonsense.

But I doubt anyone covering this story from your organization has even read Peter’s book. What kind of responsible journalism is that?

Yes, it's unlikely the reporter and others at the organization have read the book. What's the matter with you, Mooney? The standard of "responsible journalism" does not require that the reporter read Hendrickson's book. The reporter was reporting on an aspect of the story -- Doreen Hendrickson's compliance with the court order, and her emotional distress at having to comply.

If you had read his book, or demanded that Mr. Egan perform his craft ethically, you would see that Peter’s actions in his case are 100% lawful and that the government is actually using the COLOR OF LAW as a PRETEXT to suppress the freedoms that are the natural right and property of Mr. Hendrickson and his wife.

Baloney.

No, the federal income tax is not limited to earnings realized in connection with participation in "specifically enumerated activities" or through the "use of federal property or privilege exercised for gain or profit"

No, no court has ever consistently upheld your argument, Mr. Mooney. No court has ever ruled any such thing.

No, Pete is not "in complete agreement with the way the Supreme Court has upheld this understanding". Neither the Supreme Court nor any other federal court has ever ruled any such thing.

No, there is no rule that "in order to remain a constitutional excise tax, the tax must be avoidable." That is just more tax protester rhetoric.

What the Supreme Court is avoiding, however, is hearing any of Pete’s cases directly because it would force them to acknowledge the correctness of his understanding

Wait, I thought you said Pete and the Supreme Court were in agreement.

[snip the rest of Mooney's rant]

[Thule]

You can demonstrate your change of heart by firing Mr. Egan, printing a retraction of your story, and then putting an honest team of reporters on this story to get the facts straight and see the Hendrickson’s vindicated

Sooooo, the Detroit News should ban Egan and delete his postings? I guess Sycophant #1 have forgotten that in the real world, people might actually disagree with Petey and get away with it.

[Famspear]

You can demonstrate your change of heart by firing Mr. Egan, printing a retraction of your story, and then putting an honest team of reporters on this story to get the facts straight and see the Hendrickson’s vindicated

Sooooo, the Detroit News should ban Egan and delete his postings? I guess Sycophant #1 have forgotten that in the real world, people might actually disagree with Petey and get away with it.

Careful, Mr. Mooney. You wouldn't want the Detroit News to dig too deeply into this. The news organization would find that you and Pete Hendrickson are wrong, and you might even find yourself being the subject of a follow-up story on you and your own tax troubles in connection with the Cracking the Code scam.

Mooney, you've already lost one Tax Court case using the scam, and you're going to lose your second case (now ongoing).

[Nikki]

Patrick Michael Mooney Vs. Commissioner USTC 21657-06
Decision entered 5/5/08;
U.S.C.A. 4 Cir. Mandate 04/07/09. Decision Affirmed 4/14/09

On cross-examination, petitioner acknowledged that during 2004 he worked for Interstate Industries, Inc ., and that he received from that company $24,541 in return for his services . On cross-examination, petitioner also acknowledged that during 2004 he worked for The Center, Inc ., and that he received from that company $2,200 in return for his services .

ORDERED and DECIDED that for the taxable year 2004 there are due from petitioner a deficiency in tax of $2,459 and an accuracy-related penalty under section 6662(a), I .R .C ., of $491 .80, and there is no addition to tax under section 6651(a)(2), I .R .C ., due from petitioner . It is further

ORDERED and DECIDED that a penalty of $1,000 is awarded to the United States and is due from petitioner pursuant to section 6673(a)(1), I .R .C .

VICTORY

[Judge Roy Bean]

A bilge dump to the Detroit News in particular and All Concerned Americans in general ...

There. Fixed it.

[Gregg]

Hey, this at least makes it easy to establish willfullness when the Moon Man gets to his own criminal trial.

[LPC]

You, members of the editorial staff, have failed to properly check the facts of Mr. Egan’s story and you behave in a grossly negligent fashion by allowing that tripe to remain visible, at present, on your website.

The factual errors are:

1) Peter and Doreen Hendrickson are not TAX PROTESTORS.

A complaint about semantics, or terminology, at best.

It also seems disingenuous, given that the entire article was devoted to Doreen's protests against the order that she file correct tax returns.

II. Through machinations of deceptions and intrigue not too different from the kind of reporting on display by Mr. Egan, the government has waged an all-out, generational, propaganda war to pressure Americans into paying a tax of which they legally do not owe.

The article in question says nothing about whether or not Americans legally owe any tax, but simply reports one woman's reaction to a court order that she file two tax returns.

III. A MAJORITY of Americans fall into the category that the Hendrickson’s find themselves in.

Once again, this is outside the scope of the article, and does not contradict anything in the article.

IV. WITHOUT PETER”S SIGNATURE ON THOSE FORMS, the government’s claim that Peter has a tax liability that he has failed to satisfy CAN NOT HOLD UP IN A COURT OF LAW.

Once again, this is outside the scope of the article, and does not contradict anything in the article.

V. Mr. Hendrickson worked for a private sector company.

Once again, this is outside the scope of the article, and does not contradict anything in the article.

VI. Understanding the law better than most Americans, Peter knew that his tax return could nullify those incorrect information returns by simply declaring them to be untrue and then legally attesting to that fact via his signed 1040 tax return.

Once again, this is outside the scope of the article, and does not contradict anything in the article.

VII. On the form 4852 (or a corrected 1099 if he used that, too), Peter declared that the money received was not of a federally taxable nature, as he did not engage in any federal taxable activity, upon which a tax liability could arise.

Once again, this is outside the scope of the article, and does not contradict anything in the article.

VIII. All the government had to do to shut down this case and put Peter behind bars a long time ago was to simply show evidence that Mr. Hendrickson engaged in taxable activity.

Once again, this is outside the scope of the article, and does not contradict anything in the article.

IX. It is important to underscore, for the edification of your newspaper and media outlets, that the FEDERAL GOVERNMENT HAS NEVER PROVEN IN A COURT OF LAW THAT PETER HENDRICKSON ACTUALLY OWES THEM ANY TAX MONEY.

Well, this is just plain wrong, because Hendrickson was convicted and sent to prison.

Is Mooney denying that Hendrickson was convicted and sent to prison? Or is he claiming that the conviction was improper? If the latter, he is once again outside the scope of the article, because the article never says anything about whether or not the conviction was proper.

X. Instead, the facts weigh HEAVILY on the side of a great crime taking place right in front of our eyes, of which the Detroit News and others seem more than happy to avoid reporting on.

The fact that the Detroit News does not report something might mean that they are trying to avoid reporting on it. Or it might mean that the "great crime" does not exist.

But once again, Mooney is not complaining about what the article actually said, but about what it didn't say.

Suggested FACTS commonly left out of reporting on Income Taxation:

Which confirms what I said above. Mooney's complaint about the article is not that it contains anything that is incorrect, but that it fails to say what Mooney wants it to say. The reporter simply reported what had happened, and what Doreen said. To Mooney, that's not good enough.

I wonder what the Detroit News will do with his extended rant? If they do anything at all, I think that they will publish the first two paragraphs, delete the rest because of space considerations, and reply that "The Detroit News stands by its story."

[Imalawman]

(What the Supreme Court is avoiding, however, is hearing any of Pete’s cases directly because it would force them to acknowledge the correctness of his understanding…which is based on their rulings and the law itself… on a very large stage…which would ultimately mean the end of the income tax as most people understand it…and the joyful atrophy of Federal power from every freedom loving nook in this country and around the world.)

So many errors, so little time. First, you assume that a rejection of your case by the supremes resulting in your hero losing is evidence of a victory? I hope you haven't bought any oceanfront property in Iowa from Pete, because have I got a deal for you.

Second, your conspiracy theory doesn't make any sense. So, the Supreme Court has held in the past that Pete's view is correct, but are now afraid to issue an opinion merely affirming their own case law? yeah, that sure tracks with the Supreme Court's past tenancy to slap the hand of Government.

Third, are you so pathetically stupid, so abjectly dimwitted, that you believe that the eradication of the income tax would have any correlation to the size of the federal government? It would be income tax down one day, the next, "hello VAT!". Sure it would be a big change, but probably not one that isn't coming in the not so distant future anyway. If not the VAT, then back to tarriffs and what have you. The ebil gubmint will get their pound of flesh, that you can take to the bank.

[Famspear]

I don't know whether Mr. Egan, the reporter, will be checking his email, but I just sent him an email with links to this thread and to the thread at losthorizons. I received a message back, saying Mr. Egan is out of the office for most of the rest of this month.

Vacation, maybe, just possibly?

How dare he go on vacation at a time like this! He shows utter contempt for The Rule of Law as outlined by Peter Eric Blowhard Hendrickson (also known as inmate #15406-039, Federal Bureau of Prisons) in that monumental tome, Cracking the Code.

[Nikki]

And, irrespective of what tax replaces (as if) the income tax, a similarly sized federal bureauracy will be needed to collect and enforce the tax (or whatever).

[Parvati]

I don't know whether Mr. Egan, the reporter, will be checking his email, but I just sent him an email with links to this thread and to the thread at losthorizons. I received a message back, saying Mr. Egan is out of the office for most of the rest of this month.

Vacation, maybe, just possibly?

I hope he hasn't been threatened. That's a legitimate danger for reporters who dare to tread into the pasture of a wingnut's sacred cow.

But then, so is treading on sacred cowpats.

Mr. Egan has done the hard work of slogging through the bullshit to produce a legitimate, fact-based article. The fact that Mooney doesn't like it just means that he's afraid of negative publicity and will do or say anything to quash it. These people aren't trying to spread some obscure truth--they're desperate to hide from the reality that stares them in the face every time one of Hendrickson's pathetic bunch is slapped with a fee or frivpen.

[Doktor Avalanche]

This just in, a response from Mr. Egan to Patrick Moonbat:

[ASITStands]

Hey, this at least makes it easy to establish willfullness when the Moon Man gets to his own criminal trial.

I suspect Mr. Mooney will be the NEXT CTC target though not in the GURU category. Of course, first, he'll lose in the civil arena (tax court and possibly beyond). It's still in tax court.

EDIT: Docket No. 8128-09

[ashlynne39]

I particularly like this LH quote from JHV:

May the real criminals be arrested soon

Of course right under that is a post from our good buddy Harvester - - - oops sorry, Libre

And yes, I pray for all to be soon revealed, and the chips to fall where they may.

I too hope that the criminals are arrested soon. I hope the whole lot of the LH crew get swept up in one big tax cheat/tax protestor raid and fined and jailed . . . down to every last person with a victory check posted on that website.

I don't know where this next comment comes from - - maybe just pure snobbery - - but it's not just that these people are tax cheats, it's that they are complete morons. How many times do they have to be told that they're wrong and shown proof that they're wrong? How many courts have to all but post big banners over the bench saying "you're wrong"? How many of their leaders and gurus have to go to prison before they get it? These people are delusional - - doing the same thing over and over, getting the same results, in different courts and different venues and somehow expecting that their big break is just around the next bend.

[Gregg]

In case you have forgotten that, you guys are supposed to check the facts and report them to the public

Okay Patrick, the facts are

Doreen filed

She didn't like it

She IS most certainly a tax denier (when you declare X and the authority says X is false, and then you DENY that decision, what else are you gonna call yourself)

She has a young child

Her husband is currently serving a term in a federal prison for the second time for not complying with tax laws

So, what did he miss?

[grixit]

If sufficiently annoyed, the editor could probably make a meal of the CTC community. Assign some reporters to do a few profiles under the category "meet Pete's friends". No deep digging needed, just a quick review of public records. And in the center, a reprint of a recent Demo interview. Meanwhile, on the editorial page, have an article from a psychologist on the tp mindset, and another from, say LPC, on the history of CTC in court.

[LPC]

If sufficiently annoyed, the editor could probably make a meal of the CTC community.

The motivation might not be annoyance, but curiosity.

Rather than get a retraction, Mooney's message might lead to a follow-up article, the working title of which is, "How really stupid/delusional/dangerous are these people?"

[Number Six]

"The factual errors are:

1) Peter and Doreen Hendrickson are not TAX PROTESTORS." blah, blah, blah.

You walk into the restaurant, are served a sumptuous meal and walk out without paying. Where was the contract??? We had no obligation to pay because we hadn't signed anything, nor had we agreed to pay for the meal, let alone a tip. Fortunately, an elderly couple who knew our family, wanted to save us the social embarrassment and was able to assuage the anger of the management by paying. Or you go to a ski resort, the lift attendant is too busy to verify all lift tickets, and lets you have several free rides. Again, where was the contract, and if no one notices, where is the breach of contract? You stay at a self-serve state campground and either ignore the instructions or fill in the application with mumbo-jumbo. You might get away with that for awhile, or an alert worker might report you to the authorities.

The old saying that "someone has to pay" used to irritate me because the federal budgets don't balance out, so actually, the foreign bankers are making up the difference, although state and local treasurers have to balance their budgets. I don't know if the federal debt can be repudiated as some have proposed, and what would be the consequences of doing so.

[Joey Smith]

When you read the stories of the CtC warriors, it is just one loser after another. No successful people in that group, such as it is (and rapidly growing smaller).