Oh dear, trouble's afoot at LH

[grixit]

Oh, and I would also point out that Hendrickson himself probably wouldn't think I'm being to kind to him.

Remember: I'm the one, a long time ago, who gave him the nickname "Blowhard Hendrickson."

It certainly seems to have caught on.

Well, I just disagree. I haven't seen anything from PH that evidences "high intelligence". Mental issues? Narcissism? Yes and yes. I look at people like F. Tupper Saussy (sp?) and his body of "work" - he evidenced some high brain power. Hendrickson? Not so much. His trial work shows his lack of intelligence. His briefs, which he wrote, were sloppy and stupid. I've listened to him talk on numerous occasions. My starbucks barrista could run circles around PH. I'm going to part ways with you on this one.

Your barrista would never tell someone that instead of waiting for the coffee to cool they could just change temperature scales. Your barrista would never tell someone with lactose intolerance that it would be ok to use half and half if they refer to it as bovine bio extract.

[Cathulhu]

Both I and my younger sister qualify for Mensa and have been invited to join--and neither of us has. Sounded too boring, and we're not joiners. It may be genetics; we're descended from the anarchist aboard the Mayflower. But as far as my socializing time goes, it's a hell of a lot more fun to attend the L.A. Science Fiction Society as an author guest.

Dan, your discussion of the different varieties of intelligence and wisdom remind me sharply of when I got paid to proofread a gamer manual! Now if you could express it in hit points...

Edit: yeah, Cap'n, but what level? I still read Knights of the Dinner Table.

[grixit]

But as far as my socializing time goes, it's a hell of a lot more fun to attend the L.A. Science Fiction Society as an author guest.

So let me know next time and i'll try to make it down. I haven't been to a meeting in a long time but That doesn't matter since death will not release me.

Dan, your discussion of the different varieties of intelligence and wisdom remind me sharply of when I got paid to proofread a gamer manual! Now if you could express it in hit points...

I like to differentiate Int and Wis like this: the intelligent person is able to get out of situations that the wise person would never have gotten into in the first place. And the hitpoint count is whatever you didn't take because of it.

Edit: yeah, Cap'n, but what level? I still read Knights of the Dinner Table.

B. A.: The lava pit is too wide, if you jump you die!

Bob: I'm jumping, what do i have to roll?

B. A. (disgusted): a natural 21!

There's a lot of TP style attitude in that group. Have you reserved your copy of Bag Wars yet?

[grixit]

ST = 20 IN = 15 WI = 14 CO = 18 DX = 18 CH = 12 Hit Points = 200

D & D old school from more than 30 years ago.

Yeah? I've got dice that old. And i'm still running old school.

[Omne]

ST = 20 IN = 15 WI = 14 CO = 18 DX = 18 CH = 12 Hit Points = 200

D & D old school from more than 30 years ago.

Ever play at the University of Minnesota? I used to hit games there periodically in the mid 70s when Arneson was still puttering with it.

[.]

A routine trashing of the morons at LH has devolved into obscure gamer commentary.

As uninteresting and useless as it may be, it's infinitely more interesting and useful than is CtC and its rapidly shriveling number of clueless marks.

[Nikki]

Also, which -- in the long run -- has proven more profitable for both the gurus and the players?

[Lorax]

In light of the article discussed in the "why are people so resistant to facts" thread, I think it is apparent that smart people can be so blinded by their politics or their general worldview, that they ignore the facts or find some kind of rationalization like the judges all being corrupt or something. They are so emotionally (or even financially) invested in their belief system that admitting the possibility that they are wrong would just be too devastating to their ego. If you look at history or the political landscape, it's apparent to me that being smart doesn't mean that some of your beliefs (or my own beliefs, some of which may be in this very forum post) aren't utterly and completely wrong.

Explaining away intense political disagreements by saying the other side is too stupid to recognize the truth is a rather unenlightened way to go about things in my view. In some cases I suppose this may be the best explanation considering that some people really are rather daft, but in my own experience, the one Hendrickson believer I have encountered offline doesn't suffer from a lack of any type of intelligence. He was predisposed to believe the crap in CtC because of his strongly held anti-tax political views and got sucked in so far that he can't be swayed, no matter the facts or my own admittedly limited skill in persuasion.

That said, while I generally try not to get involved in such things, the back and forth about how stupid Hendrickson and his followers are is occasionally entertaining, so by all means continue.

[Duke2Earl]

There is another issue at play here as well. Viewing oneself as a freedom fighter against the evil government gives the person a sense of importance and significance and gives meaning to one's totally insignificant life. It also helps explain why it is damn near impossible to give up despite being shown conclusively they are wrong. It's pretty hard to admit to oneself and to those around you that you are an insignificant worm who has wasted their entire life tilting at windmills. I mean, where do you go from there?

[Pottapaug1938]

I admit that I cannot identify any data or cite anything to back up my assessment that Hendrickson is highly intelligent, except that he claims to be a member of "Mensa."

"Densa" would be much more appropriate....

[Famspear]

.....the one Hendrickson believer I have encountered offline doesn't suffer from a lack of any type of intelligence. He was predisposed to believe the crap in CtC because of his strongly held anti-tax political views and got sucked in so far that he can't be swayed, no matter the facts or my own admittedly limited skill in persuasion....

Do you know what your friend's current situation is? What kind of tax problems, if any, is he or she having?

[Gregg]

I have always thought that the claimed membership of MENSA would go down tenfold if they put an online list of their members.

[Lorax]

Calling him a friend is a bit much. We know each other. As I've said before in my first post on this forum, he asked me to read his federal appellate brief. I tried to persuade him by citing some of the relevant cases, one of which says that every court that has ever examined the issue has conclusively determined that wages are income. He thanked me for my notes and told me I caused him to completely rewrite his brief (it was bout 60 pages when he sent it to me so I imagine this took some work on his part). Presumably he thought the cases I cited were wrongly decided and he thought he had some cases that could prove it. He never sent me the rewrite. We stopped talking about the legal issues shortly after Hendrickson was convicted. My very last comment to him on the subject involved explaining that judges decide the proper interpretation of the law, not juries. Assuming he filed the brief, I have no doubt that he lost, and was probably fined for filing a frivolous appeal. I could ask him what happened, but if he doesn't want to bring it up, I don't want to ask. It would seem that I would be gloating over his assuredly costly legal defeat which would be rather rude on my part. Reading this the guy seems really, really stupid, I know. All I can say is that if you meet him and you avoid topics like the federal income tax, the guy seems quite intelligent and well educated.

I could post the rough draft of the brief he sent me but that would surely be in bad taste if not an ethical violation.

[wserra]

Lorax - many people here, given your friend's name, could easily find out the status of his appeal, and could be relied upon not to reveal the name. If you want to PM it to me, I'll do it. I could additionally pull the filed version of his brief, sanitize it and post it.

[Thule]

Meanwhile, back at the loony bin;

Fairly new user Edelweiss asks the big question;

What percentage of CtC educated returns or amendments become part of the "game" with the IRS. In other words, what percentage of CtC filers would you say experience difficulty in regards to reclaiming their property.

A bold question, my young Padawan. One thet would have gotten you banned in seconds if Grand Master Petey wasn't "temporarily unavailable". But instead, you shall recieve a couple of hints as to what really happens when you file CtC.

But I will say this,if you get frivalized get ready for a very long ride.But who knows,you may go right thru.I can only speak for me.I have been battling a frivolous return penalty for a year and nine months.

-woodone

If I had it to do again, I may not have filed the 1040X for previous years. However, having done so already, I will fight this to the end. It may take years

-ENDtheFED

http://www.losthorizons.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=2624

[notorial dissent]

The answer of course is almost all of them, since they set off all sorts of alarms when they go through now, and i would suspect that within another year or two they will all automatically kick out when they go through as at the very least invalid returns.

[.]

frivalized [sic]

Yup. You done been "frivalized" right good when your fraudulent return is sequestered in Ogden and you get whacked for a $5K frivolous filing penalty. Next up, "lienified," "garnisheeed" and "levied to my Chevy."

[notorial dissent]

I like that new word, and some how it seems really apropos to the group in question.

[.]

Although it might sound new, it's merely a TP-mangled version of "frivolized."

These idiots, in general, never could spell their way out of a paper bag. That alone might warn someone suffering from that malady off of attempting any legal analysis, but they never have been much for introspection.

[grixit]

Actually, what they meant was "frivialized", meaning that the irs workers easily recognized their filings as more of the same, and thus trivial to declare as frivolous.