20FEB01

There is something horrible at work in America. I am having a difficult time deciding if this thing is a sickness or an evil or a mixture of both. The thing has two faces -- TERROR and CONFUSION. Brave people can face terror as long as they can figure it out. Bright, persistent people can deal with confusion, as long as they have a secure environment in which to do so. Practically no one can deal with terror in a state of confusion.

In the last few days, gov't has announced out of one of its mouths (the NY Times) that one of its organs (the IRS) intends to "crack down" on employers who are "refusing" to withhold taxes from their employees' paychecks.  Never mind that certain of these employers have studied the published law and made a good faith determination that there is nothing in the law that requires them to withhold; and never mind that the employers have written the gov't, quite openly announcing their decisions and asking for the gov't to get back to them and show them their error of their analysis, if any. Gov't, being made out of stone, will not answer; it will just "crack down". After all, April 15 is right around the corner. Time to herd the sheep into the shearing pens -- and remind any stragglers that it is better to be sheared than to be slaughtered!

The employers mentioned above are threatened with violence, but they are brave. They will stand up to it! But they must know what they are dealing with, what is right, what is true, where to turn for justice! The most reliable mouth of gov't should be the written law. Our employers have read the law, expect it to mean what it says and not mean what it does not say. However, confusion arises when the gov't doesn't seem to care what the law says or doesn't say; in fact, the gov't appears to make no reference to the written law whatever -- only to what some courts have apparently said about someone's arguments. Our employers are now confused; they have only been seeking to correct a wrong, to call upon the gov't to obey the written law. However, they begin to fear that gov't has ceased to be the custodian of the law and has, instead, made itself the law.

But what is this? Another mouth of the gov't -- the United States District Court in EEOC v. Information Systems Consulting CA3-92-0169T -- has announced that one of its other organs (the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) was correct in arguing that "No law requires a 'Protected Individual' to complete a W-4 Form or to furnish a social security number to obtain or keep a job."

Hmmm. One mouth of the gov't argues, "There is no law," and another mouth of the gov't threatens to destroy your entire life for violating it. Meanwhile, none of the faces of gov't will look you in the eye, nor will any of its mouths respond to a direct question. What is going on here?

Anyone with a serious need to understand the "income tax" or the "IRS" sooner or later must recognize that the two primary principles in operation are TERROR and CONFUSION. That the Internal Revenue Service is a terrorist organization is absolutely beyond dispute.

The larger spectre of so-called "Administrative Law" may be one of the most sophisticated terror mechanisms in the history of man. It's out of control; it's incomprehensible; its victims cannot even officially play to lose without hiring attorneys they cannot afford; even if you cooperate, it can destroy your life by accident; if you resist, the odds are extremely high it will either destroy your life or consume it as you exhaust every waking hour trying to understand it, outsmart it, and keep it from killing you. There is, indeed, something horrible at work in America.