Read all about the Government bail out in Tom's Journal!

On Septemeber 15th, 2008 I received a check in the mail from the US goverment for $12,000. It was enough to pay off the $10,000 in credit card debit I had accumulated, and allowed me to take a nice vacation, and SAVE $1,000. Saving, is something we had never been able to do before.

Wow, and he has another $45,000 coming.

And I thought all I was entitled to was that $300 hand-out last year, to go buy an iPod!

How much have you received so far?

Paying out

Usually, the flow of public money is away from the public towards the government. I was reminded of a couple of characters who, faced with unfair tax bills, took their anger out in a couple of creative ways - and got a lot of satisfaction, sticking it to the Government.

Fishy payments

In the UK, in 1990, there was almost a revolution when Poll tax was introduced. A guy, probably unemployed but still liable to pay the new "fairer" tax, submitted his payment to the government on a very creative check - a dead fish with the words, please pay the bearer the sum of ---- written on its scales. Legal tender!

Paid in pennies.

When Poll tax rioting in the UK got out of hand, the Tories removed it from the public consciousness by replacing it with Council Tax. Same shit different day.

A friend of mine who lived out in the country, had a small cottage, no streetlighting, almost no road, and a once-weekly refuse collection that usually left more trash on the kerb than in the back of the trash truck. He was livid to find his Council tax bill was rated in the upper band. The Council ignored every letter of complaint he ever sent...

Imagine the look of horror when he turned up at the Council Offices (with the press in tow) and dumped a sack of coins - and another, and another - at the payment kiosk. He had the correct amount, the Government officials had to accept it as legal tender, but they also had to count it all out, coin by coin, just in case it was short. It took hours.

Unfortunately, they never saw the irony or humor, and he has been a marked man ever since. Simple procedures (like applying for planning permission so he can upgrade his simple home so it is more in-line with the other high tax paying properties in his neighborhood) end in disputes and delays. I guess you can never win

Yet again, a bunch of multi-colored yahoos take offense at some "race-related" incident - the local red commies elbow their way into the fray. The result - a riot of color flares up in Oakland, where nobody wins. (Apart from a bunch of Oakland locksmiths and glazing firms!)

The SFGate say that the victim shot by a BART policeman was a typical poor kid with no qualifications, doing not very well for himself, his skin color - not white. He got killed for brawling. That is wrong on so many obvious levels.

Something is also wrong on a less obvious level. The communist element, probably wearing designer riot shirts used the death of someone failed by the system, to educate American citizens in the ways of another failed system!

Basically, in the eyes of communism, all property is theft, and the red rioters would have you believe that it is philosophically liberating, not terrifying, to witness complete strangers smashing up the cars and shop windows you stupidly worked so hard to own.

Boots on the other foot

It would be interesting to see the reaction of the commie rioters if their victims (the car owners and shopkeepers) went round to their aggressors' abodes and set their homes and cars on fire. They may see their untrendy lefty philosophy differently by firelight.

Final analysis

Most of the rioters didn't even consider the consequence of their actions on the democratic process they hate. It will now be easier than ever for the authorities to focus the public's full attention on lawless hooligans, and skirt around the nub of the matter - a man was shot dead by a policeman for fighting at a BART station.

Perhaps the BART officer could win over the public's support, by publicly asking his superiors to train him in the art of breaking up fights without a gun. And if they don't know how, then go ask any street policeman in the UK.