Don?t encourage the Browns? martyrdumb

[Moorlock]

Tax protesters Ed and Elaine Brown have said that they will not surrender, and a number of people here and elsewhere have vowed to help them defend their home against government assault.

And the networks are busy photoshopping new text over their Waco Massacre graphics.

It?s especially sad, because the Browns and their friends are planning to martyr themselves over the silliest claptrap the tax protester movement has to offer:

Ed and Elaine Brown have agreed, from the beginning, to pay all taxes that they owe. They have sworn in court that if the government simply shows them the law that requires them to pay an ?Income Tax,? they would pay all owed taxes with penalties and interest. The government has yet to show the law. The government simply says, ?you must pay, because we say so,? and ?if you don?t pay, we will throw you in jail and take all that you own.?

Ed and Elaine Brown don?t owe the government a dime, it?s true, and they shouldn?t be targeted by the government for failing to pay up.  But this isn?t because ?there is no law.?  Indeed there is a law, and many other laws beside, and if the Browns believe that government laws tell them what their obligations are, then they should have paid up all along.

People have always disagreed about what the law means, and guess what ? the law comes fully-equipped with a built-in method for resolving such conflicts.  The Browns have such a disagreement, the built-in method says they?re full of it, that?s that.  That?s how the law works. Thanks for playing.  If you don?t like it, stop pretending you love the law.

If someone comes up to me and says ?you?re out? and points at the dugout, I?m under no obligation to slink away in the direction he indicates.  But if he?s the umpire, and I decide to ignore what he says, I shouldn?t pretend that what I?m doing is playing baseball.

Once you?ve decided that The Law is legitimate, you?ve given up the game, even if you challenge the legitimacy of some specific law.  If you think you?re the one who gets to decide what is or isn?t The Law, judges be damned, then you don?t really believe in The Law at all and you?d be better off just admitting it.  You're no longer playing baseball, so stop checking the scoreboard to see who's ahead.

All this pointless nitpickery over bullshit like whether the 16th Amendment was properly ratified by the appropriate number of states with identical capitalizations and so forth ? it just insults the intelligence.  Do the Browns really expect me to believe that they have decided to hole up in their fortress for a great last stand because of some dispute over whether Ohio was properly admitted to the Union in 1803?

Such arguments are embarrassing and absurd, and yet people I admire and respect are falling for them.  And some people may get themselves killed over them, and too many good people are encouraging them to do so.

[penguins4me]

Almost no one wants to see Ed and Elaine killed. Since they are productive, peaceable people, we want them left alone to live their lives in peace.

If aggressors come to deliver violence to peaceable people, I would hope that others with a strong sense of justice will rise to the occasion and the defence of the would-be victims... and that the aggressors, often being cowards, will just go away.

As for the news networks, well, I think most folks here (and online?) know what a crock the MSM is...

[powerchuter]

Almost no one wants to see Ed and Elaine killed. Since they are productive, peaceable people, we want them left alone to live their lives in peace.

If aggressors come to deliver violence to peaceable people, I would hope that others with a strong sense of justice will rise to the occasion and the defence of the would-be victims... and that the aggressors, often being cowards, will just go away.

As for the news networks, well, I think most folks here (and online?) know what a crock the MSM is...

Second this!

[dalebert]

You have a good point about the law, Moorlock. I posted a pretty negative review in another thread of "America:Freedom to Fascism" that said pretty much the same thing. Still, the violence being shown over collecting the tax is really disturbing despite the reasoning of the Browns.

[eques]

dalebert, the ensuing violence is part of the law game.  I don't disagree that it's disturbing, only that they're reaping what they've sown.