With fascination I follow the developments around civil rights in the USA. As a rule people accept the erosion of their liberties, because they think it makes them safer.
That would be a great subject for a post, but there is more.
People are now sent to jail for non-compliance with IRS (income tax) regulations, although these regulations seem not to be backed up by a law.
During the court procedures the defendants ask time and time again to be shown the law on which the income tax is based. That demand is consistently overruled by the judges.
So now the weird situation is this: not the law is the basis of the jury's verdict but the opinion: 'we all pay income tax so why should they not'. On the basis of this opinion the tax lawyer Irwin Schiff (77) was sentenced to 30 years in jail.
Shall we welcome him at the prison gate when they finally release him at the age of 107?
Dave Vonkleist explains the situation in a song.
Here's a link to Ed Brown's video blog. Ed has declared that he'll rather die than go to jail.
