Becoming a Psycopath 101  

From My Journal

The IRS Strikes Again

December 2004

     At last another piece of history has been explained. It seems that Adolf Hitler was being harassed by the German IRS prior to his being elected Chancellor in 1933. He was arguing with their rulings like some other citizens we might mention. Records show that in 1933 he had an income of 1.232 million Reichsmark, mostly from the sale of “Mein Kampf”. (Teachers were then making about 4,800 Reichsmark per year.) He was claiming deductions the IRS didn’t agree with (hard to imagine), and other marginally acceptable tax dodges. By 1933 he owed 405,000 Reichsmark in back taxes. So the short of this is that Hitler wasn’t such a bad sort (at this time), he was only ticked off at the tax system. That certainly makes his behavior a lot easier to understand. Then and later.

In dealing with our IRS, I’ve become frustrated enough to invade Poland myself, if it were closer.

Shortly after becoming dictator, the Munich office of their IRS asked Hitler’s permission to forgive him his tax debt. Hitler agreed that this would be okay. One other thing he could have done was just stall them a couple years, when his fiddling with the economy generated enough inflation that it would take 1.232 million Reichsmark just to buy a loaf of bread. He could have paid off his tax debt rather easily. As Hitler was reported saying, “Ich bin herauf wieder vorbei die Steuerleute verwirrt worden. Aber Ich habe das letzte Lachen, nachdem ich Auschwitz sende.” He wasn’t that articulate when haranguing extemporaneously, was he?

Because of this experience with the IRS he became a right snarly psychopath. 

 

Pizza to Go

January, 2005

You can tell something about a country by observing the corruption of its officials. Do they think big or do they settle for penny-ante bribes? A case in point (as reported by the BBC on Sunday, January 16, 2005), was that the Canadian Immigration Minister, Jody Sgro, had to resign because she was excepting pizza in return for help in an immigration matter. That’s right, pizza. It seems the owner of a pizza parlor was in danger of being deported and this immigration officer accepted pizza to make his problem go away. Now either this lady has a low opinion of her services, or this guy makes really good pizza. So if you have a hankering to bribe a government official, head toward Canada, where you can really get your money’s worth. As they would say in East Montreal, “Un bon dessous de table merite des autres.”

Now Jody looks to be a fine upstanding Canadian politician so there might be something about this situation that the news media is not telling us.

I know You’ll Feel Better After Reading This

February 2005

     The Transportation Secretary has issued some guidelines for commercial space travelers. Now I’m guessing, from reading between the lines, that the Department spent a lot of time and effort on these guidelines. Here they are:

1.  Get a physical checkup before going.

2.  Accept the risks involved by signing a form.

And that’s it--I’m not kidding. That’s all they could come up with.

But not to be outdone by this Herculean effort, the Federal Aviation Administration has established guidelines for the operation of reusable space ships:

1.  Operators must inform passengers about the vehicle’s safety record.

2.  Operators must provide safety training before the flight. (That’s what airlines do now with that 30-second spiel before takeoff.)

Now The FAA has also taken the time to develop guidelines for the crews of space vehicles:

1.  Pilots must have a valid pilot’s license.

2.  Pilots must be able to meet medical standards.

3.  Pilots must be trained to operate these reusable space vehicles.

As you can see our tax dollars are hard at work. I know that ya’ll feel better now about space travel.

 

Tell Me It Isn’t True

February 2005

     It seems there is a strip club that has found an artful way to prance around the city’s law that prohibits full nudity. They have what they call Art Club Nights, where for $15 they sell each customer a sketchpad and pencil. Now you have to admire the innovative marketing. Well I guess you don’t, but I found it interesting. But back to the nude women/dancers/models. You’ve already figured this out. The nude dancers become models, and the patrons, with their drawing materials, become art students.

Where would you guess this innovative strip club to be, New York, New Orleans, or the south side of Dallas? Try Boise, Idaho. That’s right boys and girls, Boise, the last bastion of the moral majority where family values are still talked about, at least in the churches, or probably at least some of them. But to find this type of thing going on in little old Boise just boggles the mind and almost ruins one’s concept of what’s right and good. You think my reaction is a little over the top? Okay, I guess you’re right.