Say, why don't we use cool names like "Philander" any more? Or "Ulysses" or "Beauregard"? Or all the great women's names after virtues like "Patience" or "Constance"?

I don't generally pine for times like the Gilded Age or Edwardian England, but they did have neat names back then.

Here is a wonderful FAQ that basically destroys the arguments of most tax protesters.

It deals with the ratification argument specifically.

While I am not one that falls into Benson's camp or other tax protesters, I'm not convinced that page "destroys" his argument. In fact it completely misses or ignores many of his central ones. Benson's argument does not rest on defects of spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, although he does note those problems as well.

In a more perfect world the flags would be flying at half-mast or less this day.

Good post. Too late now to make corrections.

What about "deductions"? How long have they been around? I don't have the energy to look it up, and besides, it would - again - make no difference. The recent flap over FICA taxes points to an obvious reality that is not discussed openly...

Any revenue collected for FICA purposes not used for that purpose is de facto an INCOME tax. As such it should be subject to some kind of deduction, but...

Of course when accounting prestidigitation is the work of Congress it's okay. Only when corporations or individuals do likewise is any law being violated.