HALF-FULL REPORT 03/27/09

The HFR raises a glass of Newcastle Brown ale to the British hero of the week, Daniel Hannan.

As a Member of the European Parliament for Southeast England (Kent, Surrey, Sussex et al), he delivered a 3-minute speech on Tuesday (3/24) directed at British Prime Minister Gordon Brown who was attending the session in Brussels.

It is the most devastating skewering of a politician right to his face in modern memory.  His accusation that Mr. Brown has "a pathological inability to accept responsibility" applies equally to Democrats in Congress and their president.

As you watch the speech – only 3 minutes – you’ll probably ask:  Where is our Daniel Hannan?  Where is an American politician with the wit, the eloquence, and the courage to similarly skewer Zero?

  ***
Or we could ask, where is our Mirek Topolanek?  He’s the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic who, speaking to the European Parliament the day after Daniel Hannan’s blast (3/25), blasted Zero for "repeating mistakes from the 1930s, such as wide-ranging stimuluses, protectionist tendencies and appeals," all of which are "the road to hell."

The HFR proudly raises a glass of the original Pilsner lager (from Pilsen, south of Prague), Pilsner Urquell, to the Czech leader with the courage to point the way Zero wants us to go.

***
My great-grandfather Charles (class of 1872) and my grandfather Lucien (class of 1898) would be proud of the students at their alma mater, Notre Dame, today.  They would have contempt for Notre Dame president Father John Jenkins.

On May 27, the most intransigently pro-abortion president in our history is scheduled to speak at the most prominent Catholic university in our country.  To sanction the appearance of a man who sanctions the murder of unborn children – who sanctions the Abortion Holocaust of over 49 million babies slaughtered since 1973, and is actively engaged in expanding this number – is a depraved insult to the Catholic morality of Notre Dame students.

Thus, many of them have rebelled.  They have demanded the invitation be rescinded, and if not, promise to raucously protest during the speech.  As of this writing on 3/27, over 187,000 signatures are on the petition to Father Jenkins.

So far, Jenkins has refused.  But as more and more Catholic Bishops and ND alumni join with the students, the pressure on him will build relentlessly.  Think of these students and alumni fighting for the morality of life and against the evil of infanticide as you sing the Notre Dame Fight Song:

Cheer, cheer for Old Notre Dame,
Wake up the echoes cheering her name,
Send a volley cheer on high,
Shake down the thunder from the sky!
What though the odds be great or small,
Old Notre Dame will win over all,
While her loyal sons are marching
Onward to victory!

***
While my wife speaks perfect Spanish, all I know how to say is "Donde esta la cerveza?"  So let’s hoist a tanque of Alhambra Reserva 1925 to Carlos Cruz of Madrid, Spain. 

Carlos runs a painting business, and the only way he can stay in business now is to drastically cut prices.  And how does he cut prices?  By not paying taxes.

As Bloomberg reports this week, there are countless millions of Carlos Cruzes all over the world who are keeping food on their families’ table by preventing tax thieves from stealing it.

The world’s underground economy – defined as "the legal production of goods and services, but withholding tax and social security payments," is exploding.  It’s already valued at $6 trillion from just 20 of the word’s developed countries – which means you can at least double that for the world.

And that means the world’s underground economy is over 20% of the world’s total GDP of $55 trillion.  That percentage will grow.  That growing percentage will starve thieving governments and save the world economy.  Salud! to Carlos Cruz.

Tax thieves will be getting more desperate – witness Zero’s coming tax hikes.  The greatest trap that so many folks are in is FICA withholding taxes.  The way to get out of the withholding is to become an Independent Contractor.

The way to do this legally is explained here.  Of course, you’ll still be liable for the taxes – but at least they won’t be stolen from you in advance.  The extent to which you want to follow in Señor Cruz’s footsteps is up to you.

***
Lastly, let’s have a glass of Maccabee beer brewed in Natanya, Israel, to celebrate Israeli fighter jets obliterating an Iranian ship full of weapons for Hamas, sinking it to the bottom of the Red Sea.

And shortly thereafter, Israeli fighters blew up an entire convoy of Iranian weapon shipments in the Sudanese desert near Port Sudan.  17 trucks, 39 arms smugglers, tons and tons of arms for Hamas – blown to hell. 

The man who organized and operated the attacks is Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak.  He’s going to have the same position in Bibi Netanyahu’s new government.  Bibi and Barak – finally some guys who’ll go after Iran.  And who won’t pay attention to Zero if he tries to stop them.  This Maccabee’s for you.