Author: VD

It’s fascinating to read Doug Kenline’s decision to submit to the will of the collection of Puerto Rican revenue agencies that is the IRS. It reads rather like Winston’s embrace of Big Brother, with the added pathos that Doug clearly believes that what he’s doing is wrong. There’s even a demonic Greek choir of tax cheerleaders welcoming him back to the fold.

But I don’t fault Doug for submitting, any more than I fault those millions of people who know better but choose to continue filing because they fear experiencing what Doug has gone through for the past few years. It’s extraordinarily difficult to live the conventional American life and not submit. A corporate job, a mortgage, a bank account, all these things can and will be used against you in a Tax Court of counterfeit law. Unless you want to pull a Fred Reed, sip margaritas and siesta with the signorinas, it’s tremendously difficult.

Now, none of this surprises me or has any impact on me whatsoever. The truth is what is is, and the fact that the service is able to make effective use of third parties in order to bend many targets to its will is of no account. If anything, it tends to suggest the weakness of its legal position. But legalities make little difference since the IRS has operated outside legal parameters from the very beginning. I have understood the true nature of the IRS since my first, accidental encounter with them some years ago, when an agent was kind enough to explain to me that petty things like the law and the Constitution were irrelevant, as nothing was involved except the reality of force. It is an old story, indeed, one of the oldest.

No one ever said that following the truth would be easy. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.

I notice that there’s a new variety on the Nigerian 861 scam. This time, the person claims that you have money coming to you from Swiss banks that are paying out money belonging to Holocaust victims. It sounds a little more plausible than that poor widow of General Abacha, but it won’t help Switzerland get past England tomorrow. (Professional segue, don’t try this at home.)

Yesterday, Holland did manage to self-destruct, as feared, but salvaged a draw all the same thanks to van Nistelroy, whose instinctive goal was not only unexpected, but hard to grasp. I’m still not sure what part of his body hit the ball – I’m thinking his upper thigh – but a great goal. Germany deserved the win, and that young winger, Schweizerschweiger or whatever his name is, was excellent coming in off the bench. And, as I predicted, the Czech Republic put away Latvia despite the surprise early goal.

Tonight, Spain has too much quality for the Greeks, while I expect Portugal to easily take down a Russia without their best player. Mostavoi isn’t the only one who doesn’t think the Russians can get past the group stage; even so, he should have kept his mouth shut.

As for American sports, I was quite happy to see the Lakers lose. When will teams learn that star-collecting doesn’t make a great team? You’d think Daniel Snyder would have figured this out… I’m no Detroit fan, but it’s nice to see team play succeed in the bastion of individual play that is the NBA.

TONY BLAIR has listened to the people of Britain like a man with no ears. His message yesterday should have been: “You have spoken and I am here to represent you. I will go to Brussels and tell them what you want.” Instead we got the same old platitudes, the same “trust me” fixed grin. What Blair said about the two-day summit on the European Constitution ranked alongside Neville Chamberlain’s “Peace in our time” declaration when he capitulated to the Nazis in the 1930s. The Prime Minister declared he was “reasonably optimistic we will negotiate an agreement that we want.”

Reasonably optimistic! You can’t expect to get away with that, Prime Minister. The people of Britain don’t want ANY new agreement. Britain should not be going to the summit with the aim of limiting the damage the constitution will cause us.

Let The Sun tell you what your duty is, Mr Blair:

You should be going to Brussels to demand that Britain is given back the powers it has lost to the EU. You must demand that we retain full sovereignty and full control over our lives, not to mention our money. You should demand top-to-bottom changes in the corrupt, inefficient and undemocratic European system. You must demand that only the British Parliament makes the law for Britain and only British judges administer it.

Just say NO to the constitution which the EU’s elitist leaders so desperately want to further their dream of a European superstate.

This is one of the most important moments in a generation, more important by far than anything happening in Iraq. It is no coincidence that the Sun referred to Nevill Chamberlain’s infamous declaration, as the EU is posed to make Hitler’s dream a reality, a Fourth Reich of united Germany dominating the entire continent of Europe. Only Britain has the ability to deal this panzerblitz-by-stealth a death blow, by refusing to surrender its sovereignty.

If the Euro-elites of Labor, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories are successful in selling out Britain’s birthright, the focus will turn to the United States and removing its sovereignty in a trans-American Union. Already, the seeds have been planted with NAFTA. But if they are thwarted by the rise of populist parties like the UK Independence Party, this may inspire Americans to turn away from its own bi-factional one-party rule.

Interesting times.

Sen. John Kerry “has taken big lead,” according “to an L.A. Times poll.” But the Times poll that showed Kerry “beating Bush by 7 points” has created a controversy over whether the poll’s sample accurately reflects the population as whole, ROLL CALL reports on Tuesday. “Not counting independents, the Times’ results were calculated on a sample made up of 38 percent Democrats and 25 percent Republicans — a huge and unheard-of margin,” ROLL CALL claims.

It sounds like Kerry is in trouble. If Kerry is only up by 7 with a boost of 52 percent more Democrats than there should have been in the sample, he’s doomed.

Ralph Wiley, one of the original ESPN columnists and former senior writer for Sports Illustrated, died Sunday night at his home in Orlando of heart failure. He was 52 years old.

Ralph was one of my two favorite sports writers. I won’t be the only one who will miss him.

SB writes: Good article, but fatally flawed. This flaw is revealed in your first factor, wherein you discuss the importance to marriage of faith. You blithely equate pagan religions with Christianity, ignoring the one, True God’s admonition that His people marry within His family. Untold conflict has resulted from people of different faiths marrying one another. And when a Christian is party to such a mis-match, he is violation of His Father’s instructions and may end up having to choose Christ or his wife – as a good friend of mine had to.

It seems as if sometimes people are actively looking to spot any possible flaw in an article, and in so doing will purposefully choose to interpret any ambiguous passage in whatever way will best allow them to offer criticism. I was not blithely equating Judaism or Islam to Christianity, only saying that the same thing holds true for a Jewish, Muslim or Christian man; it is wise to marry within your faith.

I think it’s obvious that I don’t mind, and even enjoy, genuine criticism. But criticism for its own sake is simply annoying. Now, it’s quite possible that SB just happened to misinterpret that one line, but given the context of my ouvre, it is somewhat of a strange point.

I was disappointed that the Italians didn’t play better, but then, the Danes are always tough. Buffone kept the Azzurri in it, but that’s to be expected. Both goalies played very, very well, as there were desperate one-hand reflex saves on either end. The draw makes it tough, though, as Sweden looked imposing in utterly destroying Bulgaria. Excellent team play and unselfish passing simply tore apart the defense. It’s no wonder that there are 30 teams lining up to try to sign Henrik Larsson out of Scotland.

And speaking of strikers, I think the Italians are more dangerous with Inzaghi up front. Del Piero and Vieri simply don’t seem to work together very well, and Inzaghi is nothing if not a fox in the box.

As for tonight’s games, I expect Holland to beat Germany and the Czech Republic shouldn’t have any trouble with Latvia. Advocaat is a lousy manager at this level, but he’s made the right decision to sit Kluivert since Van Nistelroy doesn’t blow his chances the way Kluivert does. I still think the Dutch would be better off with Dennis Bergkamp creating chances from behind the strikers, but unless they self-destruct – which is always a definite possibility – they will win.

Jonah Goldberg agrees with my assertion that Bush is no Reagan: Bush seems to have abandoned the rhetorical high ground. Reagan declared that government wasn’t the solution, it was the problem. In countless ways, Bush has been saying the reverse. And once you concede that the “government has to move” every time “somebody” hurts, you’ve pretty much abandoned your dogma and picked up the opposition’s. What makes things even worse is that while Bush may be good and decent and unfairly criticized for a host of things, he’s a terrible spokesman for conservative principles.

I suggest that this is because George W. Bush is not, and has never been, a conservative. Is there one thing he has done that Bob Dole, the tax collector for the welfare state, would not have? Less than a year later, even Republican professional consultants are admitting that the Medicare entitlement is a disaster in both practical and political terms, and just imagine if his immigration amnesty had not been so vehemently resisted by the Republican Congress.

I’d thought that the homogamy issue would give Bush a slam dunk in the election, but the president, timorous creature that he is, is afraid to run on the issue. I am beginning to suspect that Joseph Farah is correct and Bush’s cowardice and lack of conservative conviction may cost him the election, despite John Kerry’s incompetence.

Reagan, one must remember, was always considered an over-principled extremist. He dared to take risks. He also won by landslides in a political environment that was markedly less open to conservative ideas than today.

A friendly foe writes: It feels good, Vox. I was finally able to use one of your columns for its intended purpose today. That kind of scares, though. What’s next? Will I soon be following the advice of Rabbi Boteach, too? Anyway, I’m mainly writing to ask if you got to see that incredible France-England match. I’m guessing you probably don’t care much for my Bleus simply on principle but even you have to admit that Zidane was off the hook! That was unbelievable.

I don’t think he’ll have to worry about paying heed to the Rabbi’s advice, not unless he’s planning to become the next Britney Spears, Michael Jackson or Madonna. As for Les Bleus, I’m a little conflicted. I can’t hate the team that supplied Henry, Viera, Wiltord and Pires to my Gunners, but I really can’t cheer for them either.

Space Bunny and I watched the game and were very disappointed for the Lions. She’s a big England fan and felt especially bad for David Beckham. I was worried about that free kick, Zidane is still, as he once said, “at the pinnacle of his art”. And why is England STILL not practicing penalties – I take better penalties than that. I was surprised how flat the Blues were otherwise, though. I’m not impressed by Trezeguet, as he doesn’t make enough runs to keep teams from keeping two and three defenders on Henry. It didn’t hurt England that Sol Campbell and Ashley Cole know Henry better than anyone, of course. Still, I saw nothing in the Swiss-Croatian game that leads me to believe that England will have any trouble going through despite the loss.

Vassell for Owen and Hargreaves for Scholes were good moves, but I thought it was a huge mistake to put Heskey in for Rooney, although I never imagined it coming back to bite Sven as it did. Rooney had been effective in tracking back to help the midfielders all game; Heskey as usual, was nearly useless up front, then came back and plowed over Zidane to give up the fatal free kick. I know they keep naming Heskey to the squad because Rooney, Owen and Vassell are all so short, but I’d still rather have Kevin Phillips or even Teddy Sheringham as a fourth striker over him.

As for the other games, I suspect that Portugal’s “Golden Generation” will be viewed as more of an Age of Brass. Their loss to the USA in the World Cup is looking like less and less of a shock in hindsight, as Greece was clearly the superior team, their dearth of stardom notwithstanding. What an embarrassment for the hosts! Spain simply toyed with Russia, so much so that I wouldn’t be overly surprised if the Greeks upset the Russians and stole the second spot from Portugal.

In today’s games, I like Italy over Denmark and Sweden over Bulgaria. Both Scandinavian teams usually play well in the European championships, especially the Danes, but I think the Azzurri are due this year.

CR writes: As always, you are spot on. I was married to my first wife for 19.5 years (dated for 5.5 before marriage, met at 17 years old). Every troubling sign you list was there and grew worse during those 26 years. As a Catholic, I did two things that I do not regret (because they were right) that hurt me considerably: 1) I never divorced her (until she threatened to shoot our children which led to me finding out how mean she was to them in general), and 2) I never told anyone else about what was going on between us (I don’t recall the scripture passage but I remember that if someone doesn’t NEED to know something bad about someone else, you have no right to tell them).

Only after the fact, I found out that for several years she had been saying horrible things about me to everyone we knew. I found emails from her seeking advice on how to “divorce [me] and keep everything.” And so much more… At last that life is over for me…and I have remarried. My new wife of 4 years is such a wonder. I could go on forever talking about why…but the most important quality that makes this marriage such a fabulous marriage is quite simple…we both knew OURSELVES very well! No BS, no posturing, no game-playing, no disappointing revelations after the knot was tied. Your article is (as always) of the highest caliber. I am writing only to suggest that SELF-reflection is also very, very important. “Are you REALLY the man or woman you project to your intended spouse?”

The only thing I’d disagree with here is that one does not have an obligation to keep silent about another person’s misbehavior. This flies directly in the face of the Biblical notion of accountability; seeking counsel and wisdom on matters that directly concern you should never be confused with gossip.

That being said, better late than never, and CR’s story not only highlights the importance of being honest with yourself about your mate’s potential flaws, but also that we can learn from our mistakes.