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Wednesday, May 07, 2003
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Swiss Bank Closure. The era of American access to secret Swiss banking is coming to an end. [Hit & Run]
The culprit is a regulation imposed by the IRS in January 2001--and enforced with an audit this spring--that targets tax evaders. It requires any foreign financial institution investing in the U.S. from abroad to offer a fuller disclosure of the investing activities of its American clients. The net effect of the rule is that it requires banks operating from abroad to reveal the identity of American clients that invest in the U.S.
[...]
Though U.S. clients can technically get around the law by choosing to invest only in non-U.S. equities or declare their accounts, many banks prefer to refrain from having American clients altogether. Says Charles Hermann, a partner at KPMG in Switzerland: "Having U.S. clients is just becoming too cumbersome."
It sounds like people need to be looking for foreign banks that don't invest in the US, and therefore can't be touched by the IRS terrorists.
12:24:49 PM 
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Roger Boyes at Times Online -
Envoy dubs US a police state - a "senior Berlin diplomat" has
dubbed the United States a police state. Heil Bushcroft! [smith2004] [End the War on Freedom]
Herr Chrobog is said to have given a blistering critique of the US-German relationship during the annual meeting of German ambassadors, complaining that America was "restricting more and more its civic liberties at home".
This is obviously true, as anyone who's gone to an airport can tell you. I expect the Feds won't like a foreign diplomat pointing out even such an obvious fact, though.
12:14:35 PM
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The Straights Times -
Chinese villagers attack Sars quarantine centres - Hehe. Good for
them. [grabbe] [End the War on Freedom]
Villagers in two remote parts of China rioted and destroyed Sars quarantine centres while an eastern city on Monday put 10,000 people in quarantine amid fears the disease will spread to their areas.
Enraged that a Sars quarantine centre would be set up in their community, more than 100 farmers attacked a government office in Yuhuan county, in eastern Zhejiang province, and beat up officials, a local police official said.
12:02:52 PM
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Brad Spangler at Rational Review -
Libertarians vs. Pavlov's Dogs of War - why the libertarian
movement needs to boot out the minarchists and work towards a true
libertarian, therefore anarchist, society. [smith2004]
Again, what do we really want?
We want private law, private security and private defense.
We want a polycentric legal system not tied to geographically-based
monopolies on coercion.
We want a stateless society -- and politics will never give us that.
So how do we get rid of government? We get rid of it the same way the
stateless society of the future will suppress future attempts at
government. There will always be new attempts at government -- just as
there will always be new burglary rings.
We face an overwhelming crime problem. Once we truly grasp that we are
afflicted with horrendously powerful bandit gangs that call themselves
governments -- then it ought to become clear that we need effective
private legal institutions, private security and private defense.
[End the War on Freedom]
11:59:36 AM
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Pax is with us again. Salam Pax has posted again. Well, not quite. Someone has posted in his name. Interesting observations, insider story, basically a gripping read straight from Baghdad. Go and raed...... [Samizdata.net]
11:51:30 AM
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proof denies faith. Steven Den Beste has a superb essay on why atheism cannot be proved. Speaking strictly as a theist, I'd like to also step to the plate and assert that theism cannot be proved. Douglas Adams, in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, wrote of the following:"I refuse to prove that I exist," says God, "for proof denies faith, and without faith I am nothing. [Shi'a Pundit]
Rather than writing a whole essay, one can sum up the matter by pointing out that it's impossible to prove a negative. The burden of proof is on the religious people--for example, if someone believes that the Great Pumpkin exists, it is up to him to prove it to me. And even if by chance he did prove the existence of the Great Pumpkin, that wouldn't convince me that I should worship it.
9:39:56 AM
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state.gov Press Release (may contain unnecessary superlatives, issuer bias) - Air Passenger Identification System Protects Privacy, U.S. Says. (Agency committed to "most stringent" privacy controls, TSA's McHale says) (3120) The Bush administration is confident that an upgraded system designed to confirm the identity of airline passengers will enhance aviation security while providing "solid guarantees" of privacy protection, a U.S. Homeland Security Department official says. [Privacy Digest]
The government's fondness for Orwellian doubletalk is getting ridiculous. Unfortunately, there are bound to be many people who actually believe that a system which exists for the sole purpose of invading privacy will somehow protect privacy.
9:09:39 AM
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© Copyright
2006
Ken Hagler.
Last update:
2/15/2006; 1:54:11 PM.
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