I have to tell you about the service for my sister. It was surreal. In unexpected ways.
It started with a prayer... Then and old friend from her newspaper days played a song he had written about her. A friend of Lori's then came onstage and shared some memories and personal insights. Then another friend took the stage and read some poetry he had written about , not just Lori as a person but the affect she had on everyone she met. After that Breanne and I performed a song.
The service was cool until the pastor from the church came up and started proselytizing with thisfire and brimstone shit. He even went as far as to call out any atheist or agnostics in the audience. People were walking out, seriously like twenty to thirty of her friends. Breanne and I walked out too. When we got into the lobby a group of Lori's friends had gathered. We were all talking about how wrong this was. Breanne says "I've had enough" and heads straight back into the church. She walks right up on stage to the pulpit and cuts him the fuck off. She said "this is just inappropriate and you need to stop. what you are saying has NOTHING to do with the life of our sister and you should be ashamed of yourself" He stopped for a moment and the audience erupts in applause. We walked by my mother and my brother ( who are serious christians) and she told them they could be mad at her forever.
It was like a Kafka novel. No pun intended but Jesus! The mother fucker had the balls to then, justify his actions.
The next day he had his secretary call us. (thats right, his secretary) because he felt like we needed to talk. Talk, no apologies of any kind. He was actually confrontational. I told him "If there is a god he is the best parent, the best friend, best lover, best sibling, all of which would have offered nothing but unconditional comfort. You failed, miserably. And you misrepresented him in every way. fuck you." He didn't like that so he resorted to a critique of a song that Breanne and I did (Zoe came onstage with us) He began with well lets talk about your choice of song yesterday, which I patiently sat through.... I told him to go fuck himself and left.
I haven't heard from my brother or my mother since the service.
Way to go, religion.
It was uncomfortable, offered no compassion, no sense of relief, and imprinted a horrible image of the last time we were gathered near my sister.
It was best summed up when I told the pastor, don't ever think it's appropriate to use a casket as a bait pile for souls...
Currently
listening
:
Bootleg Detroit
By
Morphine
Release date: 2000-09-26
After a cardiac arrest late Friday night my sister Lori was transferred to St Joseph Mercy hospital in Howell Mi where she struggled to regain consciousness. She was unresponsive, showing no reflexive indication at all. Her pupils wouldn't dilate.
Our family, or what remains of that, gathered near her. After screaming, arguing, blaming, searching for anything and crying, crying, and more crying. We made the repugnant decision to let her go. She merged with the infinite at 6:35 pm on Wednesday Nov 12.
The facility was a non-profit based on religious beliefs. The staff was outstanding. When we left I said this to them as a whole- "As many of you know, I don't believe in god, at least in the way you do. But if I did, I am sure he would be very proud of each and every one of you. In my world you are all exceptional human beings and its a shame that more people don't behave this way. If more people did its quite possible we wouldn't be here today."
That was the last time I saw my sister.
She will be desperately missed by many. I know I already do.
TRAVERSE CITY -- A local writer whose struggles with a paralyzing neurological condition and subsequent inability to work launched a fund-raising campaign to help save her home has died at the age of 44.
Lori Hall Steele died Wednesday in Howell, after a mystifying illness that was diagnosed as either Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease), a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, or Lyme disease.
A self-employed single mother and prolific writer whose nearly 3,000 features, essays and news stories have appeared in print and online publications nationwide, Hall Steele lost feeling in her feet in 2007 and eventually became completely paralyzed. She had been unable to work since mid-March, prompting friends to mobilize to help pay her mortgage and medical bills, which topped $100,000.
Her plight and the chance to help resonated with writers, artists, musicians and other self-employed creative people both in the region and beyond, who raised about $70,000 through grants, a silent auction and an online campaign called savelorishouse.com.
Contributors included online writers groups, the American Society of Journalists and Authors and pop star Ben Lee.
A graduate of Michigan State University with a bachelor's degree in journalism, Hall Steele came to the area as a young reporter from the Albion Recorder. From 1989 through 1993 she was a reporter, columnist and editor at the Record-Eagle, where she covered the cherry industry among other beats.
Early in her career she contributed to a Record-Eagle series on poverty in the region that earned the paper a Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award citation for distinguished reporting, alongside such news organizations as The Boston Globe, ABC News and National Public Radio. She also received awards from the Inland Daily Press and the Associated Press.
Former Record-Eagle City Editor Loraine Anderson recalls Hall Steele as a gifted and versatile writer who always searched for creative ways to get and tell a story, and whose sense of humor often showed up in her work.
"She was a great writer, a great researcher and also a really fine editor, and she always worked to tell the story through people," Anderson said. "She had that tenacity you have to have to be a hard news reporter and was very much concerned about First Amendment rights.
"She loved to write, and she loved this work," Anderson added.
Longtime friend Kristen Hains said Hall Steele was curious and passionate about her wide-ranging interests, from gardening to film to the area's history. She was instrumental in helping get the Traverse City Film Festival off the ground as a member of the festival's founding committee, and became a champion of the Grand Traverse Commons redevelopment project.
"She had a passion for everything she did, whether it was her writing, her son, her friends or a cause she got behind," Hains said. "If she put herself behind something she put herself behind it 100 percent. I think what made her so special as a writer also made her special as a person, and that is that Lori never stopped asking questions. And she was always looking forward, even when she was struck with this. She never stopped believing that if she acted independently and asked enough questions she could change the outcome."
Hall Steele was instrumental in calling attention to the historic Traverse City State Hospital and the efforts to preserve it as The Village at Grand Traverse Commons, said Mini Minervini of the preservation and redevelopment Minervini Group. And she involved others in writing about the project too.
"Lori has always been a passionate advocate for the preservation and renovation of Building 50 and the whole complex," Minervini said. "She paid attention to the details. And anything she wrote was always stellar."
After leaving the Record-Eagle, Hall Steele moved on to staff positions with Traverse Magazine and Northern Home and, farther afield, with the Prague Post. Most recently she was a freelance writer and editor who shepherded publications from conception to printing press, edited stories and books including Michael Moore's "Dude, Where's My Country?" and designed newspapers, magazines and books. She was the author of "Sweet and Snappy Cherry Drinks," a small-press selection of the Publishers Marketing Association.
As a freelance writer, she specialized in stories about the home, food, parenting, travel and the environment for publications ranging from the Detroit Free Press, the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post to Brides, SmartMoney and Woman's Day. Shortly before she died, she learned that the national magazine Parenting was interested in buying one of her essays.
"It was such a sweet moment," said Hains, also a freelance writer. "I thought, 'You can take away her voice, you can take away her ability to walk, but you can't take away her ability to affect people with her thoughts.'"
Those thoughts reached a discriminating audience in June, when the prestigious Washington Post published one of Hall Steele's essays in which she explored her responsibility to her son, Jackson, 7, whom she raised with her ex-husband Brian Steele, design editor at the Record-Eagle. Although it was written before she became ill, it proved to be prophetic.
"I tell him I'll always be here for him, one way or another," she wrote. "Always always always. Just like my mother is here for me ... It is an impossible promise, a gamble with his trust. I secretly pray I don't let him down, not on this."
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Currently
listening
:
Cure for Pain
By
Morphine
Release date: 1993-09-14
Urgent Help for my Sister!!!! please repost!!!
Current mood: jedi
To paraphrase the Beatles, we'll get by with a little help from our friends - and freelance writer Lori Hall Steele ( Sir Charles Karate's sister) could use a lot of friends right around now.
Lori is a single mom battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) and chronic Lyme disease. She faces the loss of her home to foreclosure within days because she's too sick to work. She has medical bills totaling more than $50,000, which may ultimately reach $120,000.
Ironically, earlier this summer an essay Lori wrote about her young son Jack coming to terms with the idea of death was finally published in the Washington Post. Though the essay was written well before Lori was diagnosed, or even knew that she was ill, there's a bittersweet sense of urgency in her writing that adds a poignant postscript to the piece. In her essay, Lori struggled to reassure her son that she'll always be there to protect him. "I tell him I'll always be here for him, one way or another. Always always always. Just like my mother is here for me. Just like I was there when he was 3. It is an impossible promise, a gamble with his trust. I secretly pray I don't let him down, not on this."
As a freelance writer Lori has published more than 3,000 articles for local, regional and national publications. She copy-edited Michael Moore's book Dude, Where's My Country? and helped launch the Traverse City Film Festival.
In September 2007 Lori mysteriously lost the ability to move her feet. The paralysis later spread to her legs and arms. Lori is now confined to a hospital bed and is dependent upon a Bi-Pap breathing machine. Lori is only 44, and she is determined to fight this disease and we're determined to help her do it in any way possible.
Help Lori keep her promise to her son. Help Lori keep her home and ensure that Jack has the security of a roof over his head, even when his mother is too sick to sleep there with him.
Please bear in mind that the fund was started out of urgency, and there hasn't been time to apply for non-profit status so your donation will not be tax deductible. You can donate to help Lori with mortgage payments or medical bills by following this link to Lori's PayPal account.
Lori and I are very close and we both became familiar with the evasive and mysterious world of lyme. The more we learned, the more it was apparent we needed to make a film that could help others navigate this surreal landscape.
We began production of our new film "Under the Eightball" earlier this year. The narrative thread is my journey to find answers to this disease while also tackling the politics and clandestine history.
We would be honored if you would help with her house or if you know anyone connected to the lyme disease world, a patient, a doctor, an activist or politician please contact me ASAP.
We start shooting today!
Current mood: focused
Category: News and Politics
A movie people.... its a movie.
We start filming my first documentary entitled "Under the Eightball". It is centered around my sisters recent diagnosis of Lyme Disease and our (my family) dealing with its affects.
We are also going to be tearing into the possible causes of this disease. we have a small crew this time to keep us as mobile as possible. We will be in Maryland, DC, NY, Conn. and Mass throughout August. if anyone would like to help out with production or has any info that may be helpful Or if you'd just like to meet please feel free to write.
Lyme is a seriously disturbing ailment that is far too often misdiagnosed as a litany of other diseases, leaving it mistreated. Some times, often resulting in unnecessary death.
I don't feel this was a naturally occurring... that lyme evolved, by itself into an incredibly efficient biological assassin. I believe it was created, or at te very least coaxed into its current form.
You decide.... Whatever happens the truth remains, the owners of the company store will NOT give it up. They just hire a new puppet, a new manager, a new sedative....... A new hero. This is where the "cult of personality" pays off for those that have invested so much into it in the last 70 years. YES WE CAN!! Control the population of the world through economic pressure points.
Im sorry... really I wanted to believe, Maybe he is real .... but the company he works for wants me to get a job I hate to buy things I dont need with credit my children wont be able to pay off.
Many of our watchdogs, like cliff Kincaidare now suggesting that this is the time to start really examining the new fad of "Obama-mania." Senator Obama recently sponsored a bill called then Global Poverty Act which would cost 845 billion dollars over a 13 yr period. Money would tentatively be raised by adding a tax on gasoline.The author questions the wisdom at a time when there is already widespread poverty in places like New Orleans, the Bronx and Detroit. And then there is the Obama's troubling connection to "Zbigniew Brzezinski,along with David Rockefeller, the co-founders/directors of the Trilateral Commission, a group, an institution, that openly declares itself a supranational government on their website, is going to have their very own puppet to play with, as well as massive powers that Bush signed onto," according to TotalReality 2012. Actually it was my friends in the black community who alerted me to Obama's connections with Zbigniew Brzezinski, one of his proposed National security advisor,and of course, his daughter Mita Brzezinski, MSNBC news anchor. The other national security advisors are " Anthony Lake, Dr.Susan Rice and Robert O. Malley" who apparently have little interest in protecting Israel, according to Martin Peretz, an Obama supporter Frank Chapman, a CPUSA supporter has compared Obama to a "revolutionary mole" America News Journal in a post to the communist Party newspaper hailing the Obama victory. Also, Austan D. Goolsbee, economic Professor from U. chicago, is Obama's economic advisor, according to Universal Seduction and has recommended only counseling for foreclosure victims, not a freeze. So this is a little peculiar, given that his Global Poverty Act wants to send 845 billion abroad.
INSTRUCTIONS: Once you've been tagged, you have to post a blog giving 10 random facts about you, then to continue it on, tag 10 people and tell why you tagged them. Be sure to post a comment to those 10 saying "You've been tagged!"
1. I wanted to be a cowboy when I was about 6. I had green chaps and killer boots.
2. I was in a band that played to a sold out crowd at Harpos in Detroit. 3500 people on a hot summer night. The air-conditioner overloaded the transformer to the building blowing it up.... No more ventilation. It was 115 degrees on stage when a fan brought us what looked like water. yep, you guessed it Tequilla. It was the opposite of refreshing.
3. I wrote a sci-fi story when I was in fourth grade detailing the overthrow of mankind by military robots run amok. My teacher was baffled.... and a little scared.
4. Ive never felt a greater sense of purpose than the moment my daughter look into my eyes for the first time.
5. When I was young I used to dream of being older, like where I am now. I was with a woman and we lived near water, and it was always filled with joy. 11 years ago I moved to a city on the shores of lake michigan. two and half years ago I met her.... her name is Breanne, and I know joy.
6. I tried to kill myself when I was 26. good thing I fucked that up too.... ha! death! you're a bitch!
7. I was in France and on the last night I used all my remaining french money trying to find a french whore, just so I could know what she smelled like. I may never know...
8. I have spent far too much time fearing what others may or may not think of me. I still do a little.
9. I have been on three continents and plan on seeing four more.
10. My next movie will win an oscar.......
My tags are my best friends... breanne now.with.50%more.smartass Tits McGee Gabe morey Some Call Me "Tim" S ryan mf T hecKtör Dangüs, esq. charles & johanna
Currently
listening
:
Remain in Light
By
Talking Heads
Release date: 25 October, 1990
Hey check out this band I was in last year. Thats me playing bass.
The songs on the site are from an album that was going to be called "Public Education". Or "Rock Out With Your Cop Out" The songs are about a year old. Tip toe is about the wiretapping and eavesdropping, home-made bomb is about, well.... As is Bush Dienasty, Trust fund brat is well... check out the pic by the song. Yep thats the man in charge of the most powerful nation on earth, we're fucked. Let me know what you think.
Untraceable.... looks like propaganda
Current mood: disgusted
Category: Movies, TV, Celebrities
This is nothing less than fear conditioning. In light of Senate bill S.1959, the "homegrown terrorist" bill which is widely considered a fatal blow to the first amendment, a film like this, now, is a sales pitch to people who are not aware of the depth of its intent. They will see this and see it not as fiction, but a truth that is happening now. The effect will be public support, or at the very least, an apathetic unwillingness to believe S.1959 is not necessary thereby supporting it .
Think I'm off base? Go rent "Live Free or Die Hard" or "Death of a President" pop it in and watch. But don't just get into the plot and let calgon take you away, listen to the phrases being used. Listen to the overt damming of dissenting opinion. Listen to the fear spread thick between the sugar coated action sequences and dramatic embraces. Listen to the people sitting in the row behind you buy in.
In the early part of the century we had what was called "Yellow Journalism" which were stories written and published to herd public opinion in a certain direction. Usually toward naked aggression on an undeserving people. This was the time of Hearst, which brought us the sinking of the Maine with 262 service men aboard in Havana harbor . The press continued the push with foundationless reports of "Death Camps" and "mass graves" replete with illustrations. The public bought it. We went to war.
Sound familiar?
Welcome to "Yellow Cinema", and yes once again ideals and popular consensus are the goal. This time the unconscionable recipient of smack-talking rumor mill resulting in the flagging and possible need for "questioning" or worse.... is reading this now.
The public will buy it. They'll go to war.
-SCK!!!!!!
Currently
watching
:
Citizen Kane Release date: 25 September, 2001
Countries, like people, make friends with others one at a time. This is a story of one failure. In fairness to an unknown visitor to our country, imagine yourself in his place. The scene is on a recent Amtrak trip between New York City and Boston. The conductor collects tickets, requests identification, folds destination stubs into seatbacks, moves on to other cars. An older man across the aisle, traveling alone, shows his passport. It is clear from their conversation he doesn't know English.
After decades as a frequent traveler, I have thousands of pictures -- scenery, buildings, people, architecture, from around the world. Today the train passes a lovely stretch of Connecticut shore, tidal marshes, nesting ospreys, the Long Island Sound. What little attention I pay as the visitor takes pictures, is that I'm impressed with his equipment. He and I, unknown to each other, are members of a picture-taking culture, fellow citizens of a show-and-tell world. I wonder if his will join the thousands on YouTube. I imagine, after his return home, how many friends he will impress with stories and pictures of this mild, early autumn, Saturday morning journey along the New England shoreline.
The train is a half hour west of New Haven when the conductor, having finished her original rounds, reappears. She moves down the aisle, looks, stops between our seats, faces the person taking pictures. "Sir, in the interest of national security, we do not allow pictures to be taken of or from this train." He starts, "I……." but, without English, his response trails off into silence. The conductor, speaking louder, forcefully: "Sir, I will confiscate that camera if you don't put it away." Again, little response. "Sir, this is a security matter! We cannot allow pictures." She turns away abruptly and, as she moves down the aisle, calls over her shoulder, in a very loud voice, "Put. It. Away!" He packs his camera.
Within a minute after our arrival in New Haven, two armed police officers entered the car, approached my neighbor's seat. "Sir, we're removing you from this train." "I….;" "I……" "Sir, you have breached security regulations. We must remove you from this train." "I…," "I….." "Sir, we are not going to delay this train because of you. You will get off, or we will remove you physically." "I….."
Nearby passengers stir. One says, "It's obvious he doesn't speak English. There are people here who speak more than one language. Perhaps we can help." Different ones ask about the traveler's language; learn he speaks Japanese. For me, a sudden flash of memory -- a student at International Christian University in Japan, I took countless pictures without arousing suspicion.
The police speak through the interpreter, with the impatience of authority. "The conductor asked this man three times to discontinue. We must remove him from the train." The traveler hears the translation, is befuddled. Hidden beneath the commotion is a cross-cultural drama. With the appearance of police officers, this quiet visitor is embarrassed to find he is the center of attention. The officers explain, "After we remove him from the train, when we are through our investigation, we will put him on the next train." The woman translates. The passenger replies, "I'm meeting relatives in Boston. They cannot be reached by phone. They expect me and will be worried when I do not arrive on schedule." "Our task," the police repeat, "is to remove you from this train. If necessary, we will do so by force. After we have finished the investigation, we'll put you on another train." The woman translates. The traveler gathers his belongings and departs.
My earlier suggestion that you imagine being in his place leaves you free to respond and draw your conclusions. Remember: you've been removed from the train, are being interrogated, perhaps having your equipment confiscated; while I continue to do what I take for granted – traveling unimpeded, on to Providence.
The more I replay the scene, the more troublesome it is. It is the stuff of nightmares. Relations between people and countries lie at the heart of the issue. The abstract terms that inform political and social debate appear, as if in person, unexpectedly, near enough to hear, touch, feel. Taking no position is not an option. As an educator, I would prepare and deliver a lecture on how others perceive America in the world community, then seek an audience. I'll spare you. But -- I just watched armed police officers remove a visitor from the train for taking pictures. I don't understand this. I'm disturbed – no, shaken – to bear witness to these events. Other passengers react with surprise and anger. "Since when is it illegal to take pictures?" "Nobody's ever bothered me about it." "Is the only photography allowed from the space station and Google Earth? These people take pictures of everything, including my house, without my permission, and they're instantly available on the internet." An older traveler reflected, "I witnessed this personally in police states during the war in Europe."
In The Terror Presidency, Jack Goldsmith says it is right for a country to meet a threat in a way that keeps us safe, but must also "minimize unnecessary intrusion on …life, liberty and property.... and all those who are enjoying them with us." One passenger asked, "Would someone please explain the threat posed by taking pictures from the train?"
In Matt Stoller's review of A Tragic Legacy, he says the current administration has "transformed the way (people) speak about our country and its role in the world." The good-versus-evil mentality has "altered the political system of our country" and our relationship with the rest of the world – in ways which are "inappropriate for a modern power in a time of global turmoil."
It doesn't take more than five minutes, in any airport in this country, before I hear the loudspeaker, "The current terror threat is elevated." We hear "terror" endlessly – traveling, at home, on television, in the news. Recent political campaigns have reminded – no, badgered – us, to be very afraid. What did Franklin Roosevelt say, that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself." Terror. Paranoia. We can no longer differentiate between terrors. Is this our generation's enlightened contribution to American culture?
Watching police escort a visitor off the train, I felt anger, not comfort. This action was beyond irritating. It is intolerable, unacceptable. If it bothered me, it paled in comparison to the way it inconvenienced, and will long trouble, this visitor to our country. We disrupted his travel plans and family reunion. Even greater than the psychological damage we inflicted is the harm we've done to ourselves. We missed an opportunity to show kindness, to be ambassadors of goodwill. The visitor will return home. He will indeed impress many people – not with pleasant memories and pictures of a quiet morning trip along the New England coast, but with a story of being removed and detained by American police for taking pictures. Do we imagine we've gained anything because a single visitor returns home with stories of mistreatment?
We engage in diplomacy whenever we have contact with visitors or travel abroad ourselves. If we conduct ourselves poorly as daily ambassadors, it is no wonder our country suffers a tarnished relationship with the world.
Joel Merchant is a teacher, business consultant, and essayist. He is currently working on "The Other Side of Time; Letters to My Daughter" at a-reminiscence. original post @episcopalcafe.com/daily/war_and_peace/every_day_diplomacy.php
Currently
listening
:
Maxinquaye
By
Tricky
Release date: 18 April, 1995
Okay I have this idea. We need to get George Soros, Mark Cuban, Rosie O'donnell and Arron Russo to sponsor a NASCAR! It would be car #911 with infowars.com and prisonplanet.tv logos on it. Just to add a bit of irony to this we could first print the constitution and then layer our sponsors over it, it may be lost but then again.... It would definitely reach a COMPLETELY NEW demograph. The best part is.... It would be driven by Mohamed W Bilder-christ. AKA the OWL, or the all-seeing EYE!
it is funny, of course, but it would work. it would propel this movement into the spotlight and make it possible for those who are, figuratively, behind enemy lines. Those people who feel the walls of the matrix but feel its "just them". Think of it as the NASCAR airlift, dropping huge boxes of info and hope to those will use it and disseminate the message.
And just think of all the merchandise that would go into Walmart... That would be worth it alone.
Bringing democracy to the Imperial States of America -SCK!!!!!
How To Resist the Federal Income Tax Through the "Don't Owe Nothin'" Method
Introduction Is this method right for you? How The DON Method works Path 1: Get your income out of the "taxable income" category Path 2: Use credits to eliminate your tax liability Do the math! Make the adjustment! Conclusion and Example I. INTRODUCTION
This "howto" guide is designed to introduce you to a way to stop paying federal income tax in the United States, legally and by-the-book, by keeping your taxable income low and by qualifying for certain credits. I call this "The DON Method" (short for "Don't Owe Nothin'").
This guide is for people who are considering tax resistance but aren't sure how to go about it. It may also be useful to people who simply want to pay less federal income tax, whatever their motives.
Disclaimer
IMPORTANT: This guide was last updated in 2006 and is based on my understanding of tax law at that time. Tax law changes from year to year, and so my understanding may not be up-to-date. I am not an attorney, an accountant or a tax expert. I'm sharing what I know, or what I think I know, and you'd be wise to get a second opinion on anything you read here from someone who really knows what they're talking about.
THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THERE IS NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) ANY WARRANTY OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT. THIS DOCUMENT IS INTENDED TO PROVIDE GENERAL INFORMATION AND IS NOT INTENDED TO BE APPLIED TO ANY PARTICULAR FACTS NOR TO SERVE AS LEGAL ADVICE. NEITHER THE PUBLISHER NOR THE AUTHOR IS RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY ERRORS OR OMISSIONS OR FOR ANY CONSEQUENCES OF ANY RELIANCE ON THIS DOCUMENT.
Why I wrote this
Here's a brief history of how I got interested in this subject and why I thought it was important to create this guide:
In March of 2003 I decided to stop paying the federal income tax because I did not want to fund the government's activities. I decided to do this by lowering my taxable income and taking credits that reduced my tax burden to zero — what I'm calling "The DON Method."
I was surprised to discover that I could earn quite a bit of income, and live very comfortably, without paying federal income tax and without having to go up against the IRS. I could play by the IRS's own rules and still pay nothing.
I was also surprised to learn that the tax resistance movements have downplayed the effectiveness of this method and exaggerated its difficulty. If you read the most up-to-date war tax resistance literature, for instance, you'd have the impression that you'd have to live well below the poverty line in order to practice The DON Method — and this is far from true!
Links:
Dave Gross: The Picket Line National War Tax Resistance Coordinating Committee War Resisters League: What is War Tax Resistance? The Growing Class of Americans Who Pay No Federal Income Taxes II. IS THIS METHOD RIGHT FOR YOU?
There are many, many methods of tax resistance being practiced today. None of them can claim to be the right method for everybody. The method you choose will depend on your situation and on what you hope to achieve by tax resistance. I cover only The DON Method in this guide.
Questions You Should Ask
Before deciding on a method of tax resistance, you should ask yourself some questions about your situation, your motives, and your goals. For instance:
"Do I want to stop paying all federal income taxes, or just taxes that pay for things I disapprove of?" Some people don't object to being taxed by the government, they just object to how the government spends some of that money. Some war tax resisters, for instance, aren't opposed to taxes on principle, but object to the gigantic military budget. Some of these people protest by trying not to pay only that percentage of their taxes that goes to military spending. Others avoid paying taxes altogether, but then voluntarily pay a portion of what they would have paid in taxes for things of community benefit that they feel the government underfunds. The DON Method is more appropriate to people who want to stop paying any federal income tax at all.
The DON Method is only designed to eliminate your federal income tax burden, though. You'll still be paying other taxes — for instance the payroll (FICA) tax. If you want to avoid these taxes also, you'll have to choose another method or supplement this method.
"Would I be comfortable living on less money?" And if so, how much less? For many people it is possible to avoid paying federal income tax without living on much less. About one person in three who files an income tax return today is already living under the tax threshold. But if you're used to earning and spending a lot of money, or if you have debts or other obligations that require you to earn and spend a lot of money, the DON Method might not work for you. Read on, though, because you may be surprised at how much you can earn and still be practicing DON.
"Am I willing to break the law?" If not, don't worry — DON is legal. But if you are willing to break the law, there are other tax resistance options you might find appealing. For instance, you could supplement The DON Method by earning income under-the-table in the romantically-named "underground economy." Or you could hide your income in sneaky trusts and offshore accounts. Or you could file returns that falsely state your income and claim deductions and credits that you don't actually qualify for. The sky's the limit. Of course, you run the risk of getting caught and so forth.
"Do I want to fight for currently unrecognized interpretations of tax law?" and "Am I willing to risk the wrath of the IRS & courts?" Some people use methods that aren't black-and-white illegal, but are certainly not approved of by the authorities. For instance, some people claim that they can't pay taxes because they are obeying a higher law like the Nuremberg Principles. Others claim that the income tax isn't a legal obligation at all because no law authorizing it was correctly passed, or because such a law is unconstitutional. The IRS and the courts are not sympathetic to methods like these, but they occasionally meet with some limited success. The advantage of methods like these is that you earn as much income as you like, you don't have to fuss about deductions and credits, and you still don't pay any taxes. The disadvantage is that the government may eventually crush you like a grape.
The DON Method is not like these methods. The DON Method is done by playing by the IRS's own rules as it defines them.
"Is it important that my tax resistance be a protest — a confrontation with the government — and not just a personal act?" and "Do I want to stop cooperating with the government in every way?" Because The DON Method is done by-the-book and according-to-the-rules, some people feel that it doesn't adequately express their opposition to the government.
If your blood pressure goes up every time someone asks for your Social Security number or some bureaucrat asks you to fill out a form, you'll probably resent the paperwork and the attention to the law that is required to get the most out of The DON Method. (But it's really not all that bad, I promise).
It is certainly possible to combine The DON Method with another form of protest that is more confrontational. But if you don't think the government has any right to make you choose between carefully regulating your income and paying it taxes — or to force you to make a yearly confession of your income and expenditures in the first place — this might make you want to resist taxation in a more in-your-face manner.
Links:
AlterNet: War Tax Resistance Made Simple War Resisters League: How to Resist War Taxes AlterNet: The "New" (underground) Economy III. How The DON Method Works
To summarize, The DON Method works by taking two paths simultaneously. It starts by noticing that the federal income tax isn't designed to tax all of your income, just your "taxable income." So path #1 involves removing as much of your income as possible from the "taxable income" category.
Once you've done this, you'll end up with a certain amount of "taxable income" and a certain amount of tax owed on it. But that's not the end of the story. This tax can be offset, eliminated or even reversed into a "refund" by using various credits. Path #2 is qualifying for these credits.
Then, once you run the numbers and figure out how much money you can earn and spend without owing taxes, you need to take a look at your lifestyle and your goals and adjust them if necessary so that you're living in your means at this income level.
That's it, in a nutshell. The remainder of this guide will go into this in greater detail. By the end of the guide you should have enough to go on that you can investigate for yourself if The DON Method will work for you.
IV. Path 1: Get Your Income Out of the "Taxable Income" Category
In the course of filling out a 1040 form, your "income" cascades through several levels, changing a little each time. The major levels are from income to "total income," from "total income" to "adjusted gross income," and finally from "adjusted gross income" to "taxable income."
From income to "total income"
Income, in the abstract, is just whatever money you brought in over the course of the year. But "income" according to the IRS is not so simple.
Some income is invisible to the tax man. For instance, if you had money deducted from your paycheck to go into a 401k retirement account or a Health Savings Account — that is money you earned, but the IRS doesn't include it in this year's income.
There are other ways to shield your money from taxes. At my last job, for instance, I had money withheld from my paycheck to buy my bus and subway passes, and this money like my 401k contributions did not register as part of my "total income."
Keep your eye out for opportunities like this. If you're on the payroll somewhere, ask around to find out what pre-tax contributions you're eligible to make. Consider switching to a variety of health insurance that qualifies for Health Savings Accounts.
Your "total income" also includes any "capital gains" you might have made during the year — for instance, if you sold stock or property at a profit. On the other hand, if you sold stock at a loss you can subtract this loss when calculating the "total income" (up to $3,000 — don't worry if you lost more than this because you can save up the rest of the loss to use in future tax years).
Similarly if you run your own business, the business loss or gain gets figured into your "total income." Some tax resisters find that starting a home business is a good way of helping to regulate income — in years when income gets too high, they invest more in the business and take a business loss; in years when other income is low, they put more effort into making their home business profitable. You can't run your home business at a loss every year, though, or the IRS will decide that what you've got isn't a business so much as a hobby, and your deduction will go away.
Among the other things that get added to your income are interest, dividends, alimony, and unemployment compensation.
This is just a brief introduction to some of the ways your "total income" is calculated. I haven't gone into it in much detail because I'm really not qualified to go into specifics about how business expenses are handled (for instance) and such a discussion would be too long for the purpose of this guide.
From "total income" to "adjusted gross income"
By "adjusted" they mean "lowered" because all of the adjustments are deductions (so use as many of these as you can). Your "adjusted gross income" is what is used to calculate some of the credits that I cover in "Path 2" below — and the lower it is, the better. For myself, the key to qualifying for credits that brought my taxes down to zero was to get my "adjusted gross income" under $15,000.
One of the best of these deductions is for a tax-deferred Individual Retirement Account (IRA) — not only because the money you put in (up to $4,000) is deducted right away from your "total income" but because by putting money in a retirement account, you can qualify for a generous credit (which I'll cover in the "Path 2" section below). Beware, though, that there are forms of IRA, such as the "Roth IRA," that aren't tax-deferred and that won't lower your adjusted gross income. Ask about the tax ramifications before you invest.
You can also "adjust" up to $4,000 off of your income by spending money on tuition for higher education. Take a night-school class at the local university and you can deduct the price of your tuition from your "total income." (Do a little research to find out what fees other than tuition also qualify for this deduction, and what kind of schools qualify). You may also be able to set aside money for your child's higher education in a tax-deferred account.
If you run your own business or are otherwise self-employed, you may be able to take a number of deductions here on things like your health insurance costs, and part of the cost of your payroll taxes (FICA). If instead you're working for someone else, and you had to move to a new home closer to work to get the job, you can deduct some of the moving expenses.
Other deductions are available for interest paid on student loans and on educational supplies bought by teachers. These aren't the only deductions, and I haven't covered any of them in much depth or detail. It's just an overview to give you a feel for what is available.
From "adjusted gross income" to "taxable income"
There are two remaining deductions: the personal exemption, and the itemized or standard deduction. Once these are subtracted, you are left with your "taxable income."
The personal exemption is just a certain amount of income that the law lets you have tax-free, no questions asked. Don't get too excited — it's only a little over $3,000. You also get a similarly-sized exemption for each of your dependents.
The standard deduction is similar, and somewhat larger, but you have the option of either taking it or "itemizing." By itemizing, you can take a whole mess of deductions for things like charitable donations, medical expenses, interest paid on loans, job expenses, tax preparation fees, and such. Even so, for a lot of people, the standard deduction is higher than their itemized deductions would be, so they're better off taking the standard deduction instead. (About one-third of filers itemize rather than taking the standard deduction.)
Once you've made these two deductions, you have your "taxable income" and you can look at the table in the back of the tax booklet to find out how much you're supposed to pay up. But don't get out the checkbook yet because you're only half-done.
Wait a minute — what about the "alternative minimum tax?"
In order to keep rich people from getting away with taking a lot of deductions and not paying any taxes (in other words to make sure that you can't make too much money while doing The DON Method), the "alternative minimum tax" was invented.
If your "adjusted gross income" was up above the $40,000 range, you may have to worry about this. However, if it was that high, you're probably not going to slip under the tax line anyway, so I'm not going to cover this in any more detail here. For most everybody using The DON Method, the "alternative minimum tax" won't be an issue.
Links:
IRS: Types of Income IRS: Adjustments to Income IRS: Itemized Deductions IRS: Alternative Minimum Tax V. Path 2: Use Credits to Eliminate Your Tax Liability
There are a handful of ways you can get tax credits. These credits are not deductions that are subtracted from your income, but they are subtracted directly from the tax you would otherwise owe. For instance, if you looked up your taxable income in the tax table and found that you should owe $750, but you qualify for a $500 credit — that credit is subtracted directly from the owed tax: $750 - $500 = $250.
Among these credits is one for education expenses (but note you can either take this credit or the deduction on tuition I mentioned in "Path 1" above — not both). Another gives you a credit for income tax you've paid to a foreign government. Another gives you a credit if you spent money on child care or dependent care. You also get a per-child "Child Tax Credit" — and that is higher now than it has been in recent years. My favorite credit, though (childless as I am), is the retirement savings credit.
Remember how when you put money into a 401k or an IRA, you were able to deduct that amount from your income before calculating your tax? Well now it gets better. You can take a certain percentage of the first $2,000 you put into retirement accounts as a credit. If your "adjusted gross income" is under $15,000, that percentage is 50%, and your credit is as much as $1,000, which is guaranteed to drop your tax burden down to zero. That's how I did it.
The "Earned Income Tax Credit" is a special creature. Most other credits allow you, at best, to lower your tax to zero. The Earned Income Tax Credit allows you to lower your tax below zero so that the government actually owes you money.
In order to qualify for this, your adjusted gross income has to be very low (but you must have earned some income during the year). It's also easier to qualify if you have at least one dependent child. Millions of people do qualify for the EITC (and many of them fail to take advantage of it), but it does typically require having a very low income — lower than is strictly necessary for The DON Method.
Links:
IRS: Tax Credits IRS: Earned Income Credit VI. Do the Math!
There's only one way for you to find out if you can use the DON Method to eliminate your federal income tax burden. There is no substitute for sitting down and doing the math yourself or with the help of a professional.
The IRS has some helpful information at their web site and a toll-free phone line for answering tax-related questions at 1-800-829-1040. If you're adventurous, you can create a computer spreadsheet to simulate your tax return, or you can obtain some software designed for the purpose, or sit down with a tax specialist to run the numbers.
Try out some different combinations of earnings, deductions and credits to find out which would work best for you, and then, based on that, figure out what your budget would be for the year if you were to follow through on that plan.
Links:
IRS: Help Available VII. Make the Adjustment!
You'll probably find that to use The DON Method, you won't have to lower your income as much as you expected. But you may find that you do have to lower your income, or that because you'll be spending or saving some of it in particular ways in order to qualify for deductions and credits that there is less left over than you're accustomed to.
At this point you can either throw up your hands and cry out "how could I live on so little?" or you can settle down and actually try to figure out how.
Keep in mind that what looks low to you probably looks like a fortune to the majority of people on earth — and that it probably doesn't look all that bad to many of your fellow Americans either. Remember that about a third of the people who file taxes in the U.S. are living under the federal income tax line, many just because they don't make a lot of money — not because they've made a special effort to do DON.
What would it take for you to live on less? It's probably just a matter of spending less and spending more wisely. Maybe you have to work to get out of debt first, or maybe you have to give up an expensive habit or hobby. Or it may be more extreme: you may have to move to a less expensive home and change your lifestyle fairly radically. Or maybe you have to convince your spouse or children to go along with your crazy plan first. Whatever that next step is, it's probably something you can start working on today.
Additional Benefits of a Reduced Income
You may find that there are other benefits to paying closer attention to your spending and regulating your income. You may find that although your income goes down, your hourly wage rises — you'll be making more per hour because you're not giving a cut to the government. You may also find that you don't have to work as much as you used to — you can take more time off to do things you want to do.
You'll probably also find that your state income tax falls to nothing or nearly nothing. You may discover that by lowering your spending, you're participating in a "voluntary simplicity" lifestyle that decreases your environmental footprint and reduces the influence of superficial consumerism in your life. If you're a follower of Jesus, you may come to fear less his warning that "It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Money is taxed not only as income, but also can be taxed when you spend it (as excise taxes), and then again when some of it turns into profit where you spent it, and then again when that profit is used to pay more taxable wages or buy more taxed goods. If you spend less, you will also reduce the amount of money you're pushing through this gantlet of taxation.
Links:
The Simple Living Network Seeds of Simplicity Simple Living Money Stretchers The Dollar Stretcher Off-the-Grid Urban Living Some hands-on techniques to save resources and money VIII. Conclusion
Now you know the basics of how to legally stop paying federal income tax by lowering your taxable income and by qualifying for tax credits. And you know what to do next, in terms of research and lifestyle reassessment. To help make things more vivid, I'll conclude with a fictional example of someone practicing The DON Method.
Example:
By September, Joe Taxmenot had earned $32,500 at his job and he had $4,875 in 401k deductions deducted from his wages, along with $2,000 for his Health Savings Account to pay his insurance deductible, $300 for pre-tax commuter checks, $2,475 in FICA, and $3,850 in federal income tax. Then he decided he didn't want to pay taxes anymore and began to try to get that $3,850 back by using The DON Method.
He quit his job and started a home business doing freelance manuscript editing. He went through all of the paperwork and fees involved to get a legitimate business license, and, to get the word out about his business, he put some advertisements in magazines catering to authors and scriptwriters. By the time he'd finished with this, he'd spent $2,000 on his new business, but it started to pay off. When the magazines came out with his ads, he got his first of several freelance jobs in November, and his first check (only $150) arrived just before the end of the year.
He then sold off a bunch of dot-com stock he'd bought a few years ago. This brought in another $1,250 in income (but he'd bought the stock for $5,000 so he really got hosed — $3,750 in losses). He can take $3,000 of those capital losses as a deduction this year and save the leftover $750 for next year's taxes.
Income ($32,500) - 401k deduction ($4,875) - Health Savings Account contribution ($2,000) - commuter checks ($300) - Business Expense ($2,000) + Business Income ($150) - Capital Loss ($3,000) = $20,475 TOTAL INCOME
Joe's been lowering his expenses all year because he knew he might be quitting his job, but he's still kind of strapped for cash. He needs to put $3,000 into an IRA to make the DON method work for him, though. He does some research and discovers that the IRS will let him take credit for putting money into an IRA before he actually makes the contribution, as long as he eventually puts the money in before the April 15th tax deadline next year. So he goes ahead and declares the $3,000 contribution on his tax return in February, but waits until he gets his refund check from the IRS before he actually makes the contribution.
He also takes $2,500 worth of classes from the local university's extension course series to help with his business and editing skills.
Total Income ($20,475) - IRA ($3,000) - Tuition ($2,500) = $14,975 ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME
Joe's only able to take a single personal exemption and an ordinary standard deduction because he doesn't have any dependents and when he calculated his itemized deductions they didn't amount to much.
Adjusted Gross Income ($14,975) - Standard deduction ($5,150) - Personal exemption ($3,300) = $6,525 TAXABLE INCOME
Joe looks in the tax table for the tax on $6,525: $653. He then fills out the Retirement Savings Tax Credit form. This form says that because his Adjustable Gross Income is below $15,000, he can take 50% of the first $2,000 that he put into retirement accounts (like his 401k and IRA) as a tax credit. This is a $1,000 credit. Alas, the IRS won't let you take more of this credit than you owe in taxes, so it only eliminates the tax rather than converting it into a refund. However, Joe is satisfied and claims victory.
Joe files his return and in a few weeks gets a check for $3,850 from the federal government (and he remembers to put $3,000 of that into an IRA). Over the course of the year, he's put $7,875 away for retirement, put $2,000 away to pay his medical bills (or for retirement, if he stays healthy), spent $2,500 on university classes, and another $2,000 to get his business off the ground. Subtracting the FICA that was taken from his paycheck, that's left him $17,050 to spend however he wants, plus a business, plus some new education, plus $7,875 invested to spend in his old age and $2,000 to cover his health insurance deductible if need be. Not too shabby.
Wages ($32,500) + Stock sold ($1,250) + Business earnings ($150) - retirement savings ($7,875) - Health Savings ($2,000) - Tuition ($2,500) - Business expenses ($2,000) - FICA ($2,475) = $17,050 free-and-clear
Joe figures he can live on $17,050 next year pretty easily, and can even save up a little for a couple of years from now when he runs out of that rotten internet stock and he has to squeeze things a little tighter. He figures he'll probably be pretty good at living on the cheap by then, though.
Joe's cousin Jane earns only $19,500 a year. By the time she's paid her taxes — including over $1,000 in federal income tax — she's down under $17,050. She can't believe that Joe, who earns $13,000 more than she does, doesn't have to pay any federal income tax at all. She's going to go through the numbers herself and see if maybe she could try the DON Method too.
jedi
focused
awake
betrayed
worried
