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</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]--></head><body lang=EN-US link=blue vlink=purple><div class=WordSection1><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'>>…</span></b><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"'> <b>On Behalf Of </b>Kelly Anderson<br><b><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span></b></span><o:p></o:p></p><div><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal> <o:p></o:p></p></div><blockquote style='border:none;border-left:solid #CCCCCC 1.0pt;padding:0in 0in 0in 6.0pt;margin-left:4.8pt;margin-right:0in'><div><div><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>>>…</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Ja, but as far as I know the IRS is the only agency which has the power to deeply impact you personally, by calling you in for an audit. If they decide they don’t like you for whatever reason, I know of no avenue of appeal.</span><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'> </span><span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></div></blockquote><div><p class=MsoNormal><span style='color:#1F497D'>>…</span>While it isn't federal, the Division of Child and Family Services operates under nearly identical impunity to checks and balances. They can't take away your freedom (directly), but they can take away your children<span style='color:#1F497D'>…. –</span>Kelly<span style='color:#1F497D'><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Thanks Kelly. I hadn’t really thought of it that way, but you are right.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Imagine this scenario. We know that the IRS has the authority to put a padlock on the door of your business, and leave that lock there until they complete their investigation. We have seen where an investigation can die on someone’s desk for no apparent reason. Imagine you have a business and you find a lock on the front door one morning with a big NO TRESPASSING sign. You ask why. A week later you hear it is for an investigation, they will get back with you. You ask if you can go inside to water your plants. Two weeks later your receive: NO, get cacti for your office, some species can live for over a year without being watered. You ask if you might go in to feed your tropical fish in the office aquarium. Four weeks later, you receive: NO, the bigger ones will devour the smaller ones, as is the way of the world. In panicky desperation you explain that your office building houses a number of scaled-up thermos bottles which contain severed human heads; therefore you need to get inside the office to replenish the supply of liquid nitrogen, for otherwise these cryonauts will thaw and perish. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Twenty minutes later, three husky lads in white lab coats show up, introducing you to a sturdy canvas jacket with a number of buckles and straps. You are never heard from again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>I fervently request all ExI-chatters to pay close attention to what is happening in the US. I reprove myself for not paying closer attention to this back in the days when others were calling attention to it. We have gradually made a transition from paper mail (slow but very secure) to email which is now known to be impossible to completely secure. Eugen gets it, which is understandable and commendable, considering where he is from. Clearly he is one who learned from history.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>What we have seen is a part of the political spectrum which was, and is still being stifled by powerful government forces, without consequences to the agency doing the silencing. If we let this pass and do nothing, then clearly we have not learned from history. The event of modern times about which there are more books written than perhaps any other topic is the rise of a brutal dictatorship from a European democracy in one decade (Eugen, do feel free to comment.) If we sit and watch while that happens again, then all those books are words, just words, written in vain, for we have learned nothing from that bitter experience, not one goddam thing. First they came for the Tea Party, but I am not a tea bagger, so I said nothing. You can fill in the rest, but do let me note that in that progression, cryonicists, transhumanists, extropians, are all on the list of small powerless groups for which others will likely not speak up if we fail to speak up for the tea party.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>Fifty years ago next week, President Kennedy uttered the stirring words Ich bin ein Berliner! We are all Berliners now. First they came for the tea baggers.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'>spike<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div></div></div></div></div></body></html>