By your definition, sir, any person that breaks a law is hurting the country, and thus, a traitor.

If you wish to use the word “selfish”, the definition fits in with the meaning you are trying to convey, though there is room to disagree with you.

I am a free man. I will do business with whomever I want. If that bothers you so much, you can go emigrate to Cuba and live with your idealogical compadres.

Call me a traitor? Hah! I am not the ones betraying the principles of freedom written into the Declaration of Independence.

BTW, if I wanted to completely drop below the radar, I’d have to fake my death — that’s not gonna happen.

They have shown their allegiance is– not–to THE PEOPLE of these United States, but to the US Chamber of Commerce, UCLA, subversive foreign entities and of course the 40 million illegal aliens calculated by the Heritage Foundation.

The 1986 Immigration Rule of Law is the law of our land and cannot be violated. The Simpson/Mazzoli bill that was passed by legislators has been abused, even though it was drafted on behalf of the US electorate.

E-Verify is a simple, accessible system that an identify illegal labor in the workplace. Businesses who ignore the computer friendly e-verify data base and hire foreign nationals, have no excuses in federal court. They are traitors to America and should be dealt with severely. E-Verify is funded till September and must be extended forever.

We are being–HEARD– in Washington, but we must not stop the roar of outrage. 202-224-3121 To locate your Senator http://www.senate.gov/ For your Congressman http://www.house.gov/ President Obama: Switchboard: 202-456-1414 Comments: 202-456-1111 FAX: 202-456-2461

As for Going Galt, Brad — don’t you think some of us are Going Galt because we have seen this coming for a long time now?

As my co-contributor Doug has pointed out in several posts (both here and at his personal blog), I don’t think most people who claim they’re “Going Galt” are really doing so.

You may be doing so. If you’re illegally hiding your income from the state to avoid taxation, good for you. I wish I could do so. Or, if you’re actually dropping out (going the agorist route) and completely exiting the overground economy, then you’re really going Galt.

But if you’re just talking about cutting back on overtime or not expanding a business as much as you would otherwise in order to slightly reduce your tax burden, that’s a long way from what Chris is suggesting, which is opposing the state and its illegitimate activity completely.

One thing I must point out, Chris, is that you said “Agents of the state cannot exceed the legitimate authority of the state.”

I understand why you said this, Chris, and how you came to this conclusion, but the IRS has been exceeding their authority for years, up to and including directly disobeying judicial orders by seizing property to satisfy a debt even after a judge has determined that no such debt exist in the first place.

As for Going Galt, Brad — don’t you think some of us are Going Galt because we have seen this coming for a long time now?

Sorry if I sound sarcastic or rude, I do not intend to, but the House passed the Dodd Amendment because Dodd’s wife is one of the people who has received one of these bonuses, but the Media branch of the DNC doesn’t want to talk about it.

Sadly, Chris, whether this particular event crosses your line, I have a distinct feeling that government behavior in the next 1-2 decades will cross too many lines for their own good.

If it would be pushed in this manner I am sure that this bill would go by the wayside very quickly. Hit them where it hurts (their personal wallet) and finally Congress may grow a pair and stand up for what is right.

While I don’t agree with AIG giving the bonuses, that just leads to another reason of why we should have left them go bankrupt and this would have never happened. The only reason they are getting these bonuses is because the federal gov’t stepped in and kept them afloat. If they would have been allowed to go into bankruptcy court this would not have happened and the taxpayer would not be on the hook for billions of dollars to prop up a mismanaged and failing business and would not have been required to give our hard earned money to people that helped get us into this position.

This bill sounds a lot like what FDR/Hoover tried to do except they just went to all high income earners and tried to put in a extremely high punitive income tax rate. It didn’t work as they brought in less money then before. This bill actually will take us down that road as well, it will just be done more incrementally. At some point they will have to pay these bills they are racking up and for many the so-called “rich” are easy pickings and they will just raise the income tax rate on anyone making more than say $250,000 or so. This will likely not bring in any more income but they will sure feel good about passing the law. Soon they will have to bring the level down lower and lower until it reaches many in the middle class or they will let monetary inflation take care of this as more and more people move above the “so-called rich” level. We will likely have a bit of a revolt at that time and tax rates will come down. The problem, unlike in the 30′s is that we will have an enormous debt to be paid and have huge entitlement bills sitting out there as well that will need to be paid. We will be unable to lower our tax rates without cutting spending. Will we have the will to do so?

And I also fear that this attitude, as bold and moral as it is, comes too late, for a society that has tolerated the taxation of income for many decades.

For now, I think I will just start by flying my American flag in front of my house every day. I noticed that a few of my conservative neighbors are doing this. I think that flag flying is getting to be a trend for the first time since our last attack, which of course happened on 9-11. And now I believe that my neighbors are flying their flags in silent protest against those who have no use for what has made our country great.