Monsters From the Id  2/25/14 (Note to readers: This was written when we first began negotiating with the Iranians to prevent, or at least delay, their development of nuclear weapons. As this pamphlet is being printed in 2022, a new round of nuclear negotiations is underway and Iran is still ruled by Shias.  Unfortunately, our leaders are still unaware of the inherent threat nuclear-armed Mahdis pose.)   

I read recently that scientists in England are having success improving some peoples’ mathematical abilities by using mild electrical stimulation to their brains.  This reminded me of a classic sci-fi film from 1956, “Forbidden Planet.” 

The plot, in brief, has a space ship landing on a planet inhabited by only two people who arrived there sometime in the past, a mad scientist and his really ugly daughter. (Sure.)  He tells the new arrivals that the planet was once occupied by an advanced species that totally and mysteriously disappeared. 

Still intact is a vast system of power generation and a device that, when strapped to the head, either measures intelligence or, at the flip of a switch, gives the brain an intelligence boosting electrical shock.  The mad scientist had given himself the shock treatment and had barely survived, though with a newly enhanced intelligence far higher than he had prior to the shock, and far higher than any of the newcomers. 

Since mini-skirts were the craze throughout the galaxy, you don’t need to press a AA battery to your forehead to know that the inevitable soon begins to happen between daughter and Captain astronaut.  This, Papa doesn’t like, but even he doesn‘t know how much he doesn’t like it. 

As the romance blossoms, the astronauts come under ever more ferocious attacks by invisible beings.  Just when the end looks near, one of the astronauts puts on the headset, gives himself an intelligence shock, and, sure enough, it does him in.  Before dying, he whispers that the jolt gave him the insight on their dilemma, namely, that they were being attacked by “monsters from the Id.” 

Back in those days, Freudian psychology had captured the public imagination, so many in the audience were probably familiar with the mad scientist’s explanation when asked what the Id was:  “It’s an obsolete term once used to describe the elementary basis of the subconscious mind.” 

Think of the Id as the source of the survival instinct, the kill-or-be-killed reaction, the unreasoning source of hate, lust, and fear.  This, of course, is immediately understood by our hero-lover-astronaut, who sees the source of all their troubles in the subconscious of the mad scientist father, who fears losing his daughter. Of more importance, the father has the intelligence to command the vast power of the forbidden planet through telekinetic abilities he doesn’t know he has, can‘t control, and which will lead to their total destruction. 

I won’t bother you with the ending, other than to say it is an apt metaphor for our times.  The technology to destroy ourselves, as happened to the original inhabitants of the Forbidden Planet, is spreading rapidly, and we remain little more than intelligent apes, prone to primitive, tribal emotions that may not have been so dangerous in the past, though disastrous enough. 

Who would deny that Hitler was a monster from the Id?  Furthermore, he Pied- Pipered the whole nation to follow him.  Up until they started losing the war, the German people adored Adolph Hitler, the Id monster. Just look at the young ladies in the crowds from 1930’s documentaries.  Elvis never had such “love.“ 

Furthermore, and this is the really scary part, a disinterested Martian paying us a visit in 1910, if asked to pick the most advanced, civilized, prosperous society on earth, would probably have picked Germany. Fast forward 25-30 years: Behold! German monsters from the Id run rampant. What if Hitler had possessed nuclear weapons? 

There are three facts of life I wish were not true, but are: 

1) Monsters from the Id will always be with us. 

2) The spread of WMD means we cannot afford the luxury of a Neville “Peace in our time” Chamberlain. 

3) Neville Chamberlains will always be with us. 

In a MAD age, an age of mutually assured destruction, there is hope that the monsters from the Id will be held in check by angels from the superego and reason from the ego — to exhaust my Freud —but, and this is very relevant, what if a nuclear armed monster from the Id is suicidal?   

I am thinking of the Muslim sect known as Mahdaviats, Shia Muslims who believe the world will be saved by the Twelfth Imam, also known as the Mahdi, who disappeared in the ninth century and will return to save a world descended into chaos and destruction.  Shia Muslims rule Iran and Iran is developing nuclear weapons.  

President Obama once said we needn’t worry about Musim’s using nuclear weapons because that would be “against their religion.”  He couldn’t have been more mistaken. In fact, some Mahdaviats believe it is their religious duty to hasten the Imam’s return by creating the chaos required.  In such a world, MAD is not a deterrent but an encouragement. Monsters from the Id, indeed. 

Iranian President Mahmoud Amadinejad ordered the widening of a boulevard in Tehran to accommodate the triumphal return of the Twelfth Imam.  Why would he do such a thing? He is no longer president, but the new Iranian President, Hasan Rouhani, in a speech last May, said: “Saying ‘Death to America’ is easy. We need to express ’Death to America’ with action.”  

The Iranians say they are not trying to build nuclear weapons, and even if true for now, their long-range intentions are very suspect. They’ve been waiting for the Mahdi for over 11 centuries. A few more years, or decades, to gather the means to start the final confrontation with the Satanic West is of little import. 

The number one question: if they obtain nuclear weapons, will they then think they have a religious imperative to use them?  If so, preemptive war is the only rational course of action. 

Question number two, maybe it’s really number one: Do we have the moral courage for such a course of action? 

Slandering The Prophet  4/26/15 (Revised posting 3/22/22. Note: The original was NOT posted in the Grant County Beat because the editor/owner feared physical retaliation from Muslims!) 

SLANDER: Verb: 1. Make false and damaging statements about (someone).   Synonyms: defame (someone’s character), blacken someone’s name, tell lies about, speak ill/evil of, sully someone’s reputation, libel, smear, cast aspersions on, spread scandal about, besmirch, tarnish, taint, malign, traduce, vilify, disparage, denigrate – 

President Obama is not shy about displaying his ignorance of Islam.  My favorite is his assertion that Iran wouldn’t obtain nuclear weapon because “it would be contrary to their faith,”(1) which couldn’t be more wrong. (See: Monsters from the Id.) A close second is when he addressed the UN and said: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam.”(2) 

I’ve been thinking about how one could slander Muhammad given Muhammad’s well documented history of atrocities. The fact that he has inspired, quite literally, billions of people to think he was following God’s commands makes him, in my opinion, the worst human being who ever lived. His documented life and his opus magnum, The Koran, are my proofs. 

One of his most egregious atrocities was his raid against the Jewish village of Banu Qurayza. After 25 days of siege, those who did not convert to Islam were persuaded to surrender in the belief their fate would be determined by a person Muhammad had chosen to pronounce judgement, someone they thought was an ally. 

This “ally” then ruled that “the men should be killed, the property divided, and the women and children taken as captives.”  The prisoners were brough to Medina where Muhammad had trenches dug. “Then he sent for them and struck off their heads in those trenches as they were brought out to him in batches.  — There were 600 or 700 in all, though some put the figure as high as 800 or 900.” (3) 

The above example, and hundreds more, are why knowledgeable, decent people fervently hoping the future will not belong to those who PRAISE the prophet of Islam.  Unfortunately, the Koran commands all Muslims to do just that: “You have indeed in the Messenger of Allah a beautiful pattern (of conduct) for any one whose hope is in Allah and the Final Day, and who engages much in the praise of Allah.” (4) 

That means “struck off their heads” is not just Seventh Century butchery but is a “beautiful pattern of conduct” for Muslims forever. When ISIS posts beheadings on the Internet, they’re not being fanatical or radical: they are being devout.  

I’ve thought of a few “slanderous” things to say about the Prophet of Islam, but first, I need to make an important distinction: In Islamic law slander is anything that offends a Muslim, regardless if true or not. That’s how Muhammad defined slander, so it is therefore true forever. If you tell a falsehood about someone, Muhammad said then “you have calumniated him.” (5)    

“Calumniated?” Maybe Muhammad wasn’t quite as illiterate as he wanted his followers to believe. Ooops! I may have just slandered Muslims. Below is a list of slanders by our definition, calumnies if you are a Muslim. These are off the top of my head. I’m sure there are more, but these should be enough to ensure that I don’t suffer ownership of the future. 

Muhammad: -loved Jews -loved music -loved dogs  -loved homosexuals -opposed slavery -believed women should have equal rights with men -taught tolerance toward all religions -believed in monogamy -counseled peace with unbelievers, not war -believed in the separation of church and state -was humble and modest -treated prisoners with compassion and mercy -tolerated criticism of himself or his teachings  

Footnotes: 

(1) White House speech during conference on violent extremism. http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/02/20/obama-islam-woven-into-the-fabric-of-our-country-since-founding/ 

(2) Address to the U.N. General Assembly, September 25, 2012. 

(3) Ibn Ishaq, The Life of Muhammad, A. Guillaume translation, Oxford University Press, 1967, pg. 461 – 464. 

(4) The Qur’an, Yusif Ali translation, verse 33.21 

(5) Reliance of the Traveller, A classic Manual of Islamic Law, pg. 732. 

Would the world be better off with no Jews, or with no Muslims? By Peter Burrows 3/8/22 elburropete@gmail.com 

In the Koran, which is the eternal and infallible word of God, we are told that Jews and Christians are “the worst of creatures.” God then tells us that Muslims are the “best of creatures.” Elsewhere in the Koran, God clarifies that Muslims are not just the best relative to Jews and Christians, but that Muslims are “the best of people ever raised up for mankind.” 

God also tells us that between Jews and Christians, it is the Jews who are “the most hostile” to Muslims while Christians “are closest to feeling affection” for Muslims. Thus, of the two “worst of creatures,” God leaves no doubt that the worst of the worst are the Jews. 

These revelations, some 1400 years ago, came at the beginning of Islam while Judaism had been around for hundreds of years.  The Jews obviously far outnumbered the Muslims then, but Muslims are fierce proselytizers, and in only a decade or two they outnumbered the Jews, who are anything but fierce proselytizers.  Today, the world population of Muslims is about 1.8 billion and the Jews only about 15.2 million, a ratio of over 100 to one.  

The Koran, however, does not say that Muslims were destined to be the MOST people, but that they are, and always will be, the BEST people. Since the Allah of Islam is all-knowing, all-wise, omniscient and omnipotent, surely after 1400 years He has enabled His Muslims to achieve a stunning array of achievements.   

At the very least, we should see these achievements reflected in the number of Nobel Prizes received by Muslims.  The Nobel Prize has been awarded since 1901 for accomplishments in physics, chemistry, and medicine. Economics was added in 1968. These are what I call the objective prizes. The two subjective prizes are for literature and peace.  

Since 1901, 609 Nobel Prizes have been awarded to 975 people (prizes are frequently awarded to joint efforts) and Muslims have received – Drum Roll Please – THIRTEEN!! Of those, only three were in the sciences, seven were Peace Prizes, three for literature. None of those were awarded to Saudi Arabians, who have preserved the holy cities of Mecca and Medina for 1400 years and could be considered the best of the best. In fact, not one Saudi has even been nominated for a Nobel.  

How does that compare to the Nobels received by the worst of the worst, the Jews? Wikipedia estimates that Jewish recipients were at least 20 percent of “over 900” recipients, and a Jewish organization estimates the number is “at least” 210. To be conservative, and to simplify the math, let’s assume that the number is 195, or 20 percent of the 975 recipients.  

That would mean that Jews, who are outnumbered by Muslims over one hundred to one, receive 15 times as many Noble Prizes. If my math is correct, that makes Jews FIFTEEN HUNDRED TIMES better than Muslims. If we just count the Nobels won in the sciences since 2000, which doesn’t count literature or peace prizes, the Jews outnumber the Muslims by 52 to one. (Fifty-two hundred times better?)  

Nobel Prizes are only one criterion to judge “best” people. Music, for example, is an area where the Jewish contribution to America, and the world, is endless, from Gershwin to Billy Joel to Itzhak Perlman. Very few know that both “White Christmas” and “God Bless America were written by a Jew, Russian-born Israel Isidore Beilin, aka Irving Berlin.  Since Muhammad declared music to be sinful, the Muslim contribution to music has been zero.  

On the other side of the coin, how do the two religions compare in crimes against humanity as opposed to contributions to humanity? Here, there is no question that Muslims are far ahead of Jews. No group of people have been more murderous than the followers of Islam. While it is true that the followers of Karl Marx have caused an impressive amount of mayhem, they were not fellow Jews. The Torah and the Talmud do not command Jews to forever wage war against unbelievers, as the Koran does for Muslims.  

I use the word “forever” even though the Muslim holy war, jihad, will cease when Muslims make Islam “prevail over all religions, howsoever those who associate others with Allah in His Divinity might detest it.”  After 1400 years, Muslims are still only about 23 percent of the world’s population, so they continue to soldier on. Last month, February of 2022, Muslims carried out 86 attacks in 20 countries that killed 369 people, at least four of whom were Muslims conducting suicide bombings. 

Since the spectacular jihad attack on the Twin Towers in 2001, there have been over 41,000 such attacks. Last year, 2021, “there were 2266 Islamic attacks in 53 countries, in which 11197 people were killed and 9591 injured.”  I couldn’t find the totals since 9/11/2001 on The Religion of Peace website, but those numbers would just reinforce the overwhelming evidence that the only thing Muslims are good at is killing innocent people.  

So, let us return to the question: would the world be better off with no Jews or no Muslims? I think the evidence is overwhelming that the Koran got it exactly backwards. It is the Muslims who are the worst of people and the Jews who are the best of people. I think it’s time the world recognized those facts.  

p.s. A note on my personal bias. When I was a kid, I wanted to play the clarinet like Benny Goodman and had a crush on opera star Roberta Peters, both Jews.  Seventy years later, I still want to play like Benny but I’ve ditched Roberta in favor of Julie Budd. She’s Jewish, too. 

Sources:  

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Muslim_Nobel_laureates

https://www.newsweek.com/imams-called-death-jews-trump-jerusalem-announcement-776941

https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jewish-nobel-prize-laureates

https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/

https://www.thereligionofpeace.com/attacks/attacks.aspx?Yr=2021

Toward Understanding the Qur’an, Sayyid Mawdudi translation, verses 98:6, 98:7, 3:110, 5:82, 9:33. 

Reliance of the Traveller, f40.0, Music, Song, and Dance, pgs. 774-776 

White math and the NFL by Peter Burrows elburropete@gmail.com 2/21/22 

My wife and I stopped watching professional football when they began playing a “black” national anthem before the games. That didn’t last long. Having spent many years in Wisconsin, we both suffer from Packerism, which is incurable, and we were soon watching the games again. 

I’m glad we did. The playoffs were terrific and an added bonus was seeing all those Covid-conscious fans wearing one or even two Fauci mandated masks. (Sarcasm libs, sarcasm.)  Also, the NFL is proof that all the rhetoric about “white privilege” and “systemic racism” against black Americans is just nonsense.  

I’m excluding the systemic reverse racism inherent in programs such as affirmative action and, especially, the dumbing down of academics so that more black kids can get “passing” grades. All the kids, black and white, know just what that means, and if that would have been tried in my high school, the black kids would have kicked your honkey ass. Of course, back then I don’t think ‘honkey’ was a word. It would have been your “white trash” ass that would have been kicked. 

Unfortunately, the current dumbing down efforts, e.g., teaching that the correct answer to a math problem is a “white” thing, are misguided attempts to address a real problem, one that didn’t exist when I graduated from high school in 1957. Back then, the black kids did just as well, on average, as the white kids. Now they don’t. What has changed? 

The black intellectuals I respect, e.g., Thomas Sowell, Walter Williams, Star Parker and others, lay much of the lame on the welfare programs that started in the mid 1960s which led to the destruction of the two-parent black family. The rise of the single parent, teen-mom ‘family’ was NOT a good way to raise a child, and many of those children did poorly in school.  

I would add that affirmative action also set up black kids who DIDN’T do poorly in secondary school to fail in colleges. When Thomas Sowell taught at Cornell back in the late 1960s, he saw black kids in his class who scored, on average, at the 75th percentile of SAT scores vs. Cornell’s white kids who averaged in the 99th percentile. The 75th percentile, by the way, is pretty damn good, way above the median score (50th.) Still, most of those black kids flunked out, and many were embittered, blamed racism etc. And they were RIGHT to blame racism, only it was reverse racism that did them in! 

This happened all over America as the elite schools sought to fill self-imposed quotas of black students, often at the expense of qualified Asian students. Most of those black kids didn’t have a chance. They paid the price for white liberal virtue signaling.  Most of them would have done very well with white kids like me at Michigan State. (Harvard, Yale, Duke, Princeton, Cornell, MIT etc., and ME? You’ve got to be kidding.)   

One of the tragic consequences of this reverse racism was the resegregation of college campuses, a resegregation imposed by the BLACK students. What an irony. When I went to MSU, black kids didn’t sit by themselves, nor was there a separate black graduation ceremony or any other such BS. Affirmative action changed all that. (At the end of this article, I’ve appended an excerpt from a Thomas Sowell interview back in 1990 in which he describes this phenomenon. It’s a good read.)  

The tragedy of the welfare system soon corrupted the high schools. As more and more black kids found that they couldn’t compete academically, those that COULD compete found themselves under peer pressure to NOT compete, which was denigrated as “acting white.” Of course, acting white by doing homework, etc., would make the struggling black kids look even worse. What a mess. 

 A key part of this understandable defense mechanism was the flip side of “acting white,” which was acting black, aka being a “bad ass MF”er.” This added to the mess. Glen Loury and John Mcwhorter talk about this in a 10 minute You Tube video I’ve linked at the end.   

About now, some of you are thinking, “OK, Burro, this is all very boring, but what does it have to do with the NFL?” Elementary, my dear Lombardi: To excel in the NFL you can’t just be a big, tough bad ass MFer, you have to be able to THINK. NFL playbooks, for both defense and offense, are complex and require hours of study.  

It’s sort of a chess match, the quarterback and/or the offensive staff call plays that vary with the circumstances, e.g., score, time on the clock, etc., etc.  Ditto the defense. It’s fun to watch as offense and defense dance around each other. Having knowledgeable announcers in the booth helps.  

On more than one occasion, I have watched games where every player on the defense was a black player. The opposing quarterback, who is sometimes also black, looks them over and tries to outsmart them; sometimes he does, and sometimes they outsmart him. Hours of preparation and study are being put to test, and mental screwups are going to be noticed, especially by the players themselves.  

Now here’s my question: If black players were, on average, dumber than white players, don’t you think we would know about that after 60+ years of professional football? Of course we would, and we wouldn’t be hearing about it from the white players. It would be the black players who would be weeding out the blacks who couldn’t hack it. I can hear it now: “Learn the playbook, n—–, or get out of my locker room.” 

These guys want to WIN. No room for kiss-ass racism in a meritocracy. The black football player must meet the high expectations and standards of both his coaches and his peers. Many blacks would also do well if they were in secondary schools with the same sort of high ACADEMIC expectations.   

Here’s where school choice would be a big help. Many parents want to send their children to that sort of school, which is rarely the public school. Ironically, the traditional opposition to school choice from liberals may change in the face of growing parental opposition to gender studies and critical race theory.   

Parents who want their kids to learn about gender fluidity, CRT, or any other topics that are (hopefully) being removed from public schools, should have the option to send their kids to private schools. So, too, should parents who have learned from the covid school closings that their kids can get a better education with home schooling.  

Last year, 22 states expanded or established school choice initiatives such as vouchers, tax-credit scholarships, and education savings accounts. Very few Democrats supported those efforts. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the woke crowd began to push for vouchers? Stranger things have happened. Stay tuned.       

Sources: 

Playbook complexity/necessity:                                                          https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2076186-welcome-to-the-nflheres-your-first-playbook   

Sowell at Cornell:  https://money.cnn.com/magazines/moneymag/moneymag_archive/1990/09/10/86090/index.htm 

Bad ass MFers:                                                                                                                  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOKiKZeYZbU 

Two blogs from El Burro:                                                                                    silvercityburro.com/2021/03/27/white-math-and-black-math/ silvercityburro.com/2021/03/30/thoughts-on-white-math-and-other-absurdities/ 

https://thepostmillennial.com/californias-new-educational-guidelines-say-math-is-racist

amgreatness.com/2022/01/28/what-will-it-take-to-convince-democrats-that-school-choice-is-a-worthy-endeavor/ 

www.currentargus.com/story/news/education/2021/07/22/what-black-education-act/7916007002/ 

Thomas Sowell, from a 1990 interview, Money Magazine, URL above: Sowell at Cornell.  

Sowell: Racial relations on the nation’s campuses today are worse than they have been at any time in the past 30 years. 

MONEY: What do you think accounts for that? 

Sowell: If you’re going to have double standards for admission, grading, behavior and faculty hiring and, on top of that, engage in a great hypocritical pretense that this isn’t going on, it will only be a matter of time before the people who are not getting special treatment become resentful. Moreover, when you bring minority students in under a double standard, they themselves have a serious problem. They can accept the standards of the institution and lose all self-respect when they fail to meet them. Or they can seek to regain their self-respect through political activity — by putting pressure on the school administration to change the standards. When you give people those choices — meeting tough standards or lobbying to have the standards lowered — it’s not surprising they choose the second option. When you have the racial polarization created by this political uproar, blacks and whites are likely to be more hostile. 

MONEY: How do you detect racial tension on campus before you enroll? 

Sowell: In places where race relations are really bad, it doesn’t take long to find out. A campus visit will tell you. I always suggest you go to the dining room at lunchtime and see whether all the blacks are congregated over here, all the Hispanics over there or whether people are mixed around the room.                                                                                                                                                                                                  ### 

Addendum: Here in New Mexico, it was only last year that our lawmakers finally got around to making sure our black kids would also suffer from being helped by liberal educators. The Black Education Act was unanimously passed by the NM Legislature in March of 2021 and went into effect last July 1.  One of the bill’s sponsors said the act will, among other things, “recommend methods and practices that will improve education outcomes for Black students.” 

Why single out black students? Won’t that be terribly humiliating for the black kids? Do you think the recommended “methods and practices” will entail extra homework, after hours or weekend tutoring, getting parents to turn off the TV, and maybe special summer classes, or will standards just be lowered?   

Flat-tax musings by Peter Burrows 1/29/22 elburropete@gmail.com 

This is the time of year when the income tax gets peoples’ attention, big time. Most of us have no idea how progressive our income tax is, and we always hear that ‘the rich’ don’t pay their ‘fair share’, whatever that is.  

In fact, under our progressive tax system, in 2019 the top one percent of income earners earned about 20 percent of the taxable income and paid about 39 percent of total income taxes. By contrast, the bottom fifty percent of earners paid only 3 percent of the income taxes collected. Incredibly, the top one percent paid more than all of the bottom 90 percent.  

Whether this is fair or not is debatable, but one advantage of a flat tax is that it would put an end to all the “fair” nonsense. That’s a big reason why it will probably never happen. Politicians have so much fun with what’s “fair” and what isn’t. A more knowledgeable electorate would put an end to those politicians, but that probably isn’t going to happen, either.  

In the face of that daunting reality, let’s talk about the flat-tax anyway. First, a caveat: this is about the Federal income tax that is paid, not total Federal taxes paid, which would include Social Security taxes. In theory, SS payments are not taxes but retirement savings that go into the Old-Age & Survivors Insurance Trust Fund and will be paid back to the individual. The reality is different, but that’s a separate can of snakes.   

As mentioned, in 2019 the top 1 percent of income earners paid 39 percent of the income taxes and the bottom 50 percent paid only 3 percent, and all issues of fairness aside, this creates incentives for the high-income payers to find ways to avoid taxes, both legal and illegal, that have nothing to do with economic merit.  

For the low-income cohort, they have no incentive to be against increases in the income tax because they don’t pay it. Since they also don’t know anything about how the income tax works, demagogues go after their vote by railing about the rich not paying “their fair share.” It happens all the time and nobody ever calls them out on it. Republicans? Ha! 

As an aside, I think people who don’t pay, on balance, any Federal taxes should not vote in national elections, and before you call me an evil-dirty-bastard-racist-plutocrat, you should know that this would mean that I couldn’t vote in Congressional or Presidential elections. My Social Security benefits far outweigh any Federal income taxes I owe, which makes me a net tax consumer.  

As it is, since most of us oldies actually vote, the politicians have thoughtfully increased the standard deduction for those over 65. I bet most of you whippersnappers didn’t know that. It’s a small example of how our current income tax structure encourages politicians to buy the votes of some tax payers voters at the expense of other tax payers. If most of us oldies couldn’t vote, I doubt the politicians would have been so thoughtful.  

A flat–tax would work something like the example below. The deductible amounts and the flat-tax rate can be changed to achieve different tax totals.   

1) A standard deduction of $10,000 for an individual, $20,000 for a couple, and $5000 for each dependent. All income over that would be subject to the same rate, for example, 30%.  

2) NO other deductions would be allowed. This means no deduction for state and local taxes, no deduction for interest paid, none for charitable contributions, etc., etc.   

3) Capital gains would be taxed at the same rate.  

This would send whole bunches of people into a huge tizzy: realtors, charities, and 501(c) (3)’s, who receive taxable deductions and whose ranks include such disparate entities as Planned Parenthood and Prager U. By far, though, the biggest objectors would be tax lawyers, tax preparation services and IRS employees.   

Who needs all those people if income taxes can be calculated on a post card? A flat-tax would put most of them out of work and greatly reduce the cost of compliance, which has been estimated to be over $400 billion.  That’s BILLION. 

Some will object by saying progressive rates are a good thing, i.e., higher incomes should have higher rates of taxation. In fact, flat-tax results ARE progressive. Using the above example, a couple with two dependents and $40,000 of income would have $10,000 of taxable income and pay $3000 in taxes, which is 7.5 percent of total income (3000/40000). The same couple with twice as much income, $80,000 would pay five times as much tax, $15,000, which is 18.5 percent of their income. If they had three times the income, $120,000, they would pay nine times as much, $27,000, which is 22.5 percent of their income.   

Even with this flat tax idea, high incomes would still pay most of the income taxes and low incomes, those below the standard reduction, would still pay no taxes. I have no idea what the exact percentages would be across the spectrum of tax payers, only that the tax base would be considerably broadened and that the number of voters with ‘skin’ in the income tax game would be increased.  

As it is, “tax game” is an all-too accurate description of our income tax, and it is a “game” open to all sorts of political manipulation. If the Republicans take control of Congress in the midterms, I hope that they will propose a flat tax. Sadly, I’m afraid that’s not going to happen.  

Sources:  

https://taxfoundation.org/publications/latest-federal-income-tax-data/

Voting for Muslims by Peter Burrows 1/22/22 elburropete@gmail.com –

This is an election year, and Muslims are running for office all over the country. Most are doing so without a whisper of protest. People don’t realize that Islam is an uncompromising theocracy that demands total obedience from its followers, and that includes Muslims seeking public office. Ironically, they are using the protection of the Constitution’s First Amendment to destroy the First Amendment. 

I would bet that at least 90 percent of the voters in America would honestly say that a person’s religion, or lack of religion, is not an important consideration.  Unfortunately, this is one of those cases where what you don’t know CAN hurt you. Islam is extremely dangerous and totally incompatible with our Constitution.    

In fact, Muslims see our Constitution as a man-made abhorrence, an evil that needs to be replaced with Allah’s law, which is based on Allah’s book, the Koran, and Allah’s prophet, Muhammad. Islam requires Muslims who live in non-Muslim countries to work towards that goal, otherwise they are living a life of “continuous sin.” (Verse 4:100 in The Koran, as explained by Tafsir Ibn Kathir. See also Sayyid Mawdudi’s ‘Toward Understanding the Quran,’ pg. 131, footnote 71 to Verse 4:100)   

Muslim office seekers will, of course, deny this, and here is where things get very, very interesting, because you can seldom believe a Muslim. Islam REQUIRES Muslims to lie if necessary to achieve what Allah has commanded, and Allah has commanded that Islam rule the world, whether you or I like it or not. (Verse 9:33)  

In such a world, only Muslims would rule. The Koran would replace the Constitution and the Supreme Court would be replaced by religious authorities who would settle any dispute by referring to “the Qur’an and the Sunnah (Muhammad’s life and sayings) and all concerned should faithfully accept the judgement that is arrived at.” (Mawdudi pg. 121) 

No church bells would ring, nine-year-old girls would become brides, recalcitrant wives would be beaten, fornicators would publicly receive 100 lashes, slaves could be owned and thieves would have their hands amputated, starting with the right hand.  The latter is from Verse 5:38 and is “a punishment by way of example from Allah.” 

I detail most of this, and much more, in my little pamphlet, “How to read the Koran (and understand Islam).” It’s a pretty quick read, 20 minutes, max, Introduction to Conclusion. There are a number of appendixes which flesh things out, but 20 minutes is all you need to get the essence of Islam.  

All of this should be common knowledge but it isn’t. Islam is protected from critical scrutiny by the mainstream media and defended by “Islam is peace” politicians. Add the Pope, many other religious leaders, and everyone who wants to undo a world order which they see as hopelessly unequal, unfair, racist, etc., and that’s where we are today. 

The useful idiots who ally with Islam had better beware of getting what they wish for. With Islam, they are riding a tiger that has been devouring the foolish for over 1400 years.    

So, if you think America should remain a Constitutional Republic, you should never vote for a Muslim. Never. Ex-Muslims are OK, but not mosque-goers. Ayan Hirsi Ali, for example, is an ex –Muslim I’d vote for in a second, regardless of her party.  

(Those who think that not voting for a Muslim is racist, but not if that same person is an ex-Muslim, are deeply intellectual progressives who embrace racial fluidity along with gender fluidity. You should never vote for them, either. Never.)       

Sources: 

Towards Understanding the Qur’an: English/Arabic Edition (with commentary in English) by Sayyid Abul A’la Mawdudi (Author), Zafar Ishaq Ansari (Translator) 

silvercityburro.com/2020/10/26/how-to-read-the-koran-and-understand-islam/ 

Thank you, Jussie Smollett by Peter Burrows 12/24/21 – elburropete@gmail.com 

(Here is some background for readers unfamiliar with the Jussie Smollett hoax and subsequent trial: people.com/crime/jussie-smollett-trial-begins-special-prosecutor-brought-charges/ ) 

Jussie Smollett might have been Time’s ‘Man of the Year’ if his hoax hadn’t been so stupid. Maybe he should be anyway. After all, he did more than any black since Al Sharpton to show how ridiculous black privilege has become.  

You libs are thinking, “What do you mean, Burro, “BLACK” privilege? And what’s with the diss on The Rev? If Sharpton converts to Catholicism, he’ll get sainted someday; get streets named for him, stuff like that.” 

No doubt true. Also, he’s long overdue for a NOW award for defending Tawana Brawley against hoax charges. If you’re not familiar with Tawana Brawley, Google-up her story. She was the Jussie Smollett of her day, some 35 years ago. Back then, the MSM was rife with racism and right away accused the black girl of a hoax. The dirty bastards. They couldn’t see what a victim she was.      

Sharpton should also get an award from the ADL for challenging the “white interloper,” black-exploiting Jews who owned Freddies’s Fashion Mart in Harlem. Google that one up, too.  Eight people died. Street justice, baby, and the ADL is big on justice.   

Instead of paying fines and/or doing jail time for his part in the above, The Rev got a news show on MSNBC. That was 10 years ago, and The Rev is now a millionaire, not an ex-con. Black privilege? Why, only a racist could think such a thing.   

“Saint Sharpton” has a nice ring to it, but “Saint Smollett” ain’t gonna happen. Smollett’s hoax wasn’t any more credible than Tawana Brawley’s, but you wouldn’t think so given the initial response. At the top of the dumb-ass list are the President and Vice President of the U.S.A. who both tweeted their support and indignation:  

What happened today to @JussieSmollett must never be tolerated in this country. We must stand up and demand that we no longer give this hate safe harbor; that homophobia and racism have no place on our streets or in our hearts. We are with you, Jussie.— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 30, 2019 

.@JussieSmollett is one of the kindest, most gentle human beings I know. I’m praying for his quick recovery. This was an attempted modern day lynching. No one should have to fear for their life because of their sexuality or color of their skin. We must confront this hate. Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) January 29, 2019 

There were some equally stupid media people (if that’s possible). Here’s my favorite, the lovable Joy Reid, another black-privilege MSNBC host:   

Nooses never really disappeared as messages of a very specific kind of terror, but every time they’re used, my God, it’s chilling. Praying for Jussie’s full recovery. And for us all. 

The most telling piece of black privilege in this little drama was on full display when the Cook County State’s Attorney inexplicably dropped all 16 charges against Smollett. This was too much for then mayor Rahm Emanual, a white Democrat, and Chicago’s black Police Superintendent Eddie Johnson. 

They, and others, raised hell and got a special prosecutor appointed to bring the black actor/asshole to trial. Now that the trial is over, this overlooked part of the story is starting to get some much-needed attention.  The State’s Attorney who dropped the charges has been accused of “a substantial abuse of discretion,” of breaching “obligations of honesty,” and has been asked to resign. 

That won’t happen. Neither will the individual in question serve any much-needed jail time.  Anybody with room temp IQ can guess the reason why.  An added layer of protection is that the person is named Kim.  

Here’s a five-minute YouTube by comedian Dave Chappelle that I think most of you will enjoy: www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZXoErL2124 

Sources 

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/12/21/22849003/kim-foxx-jussie-smollett-case-dan-webb-report-editorial

Robin Roberts, another black-privilege TV host, swoons all over Jussie:  

www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXLx5OY21Bk 

Here’s 14 minutes of a couple of blacks discussing the Smollett BS. Most Liberals have never heard of these guys, but most Libertarians have. “Toms” they are not!! 

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDl1sMXfAmk&t=14s   

Random thoughts for the 2022 governor’s race – Peter Burrows 11/23/21 elburropete@gmail.com 

Republicans can oust Michelle Lujan Grisham next year, but only with a hard-hitting, issue-oriented campaign that gets the Republican candidate a lot of favorable attention, something difficult to do these days. 

As a card-carrying Libertarian, I usually find myself voting AGAINST the Democrat as opposed to FOR the Republican. Steve Pearce was an exception.  I liked him as my congressman, but his district popularity didn’t travel at all and he lost two state-wide elections, one for Senator and one for Governor, by 22 and 14 points, respectively.  

Steve is now chairman of the New Mexico Republican Party, and as much as I like him, I think he’s too much of a gentleman to approve of the type of campaign I think is needed to win.  I have a few kick-ass ideas that I think might work.        

Some of them may need legal vetting and some are unlikely to ever be legislated, but all of them should get some publicity. I think #1 might even get on Fox or CNN. These are serious proposals that the candidate could also have some fun with. The first five are education related, a BIG hot button issue, and all five lend support to school vouchers, which should be a Republican priority.   

1) As governor, you will recommend that the county sheriffs arrest any FBI agent who interferes with a school board meeting. The First Amendment’s right to free speech and peaceable assembly will be enforced in NM, etc.  You will order the state police to provide backup if requested.  

2) You will order the PED to ban any CRT instruction and any school district that doesn’t comply will not receive state funding. 

3) Any athletic coach who allows biological males to compete against biological females under the guise of transgenderism will be arrested for child abuse.  

4) Since some parents may wish to have their children learn CRT and/or subjective genderism, those parents can use vouchers to have their children attend private schools with that curriculum.  This opens up vouchers for ALL parents. 

5) Since COVID restrictions have led many parents to home-school, it is only fair that those parents also receive some form of voucher compensation. This would be payable if the home-schooled child scores at the median or higher on whatever tests are given to determine how the schools/kids are doing. The compensation could be set at 50 percent of voucher value, or something like that.   

6) As governor, you will recommend the death penalty be reinstated for anyone knowingly dealing in fentanyl. (Maybe meth, too.) They are killing us and we should return the favor. At the very least, dealers should be charged with assault with a deadly weapon, depraved conduct that endangers lives, or whatever the lawyers can come up with. This proposal can also be used to dramatize the border crisis.  

The above ideas are easy for the typical voter to grasp and should give the Republican candidate a helluva lot of publicity, both pro and con. Sadly, if history is any guide, the Republicans will pick somebody too nice to take any of these recommendations and I’ll end up voting against MLG again. Sigh.   

Could an opera singer destroy Islam? Peter Burrows 9/24/21 elburropete@gmail.com 

The Taliban are in charge of Afghanistan again, and as devout Muslims, they have begun to enforce Islamic law. These laws are nothing new, hundreds of years old, in fact, it’s just that under the previous government they weren’t being enforced.  

That’s not because the previous government was “moderate” as opposed to the Taliban being “radical,” or “extremist.” Those are distinctions Western infidels fool themselves with. As Turkey’s President Erdogan told then-President Obama, “There is no moderate Islam. There is no extreme Islam. Islam is Islam.” 

The operative distinction should be militant Islam vs. non-militant Islam, and as a general rule, Islam is ALWAYS militant unless somehow constrained. As Winston Churchill noted over a hundred years ago, were it not for Europe’s technical, and hence military superiority, it too would have been conquered by “Mohammedanism.” 

When the Americans were in charge, the Afghan government didn’t enforce Islamic law even though their constitution, adopted with the approval of the occupying Americans, boldly asserts, “Afghanistan shall be an Islamic Republic.” To actually govern like an Islamic Republic might have shown the Americans the futility of their mission, however defined.  

That could have derailed the gravy train so many Afghans were enjoying. The Taliban have no such concern and are busy enforcing Islamic law, and with the approval of most Afghans. A Pew survey of Muslims taken in 2013, after almost 12 years of American occupation, showed that 99 percent of the Afghans favored making Islamic law, Sharia, the law of the land. 

Since Sharia forbids almost all forms of music, I was surprised to learn that there had been musicians in Afghanistan performing in public. The Taliban have put a stop to that and have executed at least one of those brave souls and are hunting for others. They are also destroying musical instruments which also surprised me, since I didn’t think there would be any musical instruments in a country so dedicated to Sharia. 

Music, you see, was declared un-Islamic by Muhammad. It doesn’t get any higher than that because Muhammad spoke for Allah, and here is what Muhammad said:   

(1) “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”  

(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”  

(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.” 

One would think from the above that Muslims would strongly oppose music. After all, Muslims are supposed to accept Muhammad’s opinions with “full conviction” (The Koran – V4:65), yet the musician reported executed had been a popular folk singer at weddings “across the country” for 20 years. Obviously, he was subject to the death penalty all that time, yet he not only survived, he prospered —  until the Taliban returned.       

This suggests that music, which is in our DNA, could be the Achilles heel of Islam. There must be millions of Muslims with musical talent going to waste, and hundreds of millions more who enjoy music but can’t do so openly because Muhammad thought music was incompatible with worship. 

I wish there was a Radio Free Islam broadcasting Maria Callas or Jessye Norman singing “Ave Maria” five times a day, right during their daily prayers. That would do more to undermine Islam than all the armies in the world. (Renee Fleming would be my first choice but since she’s still performing, it would be better to feature a deceased opera star.  The reason for that should be obvious.) Depending upon the culture of the specific Muslim population being targeted, it might be more effective to have a male opera star, and the late Luciano Pavarotti would be my choice.  

Since there is no Radio Free Islam, and may never be one, the least that should be done is to play Ave Maria over loudspeakers at those mosque locations where broadcasting the call to prayer has been approved, e.g., Hamtramck, MI. Ideally, Christians would go on the offensive and do that outside EVERY mosque in America. The more the Muslims objected, the more they would publicize one of the many unattractive features of Islam. 

That won’t happen as long as people are afraid of being called “racists” and “Islamophobes,” or as long as the iconic leader of the Christian faith, Pope Francis, remains Islam’s most useful idiot.   

(Maria Callas, Jessye Norman and Luciano Pavarotti, as well as many other stars, can be found performing Ave Maria on You Tube.  Here is a Renee Fleming performance: www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CaEPSAO2Uk )  

Sources: 

https://seekerofthesacred.files.wordpress.com/2009/08/reliance_of_the_traveller.pdf pg. 316 

(https://www.jihadwatch.org/2021/09/afghanistan-singers-flee-the-country-fearing-execution-if-they-stay-because-music-is-un-islamic)   

gellerreport.com/2021/09/islam-is-islam.html/

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2021/09/talibans-sharia-police-are-back-and-theyre-mad-robert-spencer/

Islam will rule: It Is Written – or is it? by Peter Burrows elburropete@gmail.com – 9/19/2021 

Devout Muslims are not surprised by our defeat in Afghanistan.  They see it as proof that Islam is destined to rule the world, something foretold many times in the Koran, every word of which is direct from God.   

My favorite example is verse 33 in chapter nine, which says God gave Muhammad the true religion, Islam, and directed Muhammad to make it prevail over all other religions, “howsoever those who associate others with Allah might detest it.” In other words, like it or not, you despicable infidels, Islam is going to rule the world. 

About now, some of you are thinking, “C’mon Burro, Afghanistan is hardly ‘the world.’” No, but it is an ominous defeat because it took them only 20 years. When the Muslims fought the Byzantine Empire, it took them 738 years to conquer Constantinople. That was 647 years ago and I notice the Muslims are still in charge there.  

It won’t take that long for America to fall. It took only 19 Mujahideen, warriors for Allah, to take down the Twin Towers, kill thousands and entice the Great Satan to invade Afghanistan, where we suffered thousands of casualties and left behind great piles of booty. Allah, the Great Deceiver, has turned the tables on us and now we are the ones being invaded by thousands of Mujahideen, a.k.a. Afghan refugees.  

They will join some four million other Muslims at over 3000 mosques, where they will pray for Islam to someday rule America, which shouldn’t take very long by Muslim standards.  There were just 1200 mosques in America at the time of their Twin Tower victory, and only two million Muslims.  If they continue to double every 20 years, they will reach a critical mass in less than a hundred years. Allahu Akbar! 

Allah has directed his followers, “the best of people ever raised up for mankind,” to wage a Holy War until His religion prevails, and Allah will help by casting “terror into the hearts of those who have disbelieved.” (See verses 3:110 and 8:12 in the Holy Koran.)  The last revelation Allah gave to Muhammad leaves no doubt:  

“When comes the Help of Allah and Victory, And you see the People enter Allah’s Religion in crowds, Celebrate the Praises of your Lord, and pray for His Forgiveness: for He is Oft Returning (in Grace and Mercy).” (Chapter 110, verbatim from the Yusuf Ali translation.)  

For many years, I thought Chapter 110 was simply meaningless platitudes, but Afghanistan has me trying to rethink it from a Muslim’s point of view.  For help, I consulted the Tafsir of Ibn Kathir. A Tafsir is a Koranic exegesis and one of the most respected is that of Ibn Kathir, a fourteenth-century Muslim scholar and jurist.  

Ibn Kathir confirmed Chapter 110 is the last revelation and, surprisingly, that the chapter is “equivalent to one fourth of the Qur’an,” which means I was wrong to think it was meaningless platitudes. In the context of the time, Chapter 110 was recognition of the massive conversion to Islam in the wake of Muhammad’s conquest of Mecca, and since the Koran is an eternal guide with no context, it is also Allah telling Muslims what will happen when Islam conquers the rest of the world.  

While that’s a very important message for Muslims, I was surprised at Ibn Kathir’s assertion that it was “equivalent to one-fourth of the Qur’an.” However, I was a helluva lot more surprised at what he reported Muhammad had said to another Muslim about Chapter 110: “Verily, the people have entered the religion of Allah in crowds and they will also leave it in crowds.”  

There must be Muslim scholars who dispute the provenance of that quote, but the fact that it has survived for over 700 years in Islam’s most respected tafsir is a powerful endorsement. Since the Koran asserts that Muhammad and Allah were always on the same page, something obvious to non-Muslims since we think Muhammad and Allah were one and the same, it would appear that Muhammad had doubts about Islam’s eternal appeal. 

Ibn Kathir, understandably, doesn’t explore that possibility.  While I think Muhammad was a brilliant psychopath who drank his own Kool Ade with gusto, I also think he had moments of clarity, moments when the con man couldn’t con himself. This sounds like one of those moments.   

Hopefully, the Afghan victory will mark the beginning of just such an exodus from Islam, thanks to the Taliban.  Their eagerness to implement sharia law could prove Islam’s undoing.  Wishful thinking? Maybe. See my blog, Could an Opera Singer destroy Islam?.