Come to Frankenlaw!

Hell week has started, which means I will not be reading for class this week wheil we are getting ready for our debut at the Pantages.

More importantly it means: Come see the T.O.R.T. show this weekend! It's awesomely funny... or funnily awesome.

I will be embarrasing myself on both Friday & Saturday. Go here for info on tickets

Whack-a-Doos On the Bus

I had an interesting experience yesterday on the bus. I was just riding along minding my own business, reading my Tax assignment and having as much fun as you can expect to have reading about business deductions,¹ when this guy interrupts me:

Guy On Bus "Excuse me, do you go to The U"²
Me [rolling my eyes, hopefully so Guy On Bus doesn't see] "Um... yeah"
G.O.B. "That's a very intersting subject... Taxation of Individual Income"
Me [Thinking "Tax is certainly *not* a 'very interesting subject'"] "Um... Yeah... It's the best."
G.O.B. "You know there's a very interesting movie that proves that there is no legal basis for the government collecting personal income tax... it's just for corporations."
Me [WTF!] "Really? That's very interesting." [Please be the end of the conversation. Please be the end of the conversation. Please be the end of the conversation.]
G.O.B. "Yes" [FUCK! He's still talking] "this movie is really going to make things interesting"
Me "I'll bet" [I wonder if I shut my eyes, if he'll leave me alone]

I won't bore you with the rest of the conversation, because it went on for too long, and didn't really vary from this theme. Anyway, I decided to do a little research on this movie the guy raving about. It is the movie America: Freedom to Fascism and it is made by the guy who produced Trading Places (which gives him automatic street cred in my book). If you look at the Freedom to Fascism website, it almost looks legit. Almost... But then I found this NY Times Review of the movie

Here are the funniest things that I learned about this "movie" from reading the NY Times article and a few other internet websites:

The director claims that the IRS refuses to point to "the law" that says that we have to pay individual income tax, and moreover that they can't because it "doesn't exist"
- For a debunking of this BS, go here to see that there clearly are laws which authorize personal income tax

Title 26 of the United States Code that the IRS points to is not a law, but a regulation... and "to be a law it has to be passed by Congress." "Mr. Russo added that he had studied the matter closely and was confident that he had the facts."
- This is wrong for so many reasons. First, if it is Title 26 of the United States Code it *is* the law as passed by Congress.
- Second, Even if the director mistook Title 26 of the U.S. Code for Title 26 of the Code of Federal Regulations, the CFR is still legally binding rules which we would have to follow if they are legitimately promulgated.
- Maybe you should have had your lawyer check the facts before you spout off... huh, maybe?

"Not mentioned in the film is that Mr. Russo has more than $2 million of tax liens filed against him by the Internal Revenue Service, California and New York for unpaid federal and state taxes. Mr. Russo declined to discuss the liens, saying they were not relevant to his film."
- Really, you don't think it's relevant that a filmmaker who is making a documentary about the IRS has been accused of owing $2 million in back taxes by the IRS? Not even a little relevant?

And my favorite, the "film's" website says "America: Freedom to Fascism Opened to Standing Ovations at Cannes!"
- But, according to the NY Times article "The film was not on the program at Cannes .... Mr. Russo, the film’s director, writer and producer, just set up an inflatable screen on a beach."
- What?! He just set up a screen on the beach and said it "opened at Cannes!" Wow that's ballsy. Stupid... but ballsy.

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¹Which is of course boatloads of fun ... the entire veritable barrel of freakin' moneys!
²For those of you living outside of Minnesota, "The U" is local slang for "The University of Minnesota"

Any Bets?

Anyone want to start a pool on when Britney will run away from rehab again now that she's back in? Given her recent track record, we'll have to do it in hourly (or perhaps half-hourly) blocks.

I'll take 10-11 pm tonight (that's PST) - a.k.a. the time when she "gets an itching for another drink at the club y'all"

What I Learned on My Long Weekend

Minnesota had a long weekend until Tuesday (we call it the "Mental-Health Break" because we are sick bastards). Here is what I learned this weekend:

Don't Go to Vegas During an All-Star Weekend - Particularly when it is the NBA's All-Star Game. It was crazy busy, and the Strip was crawling with . . . "undesirables" . . . and the smell of weed pervaded every nook and cranny. There was a shooting at the casino across the street from me. Oh yeah, and I lost tons of money. Stupid Vegas.

Don't Get Sick When You're Going to Vegas - Particularly when you are planning on staying up all night when you get there.¹ I had a little tickle in my throat on Saturday morning before we left, by the time we got back Tuesday evening, I had a full blown Emphezema-style cough which now sounds like I have TB. And I lost tons of money.

These are the life lessons you don't get in law school.

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¹And particularly when it is the NBA All-Star Weekend and the Strip is crawling with "undesirables" and the smell of weed will be pervading every nook and cranny.

Whatever

Am I the only person who doesn't care (not even a little bit) that Anna Nicole Smith died? If you look at the lead stories cnn.com, foxnews.com, msnbc.com, usatoday.com and probably trillions of other news sites, apparently I am.

Unreasonable Super Bowl Recap

Was it just me or did the Super Bowl seem a little "eh" last night. The game was OK (obviously if you are an Indy fan, then it was awesome, and if you love Da Bears than it sucked like Rex Grossman under pressure) and the commercials were so-so (although, like always, Bud Light brought a couple good ones, but I can't really think of a commerical that was as awesome as in years past).

The only thing I thought was really good was Prince's halftime show (and I'm totally biased because I'm Paisly Park adjacent up here in Minnesota).¹ Besides the fact that I think Prince is one of the best musicians out there (and I mean "musician" literally, as he can actually play instruments, and better than most people out there), I really liked His Royal Badness's show because he actually played his instrument and actually sang during the show, instead of just lip syncing and pre-recording the instrumentals. It actually looked like a little mini-concert.

Oh well. The Super Bowl can't always be super.

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¹ By the way, to the 1L I overheard this morning saying that Prince was a bad choice for the Halftime Show, and who "turned off" the Halftime Show... you may not want to admit this to potential employers, as this decided lack of judgement may be decimating to your employment prospects).

Happy Ga... Ga... Ga... Groundhogs Day

It's a good thing Phil was looking for his shadow in Punxsutawney (mid-20s this morning) instead of Minneapolis (below zero this morning), or he'd freeze his nuts off before he had a chance to look for his shadow.