Lawrence Auster Died Today

One of the Last Photographs of Lawrence Auster, March 2013

Lawrence Auster, author of the blog "View From the Right," has succumbed to pancreatic cancer.  He died early this morning in a hospice in West Chester, Pennsylvania.

His blog, View From the Right, will remain online but no author will succeed Larry.  His friend, Laura Wood,  wrote a post there today telling of Larry's death.  She writes:

Only extreme incapacitation could have brought that career to a close. For many of us, it was a marvel, a form of essential daily food. No man gave more to his readers. No writer responded more energetically to the people who took in his words and either approved or rejected them. No thinker, except perhaps Plato, jousted more ably with his students or left such an elegant and finished record of philosophical conflict and resolution. He was philosopher, journalist, guru and cultural psychoanalyst in one. And no writer on culture and politics had sounder judgment about the world around us, or more brilliant observations.

The relationship between Mr. Auster and the hundreds of often-anonymous correspondents who wrote to him over the years was like that between a boxing coach and his fighters. He trained his followers in the art of intellectual combat — and the price was a staggering workload as he edited the debates that have appeared here over the years. He paid tireless tribute to the fight for truth. But, as he insisted, he wasn’t a hero. He was just doing what came naturally. He was doing what he had to do.

Sadly, as of today, View from the Right, except for an entry about his funeral and possibly more on his death, will become inactive. He wanted it that way. VFR could not continue beyond Mr. Auster’s death because it is the creation of an utterly unique personality and mind.

Indeed, Larry was often my mentor, correcting my grammatical errors, giving advice on how to approach a subject.  I came to love him as a big brother, and what he taught me was to be ruthlessly independent in thought, to never subordinate my judgment to others...not even to him.  We agreed on much and occasionally fought like hell over certain subjects.  I changed his mind about the innocence of Amanda Knox, and he changed mine on many other subjects.

My last email to Larry was on February 18, 2013.  He posted it on his blog, along with many other reader comments.  I wrote:

A Young Lawrence Auster In 1973

Larry,

I have enjoyed your plain, outspoken truths and have learned much from you. The best thing, though, was your insistence on writing the truth as you see it, unhindered by popular opinion (which is often wrong).  You have often gone against the grain, without consideration for the social ostracism it often brings, even from other conservatives who wish to adopt and preserve liberal fallacies about race, feminism and other pop ideologies.

Now when I fear writing something that I know will annoy other conservatives, I always think of you. What would Larry do? Then I do it. Austerism is the antidote for group-think, the latter being the most effective obstruction in any search for truth.

Because of your massive moral backbone, by own backbone has been strengthened. Your example has not been overlooked and will never be forgotten. What have you taught me? It is the real meaning of an old maxim: Be True to Yourself.

I love you, Larry.

Stogie

A funeral mass for Lawrence Auster is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 2 at Church of St. Michael the Archangel, located at Holy Cross Catholic Church, 140 E. Mount Airy Avenue, Philadelphia PA.  Check View From the Right for any changes.

My good friend Rick Darby at Reflecting Light has also written an excellent memorial post for Larry:  Lawrence Auster Dies...and Lives.

Italian Supreme Court Head Is A 911 Truther: Believes the "Inside Job" Theory

When he's not overturning justice for innocent college students, Italian Supreme Court head Fernando

Fernando Imposimato

Imposimato is pushing the "Inside Job" theory of 911.  Imposimato wants the al Qaeda attack on America of September 11, 2001, to be submitted to an "international inquiry."  He explains why:

"The 9/11 attacks were a global state terror operation permitted by the administration of the USA, which had foreknowledge of the operation yet remained intentionally unresponsive in order to make war against Afghanistan and Iraq," Imposimato declared in a letter published on Sunday by the Journal of 9/11 Studies.

So we see that the head of the Italian Supreme Court had his reasons for overturning the acquittal of Amanda Knox yesterday: he hates America and Americans.  Those were his true motivations for overturning Knox's acquittal, not justice, not judicial error by the lower appeals court.  The fact that he can draw such false conclusions (as stated above) out of thin air only underscores why Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito spent four years in an Italian prison for a crime they did not commit: supposition and wild theories are substituted for evidence and common sense in Italian courts.  Anti-Americanism was also a significant factor.

Read more of Imposimato's delusions here.

#AmandaKnox: Italy's Aggression Against the United States

Incredibly, the Italy's Supreme Court in Rome overturned the appeals court decision to acquit Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito of the murder of Meredith Kercher, a crime that was commited by a black thug named Rudy Guede.

The High Court of Rome decided that Knox and Sollecito must be tried AGAIN, for a THIRD TIME, on charges that are completely unsupported by any credible evidence, witnesses or motive.

The Appeals Court, whose decision was just overturned, scrutinized the dubious "evidence" that the Perugian thug-officials used to railroad Knox and Sollecito, hearing from experts on DNA and other evidence, and utterly destroyed the prosecution's case.  However, Rome is more interested in protecting Italy's pride and reputation, even if it means incarcerating innocents.

Italy's judicial system is a bad joke.  So much so, that I am tempted to root for the Mafia.  Compared to Italian courts, the Mob seems refreshingly honest and straightforward.

BOYCOTT ITALY.   Do not spend your tourism dollars in that Banana Republic, do not buy Italian products, do not allow your college age students to study there.  They are not safe in Italy.

Write to your Congressional representatives and even to the White House to demand that the State Department get involved.  The injustice perpetrated on Amanda Knox has been elevated from a miscarriage of justice to the level of Italian aggression on the United States.

At the very least, the State Department needs to issue a warning to Americans that Italy is not a safe place to visit.  Try Angola instead.  It is much more enlightened.

#TeamDorner: Chris Dorner Still Smiling After Confrontation With L.A. Police! (Photoshop)

Remember Chris Dorner, the former L.A. policeman who murdered four people, including two law enforcement officers, out of spite?

Los Angeles Police tracked him to a cabin in Big Bear Lake, a resort area, where they (accidentally) set fire to the cabin where Dorner had holed up.  Dorner would not surrender and so burned to death in the cabin.

Yes, that's old news now, but there is a positive update!  Chris Dorner was interviewed while still in the burning cabin.  His only comments were "pop, pop, crackle, crackle" (or was that the sound of the flames flickering over his charred corpse?)

In any case, here's a photo of Dorner's final appearance in the news, still smiling after his ordeal!

More Stogie Responses to Nigerian Scammers

My latest Nigerian Scam letter from mercebnzprom@dgoh.org.

My reply follows the letter.

Scammer:
Dear Esteemed Beneficiary,

This is to inform you that youhave been selected for a cash prize of £950,000.00 (Nine Hundred and Fifty Thousand Great British Pounds) in the Mercedes Benz Online Promo held this year in United Kingdom.

The selection process was carried out through random selection in our computerized email selection system (ess) from a database of over 250,000 email addresses drawn from all the continents of the world.Mercedes Benz Company Lottery is approved by the British Gaming Board and also licensed by the International Association of Gaming Regulators (IAGR). This promotion is the 3rd of its kind and we intend to sensitize the public.

Your winning details are:
Secret Pin Code: MBC/536/2012/005
Reference Number MBPC: 12052012/21.
Batch No: 2nd Category.
To begin the processing of your prize, you are to complete the claims form below:

Your Full Names:
Place of Birth: 

Present Country:
Age:
Sex:
Tel:

Please complete your claims form and submit to us immediately, for immediate processing of your winning funds.

Accept my hearty congratulations once again!

With Best Regards
Mr. Jerry Smith
Promotional Manager

****
Stogie Response:

Dear Jerry Smith,

Congratulations!  You have won the Stogie Chomper annual award for most transparent and obvious scam letter!  Please fill in the details to collect your reward, which is five years in U.S. prison for fraud:

Real Name, not the phony one you sent: ___________________________

Address:   _____________________________________

Phone number:____________________________________

Desired color for prison jump suit:  (1) orange   (2) blue    (3) black and white striped

Handcuff size:  ___________________

Are you allergic to anal lube?  Yes     No     Not Sure

Why Is Amazon Technologies Poring Through My Posts?

People from three different IP addresses of Amazon Technologies in Ashburn, Virginia have been poring through my blog today, going through the dozens of the topic labels.  I have almost 3,000 hits today, mostly from them.  What are they looking for, and why?

Amazon Technologies appears somewhat secretive and there is little about them on the web.  They are said to be a subsidiary of Amazon.com and operate a large database in Virginia.

Does anyone know anything about these people and this company?  Why are they giving me the digital version of an anal exam?

FREE AMANDA KNOX NOW, or Is It Time To Boycott Italy?

I have written about Amanda Knox on this blog many times in the past, and if you aren't up to speed on the topic, use the search window at the top of the blog on the left.

Knox and her boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito were arrested in 2008, then wrongly convicted in a kangaroo court in Perugia, Italy in 2009, and spent a total of four years in an Italian prison waiting for a trial and then an appeal.  On appeal, their convictions were reversed and they were freed.  Knox returned to Seattle to resume her college studies, and Sollecito returned to his studies in Italy.  However, the prosecutors appealed the acquittal to Italy's highest court (there is no prohibition against double jeopardy in Italy).

The real culprit in the case is an unhinged, ruthless and delusional prosecutor named Giuliano Mignini, a bully who has wrongly prosecuted many people for imaginary crimes that they did not commit.  These were the trials related to the Narducci case, where 21 defendants were all acquitted.  Knox and Sollecito, however, were prosecuted in Mignini's own town where his delusions were accepted at face value by a non-objective forensic team.  Some of the members of that team are now being prosecuted themselves, for investigatory irregularities, according to Seattle PI blog:

The police officers contend she was given every comfort, including tea and biscotti. They’ve accused her of slander, but their credibility is in question, since they’re in hot water themselves. Four of them, in fact, have been suspended. That includes Amanda’s nemesis, police chief Monica Napoleoni, plus obsessed officers Lorena Zugarini and Stefano Gubbiotti. According to the Italian press,they’re being investigated for ”abusive investigations,” namely poking into the police-protected computer system and threatening the Perugia court’s expert on minors. “She spied on the psychologist,” reads one headline. “Super cop in trouble.” These actions were undertaken “following Napoleoni’s petition to deny her husband paternity rights in their divorce litigation and after the expert’s unfavorable report.” The lawyer for Patrick Lumumba is also in trouble for a case involving the possible mishandling of client funds.

When these folks don't have evidence to convict, they merely make it up, as they did in the Knox case.

There was no evidence whatsover to tie Knox and Sollecito to the crime.  No fingerprints, no DNA, no weapon, no motive. Mignini merely imagined the whole scenario, and when I say he is delusional it is not an exaggeration.    This evil little man should have been removed from his post as a prosecutor a long time ago.

Mignini, seeking to establish his reputation as Europe's biggest asshole, appealed the appeal that freed Knox, and today the highest court in Italy will do one of three things:  reaffirm the lower court's acquittal, reverse it, or order a second murder trial for Knox and Sollecito.

Every American should be fed up with Italy's banana-republic judicial system and its endless persecution of an innocent American college girl.  Today had better be the end of this persecution, once and for all.  If it is not, it is time to begin a serious boycott of Italy, Italian tourism and Italian products.

Read also:  

Will Amanda Knox Be Retried For Murder?
The Italian Supreme Court to Rule on the Amanda Knox Case

Update:  It was just announced that the high court in Rome will announce their decision tomorrow at 10 AM, Rome time.

Janis Joplin, Colorized by Photoshop

Here's a Rock and Blues great.  I found an awful black and white photo of her on the web, and decided to enhance it with Photoshop.

Janis Joplin:

The Accounting Racket: Back in Business

This is my last tax season with Megatax (not their real name).  I don't know, the corporate atmosphere just seems a bit hostile.

No, that's not really true.  What is true is that Megatax company charges way too damn much money.  In about a third of the clients, I feel offended when the computer picks the price.  Often the price strikes me as over the line into abusive territory.  The franchise owner programs the desired price into the computer, and prices are based on the number of forms prepared and the relative complexity of each.  In many cases, this provides a reasonable price for the work done.  In other cases, it equates to about $400 an hour.  I mean, I'm good, but I'm not THAT good.  $200 an hour is closer to reality.  The Big Four I'm not.

But how can they pay my huge salary without charging such prices?  Easy.  My salary isn't huge, it's minimum wage plus bonus.  There is pressure from above to avoid overtime at all costs, so tax preparers often work off the clock to keep up or to avoid offending clients with poor service.  This game is really popular with a lot of greedy accounting firms:  pressure the staff to "eat time," work off the clock, or get fired.  Obviously, I am not worried about getting fired, as the company needs me a lot more than I need them.

I have applied for my federal e-file number so I can begin filing returns electronically.  I have a sizable hunk of business lined up in corporate tax returns.  I will do what I can at Megatax, but  after April 15, it's sayanara baby.  Then it's gonna be Stogie, Light and Puff,  Tax Accountants.  Yeah baby. Hope I won't make an ash of myself.

Snappy Comebacks to Nigerian Scammers

A few days ago I received this email from a Nigerian scammer:

I need to hear from you in respect to my proposal.Kindly reply to my email below
EMAIL ; wguiya@yahoo.com.cn  Regards,Guiya.

My reply:

Thank you for your proposal. However, we are not hiring Nigerian prostitutes at this time. Good luck with your Aids treatment.

This is kind of fun.  So much better than just deleting the spam.

Baiting the Email Scammers

If you publish your email online, you know that you will receive an endless stream of scam emails, attempting to get you to send money on one pretense or another.  There is the widow of a high general in some third-world backwater who needs to cash millions of dollars in bonds, but can't do it due to some weird domestic law, so she is seeking your help in cashing the bonds for her.  In exchange for your service, you will get 40% of the bonds, making you rich beyond your wildest dreams.

Of course, there are fees to pay to the Babaloozian bank where the bonds are stored, and you are given a bank wire address where you will send the money.  After that, unforeseen bugaboos arise, requiring more fees, taxes and imposts, all of which you are required to pay.  Of course, all your payments simply go into the scammers bank account, and you are a huge fool if you believed any of this nonsense in the first place.

I usually mark such emails as "spam" and send them on their way.  However, lately I became annoyed at receiving the latest gambit.  It consists of an email from some unknown person with the message, "Did you receive my last email?"

To this last one, I replied:  "Yes.  We have disposed of the bodies as you instructed."

This prompted a second email from the scammer.  It begins:

Dear Partner,
Thank you for your response and concern, like i said earlier, i am Mr William Leung Wing Cheung (Executive Director and Head of Personal Banking), before the U.S and Iraqi war our client Gen. Aadel Akgaal Bastaan who was with the Iraqi forces and also businessman made a numbered fixed deposit for 18 calendar months, with a value of Twenty Four million Five Hundred Thousand United State Dollars only in my branch.  Upon maturity several notice was sent to him, even during the war which began in 2005.

It continues on for another few paragraphs, describing my role in the scenario so that I can get a piece of the mythical moola described.  Rather than answer the email with specificity, I reply:

Please put 25 million U.S. dollars in a knapsack decorated with a picture of Spongebob Square pants and meet me at the intersection of Looneytunes Blvd and Caca Place. There we will exchange the knapsack for my grandmother's special recipe for tater tots. Although not required, a box of Cuban cigars, Churchill size, will seal the deal.

Since these scammer scum speak little English, they may or may not see that they are being baited.  We'll see if I receive a third email from this scum.

Chain Email Myths

I received a chain email today with a great article entitled "Obama, the Affirmative Action Candidate."  The email claimed that the article was printed as an editorial in the Washington Post, noting that even this extreme liberal rag had finally seen the light.

I found this hard to believe, so took some of the verbiage from the article and googled it.  There were no links to the Washington Post, but there was a link to American Thinker, where the article actually appeared.  Just as I suspected, the Washington Post had not suddenly "seen the light" and begun criticizing the biggest empty suit since Millard Fillmore.

People who start these chain emails always seem to get some important fact wrong.  Great conservative screeds are wrongly attributed to dyed-in-the-wool liberals like Robin Williams, George Carlin, Andy Rooney or Bill Cosby.   Maybe the wrongful attribution is an honest mistake, or maybe it is designed to give greater weight to the screed by associating it with some beloved star.  In any case, it behooves us to take chain emails with a large grain of salt.  They are almost always wrong.

The American Thinker article, written in August 2011, is spot-on in its description of Obama.  He is the ultimate affirmative action baby, ushered through ivy league universities on the basis of his skin color, not his grades, and sent to the senate and ultimately the presidency, on the same basis.  He is a talentless hack for whom society has provided a paved highway to an undeserved success.  As for beloved stars, Obama's mediocre career can best be compared to a role by Peter Sellers, in the film "Being There."  Here's how "Rotten Tomatoes" describes that film (see anyone you know?):

Having lived his life as the gardener on a millionaire's estate, Chance (Peter Sellers) knows of the real world only what he has seen on TV. When his benefactor dies, Chance walks aimlessly into the streets of Washington D.C., where he is struck by a car owned by wealthy Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine). Identifying himself, the confused man mutters "Chance...gardener," which Eve takes to be "Chauncey Gardiner." Eve takes him to her home to convalesce, and because Chance is so well-dressed and well-groomed, and because he speaks in such a cultured tone, everyone in her orbit assumes that "Chauncey Gardiner" must be a man of profound intelligence. No matter what he says, it is interpreted as a pearl of wisdom and insight. He rises to the top of Washington society, where his simplistic responses to the most difficult questions (responses usually related to his gardening experience) are highly prized by the town's movers and shakers. In fact, there is serious consideration given to running Chance as a presidential candidate. Both a modern fable and a political satire, Being There was based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski and costars Melvyn Douglas, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Eve's aging power-broker husband. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi 

Emphasis added.

Blogging vs Tax Season

Corporate tax returns are due March 15, and I will continue working on filings and extensions through next Friday. I am having an unusually busy and productive tax season.

After the season ends April 15, I will commence rethinking this blog and my approach to it. I won't quit, of course, but lately I haven't enjoyed blogging as much. I'm bored with it and bored with myself. My hits took a nosedive following our electoral defeat in November and leveled off at a new level of suckage.

I am dubious of continuing the "saving America from socialism," a meme that has failed. Perhaps now the approach of this blog should be "surviving in the post-American era."

BOYCOTT CPAC!

Always on Watch has a post this morning about the leftward drifting CPAC, formerly known as the Conservative Political Action Committee, now known as the jihad-enabling, terrorist-ignoring, PC endorsing clusterfuck.

It seems that Robert Spencer won an award in a poll that showed his site "Jihad Watch" to be the most popular blog, by far, among conservatives.  The award was to be presented to the winner at next week's annual meeting of CPAC in Washington, DC.  However, since CPAC is now headed up by Muslim apologist and sympathizer, Grover Norquist, Spencer was informed that he could only be given the award by promising not to criticize Norquist or his Muslim wife, Suhail Khan.

Spencer refused, and is now barred from accepting the award.  Read about it here.

CPAC has now become one of those "proper" conservative organizations (like National Review Online) that is heavily influenced and intimidated by liberal nostrums and bugaboos, ready to throw any conservative under the bus for not self-censoring truth in order to achieve a faux patina of social propriety.

Boycott CPAC.  Don't go, don't participate, and do not fund the organization.

The Death of Politics?

My friend Rick Darby at Reflecting Light expresses my mood well.  He writes:

As regular readers know, I stopped most political commentary on this blog a while ago because I'd said everything I thought worth saying many times over and it no longer matters. The U.S. is now a one-party (Republicrat) state like the Soviet Union or North Korea: of the government, by the government, for the government.

I notice that I have also ceased much political commentary for the same reason.  What's the point?

Things have gotten so bad that even CPAC, or the Conservative Political Action Committee, has denied Pamela Geller any spot at the convention, not even a table or any secondary capacity, as in hosting a discussion group about the dangers of jihad.  Apparently, CPAC is now headed by one Grover Norquist, a Muslim sympathizer whose wife is a Palestinian Muslim.  We are now mimicking European-style suppression of free speech, where any discussion of Islamic violence, subversion and jihad are forbidden.  The truth, it seems, is too controversial.

Normally, I would have a post with a large title, BOYCOTT CPAC!  But again, what's the point.  The Establishment GOP and its committees (like CPAC has become) are determined to be Democrat-lite, and won't take no for an answer.  Many say the Republican Party is dead.  I tend to agree.

Throughout history, the tendency has been for groups of men to seek power and control of the masses, to organize and regiment them, propagandize them through state controlled education, and force them to live and work according to the dictates of the power group.  Men do not seek increased freedom for the individual.  Our Founding Fathers were an outlier in the long sweep of history, a rare exception to the general rule that a few will be rulers and the rest will be ruled.  Abraham Lincoln was an egregious example of the statist seeking to subordinate the masses to the central government, and if nothing else, I will continue deconstructing this phony until the day I die.  No one who believes in freedom can believe that Lincoln was a great man.  However, I digress.

We are now witnessing the general rule of history, that a few will be masters and the rest, slaves.  The cement has already been poured around our feet, and the Obamas, Pelosis and Reids merely waiting for it to harden.  In time, it will, and all opposition will sleep with the fishes.  The American experiment in individual freedom was great while it lasted, and now we take our place among the ruins of Athens, Sparta and Troy, to be recounted in legend and myth, mere artifacts for future generations to ponder.

Lonely Crusader Beats Back Fire-Breathing Tax Dragon!

Actual Photograph of Me at Work

This past week I contracted a huge chest cold, as well as ten tax corporate tax returns to do (in addition to my many individual tax returns).  So I have been quite busy, working sick but working, because I have to.

I have completed close to 100 individual tax returns and five corporate returns so far, with more to go.

Bear with my blogging silence, as I confront the tax beast with my white shield with the red cross, my shining armor and my huge saber, beating back the bureaucratic dragons as they seek to engulf me in flaming tax code and unholy rules, knowing all the while that I am doomed, but determined to die an honorable death!