| 4-13-98
By Luke Ford
Dennis Prager gave his annual diatribe against taxes, which he
hates more as he grows older and richer.
He mentioned a Republican friend back East whose child gets special
education. DP's friend felt grateful for the thousands of dollars
of education he gets at no cost to him. Then Prager reminded him
that he paid 20x as much in taxes as he received in services.
Prager says that high taxes encourage cheating on taxes. He remembers
his times in high tax countries where even good people cheated on
taxes.
2. It discourages people from working.
3. Money corrupts. The more money the government has, the more
corrupt it becomes.
4. There is less communal responsibility. Why should I take care
of my neighbor if the government will do it for me? And I do not
have much money left over anyway.
Prager reminded us that the most liberal states gave the least
charity while those states that largely vote Republican, tend to
be the most generous.
DP used to consider anti-tax people as eccentrics. Then he grew
up. He began to think and read about American history.
P wants to give more to charity rather than to the federal government
in taxes.
P supports sales taxes. Dennis referred to this article in today's
New York Times by William Safire.
The Syntax of Sin Tax
WASHINGTON -- Even more addictive than nicotine is money. The
anti-smoking lobby has found a way to hook the Federal Government
on tobacco money.
If its latest scheme to snatch a half-trillion dollars in new
cigarette taxes becomes law, Uncle Sam -- raking in a huge national
sales tax -- will have a vested interest in the continuation of
smoking.
Look ahead. One day there will be a recession and the budget will
plunge into deficit. Popular handouts like free milk for children
in prison will be dependent on the tax revenue from tobacco sales,
just as education will depend on tax receipts from gambling casinos.
Result: further political dependency on "sin taxes," the government's
cut of profit on booze, crapshooting and smoking. What politician
is now likely to cut out programs supported by tobacco billions,
or raise taxes the painful way to balance a budget? No; if you depend
on sin, you are inclined to protect it.
A sin tax is a tax that falls heaviest on the poor. The cause
is not that the poor do more wrong than the rich, but that there
are many more poor to do wrong. Under the McCain-Clinton plan, a
cigar-puffing plutocrat will pay a pittance more for the pleasure
of smoking while the worker earning $20,000 a year will have to
pay the Government nearly one tenth of his total wages.
But it's for his own good, think liberals who have just delightedly
discovered the disincentive of taxation. Because smoking is filthy
and unhealthy, we are helping the poor person who dares to indulge
his lust to smoke by making him pay a whopping fine. He'll stop
smoking or go broke.
The tobacco-bashers don't even whisper that because 50 million
bumper stickers would soon appear saying "I smoke and I vote." Instead,
the campaign against everybody smoking is pegged on saving the children.
Luke:
Prager says that he has never met as kind and good a person as
Bruce Herschonsen.
In his second hour, Prager quoted this 4-11-98 Washington Post
column by Nat Hentoff. Prager said it exemplified how groups (in
this case, journalists) are loath to criticize their own.
One Man's Battle to Clear His Name
By Nat Hentoff
Saturday, April 11, 1998; Page A15
In 1989, the Globe, a supermarket tabloid, published a story --
based on a book, "The Senator Must Die," by a former contract CIA
agent, Robert Morrow. It claimed that the true assassin of Robert
Kennedy was Khalid Khawar. Born in India, Khawar had been working,
the magazine's report continued, for the Iranian secret police together
with the Mafia.
Khawar was indeed present in the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles
when Kennedy was killed, but all he was doing was taking photographs
for a Pakistani news magazine.
On learning that he had been accused of this horrifying crime,
Khawar sued the Globe for libel. Because of the article, he had
received death threats from all over the world, he says, and his
three sons had also been threatened with death.
During the lawsuit, it became clear that none of the people at
the Globe involved with the story had tried to check its accuracy.
As Mike Wallace added in his account of the libel suit on CBS's
"60 Minutes," "The Globe had not even tried to contact Khawar."
The jury awarded Khawar $1.175 million because, it said, the magazine
had engaged in reckless disregard of whether the story was true
or not. The Globe appealed, and the California Court of Appeals
affirmed the verdict in favor of Khawar. As one of the appellate
judges said to the lawyer for the Globe during oral arguments, "What
you're saying, counsel, is that the newspaper has no business to
take a look at what is printed in this outlandish book and determine
whether there is a scintilla of truth in it."
The Globe has appealed to the Supreme Court of California and
has been joined by an array of the nation's leading newspapers and
broadcast organizations. Among them: the Los Angeles Times, the
New York Times, the Hearst Corporation, the Associated Press, CBS,
NBC, ABC, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Reporters
Committee for Freedom of the Press (of which I am a dissident member
in this case).
Luke:
Prager says this exemplifies how the media refuses to take any
moral responsibility. P says the media believes that it can do anything
it wants. We, the media, have no moral obligations to the public.
We are not responsible for fact checking.
A caller says that Prager bases his show on the same technique
that the Globe does. He bases his show on newspaper articles without
any independent investigation. Prager asked: "When have I maligned
innocent people?"
The caller could not come up with an example, but I, Luke Ford,
remember how Prager castigated those men in Nevada who were arrested
for biological weapons. P wanted them in prison for life. It turned
out that the so-called biological weapons were harmless and Prager
had maligned innocent men based on an AP report. Check my report
on the 2/19/98 Prager show on KABC.
A caller commented on Bob Mulholland, a Democratic Party investigator
who digs up dirt on political opponents. Bob reported that Repulican
candidate for the US Senate Bruce Herschonsen attended strip shows.
Prager said that Bob Mulholland was a great reason for people to
not belong to the California Democratic Party.
P: "If you cannot criticize your own, you have no moral credibility."
Prager tried to get a representative from the LA TIMES to talk
on the issue. Why doesn't Prager try to line up appropriate guests
instead of deciding at the last minute, when he has already begun
his commentary on the subject? He does this all the time. P starts
commenting on an issue, then tells his screener, "Why don't we try
to get X, or Z on the line?"
At 1:50PM, DP mentioned an article in the NY TIMES about a woman
who had part of her nose cut off after going through an Express
Checkout with too many items. P says business needs to enforce its
own rules. He mentioned how airlines often allow folks who do not
meet the requirements for early boarding to board early.
Dennis and his friends and followers take great exception when
one of their publicly criticizes Dennis.
From: SingleMom@Secular.net
Date: Sun, Apr 12, 1998 23:16 EDT
Message-id: <35318381.43CDBD56@Secular.net>
Listen to "I Love the Truth" Prager whine, carp and kvetch, kvetch,
kvetch over his belief that attornies and litigation are bringing
down our beloved America then watch as Prager unleashes his Century
City law firm land sharks when he objects to the posting of a truth
on mensch Luzdedos/Luke Ford's webpage.
On the Prager List, Rhonda replies to Luke Ford: "What is the
matter with you. Are you crazy or something. You don't have the
brains God gave a moose. You have no morals and no heart. You are
the biggest liar I've ever seen. You brought this on yourself and
I hope they take you to the cleaners. I will probably not be staying
on this list much longer. I am so sick of the petty shots you are
always taking at Dennis. You make me sick to my stomach. You are
the most disgusting person I have ever not met. Why the list owner
allows you to stay on this list is something I will never understand."
From
Prager's Web Site:
Monday, April 13, 1998
Dennis began this hour telling his listeners that the older he
gets the more he believes that "income tax" is immoral. He says
that it causes usually honest people to become liars and cheats,
that it takes responsibility away from individuals to give to charities,
and that it gives too much money to the government and thereby makes
it easier for the government to become corrupt. Dennis said that
he would like to see a national sales tax. The more you purchase
the more you are taxed. The more you save, the less you are taxed.
This would encourage people to work harder. Dennis said there are
certain tax brackets where a person can actually work harder and
see no increase in his/her income. It is regressive, bad for the
economy and bad for the citizens' moral.
For the remainder of the broadcast, Dennis focused on the responsibility
the media has in reporting accurate information. There is a case
pending in the California Supreme Court, in which the tabloid publication,
The Globe, is appealing a lower court's decision in favor of a plaintiff
who claimed that the Globe caused him harm when they inaccurately
reported that he was the true assassin of Senator Robert Kennedy.
Dennis said that this case is significant because The Globe's appeal
is joined by "the nation's leading newspapers and broadcast organizations.
Among them: the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, the Hearst
Corporation, the Associated Press, CBS, NBC, ABC, the Society of
Professional Journalists and the Reporters Committee for Freedom
of the Press." Dennis said that it is terrible that these media
services have joined The Globe in their appeal. The Globe did not
print accurate information about this man. They accused him of murdering
a loved American. They did not get their information from credible
sources and they did not follow through with fact checking. Dennis
thought it made the other media news services look bad that they
would back the defendant in this case.
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