Fanfare! New LAD with self-published tax resistor David Gross!

[Octopus Messiah]

Really pleased to have tax-resistor, culture jammer, author and (whisper it) Techno-Pagan Octopus Messiah character David Gross on Litopia After Dark!

I remember when Shock and Awe began in Iraq and dude just went: no more. Brought himself below the tax threshold and began figuring out ways to clear his conscience by reducing his personal contribution to the war as much as possible. He used to carry around this little red notebook writing down the price of everything he bought in an effort to downsize. Took it super-serious too. The only way I got him to a baseball game was as a birthday present-- some six months before his actual birthday when I gave him #nothing.

A decade later he's still at it and even wrote a book on the subject:


He's had success self-publishing before (wrote the definitive biography of Mark Twain contemporary Fitz Hugh Ludlow-- put it on CD-Rom too, the mug!) and says sales are ticking over nicely for the one he's promoting now on the show. Really impressed by his principled stand. And yes, he was one of the ministers at our wedding. Regard the following at your peril (children look away). Colony: you're welcome. Enjoy the show!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Great pic, Eh, it took me a while to figure out what children were supposed to look away from. Then I saw it. The , um, sporran without a kilt. Pass the smelling salts.
I've RT'd the show.

 

[Octopus Messiah]

[The , um, sporran without a kilt.
I've RT'd the show.[/QUOTE]

Thank you for enriching my vocabulary. Sporran is it? It was couched to me (stop it) as an African penis gourd. He made it at the Burning Man festival, at a camp that provided all the equipment for the creation of such appliances-- think an open-air Build a Bear for adults. Not a bad job either though personally I would have gone more violet.
Thanks for the RT!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

I'd better not, ahem, tweet this page, much as I wish to support LAD.

 

[Alistair Roberts]

lol no comment!

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Tax resistance on grounds of personal principle, big money tax evasion as per last night's Panorama. Quite a hot potato.

 

[Octopus Messiah]

That was the point: there's no good way to go about defunding the various wars. Best you can do is clear your personal conscience and recommend ways for others to do the same. Which is not nothing.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Yep, hot potatoes = worth air time. My way is to pay because of all the other things taxes pay for and to plague my MP. Screaming at the telly didn't work when we went into Iraq. I wouldn't want to see him locked up, when you see what other buggers have been getting away with, just being greedy. Though I suppose some might want to argue it's just in their case, too, if they employ lots of people.
Good one, Mr Octo. Hope it gets lots of attention.