I guess I should start at the beginning, which was at a meeting of the Idaho patriots in March of 1979. That meeting, held in the Mardi Gras Restaurant with Steve Gibson as the featured speaker, changed my life forever. 'So,' you ask with baited breath, 'What wonderful insight did he impart? What mystic knowledge did he pass on?' None really... all he did was look us straight in the face and call us all, each and every one of us, practicing communists. Some people would have called those fighting words, and I admit I wasn't too happy to be called one being the red-blooded American taxpaying pillar of the Boise business community that I was.

Shoot, I'd even voted a straight Republican ticket and was a paid-up member of every major business organization in Boise. To say I disagreed with his assessment would be mild. Yet, his statement haunted me when I went to work the next day. Finally, just before noon, I called in my secretary and asked her to drop by the public library on her lunch break and pick me up a copy of the Communist Manifesto. After lunch, she dropped off the copy, and I started reading. Over the next several weeks, as time and my schedule allowed, I researched it, the Scriptures and, even, acts of Congress, to see if there were a basis in law or fact for what Steve said. There was, and here's my report.



In 1848, Carl Marx, at the age of 30, entered a competition sponsored by the International Socialist Union of Paris, France. His submission was the 10 Planks of the Communist Manifesto, which won. The rest, as they say, is history.

The First Plank is relatively simple: Abolition of property in land, and application of all rents of land to public purposes. Let's see what we have in America today. In Idaho alone, 64% of the state is public land, held 'in trust' by either the state or the federal government. If you or I want to use that land, we have to go to the appropriate agency and rent it or pay royalties on anything we remove from it or pay 'use fees' if all we want to do is go camping. This money goes into the agency's treasury and from there to the state or federal treasury. In addition to the rental of public lands, there are taxes on private property. Using Idaho as our example, if 64% is 'public' land, then 36% must be 'private' land, right? Wrong!

The state levies a property tax on such 'private' land, and if you don't pay, orders a tax sale to get its money from you one way or the other. If you don't pay, you lose the land. Sound like all the term 'property owner' means is 'property renter'? The conclusion is clear: We've lost our right to property in land in allodial freehold, and have been reduced to nothing more than feudal serfs, living on the king's land and paying our land use fees in the form of taxes. We'd come full circle from the Plantation of Rhode Island in 1776 to the Plantation of Idaho in 1979.



And, if you ask, 'How should things be?' let me quote from Scripture, where in Leviticus 25:23 it says: 'The land shall not be sold forever for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me.' Quite a difference from the BLM, the EPA, the DNR and such things as 'eminent domain.'



Moving on to the Second Plank, we read: A heavy progressive, or graduated, income tax. Talk about simple to figure out. Just ask your neighbor if there's an income tax. The Federal government and all but 5 (at last count) state governments impose some form of income tax. I rest my case.



Going to Scripture again, we have Malachi 3:8-12, which reads: 'Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Ye are cursed with a curse for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes unto the storehouse that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. And all nations shall call you blessed for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.' Talk about a difference from filling out a Form 1040 according to the IRS Code.



The Third Plank is also a fairly short one: Abolition of all right of inheritance. Yet, most people will say, 'Oh, that's not in force. I know because my Aunt Matilda just died and left me some money.' My question is: How much did she leave you, and how much did she leave the State? The reason the State gets into the picture is almost always the result of a marriage license. When you sign that short little form, you've entered into a 3 party limited general partnership with you, your spouse and the State as equal partners. Over the life of the contract, the two active parties (husband and wife) work, create and produce things, such as money, children, property of all kinds, etc.

Then one day, your spouse dies and, after you bury them, you sit down to see what you have. Around this time, someone from the State knocks on the door saying there's a small matter of inheritance tax. What they're really saying is: I'm still a partner, the partnership hasn't been dissolved, I want out, so buy me out. The State figures that it's paid for the kids' education, school lunches, AFDC, etc. etc. etc. so they've done their part in making the partnership work. All they want is their third. Which, when you look at most inheritance taxes, means you pay from 28% to 35% of the estate to Uncle Sam, or his duly appointed representative.



Again, looking at how this should be, we read in Deuteronomy 21:15-17: 'If a man have two wives, one beloved and another hated, and they have borne him children, both the beloved and the hated and if the firstborn son be hers that was hated then it shall be, when he maketh his sons to inherit, that he may not make the son of the beloved firstborn before the son of the hated, which is indeed the firstborn. But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath for he is the beginning of his strength; the right of the firstborn is his.' Nothing about estate taxes, probate court, etc.



Going to the Fourth Plank, we read: Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels. Need time to think about that? While you are, think about Waco, Ruby Ridge, the Montana Freemen... well, you get the idea. This is called, in legalese, 'municipal police power' and means that if you get hostile and belligerent to the government, they can take everything away from you under the guise of IRS liens, tax levies, seizures, fines, and anything else they can think of... And, if you're still mad, and complaining? Then they get to throw you in jail.



How does Scripture deal with rebels and such? Read Leviticus 26:4-6: 'But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; and if you shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgements, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant, I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it.' At least God doesn't mess around when you screw up, he takes it all... your life and your toys.



Looking at the Fifth Plank, we read: Centralization of credit in the hands of the State by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. Ever hear of the Federal Reserve system. That's not real money floating around out there. Read what it says at the top: Federal Reserve NOTE! As in promissory note. There's precious little 'real' money left out there. It might not be too much longer before we move beyond that and straight into electronic money, completely controlled by the banks, who ultimately answer to the Fed. We're on our way with things like credit cards, checking cards, debit cards, direct deposit, etc. Looks like #5 has been in effect since around 1913.



And what does Scripture say? Read Deuteronomy 25:13-16: 'Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house divers measures, a great and a small. But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have, that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee. For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.' Speaks pretty plainly, doesn't it?



Going to the Sixth Plank, we find: Centralization of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. Let's see, we have driver's licenses, vehicle registration, vehicle licensing, and that's just 'private' transportation. If you look at 'public' transportation like planes, trains and buses, do you have any doubt that if the government says 'Jump' they don't ask 'How high?' And let's not even think about communications. The Internet community is just the latest to get hit with the heavy hand of government regulation. People who wouldn't normally even acknowledge each other's existence are on the same side, fighting to retain freedom of expression on the Net. TV, radio, cable, newspapers - they all bow to the mighty FCC. And Executive Orders #10995 and #10999 are just waiting to be signed, giving the government open and direct control over transportation and the media.



And what does Scripture say about traveling? Let's look at Exodus 16:29: 'See, for that the LORD hath given you the sabbath, therefore he giveth you on the sixth day the bread of two days; abide ye every man in his place, let no man go out of his place on the seventh day.' Apparently, so long as you don't travel on the Sabbath, God doesn't see much of a need to regulate or control such things.



Now, the Seventh Plank is a bit more complex: Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State, the bringing into cultivation of waste lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. Let's examine this one item by item. Now about the extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State. Most people would go, 'Oh, you mean like those big Russian factories. We don't have that here. We have GM, Ford, US Steel. They're all privately owned.' Or are they? Each and every factory in the US operates and exists on the sufferance of the government, which licenses and regulates their existence and activities in return for a portion of the proceeds (called taxes). I think that qualifies as ownership. And we've certainly expanded the number of factories and corporations in the US over the past 150 years.

As to the bringing into cultivation of wastelands, how many of you have seen the dams on the Colorado River, just to name one river? While they do produce electricity, ask any rancher or farmer out there what their main purpose is, and he'll tell you: water for irrigation. In that part of the west it's: No water, no farms. So, they've done that part too. As for the improvement of the soil generally, in accordance with a common plan, how many of you have ever heard of the ASC (Agricultural Stabilization Center)? Any rural county has one of their offices; their job is to hand out government information, funds and materials to help with the general improvement of the American farm. And how many farmers have taken part in government programs ranging from paid non-cultivation of land to low-interest loans for 'general land improvement' (provided you do it their way, of course)? I think we can consider that covered as well.



And Scripture? Look at Leviticus 25:8-24 to see how God handles this: 'And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubilee to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubilee unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family. A jubilee shall that fiftieth year be unto you: ye shall not sow, neither reap that which groweth of itself in it, nor gather the grapes in it of thy vine undressed. For it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you: ye shall eat the increase thereof out of the field. In the year of this jubilee ye shall return every man unto his possession.

And if thou sell ought unto thy neighbour, or buyest ought of thy neighbour's hand, ye shall not oppress one another: According to the number of years after the jubilee thou shalt buy of thy neighbour, and according unto the number of years of the fruits he shall sell unto thee: According to the multitude of years thou shalt increase the price thereof, and according to the fewness of years thou shalt diminish the price of it: for according to the number of the years of the fruits doth he sell unto thee. Ye shall not therefore oppress one another; but thou shalt fear thy God: for I am the LORD your God. Wherefore ye shall do my statutes, and keep my judgments, and do them; and ye shall dwell in the land in safety. And the land shall yield her fruit, and ye shall eat your fill, and dwell therein in safety.