May 7, 2013

"I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me."

Said Lauryn Hill, in court. 

She also said: "Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual."

She's now in jail (for failing to pay $500,000 in taxes).

ADDED: Ideas that would work perfectly well in song lyrics can sound so wrong in court. The artist describes feelings, impressionistically. It's in no way an excuse or justification. But sometimes artists/politicos use court as a forum for expression without any expectation that it will advance their legal cause. One can intelligently and consciously eschew persuasion and victory.

131 comments:

MadisonMan said...

If she's the child of former slaves, then her parents were absolutely ancient when they had her.

ndspinelli said...

I'm sure the judge was heartbroken!!

ndspinelli said...

Annie, That horseshit Charter ad[and they're a horseshit company] is causing me to have seizures. Come on, give us a break, or are you going for a porn site atmosphere?

Nomennovum said...

She is simply taking the initiative in claiming her share of the reparations for slavery.

Tank said...

MM beats me to it.

On taxes. If you're paying more that 50% of your income in various taxes, are you a slave? Involuntary servitude? Does it only count if you're black? At what percentage are you a slave? 100% ? Less ???

How brainwashed do you have to be to think of yourself as a victim (slavery schtick) after earning $2M in three years?

bagoh20 said...

There is no argument that will get you out of it, and few that will garner support, but the best one is: If you had to give away $500,000, would you pick the federal government as the recipient. Giving it to a homeless person to burn on the side walk for heat makes more sense.

I think she should have to pay her taxes because I have to, but it really is as close to an immoral use of money as you can dream up.

mccullough said...

She had a poor education.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

Hey.... Lauren.....Honey.....we ALL have had an economic system imposed upon us. Non of us really like it much either.

Get over yourself.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Why isn't GE in jail?
Or Google?

..for their unpaid or underpaid taxes?

gerry said...

These people crack me up.

"Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual."

My nature is not inherent. It is adherent. Thank heaven I am spared all the degradion that comes from having a nature that inheres.

Perhaps she's bitching about alienation of consciousness. That may be it. False consciousness of everyone else exempts her from taxes others impose.

Better yet, attempts to alienate her product by her business associates from her ownership makes them liable for the taxes, not her.

Hamburgers sound good for lunch.

J said...

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen.You want our money and our system of protection of property including intellectual property then pay your dues.If you don't don't let the door hit you in the ass.

Nomennovum said...

Why isn't GE in jail?
Or Google? ..for their unpaid or underpaid taxes?


Anyone who pays one dime more in taxes than they are legally obligated to pay is foolish. For a corporate directors or officers to allow their company to do it is a violation of their fiduciary obligations.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

AprilApple said...

Why isn't GE in jail?
Or Google?

..for their unpaid or underpaid taxes?


Based on existing tax law and accounting practices, how much have they failed to pay?

edutcher said...

We can re-impose slavery upon you, if you'd like.

In fact, that's what Massa Barack intends for all of us.

Anonymous said...

I wish she'd gone into more detail about how the economic system got imposed on her, for the benefit of those of us who'd like to get it imposed on us if we can.

bagoh20 said...

There is no system; it's the Savannah. The biggest lion just found you hiding in the bush and took a chunk out of your ass, because he's fat, but still hungry, and he doesn't want anyone getting the idea he's not the biggest. He'll be back next year.

Chip S. said...

If she's the child of former slaves, then her parents were absolutely ancient when they had her.

I'm guessing she was bitten by one of those slave-owning vampires in Abraham Lincohn: Vampire Hunter, and is now undead.

ricpic said...

Hey bitch, over-commercialization, as you misname it, is the freest most pro-individual system in the world.

bagoh20 said...

""Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual."

Yea, it makes some of them very rich without much effort.

AllenS said...

Translation --

I'm too stupid to do my own taxes, and too cheap to pay anyone else to do them because I'm black.

Anonymous said...

I believe she had the choice to not participate in the economic system. She could have gone elsewhere.

She could also have refused to participate and stay here collecting welfare and food stamps from the government. She could then find a willing fellow for a few evenings evening or two and pick-up a some kids to increase the cash flow. In PA, this gives you the equivalent of $60k/year.

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Lauren Hill kind of looks like Mavis Beacon.

JonniBgood said...

Does Ms. Hill also claim that the economic system that enabled her to make millions of dollars for singing is "a system of racial oppression imposed on her"? Just checking.

Figure out how much one would have to make in income to owe $500,000. Then, assume she did pay her taxes most of the time and this is only the accumulated taxes of the last couple of years of her active career. Oppression, my arse.

Brian Brown said...

Her parents were slaves?

Really?

JonniBgood said...

Does Ms. Hill also claim that the economic system that enabled her to make millions of dollars for singing is "a system of racial oppression imposed on her"? Just checking.

Figure out how much one would have to make in income to owe $500,000. Then, assume she did pay her taxes most of the time and this is only the accumulated taxes of the last couple of years of her active career. Oppression, my arse.

Rusty said...

That "slave" shit don't sit well with the IRS.

Renee said...




From Wiki...

It sounds like she was well off suburban kid and entitled celebrity....

"Lauryn Hill was born in South Orange, New Jersey of African descent, the second of two children born to high school English teacher Valerie Hill and computer programmer Mal Hill."


"The album had a slated street date of November 2005, and neither it nor the music video have been released.[46] It was also reported that as of 2003, Columbia Records had spent more than $2.5 million funding Hill's new album, mostly spent on installing a recording studio in the singer's Miami apartment and flying different musicians around the country.[10"

"From 1998, Hill reportedly lived in both the Caribbean and an upscale hotel in Miami.[10] However, by August 2008, Hill was living with her mother and children in her hometown of South Orange, New Jersey.[44] On June 29, 2012, Hill pleaded guilty to three charges of failing to file federal income tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007.[83] She was sentenced on May 6, 2013 to three months in prison followed by three months under house arrest.[84][85][86]


--------------


Shanna said...

Get over yourself.

This one. So, so much.

Also that 'my parents were slaves' thing is bullshit.

bagoh20 said...

"That "slave" shit don't sit well with the IRS."

It's just the uppity ones they chase down.

Scott M said...

Lauren Hill kind of looks like Mavis Beacon.

I thought it was more of a "what-you-talkin'-bout-Willis" vibe.

Bender said...

When someone else owns the fruit of your labor, then you are by definition a slave.

But we are so used to the soft tyranny of our system that we do not even realize that we are all enslaved to Massa Government.

edutcher said...

agoh20 said...

That "slave" shit don't sit well with the IRS.

It's just the uppity ones they chase down.


No, they'll go after the ones that know their place, too.

PS It's savanna. Savannah is a city in GA.

Sigivald said...

Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual

What the hell does that even mean?

(And the major problem with slavery was not "imposition of an economic system", but the whole forced labor and being owned by someone else thing.

Now, if she wants to go all Voluntarist and demand that nobody have anything imposed on them at all - that all economic relations be strictly voluntary, in a completely free market - I'm all ears, and good on her.

But I don't think that's real likely to be what she means.)

Sigivald said...

Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual

What the hell does that even mean?

(And the major problem with slavery was not "imposition of an economic system", but the whole forced labor and being owned by someone else thing.

Now, if she wants to go all Voluntarist and demand that nobody have anything imposed on them at all - that all economic relations be strictly voluntary, in a completely free market - I'm all ears, and good on her.

But I don't think that's real likely to be what she means.)

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

She got off lightly compared to Wesley Snipes.

Chip S. said...

What the hell does that even mean?

I think it means either Columbia Records was badgering her to deliver an album that had a reasonable prospect of selling or else return the $2.5 mil it fronted her.

jacksonjay said...


Ms. Hill should be thanking the evil George Bush for reducing her slave burden and cursing Saint Barry for demanding that "millionaires and billionaires pay a little bit more."

Anonymous said...

Dear Ms. Hill,

Your implication that a descendant of slaves is somehow exempt from paying income tax is a well-recognized "frivolous position." In other words, you're not the first to try it, and the IRS will have none of it, as you've discovered

(BTW, slavery was abolished in the United States long before the income tax was established.)

(BTW, virtually everyone on the planet is a descendant of slaves.)

I'm an enrolled agent, and I have many clients who continue to file their returns and pay their taxes even while burdened by great disappointments and disillusionments in their careers and personal lives. I dare say their burdens are often far greater than yours.

So: Suck it up.

And sympathy to your tax advisers.

Chip S. said...

Figure out how much one would have to make in income to owe $500,000.

According to the article, her full tax bill for the period was over $2 mil. She paid a little under $1 mil, and then defaulted on the additional $500k that the IRS settled for.

Chip S. said...

But hey, she might get a new hit single out of her torment at the hands of the IRS: "Billing me oftly".

William said...

The excuse is worse than the crime.

Birches said...

This totally reminds me of Rage Against the Machine.

We're socialists, but please still pay $$ for our albums and shows.

We love socialism, but other people really should be paying the taxes for our utopia, after all we're artists.

Chip S. said...

The excuse is worse than the crime.

Wesley Snipes's "non-resident alien" defense got him 3 years in prison. Hill's getting 3 months, plus 3 months of "time out" at home.

Perhaps it worked reasonably well.

Strelnikov said...

Her parents were slaves? How old is this chick?

rhhardin said...

There are 87,454,967,053 ways to distribute 64 identical galley slaves, 4 across at 16 fore-aft positions, rowing right and left side so that there's no net turning force on the ship within a stroke.

(A stroke starts by pushing water outwards, and ends by pushing water inwards. You can cancel out the turning force from this through proper slave placement in a certain number of ways. This is beside having the same number of slaves rowing right and left side.)

Amartel said...

Come and see the damaging and distorting restrictions and limitations inherent in the system.
Help, help I'm being enslaved!

Freeman Hunt said...

It's impositions all the way down.

Chuck said...

She needs a tax cut. And a break from federal prosecutors.

Soomebody get her the numbers for Obama and Holder so that Miss Lauryn Hill can send them both a text message.

cold pizza said...

Amartel for the win! -CP

acm said...

Huh. I had thought she was Haitian, like the rest of the Fugees. Interesting to know otherwise.

Amartel said...

"Ideas that would work perfectly well in song lyrics can sound so wrong in court."

Pop culture is so dishonest that a wealthy and successful artist, a Mandarin of society, can maintain the delusion, to herself and to the rest of the world, that she is a "child of former slaves" and terribly imposed upon by society. And profit from it.
The machinery that maintains this popular delusion does not operate so well in court. Well, at least not in front of this judge. Might work on a jury.

KCFleming said...

Clearly, we need some modern Negro Spirituals.

campy said...

There are 87,454,967,053 ways to distribute 64 identical galley slaves,

But where can you acquire identical galley slaves in lots of 64?

Methadras said...

Lauren Hill has always been an entitled little black racist bitch. This little black racist bitch, has been extolling the virtues of her black racism on the backs of the crackers that buy her goods. So who has been imposing what onto whom, Lauren. You're little "Your laws don't apply to me!!!" Bullshit doesn't work and your grievance-mongering is only the indication of the kind of person you are. Have fun in the pokey. I'm sure you will be passing by Wesley Snipes on his way out, while you are on your way in.

edutcher said...

John Lynch said...

She got off lightly compared to Wesley Snipes.

Wesley was a bigger star.

Chip S. said...

But hey, she might get a new hit single out of her torment at the hands of the IRS: "Billing me oftly".

That would only apply if she'd contacted the PRO, but good one, anyway.

Anonymous said...

Clearly, we need some modern Negro Spirituals.

"Nobody Knows the Trust Funds I Seen"

"Swing Low, Sweet Charitable Deduction"

....

Methadras said...

During her trial, Hill was ordered by the judge in Newark, New Jersey to undergo counselling because of her conspiracy theories - including that artists are being oppressed by a plot involving the military and media.

By the way, I've told you all before that blacks, and blacks of Lauren Hills racist persuasion are the worst paranoid conspiracy theorist kooks on the planet. They are wacky wack wack conspiracy kooks. Jews and whitey everywhere trying to hold them down at every turn.

bagoh20 said...

"PS It's savanna. Savannah is a city in GA"

It still works.

furious_a said...

Former Fugees front girl sentenced to jail because of slavery, racism and back taxes, but most mostly for back taxes.

Only someone with a heart of stone could read this story and not bust out laughing. Unfortunately for Ms. Hill that's the IRS in a nutshell.

She had a poor education.

Ha-ha! Good one. And who's her tax preparer -- Tim Geithner?

There is no system; it's the Savannah.

Racist dog whistle if I ever heard one.

AllenS said...

It's people like Lauren Hill that's making it so hard for me to have my farm designated as an Indian reservation.

Ignorance is Bliss said...

AllenS said...

It's people like Lauren Hill that's making it so hard for me to have my farm designated as an Indian reservation.

I'd be happy to back up your claim, for a small cut of the casino take.

madAsHell said...

"They're going to put you all back in chains!!"

MayBee said...

Her expression is 1% artistic and 99% batshit craziness.

cold pizza said...

How can she reconcile her street code with her bourgeois values? A little prison time to bolster street cred? That is some whack dope, bro! -CP

cold pizza said...

Sorry, "That is" should be written "Dats" -CP

eddie willers said...

"Your Honor, I'm afflicted with CPT".

Sam L. said...

Idjits! She's an idjit!

How much did she have to earn to oew $500K?

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

She needs Obama's 18.4% tax rate.

Freeman Hunt said...

Why does she have to go to jail? I don't remember Geithner going to jail.

Tank said...

Geitner is a plantation owner.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Her story reminds me of Nina Simone.

Michelle Dulak Thomson said...

No one wealthy enough to have $500K in tax arrears gets my sympathy. Sorry. Welcome to the 1%, Ms. Hill.

gerry said...

rhhardin: There are 87,454,967,053 ways to distribute 64 identical galley slaves

Thanks! I've been wondering how much memory a 64-bit system could address.

Smilin' Jack said...

During her trial, Hill was ordered by the judge in Newark, New Jersey to undergo counselling because of her conspiracy theories - including that artists are being oppressed by a plot involving the military and media.



Boss Paul: "You got your mind right, Luke?"

Luke: "Yah. I got it right. I got it right, Boss." 

n.n said...

Perhaps the freed black slaves should have returned to Africa, where they could free their brothers and sisters, and reestablish dominion over occupied land. It is in Africa, under Arab and black Muslim occupation, where reform should have started for civil and human rights activists.

That said, I wonder if she voted for a redistributive change economic model. It sounds good in theory and in speeches, but establishing a monopoly through authority has consequences. Not the least of which is to promote corruption through a progressive dissociation of risk.

el polacko said...

i bought her first album and then she announced that she did not make her music for white people.
i promptly returned the cd to the store and never looked back. chump don't want my money, chump don't get my money.

David-2 said...

What sort of pager do you carry if you're a musician for reasons of for artistic and existential catharsis, and so you're on call all the time, like a doctor who delivers babies?

furious_a said...

VARIETY Best Headline Winner: Former 'Fugee Fails to File.'

The IRS is the whip hand of the Man keeping my people down:

Sammy Davis, Jr.
Redd Foxx
Dionne Warwick
Wesley Snipes
OJ Simpson
Plaxico Burress
Fat Joe
Li'l Wayne
The Artist Formerly Known as Prince
R Kelly
Flavor Flav (!)
George Clinton (!!)
Lauryn Hill
Rihanna
...Who's next?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

They gave her two weeks to pay the money...

Her pride would not let her ask Oprah or Bill Cosby for a loan?... Look I don't want to go to jail?... can you help a sister out?

Unless... this is being used as part of the "comeback"... its a quasi reality show / earned street creed necessary to compete with the Lil Waynes and the Jay Zs?

David-2 said...

John Lynch said...

She got off lightly compared to Wesley Snipes.


Yes ... but she did pay $1M of what she owed, where Snipes (according to Wikipedia) not only didn't pay taxes, he also made false tax refund claims of over $11 million (though he was apparently acquited of those charges, if I'm reading Wikipedia right). Plus the non-resident alien shenanagans, etc.

BTW, you've heard of the government burying news by releasing it late Friday? They manage the news the other way too: They released Snipes from prison two weeks before tax day this year.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

I think the expansive Pigford fraud is more than enough to count as reparations paid in full.
oh wait... still not done.
None of us are slave owners, but we will be punished all the same.
What an odd paradigm under the life and times of the grand unifier.

Taxes are supposed to be the ultimate equalizer, so we are told.
Taxes are for the little people.

Brennan said...

Funny that. Lauryn Hill is tax enough already.

Welcome to the party Ms. Hill.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Not paying taxes is less paynfull than getting shot?

See what I did there?

I'm mentioning it because I don't want you to think its an accidental typo... its an overt typo.

Revenant said...

That horseshit Charter ad is causing me to have seizures

Oh noes!

(what Charter ad?)

Valentine Smith said...

She's married to a Marley. Her very being is saturated with tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), either by injection via the Marley penis or thru sucking down joints for 20 years or more. Probably both.

There's nothing worse for a persecution complex than that insidiously vicious chemical compound.

furious_a said...

I think the expansive Pigford fraud is more than enough to count as reparations paid in full.

One would think that the Union state-by-state memorials at, say, Gettysburg would suffice.

Revenant said...

On taxes. If you're paying more that 50% of your income in various taxes, are you a slave? Involuntary servitude?

All of your taxes are involuntary servitude. If you're paying 50% of your income in taxes, 50% of your labor is slave labor.

Freeman Hunt said...

Remember when someone said "two weeks" in Total Recall? Maybe that's what happened in court. No wonder she didn't pay. Plus, it's true that she's got five kids to feed.

furious_a said...

VARIETY Best Headline Winner: 'Former 'Fugee Fails to File.'

The IRS is the whip hand of the Man keeping my people down:

Sammy Davis, Jr.
Redd Foxx
Dionne Warwick
Wesley Snipes
OJ Simpson
Plaxico Burress
Fat Joe
Li'l Wayne
The Artist Formerly Known as Prince
R Kelly
Flavor Flav (!)
George Clinton (!!)
Lauryn Hill
Rihanna
...

Tell old Pharaoh
To let My people go!
(from the economic system imposed on them.)

Paul said...

If she does not like the U.S. and feels Africa is the place be...

SHE CAN GO THERE.

She may, or may not, be a 'child of former slaves' but there is no reason she can't just move back to Africa on her dime.

Oh, and I presume she must be very very old as the slaves were freed in 1860s at this little thing called a CIVIL WAR.

Now you see why I feel welfare as destroyed the black community. Entitlement is just all they think about.

Seeing Red said...

This reminds me of Erykah Badu, or however she spells it.

I think her name was Diane, she changed it cos Diane is a slave name and I think her mom's response was, "I gave you that name."

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Plus, it's true that she's got five kids to feed.

She can feed her kids on less than 5 dollars a day.

pdug said...

There is an afrocentric school of thought called Khemism that claims this kind of thing: we're still in slavery because there are taxes and things cost money.

Methadras said...

AllenS said...

It's people like Lauren Hill that's making it so hard for me to have my farm designated as an Indian reservation.

5/7/13, 11:55 AM
Blogger Ignorance is Bliss said...

AllenS said...

It's people like Lauren Hill that's making it so hard for me to have my farm designated as an Indian reservation.

I'd be happy to back up your claim, for a small cut of the casino take.


I too would like to donate to your Indian reservation designation. Also for a small cut of the casino takes. :D

Pettifogger said...

Everyone everywhere at every time has had an economic system imposed on him. Sometimes for some people, the economic system was better than for other people at other times. For example, the economic system imposed on American slaves was heinous, whereas the economic system imposed on this twit was pretty good.

Anonymous said...

Methadras said...

AllenS said...

It's people like Lauren Hill that's making it so hard for me to have my farm designated as an Indian reservation.

5/7/13, 11:55 AM
Blogger Ignorance is Bliss said...

AllenS said...

It's people like Lauren Hill that's making it so hard for me to have my farm designated as an Indian reservation.

I'd be happy to back up your claim, for a small cut of the casino take.

I too would like to donate to your Indian reservation designation. Also for a small cut of the casino takes. :D

5/7/13, 2:03 PM
______________________________

You have my 100% support for 50% of the bingo and cigarette concessions.

Icepick said...

Althouse ought to have a 'Celebutard' tag.

Colonel Angus said...

Who is this broad?

tim in vermont said...

What I don't get is that if there is no limit to the amount the govt can borrow or should borrow, why does anybody pay any taxes at all?

madAsHell said...

I watched bits-n-pieces of SNL over the weekend. They had a sketch about the-girl-you-regret-starting-a-conversation-with.

I think Lauryn Hill fits the stereotype.

Skeptical Voter said...

How old are/were this woman's parents. Since slavery in the USA ended in 1865, they must have been about 150 years old when they had this bimbo.

cold pizza said...

Hey SV, your comment is insulting ... to bimbos! -CP

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

$500,000 in taxes?
That's nothing. Talk to the Clinton's Marc Rich and lovely wife Denise! Major tax evading goodness for the D-party.
Perhaps Lauren can gain a presidential pardon?

dreams said...

If not paying your taxes is wrong, she doesn't want to be right and now she is going to prison.

jr565 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
jr565 said...

Even though she has these views on taxes, dollars to donuts, I bet she voted for Obama. And I wouldn't be surprised if, like most liberals, she wanted to stick it to the rich guys and fat cats.

Just not with her money. She could be the exception, but my guess is, fell in lockstep with other libs.

Remember Rosanne Barre. She said people who have more than 100 million should be put in reeducation camps and have their heads chopped off. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt that she wasn't being literal with the decapitation rhetoric.

But, where did she get that 100 million figure from? My guess, she came up with 100 million, because she isn't quite worth 100 million. Therefore, she isn't one of the fat cats that need to be reeducated. Its those OTHER fat cats that earned more than her. She's with the little guy while also a multi millionaire.

How hilarious when rich celebrities say they are socialists. Imagine no possession, indeed.

jr565 said...

Similarly, bill maher was on his show saying how, due to high tax rates, the liberals might lose him.

I remember, when I used to watch his show LONG ago, both he and Michael Moore got down on hands and knees and BEGGED Ralph Nader not to run again, because it might upset the dems chance to win.

But suddenly, after the dems rhetoric of making the wealthy pay their fair share, he's going to balk and say he as a rich guy pays too much in taxes?!? Seriously, Bill, if ANYONE should pay their fair share its you, you big nosed creep.

If the dems say that "fair share" is 90% of your salary, Bill, please don't complain about it. Rather, pony up the bucks and stop whining like a bitch.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

jr565
I'm still waiting for the entire leftwing Hollywood collective to collectively open their mansions to the poor.

cassandra lite said...

She shouldn't have said no to the '09 inaugural invite performance.

Unknown said...

"Over-commercialisation and its resulting restrictions and limitations can be very damaging and distorting to the inherent nature of the individual."

A poor Monty Python imitation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOOTKA0aGI0

Methadras said...

pduggie said...

There is an afrocentric school of thought called Khemism that claims this kind of thing: we're still in slavery because there are taxes and things cost money.


Taxes are too damned high!!!

wildswan said...

People sit around talking in cliches day after day. Then one day Mr. Big Bad Reality comes in the door. They try to talk him back out with their feeble little chatter. Astounding! - it does not work. Ms. Hill and the IRS. Obama and Benghazi. Current reality is not a huge difficult mind-bending plot requiring a knowledge o history and psychology to interpret it. Just listen to some teenagers playing video games.

Auntie Ann said...

Lauryn Hill, radical libertarian!

glenn said...

Tell ya what LB, renounce your US citizenship and go live in one of the many third world sinkholes that exist here and there and you can keep my share of those unpaid taxes.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

It's impositions all the way down.

I have Freeman for the win.

glenn said...

Better yet Barry should appoint her to his Cabinet. With TurboTim leaving he's one tax dodger short.

khesanh0802 said...

I have been trying all day to figure out what Ann means by this sentence: "One can intelligently and consciously eschew persuasion and victory"

Is it flatulence or meaningful?

rcommal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
rcommal said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Francisco D said...

Lauren has a wonderful voice, but she has serious mental illness problems. Ask Wycle Jean wheh they were both with the Fugees.

Mark said...

She is just miseducated.

Gene said...

That "slave" shit don't sit well with the IRS.

Not this year. But the sad truth that in time arguments like these actually prevail with federal departments and eventually the judiciary.

Freeman Hunt said...

Somebody saw it. Thank you, Lem.

furious_a said...

still waiting for the entire leftwing Hollywood collective to collectively open their mansions to the poor...

Martin Sheen, while honorary mayor of Malibu, did the next best thing:

"I hereby declare Malibu a nuclear-free zone, a sanctuary for aliens and the homeless and a protected environment for all life, wild and tame."

JAL said...

She's mentally ill.

But she needs to pay her fair share, right?

Dante said...

"Billing me oftly".

Hey, I like that song!

Very clever.

Meanwhile, I simply don't understand how people can be so calm about this absolute bullshit.

How did we come to creating people of privilege like this spouting such nonsense? If she were living in pre-Western Civ African days, she would probably have already died. Africa had a stable population of 10M before western Civ, for thousands of years. That's a lot of pruning of people before reproductive age.

DCS said...

I blame George W Bush

Mario said...

Juegos Kizi

Anonymous said...

Obviously the IRS acted stupidly

Anonymous said...

Obviously the IRS acted stupidly

Lewis Wetzel said...

"I am a child of former slaves who had a system imposed on them. I had an economic system imposed on me."

I've got two friends on the left with whom I occasionally discuss economics.
Both of them have told me that they believe that we need a new economic system.
What they meant by that was that they believe that the 'capitalist system' was invented sometime in the 14th Cent. (or was it the 12th?) by banks and the rich, expressly to keep the masses poor while enriching themselves.
The bankers, I mean.
This is a very odd, conspiratorial way to look at history. I wonder how many people on the left believe this?
The problem with believing malarkey like this is that it opens the door to believing a lot of crazy stuff. If the evil capitalists have been manipulating human society for hundreds of years, it couldn't have been beyond them to promote this Lenin fellow as a fake 'reformer'. Who knows? Maybe Gus Hall was their man. Maybe today they are bank rolling Kim Jong un.