By Mark Nestmann (September 16, 2010)
Do you question authority? Fail to accept conventional wisdom? Lose your temper when you hear a politician make a promise that you know he or she can’t keep?
If so, you may be mentally ill, according to the most recent revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). In this revision, psychiatrists hope to add dozens of new mental disorders. Unfortunately, many of these so-called illnesses target people who merely think or behave differently from the majority population.
A case in point is “oppositional defiant disorder (ODD).” DSM defines ODD as “an ongoing pattern of disobedient, hostile and defiant behavior toward authority figures.” Symptoms include losing one’s temper, annoying people and being “touchy.” Other “disorders” include antisocial behavior, arrogance, cynicism and narcissism. Sounds like many of my readers!
While diagnosis of ODD “victims” focuses on children, there’s no reason why ODD can’t exist in adults. Indeed, ODD can evolve into “conduct disorder” (CD), which DSM defines as “wherein the rights of others or social norms are violated.”
Uh-oh. So violating “social norms” is now a mental illness as well.
Let’s connect the dots, shall we? There’s a long and sordid history of governments using psychiatry for political repression. In the Soviet Union, thousands of political prisoners were detained in mental hospitals. There they were isolated from friends and family, and many cases, forcibly medicated. Nazi Germany went even further: it murdered over 180,000 psychiatric patients.
Laws in most states allow child protective services agencies to forcibly medicate your children. Indeed, if you fail to administer drugs ordered by a physician or have your children submit to vaccinations, you can be imprisoned.
As The Washington Post observed:
“If seven-year-old Mozart tried composing his concertos today, he might be diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and medicated into barren normality.”
The conversion of personality differences into psychiatric disorders, and the forced medication of children, is a dangerous trend. It is but a short step to extend these laws to adults who have a pattern of “negativistic, defiant, disobedient and hostile behavior toward authority figures.”
I’d prefer a different approach: institutionalizing the psychiatrists that came up with all these new disorders. Perhaps we could call their condition “overmedication psychosis.” And those of us with ODD, CD, or who simply don’t like the government telling us how to live our lives could breathe a bit easier.
Copyright © 2010 by Mark Nestmann
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Long Over Due
Brava! to Rep. Shirley Ringo for bringing forward more in regard to corrupt operations at the Idaho Tax Commission...
and thanks to Robert Huntley for taking the legal process at hand.
Huntley is the attorney who successfully sued the State of Idaho Medicaid for failing people in the Silver Valley who have lived now with 6 generations of exposure to toxic mining waste, and EPA is planning for more.
Stay tuned for more on this issue.
and thanks to Robert Huntley for taking the legal process at hand.
Huntley is the attorney who successfully sued the State of Idaho Medicaid for failing people in the Silver Valley who have lived now with 6 generations of exposure to toxic mining waste, and EPA is planning for more.
Stay tuned for more on this issue.
Monday, May 03, 2010
Is Butch Drinking the Wrong Tea
Just what is Butch Otter drinking these days? And maybe it is a bit odd that he fell ill following that Tea Party Talk in Washington.
Maybe Butch is feeling a bit of Catholic Guilt for his role in allowing illegal assumption of approximately $15,000 of my limited assets related to being disabled since 1993.
And wasn't it Butch that did get an IRS opinion that proved I did not have a requirement to file a tax return? And wasn't it the ITC Administrative Code that clearly states that is a person is not required to file with the IRS they are not required to file with the ITC?
So Butch, when you're sober, let's clear up the fraud perpetrated on my and return the tax money allowed to be fraudulently conveyed from me to the ITC.
And BTW Idaho is NOT a good place to do business because the ITC will cheat you every chance they get, but their methods are really criminal...
So BEWARE
Maybe Butch is feeling a bit of Catholic Guilt for his role in allowing illegal assumption of approximately $15,000 of my limited assets related to being disabled since 1993.
And wasn't it Butch that did get an IRS opinion that proved I did not have a requirement to file a tax return? And wasn't it the ITC Administrative Code that clearly states that is a person is not required to file with the IRS they are not required to file with the ITC?
So Butch, when you're sober, let's clear up the fraud perpetrated on my and return the tax money allowed to be fraudulently conveyed from me to the ITC.
And BTW Idaho is NOT a good place to do business because the ITC will cheat you every chance they get, but their methods are really criminal...
So BEWARE
Friday, March 12, 2010
To Tax or Not to Tax
By now most everyone knows that Idaho is in deep trouble and so are neighboring states.
Butch has decided to market the idea that moving businesses to Idaho is a good way to help this situation.
I couldn't disagree more!
Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter - And a whole Otter love from Idaho...
by Cris Andreae on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:33am
program:Air Cascadia
My experience in an effort to relocate my firm in Idaho ended in pure disaster and it cost me many thousands, almost forcing my firm to fold.
No agency in Idaho set up to offer assistance to business helped in any way, and for the most part ignored my requests.
My situation is a bit different yet no one at the Idaho Tax Commission was the owner of enough of a functioning brain to understand. SO of course I was harassed for 4 of the 5 years I lived there.
Otter did help by getting an IRS document when he was in the House that proved my statements to the ITC were true but nothing changed.
The energy and money spent by the bureaucracy to cover up the illegal acts against me - and violating the Idaho Code and ITC Administrative Rules was certainly something that could have helped my cause.
Yes, another act of victimizing the victim in Idaho, cover up the transgressions of career bureaucrats at all cost, and never make it right.
Come on Butch, where's the love?
Butch has decided to market the idea that moving businesses to Idaho is a good way to help this situation.
I couldn't disagree more!
Clement Leroy "Butch" Otter - And a whole Otter love from Idaho...
by Cris Andreae on Tue, 03/09/2010 - 11:33am
program:Air Cascadia
But where's the candy and flowers? Idaho's own 'Butch' Otter must be in rut: The Guv sent a 'love letter' to businesses in neighboring states where voters have approved progressive taxes. This crie de coeur promises companies a balmy business climate just across the stateline. But what it delivers amounts to a cheap one night stand: Business tax-wise, Oregon ranks 14th nationwide. Idaho is 18th. Romance may be in the air, but 'Butch's' math is in the tank...the heart is a lonely hunter...Or as they say in Idaho, Esta perpetua...
My experience in an effort to relocate my firm in Idaho ended in pure disaster and it cost me many thousands, almost forcing my firm to fold.
No agency in Idaho set up to offer assistance to business helped in any way, and for the most part ignored my requests.
My situation is a bit different yet no one at the Idaho Tax Commission was the owner of enough of a functioning brain to understand. SO of course I was harassed for 4 of the 5 years I lived there.
Otter did help by getting an IRS document when he was in the House that proved my statements to the ITC were true but nothing changed.
The energy and money spent by the bureaucracy to cover up the illegal acts against me - and violating the Idaho Code and ITC Administrative Rules was certainly something that could have helped my cause.
Yes, another act of victimizing the victim in Idaho, cover up the transgressions of career bureaucrats at all cost, and never make it right.
Come on Butch, where's the love?
Wednesday, February 03, 2010
Tax Commission Cheats Citizens
After the harrowing experience noted in the preceding post, and the Stan Howland Matter, now that the state is short of money (could it extreme bureaucratic waste in the tax commission?) the ITC wants more staff to attempt to extort money from citizens and business while it fails to move to repay a citizen the stolen $15K plus interest since 2002 the ITC extorted through abuse and harassment (lies too but it isn't nice to say that even though the proof exists).
I guess it depends on who you cheat or which foot the shoe is on, right Sam?
I guess it depends on who you cheat or which foot the shoe is on, right Sam?
Tax cheats, others shorting Idaho $250 million
Tax Commission: Cheats, others shorting Idaho $250 million; lost cash hurts in budget crisis By John Miller, Associated Press Writer , On Wednesday February 3, 2010,
BOISE, Idaho (AP) -- Whether through cheating or ignorance, taxpayers are shorting Idaho by about $250 million annually at a time when Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter and lawmakers are cutting budgets for public schools and other state agencies.
Idaho Tax Commission Chairman Royce Chigbrow told members of the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Wednesday this uncollected tax gap undermines faith in the system and is unfair to people who are following the law.
His agency says not all of the $250 million is collectible, but figures it could probably bring in an additional $64.5 million -- if it had more staff and a few policy changes. Some are politically difficult, like collecting more taxes on Internet sales or going after out-of-state owners of Idaho homes after they sell their property for a profit. Bills aimed at doing both have stalled in recent years.
Chigbrow says the basic rule is, for an additional $1 million investment in staff, his employees could bring in $10 million more.
"With greater enforcement, compliance moves up automatically," he told members of the budget committee.
The Tax Commission is facing a proposed fiscal year 2011 budget starting next July of $31.9 million, about $200,000 less than the original appropriation for the current year that's now being trimmed back through a series of holdbacks.
Since last year, the commission has gotten about $2 million to hire 74 temporary tax auditors to go after tax cheats, including a $1.5 million infusion of reserves backed by Otter in late 2009. Otter is recommending the agency get another $1.5 million in fiscal 2011 to keep the auditors on board.
The temps were charged with bringing in an additional $17 million in revenue this year; Chigbrow says they are ahead of schedule and could bring in about $20 million by July.
"We are well on our way," he said. "It's money well invested."
Auditors are investigating people who haven't filed tax returns, prompting suspicions that they've joined the ranks of tax dodges amid an economic downturn that appears to be rippling tax collections.
For instance, the Tax Commission has recorded a 21 percent increase in underpayments, a 30 percent spike in non-filers and a 49 percent jump in underreporting, in addition to nearly a third more bankruptcy filings in 2009 -- all developments that will likely reduce state revenue.
To help meet holdbacks ordered by Otter over the last year, Chigbrow's agency hasn't filled 30 vacant positions and has ordered about 20,000 furlough hours for its roughly 400 employees. Amid tough budget times, it's also opted not to purchase upgrades to tax-collection software it's been using since 2002 to find more money, though that's an expense that can't be delayed forever.
"We will be coming to you in future budget years to ask you to protect your investment," Chigbrow said.
He did take some heat from budget panel members who questioned including auditors among the ranks of Tax Commission employees who must take furloughs to help meet budget cuts ordered by Otter. He says the agency tried to get by without, by reducing copier expenses and reducing out-of-state travel to a minimum.
Still, most of his agency's budget is personnel.
"If no cuts can be made in other areas of the Tax Commission, we have no other choice," Chigbrow said, pointing out that he and the three other tax commissioners -- David Langhorst, Tom Katsilometes and Sam Haws -- also took unpaid time off.
SOS at the ITC Just Gets Worse
Just recently a colleague shared with me an experience encountered with some of the gems that work at the ITC, you know, customer service types.
Well it seems as if ITC customer service is based on threats made to and yelling at citizens, refusal to identify who the employee is so you know to whom you are speaking, and worst, not being willing to put to writing the information handed out to callers, so they have the comment in letter form their files.
Even the IRS lets you know who you are calling and the ITC bases what it does in the IRS.
I guess since Otter is short on income this year perhaps he can clear out some of these current ITC thugs.
Well it seems as if ITC customer service is based on threats made to and yelling at citizens, refusal to identify who the employee is so you know to whom you are speaking, and worst, not being willing to put to writing the information handed out to callers, so they have the comment in letter form their files.
Even the IRS lets you know who you are calling and the ITC bases what it does in the IRS.
I guess since Otter is short on income this year perhaps he can clear out some of these current ITC thugs.
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