The Jade Steps
Chapter Twenty: The Legend in Cuba

“Señor Aguilar!” Malinali shouted with a bright smile. She had spotted him sitting under a large ceiba tree at the edge of Tlaxcala’s market eating his mid-day meal. He returned her smile. “Doña Marina!” he called back. “Would you care to join me?”

She sat down next to him. “It seems so long since I saw you last,” she said.

“Yes – well, you learned Spanish so fast, while I have been slow at learning Nahuatl, that there was little need to help you translating for Captain Cortez,” came his reply. “What I really needed to do was learn to be a soldier again after being a Mayan slave for those long eight years. So I have been with the soldiers.”

“Would you like to learn Nahuatl?” she asked. “I can teach you.” Aguilar considered it for a moment, then answered, “I would like that – Nahuatl is very different from Mayan, but I should try. If I can find the time, that is, for a soldier is kept very busy.”

“You don’t look very busy to me,” came a nearby voice. “Bernal!” both Malinali and Aguilar exclaimed at the same time. “Do I understand that now Doña Marina is going to be your teacher instead of the other way around?” Bernal asked Aguilar with a grin. Aguilar shook his head. “I’m afraid so.”

They chatted happily for a while, then Malinali had a thought. “Bernal, I have a question for you.” Her eyes had a mischievous twinkle. “Why are Captain Cortez and Diego Velasquez – the governor, as you call him, of your island of Cuba – enemies?”

There are decades of stories about corporations, movie actors, artists and politicians hiding money from the taxman. Many economic studies have shown that once tax rates exceed 20 percent, most people will start thinking about and then acting in legal or illegal ways to avoid the tax bill.

The reason there is so little remorse about tax avoidance and evasion is that virtually everyone knows that much of what government does is a ripoff. If people really believed that "government is underresourced" and spends its money wisely, they would not take legal charitable and other deductions when they file their income taxes.

The president's buddy, Al Sharpton, is welcome at the White House almost any time, even though the Internal Revenue Service reportedly claims he owes millions in unpaid taxes.  If Mr. Sharpton had robbed a supermarket of a mere $10,000, it is unlikely he would be welcome at the White House.
The message is obvious. The government even tells us that federal employees, including thousands at the IRS, owe billions in back taxes, yet little is done. At the same time IRS leaders have the unmitigated gall to demand larger budgets.

Every thinking person implicitly knows that the U.S. government is the world's biggest financial fraudster.  Here's what to do about it.

Trust is at the same time a fundamental necessity and by-product of a free society. A free society requires trust to function, and there are incentives to act in trustworthy ways in a free society. Without trust our way of life would be impossible.

The breakdown of trust is the most troublesome effect of the continual growth and intrusion of our government into our businesses, our beliefs, and our personal lives.

There are always corrupt politicians and rotten people in government. And there is an acceptance of a certain degree of waste and abuse of power - it's just inevitable with government. But up until now, there has been a basic human trust that has been a part of America's moral fabric, that includes all people - even those in government.

Today we are losing it, and fast.  Is there any way to get it -- a government we can trust -- back?

Rupert Murdoch is one of the world's savviest businessmen - but his prediction today (5/29) that Obambi will defeat McCain next November in a landslide is straightforward idiocy.

Someone could make an intelligible argument that he could come out on top in a close contest - but a landslide?  That's nuts.  For the odds are far, far greater that it will be the other way around.  McCain is going to wipe the electoral floor with Obambi.

Obambi is going to be torched by white women, Reagan Democrats, Hillary supporters, and most everybody else except blacks, academics, college kids being taught by the academics, and urban-elitist liberals whose brains have been similarly damaged by the academics.  He'll carry Oregon, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and maybe New York - maybe.  Not a lot more.  Not even California.

Murdoch would have been on much firmer ground predicting a Dem landslide in the House and Senate - but that wouldn't be news, for that's the universally accepted wisdom.  Predictions are ubiquitous that the Pubs are going to lose 10 to 20 House seats and 4 to 6 Senate seats at a minimum.  It could be much worse, a lot worse.

So much worse that the Dems will gain a filibuster-proof majority of 60+ seats in the Senate, preventing the passage of any decent McCain legislation or the confirmation of any decent McCain judicial appointment.

How ironic, then, that the hero who can save the day and rescue the helpless Pubbies from certain disaster is... the Dems' very own champion, Hussein Obambi.

The Jade Steps
Chapter Eighteen: The Tale of Taclaelel

They arose the next morning at dawn. Cortez ordered a small altar be put up in the plaza, where the padres performed a Mass for the Spaniards. He returned to his quarters to find King Xicotencatl and a very dignified elderly man, at least as old as the king.

“Malinche,” the king said through Malinali, “this is Chief Maxixcatzin (max-eeks-cot-zin, Ring of Cotton), lord of our region of Ocotelolco, and the military leader of all Tlaxcala who has protected us from the Mesheeka for many years.”

Malinali’s eyes widened at the introduction, and took it upon herself to expand Cortez’s brief greeting of welcome.