Dirty Secrets

2012

Here are a few dirty secrets gathered from some research done online and off. You may not have known that you are most likely a criminal under federal law, for example, but we'll get to that one in a moment. First, lets ask...

Is the AARP Non-Profit?

The AARP (which is now the official name for what was called the American Association of Retired Persons), is said to have been founded by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus in 1958. But investigative reporters say it was in fact established by Leonard Davis, who was the founder of the Colonial Penn Group insurance companies. It seems that he met Ethel Percy Andrus, liked her idea, and saw it as an opportunity to sell a lot of insurance products. Colonial Penn sold billions of dollars in policies to AARP members.

AARP was largely controlled by Mr. Davis until the 1980s. It was promoted as a non-profit advocate of retirees, but also was a vehicle for selling insurance, making its non-profit status questionable. According to a Wikipedia entry, "After a lengthy competitive bidding process, AARP shifted the insurance contracts made available to members to Prudential in 1980." In the 1990s the organization was investigated by the United States Senate, but their non-profit status was left intact. By then, of course, they had the resources necessary for extensive lobbying, which is one of their primary activities.

Have You Committed a Federal Criminal?

Lee Bellinger, in a supplement to his Newsletter Independent Living, had a good article on how over-regulated and over-prosecuted we are in the United States. It focused on a few of the many examples of "government gone wild," like the marine biologist who, even though she had a permit to do research on whales, was arrested her for breaking the Marine Mammal Protection Act because she went too close to some whales. Although it is unlikely that she would get the maximum, she faces decades in prison and up to $500,000 in fines.

Then there was a man who actually spent almost six years in prison (longer than many rapists) for packaging lobsters incorrectly and so inadvertently breaking some Honduran law, which put him in violation of the Lacey Act. The latter is a federal law here that makes it a felony to import fish or wildlife if it breaks a law in another country.

In another case a race-car champion Bobby Unser accidentally crossed the line and entered a wilderness area while lost in a blizzard on his snowmobile. He now has a permanent criminal record, and had to pay a fine as well.

These kinds of cases are not as rare as we might like to think, and we are not all immune to making mistakes that become federal crimes. John Baker, a retired Louisiana State University law professor, said in the Wall Street Journal, "There is no one in the United States over the age of 18 who cannot be indicted for some federal crime." It seems a bit extreme to say that, but even just from the examples in Bellinger's article I saw at least one federal crime I had committed. A man and his son were arrested for violating the Archaeological Resources Protection Act of 1979, simply because, while they were camping, the son looked for arrowheads--even though they didn't find any and did not know they were breaking any laws. I have looked for arrowheads, and I didn't know it was against the law. Guess I'll have to destroy the evidence (maybe that's not what the law intended, but laws always have unintended consequences).

$100 Packs of Cigarettes?

The New Zealand Ministry of Health hopes to make the country smoke free by 2025. As part of this goal they're debating several possible scenarios for raising the cost of cigarettes through higher taxes. One suggestion laid out in a paper they published on the subject is to immediately push up the price-per-pack by 30% or more from the current $16-or-so per pack, and then keep implementing raises until it costs $100 per pack. Of course, this is not going to make New Zealand smoke free, as any honest observer will acknowledge. Instead it would guarantee a black market and the associated increase in crime that goes with that. The Ministry says the paper was meant for internal policy discussion, and is not official Government policy, but it does show the direction they are going and the lack of realism in government.

Dangerous States

No state want's to be known as being dangerous. On the other hand, most people would love to see their state ranked as the most peaceful. Maine got the number one spot for the annual United States Peace Index. Last on the list: Louisiana. But you'll have to decide for yourself if the criteria used make sense. Homicide and other violent crime rates are part of measurement, but does having more police officers or more guns automatically make a place less peaceful? In any case, you can see the whole index here:

http://www.visionofhumanity.org/uspeaceindex/

More Dirty Secrets

If you want to know who is paying for which politician, or which lobbying groups are funding the best legislation money can buy, there is one website you should put on your favorites list: http://www.opensecrets.org. You can compare financing sources and amounts for candidates, see who gives the most money to your local congressman, and much more.

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