Loading ...Vintage Farmboy Story “Farmboy Goes To The Courthouse” From 2005
I’ll never forget this story. So I saved it for future enjoyment. Hope you who never saw it, enjoy it, and I hope farmboy does not mind me reposting it.
(Farmboy2) Jul 12, 15:09
Farmboy Goes To The Courthouse
June 11, 2005, a day to be remembered here at the farm. With Dennis leaving 9 inches of rain in its wake, the place is a muddy mess. Thinking maybe I should give up on the crops and just open a catfish farm. Lord knows I now have the “ponds” to raise the southern fried delicacy.
June 11th was also the last day to protest the latest raise in county property taxes. I stopped digging drain ditches long enough to go to the county courthouse to file my protest. Did not bother cleaning up before leaving. Taking a hot shower and putting on clean dry clothes might have altered my ‘war’ state of mind.
It was raining, of course, as I pulled into the courthouse parking lot. I pulled my cowboy hat down a little lower as I paused to kick the rear bumper a couple times. Knocked off a couple junks of mud from my boots. Also dislodged a few larger chunks of mud and sod from the rear bumper. Some county employee was exiting his government provided sedan and gave me a look of disgust for dirtying ‘his’ parking lot. I think he was about to say something but changed his mind as with one hand I wiped the water from an unshaven face, and reached for a shovel in the back of the pickup to knock a little more mud off my boots. He clutched his briefcase and umbrella and scurried into the safety of the air conditioned courthouse. Probably, a good idea.
It’s a beautiful courthouse, only a few years old. Reckon the best marble, mahogany, and Italian tile tax money can buy. The County Board of Assessors was crowded with a line outside the door. It was good to see not all were taking this latest tax increase of around 40 percent like the sheeple that so many seem to be these days. I took my place in line, moving a few inches every minute or so. I apologized to the person in line behind me for the muddy puddles I was leaving with each step forward. They were nice about it. Kinda wished I had at least sprayed some Right Guard under the arms, or splashed a little Old Spice on to cover up the sweaty smell.
Once I actually got inside the doors the area was full of people sitting around filling out forms. It was quiet. Real quiet. Had the atmosphere of silence one normally associates with a funeral home. Finally I stood facing the young lady behind the mahogany counter. Picking up a clipboard with a form she asked me if I was there to file a tax protest? Reaching into my back jean pocket I pulled out a damp form and unfolded it. There was a smudge of mud over the large black letters that said, “Official Tax Matter”. As I handed her the paperwork, in a voice so everyone within the room could hear I replied, “No ma’m Im here to pick up a check for this amount right here under the box marked ‘Current Year Value”. With a look of surprise she took the damp document that had been mailed a few weeks earlier and looking up at me said, “Sir, Im not sure I understand….”.
Cutting her off I explained my request. “Well, it seems one of your tax assessors thinks my property is worth 40 percent more this year than last year. I have decided to take him up on his offer and will accept a check for the ‘Current Year Value’ and you all can have the farm”.
Around the room, heads looked up, pens stopped writing, and one man chimed in, “They can have mine too!”
If you can count on government employees for one thing, it is they avoid confrontation in any form. They don’t like folks who rock the boat. All eyes, and ears in the room where focused on the lady behind the desk. I bet she was wishing she had taken her lunch break before I arrived. You could almost see the following scroll across her forehead: …Fatal Error….System Reboot….” She finally composed her reply…” Uh…Sir…uh…I don’t…would you like to speak to one of our assessors”? “Yes ma’am as long as he brought his checkbook.” A few people chuckled and lightened the atmosphere in the room. The guy who had spoke up earlier gave me a thumbs up.
A few seconds later a little fellow with glasses came through a door and took the paper from the receptionist’s hand. “Mr. Farmboy, would you please come into my office”? I made him wait for an answer while I wiped the rain from by brow, and then the counter top in front of me. “ Yeah, I reckon we need to talk”. As he turned and opened the mystery door he had earlier used to enter the lobby a cool burst of air conditioned air burst into the room full of people filling out forms. I grabbed a vacant chair and propped the door open. The man with glasses started to say something, but I said, “ Its kinda hot out here with all these people, lets leave this open”. You could tell he was not happy about having his inner sanctum exposed to the common folks, but he was not about to pull that chair away from the door. One grandmotherly looking lady smiled thankfully has I followed Mr. Tax Assessor into his lair.
For the next 20 minutes we covered a lot of ground. Thanks to the education learned by reading GE Forum I was able to discuss the the saga of the US dollar, printing machines, stock bubbles, government debts, world economies, and of interest to my reason for being there, the housing bubble. I rattled off facts and figures like a M60 machine gun chewing up thick jungle. When the smoke cleared, I was facing a blank faced government employee whose face showed a man willing to throw his defense down, and surrender.
“Well, Mr. Farmboy, what figure would you say accurately reflects the value of your farm?” he asked. “I think you ought to just leave the figure from the 30% increase you hit me with two years ago. I think that would be fair enough of an increase.” After a second or two he replied, “ So, in other words no increase in tax value. I think we can do that in your case.”
The lesson learned
I will take the win of no tax increase. But I think the lesson learned has far more value. And that lesson is that an informed person is ‘The Nightmare’ for the bureaucrat. Unfortunately, there are still too many who could benefit from the knowledge shared at this Forum. Too many who rely on the ‘boob tube’ for their source of ‘learning’.
Thanks to all the members at Gold Eagle. Thanks for helping this Farmboy gain in knowledge and wisdom. Never underestimate the ‘golden value’ of the views and thoughts freely given at the Forum.
Buygold @ 21:15 Et Tu ? Ok, Fine Then, Just For You And Maya, Tomorrows Kitco Headline:
Gold Drops $200 Since Farmboy’s Coffee Supply Was Interrupted
Tragedy struck early this morning as gold fell faster than John Mcain’s polling numbers. At first glance it was thought to have been the normal OE beat down by the banksters on Fall St, but it was soon discovered that a Po Georgia Farmboy had gone temporary insane due to lack of sufficient coffee supply and took over the Atlanta Federal Reserve Bank building.
It is unclear how many hostages are involved, or if anyone has been harmed, yet. Farmboy’s demands are thought to be extreme, and negotiators are trying to reason with his demands for all the worlds coffee and gold before the release of any hostages. Local law enforcement authorities have no further comment at this time. Attempts to call Farmboy’s cell phone go unanswered.
Kitco has contacted a waitress from the Silver Dollar Café who has known Farmboy for many years and served him coffee on many occasions. When told of her former customer’s plight she frantically replied, “OMG, its the end of the world if Farmboy don’t get his coffee!” She suggested they might want to take him a few buttered biscuits too.
Stayed tuned to Kitco for the latest updates in PM fake news.
Farmboy
Please keep reporting from Kitco, you have no idea how I/we appreciate their insights and extremely important updates – such as “gold falling because housing sales are surging”.
I would especially appreciate it if you would be so kind as to track down Jon Nadler and see if he has any current opinions on the state of pm’s
Many Thanks!
Maya, Have Enough Hersheys To Get Me Through The Night,
But I’m leaving my empty coffee cup with you now so I am first in line come daybreak.
Congrats on your Bitcoin. Yep, more than one way to skin a bankster I would say.
Well, Since Maya Has Performed An ‘Intervention’ of Sorts, And Cut Off My Coffee,
guess I will call it a day. ( Besides, I’m already getting the shakes and can barely type anyways.)
Good Night Oasis Dwellers, tomorrow should be an interesting day in the PM’s.
No Coffee, No Problem, Chocolate is loaded with caffeine. 🙂
Farmboy @ 19:27
Sorry… the ‘Soup Nazi’ has spoken. You will have to join the line again tomorrow with better behavior. 🙂
Your chart below of hard assets gains last year is missing something: Bitcoin! Up +130% in 2016.
And another +13% since Jan 1. Yeah, yeah… it’s hardly a ‘hard asset’, but who was it that said “Your money doesn’t care where it came from” ?
The Gold Owner’s Guide to 2017
“After all was said and done. . . . .and after everything had been stacked and counted, the chart above shows the final tally on the primary investment markets for 2016. As you can see, silver finished second to runaway oil prices in the year’s comparative investment sweepstakes – up 15.2% in 2016 even after the sharp year-end correction. It outperformed gold which gained 8.7% and stocks which gained 11.5%.
“Real Assets” Never Been This Cheap
“Our article yesterday outlined a world of financial assets inflated by years of unprecedented monetary stimulus that the author believes cannot survive without more stimulus. Gold and silver, on the other hand, are ‘real’ or ‘hard’ assets, not financial assets. The chart below maps nearly 100 years of the ratio between the two. Never before have real assets been so undervalued relative to financial assets.”
Maya, What’a You Mean No Coffee?
OK, just tell me, how many bottles of gin is it going to take to appease the flaming what’s her name?
Farmboy @ 17:27 – Really!?
You aspire to be the next ‘Jon Nadler’??
What Idiot Copy Writer Comes Up With This Crap ??
Gold Slightly Down Following Rise In January Existing Home Sales
http://www.kitco.com/news/2017-02-22/Gold-Ignoring-Rise-In-January-Existing-Home-Sales.html
(Kitco News of course!)
Let me try my hand at this:
‘ Gold goes down because the moon is made of green cheese’
‘ Gold down because 1 Billion tons discovered on asteroid 2 billion miles away’
‘Gold drops after slurpee spill at 7-11 store’
‘Gold gets flushed after Trump announces he is updating bathroom fixtures with Gold ones at White House’
Hey Kitco, how much you pay a copy writer? Where do I send my resume? I think I have the knack.
Floridagold @ 17:01 LOL ! Perhaps I Should Rethink That Offer of
asking you to be an Oasis Reporter.
But I still think you should have a T Shirt printed up that says, ‘Meet Me At Goldtentoasis.com ‘ and just mingle with the crowd.
Really ??
Americans buy existing homes at fastest pace in a decade
Comment: Since ‘existing sales’ includes refi’s, are more Americans buying a house, or trying to lock in a fix rate mortgage before the coming interest rate hikes.
Buygold @ 16:09 Today Was Impressive With The Physical, Dont Know What Spooked The Mining Herd ?
But I see the miners made up some lost ground by closing time. A good omen. I think? lol
Good luck with those GG calls.
I picked up enough JNUG at the close to run a straddle tomorrow. Don’t care which way it goes as long as it goes Big. Who knows, might even swing both directions for a double ‘Cha Ching!’
Just VERY HAPPY to see the banksters are having trouble with their normal OE smack down. Sign of a good year to come I hope.
Maddog
I took the risk that this little pull back is just about over and bought back my GG calls.
I guess we’ll see what happens but I think the action was constructive enough for the HUI to try to push higher toward 220.
Floridagold @ 13:51 Which One Do I Have To Pay More Taxes On?
Winnings or Earnings ?
Just glad JDST/JNUG is 3X leverage to a mining index and not the price of the physical itself. 🙂 Banksters still have tomorrow to do their dirty deeds. Should be interesting. And the dreaded overhanging sword of the FED speak is out of the way. Go Gold !
Stupid selling in GDX….any amount needed on offer
scum really don’t want shares up.
I See A Pick Up, Fed Made An Announcement I guess
What was said? Anybody hear it? Same ole same ole. Before 2:00 nobody does any buying, so sellers take a beating, then at exactly 2:00 PM they make the statement, and prices pick up.