Talk:Gordon Kahl

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[edit] Racist?

I saw a movie about this and the movie indicated that Gordon Kahl was a racist big time. I noticed the article failed to mention it. Has his racism been documented or claimed by those knew him or knew of him. The ending of this movie, however, has Kahl dying inside the house he was holed up in while it burned.

[edit] author of first comment

That be me.Jlujan69 05:49, 17 May 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, interesting. it appears an earlier version of the article did address this but it was taken out in March '06. I agree it should be put back in but rather than tagging a label in the article, "anti-Semite", it would be best to find some specific quotes from Kahl expressing these beliefs and quote them in the article. 70.108.97.172 13:06, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Neutrality?

This article deserves a neutrality flag. A term like "radical right-wing" is imprecise and prejudicial.

Be WP:BOLD! Wikipedia is the encyclopedia that anyone can edit. I'm going to go ahead and take the term out now. 70.108.97.172 13:00, 27 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Tax protester label

This man appears to be a violent opponent of the government. A tax protester is someone who pays his taxes under protest without violence and attempts to recover the disputed payment non-violently using the courts, so I removed the erronious "tax protester" label. Mpublius 13:28, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

Well, the term "tax protester" as used in this context specifically means someone who makes bizarre, legally frivolous arguments about the validity of the U.S. Federal income tax. As already noted in another Wikipedia article, for Federal income tax there is no requirement that you pay the tax under "protest" (i.e., to preserve your right to later claim a refund) when you pay the tax. There is a statement in the article that Kahl appeared on a Texas television program stating that the income tax was illegal, but it's not clear what Kahl's rationale for that statement was. Therefore, the deletion of the term "tax protester" -- at least until Kahl's status can be clarified -- seems reasonable. Yours, Famspear 15:03, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

"The Texas television program is unsourced and there is no claim that Kahl paid taxes, so "protester" is inappropriate. Mpublius 15:34, 8 November 2007 (UTC)

There is no legal requirement that a person have "paid taxes" in order for that person to be designated as a "tax protester" by a Federal court. Many tax protesters have not paid the Federal income taxes for the years for which they are designated as tax protesters. Indeed, a key point that many (but not all) tax protesters raise is that they are refusing to pay the taxes, not that they are "paying" the taxes "under protest." So Mpublius and I disagree on the rationale behind the removal of the term "tax protester" from this particular article, but we agree that the term can be removed, at least for now. Yours, Famspear 15:49, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
Despite the offensiveness of his dangerous beliefs, Kahl was clearly a tax protester. This is from pages 185-187 of The White Separatist Movement in the United States, by sociologists Betty A. Dobratz and Stephanie L. Shanks-Meile:
Gordon Kahl was a tax protester who had belonged to some movement-related groups....Kahl, at one time a Congregationalist, Mormon and John Birch Society member, joined the Constitutionalist Party that wanted to abolish federal income tax and viewed the Federal Reserve System as a “private corporation controlled by Jewish owners of eight international banks” who wanted to “destroy Christianity and establish a one-world government run by communists and socialists” (Corcoran 1990:51). In 1967, Kahl wrote to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) refusing to “pay tithes to the Synagogue of Satan” (Corcoran 1990:51-52). By 1973, Kahl was attracted to the Posse Comitatus, which blended Christian Identity beliefs with planks of the Constitutional Party; he became Texas coordinator for the Posse in 1974. Kahl gained considerable visibility in 1976 when he and five other Posse members appeared on television urging people to stop paying income taxes. After this, Kahl was charged with failure to pay income taxes in 1973 and 1974. His lawyer argued that he was being tried because of the television appearance in 1974 rather than for simple tax evasion, since Kahl had quit paying taxes in 1969. This IRS did not deny that accusation.
Note that the Wikipedia article on the Posse says, "members believe that there is no legitimate form of government above that of the county level and no higher law authority than the county sheriff." 12.36.115.67 (talk) 10:00, 10 January 2008 (UTC)Keithq