Charles Adams

"Adams (b. 1930) is an independent scholar and tax consultant. He's the author of Fight, Flight and Fraud: The Story of Taxation (1982), For Good and Evil: The Impact of Taxes on the Course of Civilization (1993) and Those Dirty Rotten Taxes: The Tax Revolts that Built America (1998)."

"It was formulated by Sir Thomas Gresham to explain to Queen Elizabeth I what was happening to the English shilling. ... Henry VIII, had been adulterating the English shilling ... by replacing 40 percent of the silver in the coin with base metals ... Of course it was discovered and this 'bad money' drove out the pure silver shillings then in circulation. "

"... during those chaotic first months of the Civil War, it would not have been so unthinkable to arrest and silence Taney. The military arrested people in all walks of life. ... Lincoln expressed that policy to a Chicago clergyman: 'As commander in chief of the army and navy, in time of war, I suppose I have a right to take any measure which may best subdue the enemy.'"

"The middle classes have always been the only dependable source for taxes. ... A government cannot force a wealthy taxpayer to work if the taxpayer finds the tax rates personally intolerable ... if Kerry's sock the rich tax policy becomes law, we can predict with certainty, that most of these taxpayers will disappear ..."

"No modern revolution was deeper rooted in taxation than the revolt of the Thirteen Colonies ... British taxation not only caused the revolution, but perhaps most important, it acted as a unifying force in the colonies. ... The American independence movement ... began in 1766 when colonial leaders met to protest British taxes under the Stamp Act."

"[Nat King Cole's] attorney instructed him to tell the feds, if they contacted him: 'I will sing for you, but if you want to talk, you will have to talk with my attorney.' ... Martha could have told the feds, 'I will bake you a pie.'"