X-Message-Number: 357
From att!cup.portal.com!Eric_S_Klien Wed Jun 19 19:03:46 PDT 1991
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Subject: Alcor Boston Minutes
Date: Wed, 19 Jun 91 19:03:46 PDT
X-Origin: The Portal System (TM)
ALCOR BOSTON MINUTES
Sunday June 9th 3:00 - 7:00 PM
Meeting Dates
-------------
Our next meetings will be on Aug 11, Sept 8, Oct 13, and Nov 10th at
3:00 PM. Location of the meetings will be at the home of Eric Klien,
28 Kenmar Dr. #272, Billerica, MA 01821 until further notice. (508)
663-5480 Work, (508) 670-5235 Home, e-
mail.
To get to my house take 128 to 3 north, then take the Concord Rd
exit, where you should make a right towards Billerica. The second
right after Saint Theresa's Rectory will be Kenmar Dr, make a right
on it. Note that Kenmar Dr is not marked. Follow Kenmar past
building 6 on your left, building 3 on your right and then building 8
on your left (this building has a swimming pool) and building 5 on
your right and then make a left. Travel over the million speed bumps
until you have reached the last building on the street. That will be
building 28. If you miss the left turn after building 8, you will
find yourself on a street that has building 27, not building 28. If
this happens, backup and make the correct left which will now be a
right for you.
Additional informaton for those that get lost: Kenmar Dr. is the
first right before the fork of Concord Rd and Charnstaffe. It is
also the fifth right after the Concord exit, about 1.3 miles from the
exit. There are a lot of little rights before Kenmar Dr. If you
take any of them, just travel left until you can't go any further.
You will then be on Kenmar Dr. If you accidently get on Charnstaffe,
make your first two lefts and you will be back on Concord Rd, with
Kenmar being your second left.
Member Recruitment
------------------
In this meeting we snatched defeat from the jaws of victory. We
almost had 6 people, tying a record, with one person being new.
Unfortunately two people traveling together got lost, so we had four
people with no one new. Our next meeting will be two months after
this one since no one new showed up. Note that I have greatly
improved the directions to reduce the chance of losing people due to
poor directions. (I did include part of a map plus my home phone
number last time, but I admit the directions weren't perfect.)
If anyone reading this can promote our next meeting I would
appreciate it. I am especially looking for ways to do local mass
mailings. And of course, two of our subscribers publish their own
zines and could mention the dates of my next meetings...
Time Travel
-----------
We are still uncertain as to whether absolute speed and/or
acceleration slow down time. I would appreciate comments on this
matter. I have done a little research and have not found a consensus
on this subject.
Finances
--------
I got a nice $10 donation from Jay O'Connell to help with my postage
and printing costs. I am making a triple matching donation of $30 to
Alcor's endowment fund.
I am now up to date on the tax situation on all the states. Using
the World Almanac plus the Libertarian e-mail newsletter I have
learned quite a bit. My favorite states that have no taxes on income
are Texas and Washington. Here is a little article from the
Libertarian e-mail newsletter:
From: Stu Card <>
Subject: Low-tax states of the US
The promised summary of responses to my earlier query regarding 'nice' states,
plus some of my own analysis and research, follows.
Initially I considered only the taxes which I found most directly irksome:
personal income tax; business / corporate income tax; sales tax; and property
tax. I now believe that a total picture of all government revenue-generation
is more appropriate, for the following reasons:
1) All revenue, regardless of source, supports spending, which is frequently
in pursuit of harmful ends;
2) spending, even if not in pursuit of harmful ends, is inflationary (increases
demand => raises prices [in competition with private dollars]);
3) all taxes, license fees, etc. are ultimately 'passed through' (it cannot
be otherwise, media debates notwithstanding) to the upper middle class (the
wealth-producers, generally);
4) 'federal aid' ultimately comes from the same sources and suffers from the
same drawbacks;
5) borrowing leads to horrendous compound interest costs, and competes with
private borrowing needs.
So I looked at total debt + tax + federal aid as one indicator. Comments
from netters and specific direct taxes were others.
Summaries by state --
Texas - no corporate income, personal income or property tax; lowest total
per capita debt + tax + federal aid ($1275, half the national average); and
favorable comments from the net; THIS IS LIKELY TO CHANGE as there is a move
to impose some kind of income tax.
South Dakota - no corporate income or personal income tax; heavy debt and
federal aid.
Nevada - no corporate income or personal income tax.
Washington - no corporate income or personal income tax; favorable comments
from the net.
Wyoming - no corporate income or personal income tax; heavy debt and federal
aid.
Tennessee - limited personal income tax and no property tax; low $1624
per capita total.
New Hampshire - limited personal income tax and no sales tax; heavy debt;
favorable comments from the net.
Alaska - no personal income or sales tax; very heavy debt; favorable comments
from the net.
Delaware - no sales or property tax; heavy debt.
Florida - no personal income tax; favorable comments from the net.
Oregon - no sales tax; heavy debt; favorable comments from the net.
Kansas - low $1333 per capita total.
Texas, Washington and Tennessee seem to be the overall 'winners'.
All states that do not have sales tax (and some that do) have gross business
receipts tax, which is similar in economic effect.
Since I can't stand hot weather, Washington looks like my probable destination.
Assuming, that is, that I don't head offshore altogether.
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
/ 'The Tao that can be told is not the eternal Tao.' Lao Tzu, _Tao Te Ching_ /
/ = Stu Card, Card & Associates - Research & Development /
/ Box 153 RR 1 Newport Rd / Utica, NY 13502 / 315-735-1717 / FAX -8469 /
/------------------------------------------------------------------------------/
Reason Letters
--------------
There were two letters in the July 1991 Reason in response to the
April 1991 Reason article on cryonics. One was from R.C.W. Ettinger
and was quite positive about cryonics for obvious reasons and one was
from a guy named David C. Swanson. Here was David's response:
"CRYONICS IS NOT something with which governments should interfere,
but it is something which caring people should speak out against. My
reasons for opposing cryonics are as unusual as the ones of those who
favor it. I consider myself one member of a species. If I were soon
to die in possession of thousands of dollars, I would feel obliged to
give that wealth to starving members of my species to help keep them
alive. In this way I would be certain of helping several human
beings, as opposed to taking an infintesimally small chance at
helping only one. Cryonics appears to me to be one more cruel result
of the idea that I should consider myself more valuable than other
people."
I think David's last line summarizes his viewpoint quite nicely. It
is no coincidence that cryonics members tend to have big egos.
Longevity Article
-----------------
There was an article in the June 1991 issue of Longevity about
private longevity funders. One funder, David Brown, was interested
in cryonics. I quote the final paragraph of the interview with him:
In the back of this mind he clings to the idea that cryonics could
rescue him if medical science fails. "Everyone criticized Saul Kent
when he froze his mother's head", he says, referring to the headline-
making court battles that ensued when Kent, the president of the Life
Extension Foundation of Ft. Lauderdale, allegedly failed to obtain a
proper death certificate before he had his mother's head cut off and
frozen for possible later resuscitation. "But when my own mother
died about the same time, we put her in the ground. She was
religious and that was what she wanted. There'd certainly better be
a God, because there is no science I know of that could bring her
back. But there is science that I can imagine that would bring
Saul's mother back. And who knows, 20 years from now we may look
back and say that Saul was a hero for what he did, and I was a
villain."
I personally believe that David was correct to follow his mother's
wishes. A person should not be kept alive against their will.
Working for a Living?
---------------------
The Tax Foundation has found that the average person works 24 minutes
a day to pay for his recreation while working one hour and fifty
minutes to pay his Federal taxes and an additional fifty-nine minutes
to pay his State/Local Taxes.
We, the Jury
------------
Just in case you are on a jury that is deciding whether cryonics
should be legal or not remember that a jury may ignore laws that it
considers wrong. From Peter Zenger's seditious-libel acquittal in
colonial times to the refusal of juries to enforce Prohibition in the
1920s and '30s this has been an important, yet often ignored
constitutional right. Nine different states are now considering
legislation that requires the court to inform the jurors of this
important fact. The states are Massachusetts, Nevada, Oklahoma,
Texas, Washington, Arizona, Montana, Utah, and Alaska. Sponsors have
also been lined up in New York, Georgia, Idaho, and Tennessee. There
is also a Fully Informed Jury Association petition being circulated
in California.
StarLog
-------
A letter to the editor that I sent mentioning our discussion group
was published. I don't receive the magazine nor was I able to find
the latest issue at the local library, so I don't know exactly what
was published. But I did get one call from a person who was
interested in cryonics (but lived in Texas). He already was well
informed about cryonics but wanted to ask me a few questions.
Anyway, the letter has so far failed to recruit any new members for
our group.
Questions
---------
If any e-mail people reading these minutes have questions that they
would like answered in future meetings, send me the questions and
they will be answered in the next minutes published.
Mistakes
--------
If any of these minutes reflect mistaken information, let Eric Klien know!
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