Driver, T. C. (36 page)

“What is that smell?” I asked.”

Lou was tired and put out. He had melted the soles of his expensive, made in China, boots on those hot lava rocks. The wind in the small open planes was very cold and sucked the heat out of a person very quickly. On the ships
  
deck it was now ten degrees and the little planes were miserable even with a flight suit. Lou for once sat quiet.

“Lou,” I said, “I don’t mind drinking with a preacher professor if you don’t mind drinking with a watering hole Holiness!”
        

We taxied out of the stern of the ship into the dark harbor, our landing lights worked only fair as headlights. We did not fly but rather skimmed or boated across the harbor.”

“Are volcanic rocks hot, Big Lou?

“Yes, hot as hell,” he replied, as we splashed our way through the large harbor. Tommy Mute then sat up behind us awakened by Lou Goodliar’s large left hand. The plane bounced on the water throwing the half asleep Tommy Mute back down. We three were laughing and off to a night on the town. Hot tub here we come.

Lou Goodliar did have a (hidden) agenda as always. He let me down my customary two beers during dinner and then suggested we forgo the hot tubs to join with Brother Whitt again. I was a hard sell. The two men bribed me with two more rounds of beer. Lou wanted to buy more books (one for Bob and Alice Paxton and one for his wife.) Little did we know that night that those E-books many months later would cost all three of Lou’s friends their lives? Lou Goodliar’s friendship was their undoing. Yes, some friends are like that. It’s always about them, at the cost of everyone around them.
 

Professor author and preacher Nathaniel Isaiah Theodore Whitt was still on his book tour and in Iceland this weekend only.

“What’s this Whitt guy doing touring with the ship?” I complained loudly as I paid the tip. We all finished eating and started walking up the street. Five blocks up a hill was the auditorium where Whitt was speaking. The sharp wind was bitter cold. We all rested in the lobby gasping for breath, our hearts pounding, and our faces numb from the cold. Professor Whitt was well underway and no one was collecting tickets at the door, so we walked in without paying. That was the highpoint of the evening for me. Whitt was speculating about the Great Pyramid being pre Noah’s Flood and the works of the “Sons of God.” I bought a book for myself this time still trying to figure out the number twenty-six. The most special number there is. Old Professor Whitt is right about one thing. I do want to be an heir with Jesus Christ and adopted into the family of God, to become one of the “Sons of God” one day. Yes, I want to be a joint heir with the king of kings, nothing else is important in this world. Professor Whitt talked again about Billiard balls and then the number twenty-six. Also about the fact that the numbers nine and six were both
  
modeled after the two thumbs of a man’s hands. He placed one ball on the pool table just like before then put six around it and then six again forming the Hebrew Star. God becoming flesh, the covenant with Abraham, and the twelve disciples with Jesus at center. I started to understand the reflection of God in Math when he demonstrated the circle of fifths and the overtone series. He then, like before, took the six balls of the Hebrew star and put three on top and three on the bottom forming a sphere. The closest stacking of spheres always in groups of thirteen twelve points around one center. He then started doing pyramids and the Carbon atom, the number 666, then the golden mean and I was lost again. I never was good at math. The golden mean squared a deck of cards and the number twenty-six. (
soon
it all started to run together.)
     

Only one king can be at the table for a double mined man is unstable in all his ways. Look in the mirror,
Do
not be fooled. Remember the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom. Time is short in this life. The change of season is upon us. Study thyself to be approved before God. Study his word. Secondary is math proofs and study. Notice his word has twenty–six letters a reflection of God an overtone.

Test the spirits, seek out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Even the elect can be fooled. As in the days of Noah, so shall it be……..

“Cornelius wake up,” said Tommy Mute shaking me violently, “The lecture is over.”

“As in the days of Noah, so shall it be, as in the days of Noah so shall it be” plagued my mind as we walked out of the auditorium.

Goodliar and I left Tommy Mute in Iceland. We gave him all the cash that we had.

“Don’t worry about me,” Tommy Mute said. “I’ll stop by Ireland first and then move onto my mission in Africa after a few short weeks. It’s much too dangerous to enter America. The three of us had shared information between us on the world wide snuffer wagons that president Osoma and EU leaders had deployed. No place was safe for Jews and terror was spreading Worldwide. We said our Goodbyes. Tommy Mute paid cash for an upstairs room and Lou and I started up the sea plane. I shouted at Lou above the engine noise.

“Lou, I didn’t know that Tommy Mute lived in Africa. I’ve heard about the killing of Christians, the killing of white farmers, the AIDS epidemic. I thought the world had given up on Africa. The Global warming people have targeted all Africans for death! Doesn’t Tommy Mute know a lost cause when he sees one? Both the Church and Islam the (east and the west) have held a holy book in one hand and a bomb or chains in the other killing off or enslaving all the Africans for hundreds of years. Do we save them, then kill them or kill them to save them or does it matter?”
 

“The true church, like Tommy won’t give up,” said Lou, “Only the nations will. Leaders like Osama, and of course the Great Whore on Babylon herself.”

“What did you say?” I asked.

“Remember this, Cornelius,” replied Lou. “Wherever the flock of God is, there you will find the lion also. Wherever God is and whatever God does the angel is not far off. He is always on the hunt to kill, steal, or destroy. He is the dark cards in the mirror trying to copy God. The angel wants to be as the most high. Look at the letters on your cap. Pull down your visor say left hand right hand.” We pulled into the ships big back door and docked even as we were talking!

“So you are saying it’s my fault, Brother Lou?

“Look in the mirror again, Cornelius!” said Lou as he got out of the plane. I think Lou pretended to know more than he really did.

“See yeah, Cornelius,” Lou shouted, as he jumped onto the dock and waved goodbye.
 

Alone now I thought to myself. Between being Holiness, my giant, Whit’s book, this ship, being a drunk, Captain Coe and this fellow Goodliar; it ain’t no wonder I’m going nuts. Goodliar sounds good at first but always leaves something missing in the end. Sometimes you just don’t know and you have to go with your gut.

After a full days rest I was back at my big round Corner table at the ship’s Gospel Café. Two students had a copy of the New York Times and were talking about the need to raise taxes before America defaulted on its debt. These two young students were sitting together both of them were named Kishia. One ordered an expensive fancy whipped chocolate coffee. The table filled up and the anti-professor weighed in on taxes and debt!
 

“Kishia,” I asked, “That’s a large fancy drink you ordered. Why did you buy one?”

“I love chocolate, Cornelius, and I made a good grade on my test so I deserved it” she giggled.

“I scored a high grade too,” the other Kishia laughed, “but I don’t have money to burn. My daddy’s not rich like fancy pants here”.

“That’s our lesson for today,” I replied. “Note she desired the drink and she had the cash, so she demanded it. Nobody forced her. That is the simple key to understanding economics; the buyer always pays. Every one of us makes choices of buying and selling every day; this fact is simple and always true so remember “Only buyers pay.” This is true when it comes to taxes or coffee or Newspapers. Kishia number one’s boyfriend, Jim Roberts, sat down with us and explained how hard he worked cutting grass last summer. Jim boasted that he would never pay that much for a fancy coffee drink. He said that rich people like Kishia’s father should pay more in taxes to help out America.
 

“Jim, how much did you charge for cutting grass?” I asked.

“Some lawns were very small so I charged only $10,” said Jim. “Others I got paid up to sixty dollars each.”

“Did you pay income taxes on your grass money?”
 

“No, cash money only,” laughed young Jim.

“I see here in the paper that President Osoma has hired more IRS agents to catch tax cheaters like your self Jim. What would you do if he made you pay taxes?”

“That wouldn’t be fair,” said Jim, “I’m not rich!” the grass might not even be worth cutting if I had to pay tax, Cornelius.”

“What if you were cutting my grass for $10 and I told you that all I could pay you was $5. Would you still do my grass?”
 

“Do you know how much gas costs since Osoma has been elected, Cornelius? I can’t afford to start my mower for $5. I’m sorry.”

“That is my whole point, Jim. The reason I have to pay a young man back home $10 to cut my grass is because he won’t do it for five or six dollars. This is how income taxes work. If Osoma hired enough agents and charged you 50% tax on cutting grass what would you do? Would you then cut a yard for only $5? No! I would have to pay you $20. Osoma would take his $10 and you would still get your $10. This is true because you won’t do it for $5. The same is true for “fancy pants” father in his work. “The Buyer always pays.” Most income tax is really a sales tax on labor and causes unemployment. Some people will not pay the $20 cost of getting their grass cut and so less young men like you, will be cutting grass, others will complain and pay to cut less often.”
 

“Her daddy does income tax returns. He runs a big company and owns some stock in Ford Motor Company. He is on TV doing advertisements everyday about doing taxes. My father drives a big rig truck. He “works” for a living. My father says he pays too much in taxes and it’s just not fair, and that Fancy Pants father should pay more.”

“This simply is not true,” I answered. “If you increase taxes on “Fancy Pants” (Kishia’s) father he will “pass on the cost” to people getting their taxes done and double his price. Your father the truck driver is the same. If his boss calls him on the phone and says; I have a run to Chicago for you tonight it pays the driver your usual $100 but Osoma has taken half of your money so will you do it now for only fifty.
“What would your father say then Jim?”

“I’m not driving all night to Chicago for only fifty bucks, give the run to somebody else.
 
No one is forced to drive a truck, and no one is forced to do other peoples taxes for them. They do work only when the price is right and someone is willing to pay. Jim’s father’s boss would have to pay $200 and increase the freight rate charge to get a truck driver to take it. When the freight rate goes up then less
  
trucks will be on the road because some freight will not be worth shipping. Note taxes cause unemployment, and the buyer, only the buyer always pays”.

“We must raise taxes on the rich, Cornelius,” cried
  
out Kishia number two. “We must raise taxes to save America before we default on our debt.” Fancy pants father makes money off of his Ford stock also, and only pays capital gains tax. It’s just not fair.” Kishia, people who buy stock are part owners of a company, Ford has thousands of different owners; the small dividends paid per share to stock holders has all ready been taxed many times before. The Ford Motor Company pays income taxes at 35% on earnings, and then the owners pay 15% again if they share in that profit, and after tax income was used to buy or invest in the stock in the first place. Taxing them more would only raise the price of Ford products or put them out of business. “Let me tell you students a story that will help you understand the world economy. A simple story about a small island named America and its king that became very powerful after the world war. America was a small Island in the middle of the sea rich with forest and farmland and blessed by God. Good King Washington ruled over the fifty families who lived there. He was a Godly, just, and honest ruler. The King owned one half of the land ran the only bank and ran the only store (king-mart) where everybody shopped. He also owned a gold mine which made him fifty coins a day. The king kept taxes very low. His people worked hard and the store was always full of wonderful goods to buy and his people were in happy days.