Editors Note: Al Lewis has now written an excellent article telling the our side of the story. Thanks, Al (and welcome to the Isaac Brock Hall of Fame!).
Al Lewis tries to shame former Americans in this hit piece at marketwatch.com a subsidiary of the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps you should have spoke with at least one person who ever renounced his or her citizenship. Shame on YOU, Mr. Lewis and shame on your editor for allowing you to publish. That just makes you a bigot with a platform. It is to the shame of the brain-dead media that such pieces of journalistic refuse can even see the light of day. Please, next time you want to write a screed that punishes a class of people for their actions, do your homework, like the young, promising Reuter’s journalist, Atossa Abrahamian, who actually spoke with numerous people who had renounced or were planning to renounce their citizenship.
Here is sample of Lewis’ brilliance on display:
You and about 1,780 other expatriates did this last year, according to Andy Sundberg, secretary of Geneva’s Overseas American Academy, as quoted in a report this week by Bloomberg. That’s up from 235 in 2008, when the U.S. launched a major crackdown on UBS for helping ingrates like you illegally dodge their taxes.
Caught between your money and your country, you chose your money. You sold your American soul.
@Jeff great comments. Also, I see no reason why you shouldn’t yourself do the Wikipedia article on Isaac Brock Society. The only issue is that as a Wiki, it can be changed by anyone, even by a someone who knows nothing about the subject. Ultimately, as a scholar, that is why I stopped trying to do anything with wikipedia after the first few edits. See http://actapauli.wordpress.com/?s=wikipedia+follies
I’m active on Wikipedia. I’m working on some Isaac Brock-related stuff like “List of former United States citizens who relinquished their nationality”.
I wouldn’t advise creating an article about the Isaac Brock Society. There is no news coverage about us as an organisation. The article would get deleted very quickly as spam
@petros, I made my classic typo of UDHA instead of UDHR above, please excuse me.
@Jefferson D. Tomas…
That is great. I am about to go on internet silence as traveling the next 24 hours or so, but hopefully when I connect back up, Al has shown some cojones and put them up and opened up a dialog.
From his article: “I’d have enough loot to move to Tuscany, sip wine and cappuccinos, and not pay my fair share of taxes, too. ”
How many times have I said [on this site!] that Americans think we are in exotic locales sipping wine or champaign?!! I think once a week since this site started!
Al Lewis is the “CLASSIC” stubborn egotisitcal American that is completely ignorant to life outside of America. He is the “typical” American who made me want to leave that country in the first place. It has nothing to do with money. In fact, I’m paying more in taxes where I live, but at least I’m surrounded by people who DON’T think they live in the center of the universe.
In addition to Just Me’s response, I just noticed that Al’s blog has accepted comments from Petros, Jeff, Victoria, Mona Lisa: http://newswires-americas.com/tellittoal/2012/05/02/rich-increasingly-renounce-u-s-citizenship/comment-page-1/#comment-1316.
I would hope, however, that he respond to us here and/or on his site. In the meantime, now that it appears our posts will be accepted there, I would encourage as many of IBS people as possible post their opinion and stories there.
Petros – I had the same Wikipedia experience in my middle encounter. Writing about a topic that few know more about. Seeing the work turn to mush. The topic is now a dispersed joke that I would never attempt to fool with. I think one core nugget has survived for years.
Eric – The warning of certain and rapid deletion at Wikipedia that you offer is one of the weaknesses. Instant deletion, no appeal to the mafia. My terminating effort involved a brief factual entry for something with external verifiable coverage, part of a constellation of far more self-serving existing entries. The experience led me to take a closer look and see that the information architecture is garbage and the vetting standards are inexcusably uneven.
I look forward to the entry you foresee publishing. I took a brief run at crunching on the names myself. That sort of thing is indisputable data (unlike history), which may be the only area where Wiki can have any reliability or much use. Facts that are ultimately trivial, because they could not be otherwise, barring outright error. Convenience and compilation.
To Al Lewis’ credit, he published six comments from Isaac Brockers. That’s a good sign.
If he is as serious of a journalist as he is reputed to be, he will read through this blog and contact us, like Steve the 30 year IRS vet did, and who is now a good friend and legal advisor to ACA.
We’ll see….
@Ben Franklin I agree, Al should open a dialogue with us and if he really listens to what we are saying I think he would come around. Just like Steve, just like Pete the Planner.
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