‘Ease LA’s Property Tax Burden with a Sovereign Wealth Fund’

 

Property taxes are one of the most irksome forms of taxation.  There are many drawbacks to them.

Property assessments can be, and often are, arbitrary, subjective processes, dictated by the whims of assessors.  The Louisiana law regarding assessments pretty much says it all:

‘Fair market value is defined by LA Revised Statute § 47: 2321 as follows:

‘Fair Market Value is the price for a property which would be agreed upon between a willing and informed buyer and a willing and informed seller under the usual and ordinary circumstances; it shall be the highest price estimated in terms of money which property will bring if exposed for sale on the open market with reasonable time allowed to find a purchaser who is buying with knowledge of all the uses and purposes to which the property is best adapted and for which it can be legally used’ (‘How does the assessor determine my home’s Fair Market Value for assessment purposes?,’ stcharlesassessor.com).

This is more akin to the pagan practice of divination by examining dead animal guts than it is a just and rational way to calculate someone’s tax bill.

Furthermore, if a citizen disagrees with said tax bill that the parish assessor lays upon him, the assessor is assumed to be in the right; all of the burden is on the citizen to prove otherwise and to navigate the bureaucratic labyrinth that has been set up to arbitrate disputes:

‘As a taxpayer, you have a certain legal responsibility to furnish accurate information on your property. Our office welcomes all information provided by the property owner. If you have complied with these legal requirements, you are entitled to question the value placed on your property. If your opinion of the value of your property differs from the Assessor's, you may come to our office to discuss the matter in person. Be prepared to show evidence that the Assessor's valuation of the property is incorrect. Our staff will be glad to answer your questions about the Assessor's appraisal. If, after discussing the matter with the Assessor, a difference of opinion still exists, you may appeal your assessment to the Ouachita Parish Board of Review according to procedures and published deadlines. After reviewing your appeal, if the Board agrees with the Assessor and a difference of opinion still exists, you may appeal the Board's decision to the Louisiana State Tax Commission. If the Commission agrees with the Board and the Assessor, you can plead your case before the courts should you choose to do so’ (‘Help / FAQ,’ opassessor.com).

How would a car mechanic or a school teacher ever find the time and/or money to make it through that appeal process?

And the coup de grâce:  If one fails to pay his property taxes (for whatever reason), his property is taken from him by the government.

With all that said, we also recognize that property taxes have been around for centuries and that they are very helpful for local governments in raising funds for critical services (education, emergency response, etc.).  In the spirit of improving the system rather than burning the whole thing down, let’s see if we can find some ways to reform it, to make it more bearable for the property owners who are carrying so much of the tax load for local government.

First and most importantly, votes on property taxes must limited to property owners.  This is akin to the closed political primaries that have recently been re-enacted in Louisiana:  Just as Democrats can’t vote in Republican primaries and vice versa, so also those who don’t pay property taxes shouldn’t have a say when determining property tax levies; allowing them to do so is an act of injustice.

Second, property tax increases could be capped.  California voters famously did this in 1978 with Prop 13, though this seems to create new problems of its own.  Circuit breakers, which lower property taxes if they exceed a certain percentage of an owner’s income, are another option.

Third, a sovereign wealth fund (SWF) could be established by the State of Louisiana that would reimburse Louisiana property owners at least a portion of the amount they paid in property taxes.  Norway has perhaps the most famous SWF, and President Trump has proposed establishing one at the federal level in the US, but one of our sister States, Alaska, also has a very robust fund, upon which Louisiana could model her own.  (Technically, Louisiana already has an investment fund like this, the Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund, but its focus is limited.  Nevertheless, the experience in operating it should help in establishing a broader SWF.)

At the foundation of Alaska’s SWF is her mineral deposits, mainly hydrocarbons:

 . . .

The rest is at https://thehayride.com/2025/04/garlington-ease-las-property-tax-burden-with-a-sovereign-wealth-fund/.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

‘AI and the Inhuman Modern State’

 

The French mystical writer Simone Weil (d. 1943) warned in the 20^th century about the cold, soulless, mechanical nature of government that had come into existence:

‘The State is a cold concern which cannot inspire love, but itself kills, suppresses everything that might be loved; so one is forced to love it, because there is nothing else.  That is the moral torment to which all of us today are exposed.

‘Here lies perhaps the true cause of that phenomenon of the leader which has sprung up everywhere nowadays and surprises so many people.  Just now, there is in all countries, in all movements, a man who is the personal magnet for all loyalties.  Being compelled to embrace the cold, metallic surface of the State has made people, by contrast, hunger for something to love which is made of flesh and blood.  This phenomenon shows no signs of disappearing, and, however disastrous the consequences have been so far, it may still have some very unpleasant surprises in store for us; for the art, so well known in Hollywood, of manufacturing stars out of any sort of human material, gives any sort of person the opportunity of presenting himself for the adoration of the masses’ (The Need for Roots, Arthur Wills translator, Routledge Classics, New York, 2003, p. 114).

She saw more keenly than she realized.  For it is no longer simply the case that ideologically driven revolutionaries; heartless bureaucrats; greedy oligarchs; etc., who are bereft of the warmth of Christian love and kindness, have taken over the offices of government and wield its power.  Now we are witnessing the transformation of the State into an actual machine, as AI is becoming an integral component of the governing system:

‘Artificial intelligence (AI) is writing law today. This has required no changes in legislative procedure or the rules of legislative bodies—all it takes is one legislator, or legislative assistant, to use generative AI in the process of drafting a bill.

‘In fact, the use of AI by legislators is only likely to become more prevalent. There are currently projects in the U.S. House, U.S. Senate, and legislatures around the world to trial the use of AI in various ways: searching databases, drafting text, summarizing meetings, performing policy research and analysis, and more. A Brazilian municipality passed the first known AI-written law in 2023’ (Nathan Sanders, Bruce Schneier, lawfaremedia.org; many thanks to Dr Joseph Farrell for mentioning this article at his web site).

The authors explain why legislators are likely to adopt AI in their task of writing laws:

‘Congress may or may not be up to the challenge of putting more policy details into law, but the external forces outlined above—lobbyists, the judiciary, and an increasingly divided and polarized government—are pushing them to do so. When Congress does take on the task of writing complex legislation, it’s quite likely it will turn to AI for help.

‘Two particular AI capabilities enable Congress to write laws different from laws humans tend to write. One, AI models have an enormous scope of expertise, whereas people have only a handful of specializations. Large language models (LLMs) like the one powering ChatGPT can generate legislative text on funding specialty crop harvesting mechanization equally as well as material on energy efficiency standards for street lighting. This enables a legislator to address more topics simultaneously. Two, AI models have the sophistication to work with a higher degree of complexity than people can. Modern LLM systems can instantaneously perform several simultaneous multistep reasoning tasks using information from thousands of pages of documents. This enables a legislator to fill in more baroque detail on any given topic.

‘ . . . AI can be used in each step of lawmaking, and this will bring various benefits to policymakers. It could let them work on more policies—more bills—at the same time, add more detail and specificity to each bill, or interpret and incorporate more feedback from constituents and outside groups. The addition of a single AI tool to a legislative office may have an impact similar to adding several people to their staff, but with far lower cost.

‘ . . . There’s more that AI can do in the legislative process. AI can summarize bills and answer questions about their provisions. It can highlight aspects of a bill that align with, or are contrary to, different political points of view. We can even imagine a future in which AI can be used to simulate a new law and determine whether or not it would be effective, or what the side effects would be. This means that beyond writing them, AI could help lawmakers understand laws. Congress is notorious for producing bills hundreds of pages long, and many other countries sometimes have similarly massive omnibus bills that address many issues at once. It’s impossible for any one person to understand how each of these bills’ provisions would work. Many legislatures employ human analysis in budget or fiscal offices that analyze these bills and offer reports. AI could do this kind of work at greater speed and scale, so legislators could easily query an AI tool about how a particular bill would affect their district or areas of concern.’

We then come to an important part of the authors’ essay – why this new development in governance is necessary at all:

‘We should understand the idea of AI-augmented lawmaking contextualized within the longer history of legislative technologies. To serve society at modern scales, we’ve had to come a long way from the Athenian ideals of direct democracy and sortition. Democracy no longer involves just one person and one vote to decide a policy. It involves hundreds of thousands of constituents electing one representative, who is augmented by a staff as well as subsidized by lobbyists, and who implements policy through a vast administrative state coordinated by digital technologies. Using AI to help those representatives specify and refine their policy ideas is part of a long history of transformation.’

In other words, because society and government have become as complex as they have, lawmakers are required to use AI simply to fulfil their duties in the new, convoluted techscape.

But this begs the question:  Is all of this complexity necessary?  Is it beneficial?

It would seem not.  Just a glance at the toll that internet message boards, social media, and similar things have had on people, particularly the young – how they encourage the mutilation of language along with insults, bullying, impoliteness, addiction, murder, suicide, and any number of other evils – is proof enough that at least some of what modernity’s unholy trinity of science-technology-industry (to use the Southern Agrarian Wendell Berry’s words) has wrought ought to be rejected.

Miss Weil’s description of factory life is also worthy of consideration in this context:

 . . .

The rest is at https://www.geopolitika.ru/en/article/ai-and-inhuman-modern-state.

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!

“The Last Southerners”

 

Events unfolded rapidly then.

Turkey invaded Greece after years of threats.

Russia refused to watch the destruction

Of a sister Orthodox country

And counter-attacked within Turkey.

The Western Powers saw their opportunity

And pounced, joining with Turkey against Rus’.

Soon many more countries had joined the war,

And a great slaughter came to pass –

Hundreds of millions, as foreseen by Joseph,

Elder of Vatopedi on Athos.

Here at the South, many of our men,

Who have always loved a rough fight,

And who had been indoctrinated

To worship the flag of America,

Were annihilated in those battles.

Through this, the Southern remnant became

The Southern majority once more.

The recusants from the faith of Americanism

In Dixie had grown into a sizeable number

By this time, and all were jailed, for fear

Of dangerous acts of disloyalty

Against the federal government by them.

Many Protestants and Roman Catholics

Were amongst them, but Orthodox Christians

Made up the greater share.  But nearly all

Accepted the Faith of the latter upon release,

For an angel came down from the heavens,

Whose dazzling countenance and thunderous voice

Commanding an end to the war,

As God’s emissary, caught the attention

Of the whole world.  He anointed and crowned

A new Orthodox emperor,

Who would rule jointly from Constantinople

And from Moscow, and preached repentance

And salvation in the Orthodox Church

For several days.  Overwhelming

Was the response of the world’s peoples.

Orthodox churches and monasteries

Sprang up rapidly, like clover

In the springtime.  Those were blessèd times,

Happy times, under the mild reign

Of the Emperor, the bishops,

And the other rulers of the nations.

But those years did not last long.  Antichrist rose,

And like his serpent-master deceived many.

The Tsardom was overthrown, the liar crowned,

And the churches taken captive.

Yet not all of them.  Our clergy

In Atlanta fell away grievously,

So we left their churches and worshipped

In hidden places:  an attic, a hunting camp,

Wherever we could.  Communication

With other parishes proved difficult.

Nearly all technology is tethered

To Antichrist, but we managed –

Sometimes through secret digital channels,

More often through pre-modern means,

A written note or a message spoken

From mouth to ear.  And now a weighty word

Has come.  Resistance is forming.

In McComb, Mississippi, faithful Southrons

Have chosen a king to lead us.

He shall be called Paterfamilias.

His lineage is of the honorable Hamptons

Of South Carolina.  Jonathan Hampton

He was called until recent times.

Now we are sure he will be known

By many names – Pater Jon, Father Jon –

So fond are Southerners of nicknames.

Metropolitan Anthony of Memphis

Will preside at the sacred service

Establishing his God-ordained rule.

We are hastening to McComb,

To be present at the service if possible.

If not, then at least to join our kindred

In forming a defensive force.

The journey from Georgia has taken months.

The spies of Antichrist are thickly spread about,

Both machine and man; stealth has become

Like our breath, as familiar as prayer.

And there are other perils.  The demons

Have killed some of our number, who strayed

Too far from the body of our people

And were thrown down steep hillsides

Or into rivers with ravenous beasts.

Both demons and animals are stronger, wilder.

The plant life is devastated.

Chemicals used on the genetically enhanced

Farm crops, introduced by Antichrist

With so much promise and applause,

Drifted and poisoned much, near and far.

What greenery remains, the Lord sustains us with:

A few leaves, a few blades of grass,

Are enough to keep us marching

For many days.  And when a patch of earth

Appears that is uncorrupted,

We are able, through the Sign of the Cross,

To make it into a bit of bread.

This is according to the word spoken

By Saint Gabriel of Samtavro.

But now, by God’s Grace, we are drawing near

Our destination, where we will be united

With our Orthodox brothers and sisters.

And who can say what will happen as we prepare

For our final battle with Antichrist,

With the Jesus Prayer on our lips,

And the All-Pure Body and Blood of Christ

Brightly shining in the chalice of our hearts?

Remembrances for March – 2026

 

Dear friends, if you have time, please pray for these members of the Southern family on the day they reposed.  Many thanks.

But one may ask:  ‘What good does it do to pray for the departed?’  An answer is offered here:  https://orthochristian.com/130608.html

Along with prayers and hymns for the departed:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6je5axPodI

March 3^rd

M. E. Bradford, one of the South’s best defenders in the latter half of the 20^th hundredyear:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/review/remembering-mel-bradford/

https://theimaginativeconservative.org/author/m-e-bradford

March 7^th

Jean-Baptiste de Bienville

‘Canadian naval officer Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, served as three-time governor of the French colony of Louisiana intermittently from 1702 to 1743. Bienville and his older brother, Pierre Le Moyne d’Iberville, traveled on an expedition that arrived in Louisiana in 1699. Together they explored the lower Mississippi River valley and established a permanent French settlement in Louisiana, Fort Maurepas. Bienville proved particularly talented, though not always successful, as a negotiator with local Native Americans. In 1718, he chose the site where New Orleans, named for the French Duc d’Orléans, was built.’

https://64parishes.org/entry/jean-baptiste-le-moyne-sieur-de-bienville-2

March 13^th

Elizabeth Madox Roberts, a gem of a writer from Kentucky:

http://emrsociety.com/Biography

March 19^th

Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle

‘French explorer René-Robert Cavelier, sieur de La Salle, is perhaps best known for giving the region and ultimately the state its name: Louisiana. In 1682, while searching for a water route to the Gulf of Mexico, La Salle—accompanied by a small group of European and Native American explorers—arrived at the point where the Mississippi River empties into the Gulf of Mexico. There, he planted a post and claimed the river and its basin for France, naming the territory La Louisiane in honor of King Louis XIV. In so doing, La Salle helped set the stage for the next eighty years of French rule in the new colony.’

https://64parishes.org/entry/rene-robert-cavelier-sieur-de-la-salle

March 20^th

Lewis Grizzard, one of the many good comedians Southern culture has produced:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/blog/its-a-trick-general-theres-two-of-them/

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/topics/lewis-grizzard/

March 21^st

Juan Leal Goraz, one of the leaders of the Islenos settlers in the South who helped establish San Antonio, Texas.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/the-forgotten-voyagers/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/155528548/juan_leal-goraz

https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/leal-goraz-juan

https://www.bexar.org/3673/The-Canary-Islanders

March 24^th

Frances Fisher Tiernan (Christian Reid, pen name) of North Carolina.  Another of the often-overlooked Southern authors.

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/frances-fisher-tiernan-north-carolinas-margaret-mitchell/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21026460/frances-christine-tiernan

March 25^th

Philip Ludwell III.  ‘He was born in 1716 in Virginia. After completing his education at the College of William & Mary and marrying, he sailed to London in 1738 in order to be received into the Orthodox Church. One of the largest landowners in the colonies, he remained true to the ancient Christian faith till the end of his days and earned the esteem of his peers, including many of the Founding Fathers of the future United States of America.’  Interestingly, he reposed on the Feast Day of the Holy Annunciation.

https://www.ludwell.org/

https://southernorthodox.org/philip-ludwell-iii/

https://www.oca.org/saints/lives/2023/03/25/100884-the-annunciation-of-our-most-holy-lady-the-theotokos-and-ever-vi

March 27^th

General Richard Gano, a good example of the kind of Christian soldier who fought for Dixie in the War with the Yanks:

https://www.abbevilleinstitute.org/gods-general/

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/9813/richard-montgomery-gano/photo

March 28^th

Margaret Junkin Preston, sister-in-law to Stonewall Jackson and a good poetess and novelist:

https://civilwar.vt.edu/margaret-junkin-preston-poetess-of-the-south/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Junkin_Preston#Bibliography

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/7737366/margaret-preston/photo

March 28^th

Earl Scruggs.  ‘Earl Scruggs, once compared to violinist Niccolo Paganini, not only pioneered the three-finger banjo but played it to standards of taste and technique unmatched by thousands of disciples over seven decades. He was an important figure in the birth of the bluegrass genre, and also brought his artistry to the fields of country, folk, and rock, to college campuses, and to television and the movies.’

https://www.bluegrasshall.org/inductees/earl-scruggs/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJOIqmlI65Y

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/87507819/earl-eugene-scruggs

Also, to celebrate some of the saints of March from the South’s Christian inheritance of various lands, follow these links on over if you’d like:

https://southernorthodox.org/orthodox-saints-for-dixie-march/

https://confiterijournal.blogspot.com/2020/03/happy-feast-for-saints-of-march.html

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Holy Ælfred the Great, King of England, South Patron, pray for us sinners at the Souð, unworthy though we are!

Anathema to the Union!