### Apollo BBS Archive - December 25, 1991

    Message: 80808
    Author: $ Apollo SysOp
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Fred/structuring
    Date: 12/24/91  Time: 18:21:39

            And YOU are the one who LOVES banks...   Need I say more.

    *=* the 'Mighty' Apollo SysOp *=*  <-clif-

    Message: 80809
    Author: $ Apollo SysOp
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Rod
    Date: 12/24/91  Time: 18:28:57

            Christmas has everything to do with Jesus.  You are just so bitter,
    you can't accept that is why we call Dec 25th CHRISTmas. The Birth of Christ
    is the ACCEPTED meaning of that day WORDWIDE.

            If it was the solstice, it would then be called that.  Besides, the
    Solstice also does not fall on Dec 25th.

    *=* the 'Mighty' Apollo SysOp *=*  <-clif-

    Message: 80811
    Author: James Matlock
    Category: War!
    Subject: Christmas
    Date: 12/24/91  Time: 20:20:20

    Bah humbug!!!!!

    (Somebody had to do it, with all the smarmy good tidings the rest of you
    have been greasing each other down with.)

    Message: 80812
    Author: James Matlock
    Category: In search of
    Subject: Christmas Imagery
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 03:33:42

    My ideal Christmas imagery: Baby Herman (the cigar smoking tyke from the
    Roger Rabbit short subject) surrounded by a bevy of gorgeous wanna-be
    starlets, saying (in a gravelly voice) "Dat's right -- visions o'
    sugarplums..."

    Alternately, it would be a nativity scene featuring the lead Bowery Boys as
    the three wise men, with musical interludes by Pee Wee Herman.

    Message: 80813
    Author: $ Nick Ianuzzi
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: "structuring"
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 04:23:49

    Please elaborate on just what "structuring" is.  I have had occasion to move
    around large amounts of cash, and have never had anyone at the bank ask any
    questions.  I am aware of the $10,000 limit on withdrawals --- these must be
    reported to the feds.  I received a notice from the IRS about a year ago
    reminding me that all businesses must report sales paid in cash where the
    amount of currency received is $10,000 or greater.  Again, this is supposed
    to help keep track of drug dealers, etc.

    Message: 80814
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Rod
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 05:31:52

     Fully realizing that this is yet another exercize in futility, I must point
    out that your last statement was somewhat convoluted. It should have read
    "The whole evolution of religion is, in my evil opinion, humble."
     If you have nothing more to look forward to than the GOd-ordained seasons
    and rotations of the earth, you are among men the poorest. THe SON of God
    is, indeed, coming back, and you will be either justified or condemned by
    every word that has proceeded out of your mouth, and by every attitude of
    your heart. I wish you the best, for there is yet time for change, albeit
    not much, I think.

    Message: 80815
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Religion
    Subject: Christmas morn
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 05:38:44

     "For unto us a son is born, unto us a child is given, and he shall be
    called wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God, the everlastoing Father, the
    Prince of Peace."
     Regardless of what specific day it was that AlmightyGod chose to come to us
    as a man in the humble beginnings of a stable in Bethlehem, this is the day
    we celebrate that marvellous event. It is my prayer that each of us take the
    time today to ponder the monumental results of that glorious event, for
    there has never been another day like it in history, nor will there be
    again.
     A very blessed Christmas to all!

    Message: 80816
    Author: $ Joe Bottomlee
    Category: Religion
    Subject: Merry Christmas
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 06:50:19

    Merry Christmas to all of you and may the peace of the Lord and the "Force"
    of the Holy Sprit be with you always.

                            <<< Joe >>>

    Message: 80817
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Fred #80806
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 09:23:19

    Hmmm .... 'structuring'??? Let me get this straight ... a person can have
    lets say $10 grand in the bank - he wants to take it out so he withdraws
    $8,500 one week and then a month later he takes out $1,500 and they can
    get him for 'structuring'??? I don't get it ... you mean there is a law
    governing how much you can take out of you account? Lord what's next?
    In other words - Big Brother wants to know exactly how much you have in the
    bank at all times?! -=*) ANN (*=-

    Message: 80818
    Author: $ Mike Carter
    Category: In search of
    Subject: A Merry Christmas...
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 10:09:32

    .   |   .   .                 .
       -+-
     .  |                              .
        |    .       **   ***     .
    .             ****     *****                ---------------------------
      .        ********   *******/\      .      "A Peaceful and Happy
             **********  *******/|\**
    .       *********   *******//|\\**           Holiday to all Apolloians"
            *******  **********//|\\**          ---------------------------
     .  .   *****   ***********//|\\\*
      .     ****  ************///|\\\*    .      From  Mike & Vicky Carter
        .    *._.*************///|\\\
     \ .      | |************////|\\\\  .           G a r g o y l e  ][
      \       | |'''\********////|\\\\     .
      \     /\ \|    \****** ////|\\\\\                   B  B  S
       \   /  \       \      /// ||\\\\
     |..../    \       ......//..||.\\ \...
      .../______\     |.... ///..||...\\....
     ....|[]  []|    ............||....\.....
    .....|__||__|  ..............||...........
    ....         ................||............
    ..         ..................||.............
    .        ....................   .............

    Message: 80819
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: On the Lighter Side
    Subject: We Three Kings
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 12:11:35

         RUMP-ty TUMP-ty TIDDely POM!
         RUMP-ty TUMP-ty TIDDely POM!
         RUMP-ty TUMP-ty TUMP-ty TIDDely
         TIDDely OMP-ty POM, OHHHH-ohhhh...  uh-oh...

    Oops!  Didn't see you there!  I was just practicing this Rhyme Found on a
    Christmas Card, by John Richard Allen.  It has a picture of some familiar
    consumer goods at the top, headed HONDA, SONY, and TOYOTA:

              We three kings of Orient are,
              Trying to sell you TVs and cars,
                Our profits succeeding
                While yours are receding
              Into the red so far, OHHHH-ohhhh...

              [picture of Old Glory on next page]

              Stars of Glory, Stripes so bright,
              Let's all try to build 'em right.
                For futures majestic,
                Please buy domestic
              And we will be all right!

         "Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a Fiscally Sound New Year."

    Message: 80820
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: In search of
    Subject: Season's Greetings 1
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 12:13:00

         We wish you a merry Christmas
         We wish you a merry Christmas
         We wish you a merry Christmas
         And a happy New Year.

         We all like figgy pudding
         We all like figgy pudding
         We all like figgy pudding
         So bring some out here!

         We won't go until we've got some
         We won't go until we've got some
         We won't go until we've got some
         So bring some out here!

              - Traditional English carol-singers' rhyme

    My father said once, years ago, that he didn't much like cards that said
    "Season's Greetings".  I know what he was thinking, because there are many
    different ways to read a message.  One possible way to read "Season's
    Greetings" is as a kind of throwaway remark that you make only because you
    have to, as a social obligation: "I know it's the season when I'm expected
    to send greetings to you, so here they are."  Sort of the moral equivalent
    of saying "Thank you" with your teeth clenched.

    Message: 80821
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: In search of
    Subject: Season's Greetings 2
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 12:14:10

    We know that isn't what's meant by "Season's Greetings", of course.  We use
    that phrase to share our good wishes with all the people who don't
    necessarily celebrate the same thing that we do.  In England, especially at
    the time my father made that remark, we didn't have that difficulty.  Nearly
    everyone celebrated Christmas, and wished one another a merry Christmas, so
    "Season's Greetings" stuck out as being a bit odd.

    Maybe the real problem with "Season's Greetings", the reason it sounds odd,
    is that it doesn't have a clear focus.  We sincerely want to wish joy to our
    friends.  But what is it that we're joyful about, exactly?

    Luckily, if we look hard enough for something to be joyful about, we can
    find plenty to choose from.  So I'll wish a very merry Christmas to everyone
    here on Apollo!  And if you celebrate something else instead, then I hope
    you had a happy Hanukkah (or is it a "chappy Chanukah"?  I never could spell
    that word!)  Not wanting to leave anybody out, I also wish you a happy
    Chinese New Year -- though you have to wait a bit for that.  Everybody
    should believe in something, so Io Saturnalia!

    Thank you Rod for wishing us a super Solstice, but how do you have the nerve
    to claim that you don't believe in Christmas because you're "an atheist"?
    Atheist my foot!  You're clearly a worshipper of Sol Invictus, the Sun
    Unconquered, like the Emperor Constantine -- even if you hide it from
    yourself.  We know your heart's in the right place, so Ra-Ra to you too!

    Message: 80822
    Author: $ Gordon Little
    Category: In search of
    Subject: Season's Greetings 3
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 12:15:26

    There are people who delight in making a point of not celebrating anything
    at all.  Can I say "I wish you a happy Nothing"?  And though the difference
    is a subtle one, there are others who grouse that there's just nothing to
    celebrate.  I'm sure these people secretly enjoy their cynicism, so I wish
    them a very satisfying Bah Humbug.

    We should remember those who feel unable to celebrate anything at this time,
    for whatever reason.  That's very different.  We wish them the gift of Time,
    which they may well be in need of.  And we wish them the gift of Love, which
    we know everybody needs.

    Those of us who celebrate the birth of a Baby at Christmas can recognize the
    gift of Life renewed in this event.  And we can recognize the gift of Time
    in its very timelessness.  It happened a very long while ago, in a very
    different time and place.  A great deal happened before that, and much has
    happened since.  Some of what has happened seems to mock that event, to turn
    it on its head even, to use its meaning for some end that was very different
    from its original purpose of Love.  Yet we look back over two thousand years
    of time...  no, we look right *past* two thousand years of time, to a small
    stable that we see in our mind's eye.  From this place there radiates (just
    like a star!) the wondrous sense of that original gift in all its purity and
    warmth.  Perhaps one of the joys of Christmas is that it gives us clear
    vision, and renews our faith that certain things, despite the efforts of
    Man, will never change.

    Message: 80823
    Author: Larry Fain
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: all
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 12:19:29

    Merry xmas.

    Message: 80824
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Religion
    Subject: Cliff/Christmas
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 17:34:41

    You are correct, Christmas does have everything to do with Jesus.  The
    word Christ in Christmas refers to Jesus.  I believe the word refers
    to Mass for Christ.  But it is not the "reason for the season" as Paul
    states.

    However I am not bitter as you say.  I think anyone who knows me can
    attest to that.  But I firmly believe that religion has and still is
    holding the human animal back from a better state of reality.  Our
    ancestors beat on hollow wooden logs because they were basically
    afraid.  That same type of thinking is responsible for religion.  Those
    log beaters were the first religion.  I would imagine that the skeptics
    among them who refused to "beat" the logs were threatened with some
    sort of punishment that would be dished out during their current life
    or in the hereafter.

    Religion has grown up, become more diabolical in its ways but
    basically it still is beating on an old hollow log.

    Religion is like a link in a chain that many human animals carry
    around in thier minds.  Once that link is understood for what it is
    then it does not weigh anything at all.  Same for lots of other human
    frailties, understand the "link" and become a freer individual.

    Message: 80825
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Religion
    Subject: Cliff (2 of 2)
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 17:35:48

    Yes, Christmas does fall on our December 25th, by clever design and
    not by any factual information.  Even the people who call themselves
    Christian know that there is no information available to place a date
    or even a season on the birth of the mythological Jesus.

    The pagan celebration of Winter Solstice as well as other naturally
    occurring events became symbolic once people understood that the Sun
    always returns or that new plants grew.
    Our friend Takoko is here.  She was born and raised in Japan.  She is
    a Buddhist.  There is a Jew here along with several atheists.  Again,
    Jesus is certainly not the 'reason for the season'.

    Message: 80826
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Religion
    Subject: Paul/answer
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 17:36:27

    Paul, I just finished rereading your post to me.  You are a real
    clown.

    What I think of Christianity in general is that it is a poor excuse
    for intelligent thought or reasoning.  It is the drug of the mental
    weakling.  It is treatable.

    Your little baby boy Jesus excludes much of the world's population.
    You are taught that because they haven't accepted your particular
    saviour that they will not benefit as you believe you will.  This is
    bigoted thinking on your part.  You are putting yourself, because of
    your religious beliefs, above others.  There is no above.  If there
    were a god, it would not discriminate from what it made.  To do so
    would be silly.  As silly as a clown.

                                    Rod

    Message: 80827
    Author: $ Rod Williams
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Gordon/Solstice
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 17:37:39

    The only thing I worship is FRNs.  (And a few other good things)

    Message: 80828
    Author: James Matlock
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Gordon
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 21:52:50

    Er, bah...[clearing throat irresolutely]...humbug.

    Message: 80829
    Author: James Matlock
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Nick Ianuzzi
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 22:03:53

    NI>> I have had occasion to move around large amounts of cash...

    Did I ever mention, old bean, that I've always considered you an ace among
    men?  'Tis the season for giving...noblesse oblige, and all that.  I'll be
    glad to provide my social security number, title to my soul though it is, in
    exchange for moving a few of those FRNS (which, as we all know, are not
    worth the paper they are printed on) my way.

    You'll feel better, knowing that you don't have piles of the nasty stuff,
    rotting away and stinking up the vault.  The less you have, the less you
    lose through inflationary devaluation.

    Message: 80830
    Author: James Matlock
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Presidential Nominee
    Date: 12/25/91  Time: 22:08:05

    Bill Benson for President!!!

    Can't you just see him in his wheelchair, giving fireside chats...just like
    Roosevelt (or possibly, Guy Caballero, chairman of SCTV).

    Message: 80831
    Author: $ Todd Reese
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Rod Williams
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 03:33:26

    I see you're still harping on the old religion stuff with Paul and Cliff.
    It's like I never left - how nice.

    Anyway, just thought I'd wish you and everyone else a very Mele Kalikimaka
    and a Happy New Year.

    (P.S. - saw about 50 dolphins playing in the bay last week when I was on
    Maui - thought you and Ann might appreciate that.)

    Message: 80832
    Author: $ Paul Savage
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Rod
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 05:41:52

     As to your comment considering me a "real clown", I thank you, for I
    consider that as a high compliment.
     Concerning the rest of your message, we have been over all of this time and
    time again, and I see no real reason for rubbing salt into the old wounds.
    It is quite obvious that nobody is going to change your closed little mind
    with anything resembling truth, so to go any further along this line is yet
    one more exercize in futility. Since I have neither the time nor the desire
    for that, I will bow out and return to my former position of ignoring you.
     Have a happy whatever, since that's probably all you'll ever get.

    Message: 80833
    Author: $ Bill Burkett
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Ann's $$$
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 06:44:16

    > One time we wanted to withdraw $10,000 from the bank in cash
    > and they acted like I was a crook and warned me several times
    > what a dangerous thing it was for me to do.

    Ann, it's not uncommon for conned little old ladies to go to their banks and
    withdraw large sums of cash as victims of fraud.  Now, I don't argue that
    the bank was probably trying to help the IRS find out more than it's really
    entitled to know, but the teller really could have been trying to be
    helpful.  At least at first.

    Message: 80834
    Author: $ Bill Burkett
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Xmas Greetings
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 06:44:56

    I liked the P.S. columnist and B-movie maven Joe Bob Briggs put on his
    Christmas card this year:

    "(Message to Jews, Arabs and New Agers reading this:  I can't put every
    Goddamn variation of "Merry Christmas" in here every year.  You know what I
    mean.)"

    Just like Gordon, only more, uh..., succinct.  (And not quite as much fun.
    I loved your "Ra-Ra" to Rod, Gordon.)

    Message: 80835
    Author: $ Bill Burkett
    Category: Religion
    Subject: 2nd Coming
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 06:45:15

    I know I'm gonna regret this, but...

    Paul's mention of the Second Coming reminds me of something that has aroused
    my curiosity from time to time over the past year or so.  I was raised a
    Conservative Baptist and, although I've since freed myself of the shackles
    of religion, the fall of the USSR and its empire, the ascendancy of the
    United Nations since the Gulf War, as well as peace prospects in the Middle
    East, have stirred memories of a study of the book of Revelations.
    Revelations tells, as I recall, of what will happen here on earth during the
    so-called "final days":  The Second Coming, events that will lead up to it,
    and what will follow.

    Do all you believers see current world events fitting into God's plan in any
    specific way?  And, if so, fill me in on how.

    Message: 80836
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Bill on conned
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 09:52:28

    But I am not a little old lady. And I don't feel it is up to the bank to be
    the protectors of little old ladies either. As long as there is crooks in
    this world and gullible people, there will be crimes committed and it isn't
    up to the banks to stop it!
    It wasnt' a teller that gave me the money - it was the vice president and
    they took me way in the back room - which I appreciated that. -=*) ANN (*=-

    Message: 80837
    Author: $ Ann Oudin
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Bill/last
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 09:54:17

    Good Gawd Bill!! You shouldn't have ask that. What's dah mattah with youse?
                                -=*) ANN (*=-

    Message: 80838
    Author: $ Archi Medes
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Structuring
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 10:09:23

    NI> Please elaborate on just what "structuring" is.

    "Structuring" is conducting one's financial transactions in a manner which
    prevents, or is intended to prevent, government goons from violating the
    individual right to privacy by keeping track of them.  It is my
    understanding (I have not examined the statutes myself) that the statute(s)
    apply to moving sums greater than or equal to 10,000 dollars around, or --
    now get this -- any amount less than 10,000 dollars if, over a period of
    time, the total aggregate amount is greater than or equal to 10,000 dollars.
     The length of time is not specified; if they want to, they can even
    consider a term of years.  This is also the grounds for those goons taking
    it upon themselves to "regulate" the amounts down to lesser amounts -- as
    they have done two or three times now, so that now the amount which causes
    their eyes to light up is down to 3,000 dollars.

    It is absolutely amazing to me that no one has taken gov't to court on this
    issue.  It is patently illegal and unconstitutional in at least twenty or
    thirty different ways.  The fact, for example, that what is moved around is
    not "dollars;" it is "frns."  The fact that a private individual is not
    necessarily responsible for "regulations" applied as though they were
    statutes passed by Congress, when Congress has not delegated the authority
    to goons to so "regulate."  The fact that had Congress delegated that
    authority the delegation is null and void on the grounds that Congress has
    no Constitutional authority to delegate its legislative powers (and never
    has had, despite the fact that it has been doing so since the 1930's).  I
    would include the issue of 'right of privacy,' here, but the courts have
    ruled that one who voluntarily allows his financial records to be in the
    hands of a third party, such as a bank, has no reasonable expectation of
    privacy -- and that the Bank Secrecy Act has made "banks the agents of
    government in the surveillance of citizens."  This is one of the many
    reasons I would not consider being in any way associated with any bank,
    credit union, S & L, or any credit institution.

    I have a friend who got nailed on this structuring thing and had about
    17,000 frns confiscated.  He's a licensed used car dealer; the money was for
    buying cars at auction.  He went to about fifteen lawyers to investigate
    recovering his stolen money.  They all shied away from the case because they
    were scared -- they didn't want to incur the wrath of the government goons;
    by the nature of their own business dealings, they are extremely vulnerable
    to the same kind of oppression and tyranny.

    I ask you all to compare this kind of patently illegal government activity
    with the actions of King George's redcoat tax collectors which led to the
    American Revolution.  I see no substantive difference.

    The foregoing is my opinion based upon my research.  It is not legal advice.

    Message: 80840
    Author: $ Archi Medes
    Category: Politics
    Subject: Gov't surveillance
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 10:11:49

    AO> Hmmm .... 'structuring'??? Let me get this straight ... a person can
    AO> have lets say $10 grand in the bank - he wants to take it out so he
    AO> withdraws $8,500 one week and then a month later he takes out $1,500
    AO> and they can get him for 'structuring'??? I don't get it ...

    Yeah, you get it.  That's exactly right.  Structuring your financial
    activities in a manner intended to preserve your privacy is against the law
    -- *they* say, and so far the courts have gone along with them, though I
    don't think anyone has raised a serious court challenge to this garbage.

    AO> you mean there is a law governing how much you can take out of you
    account?  Lord what's next?  In other words - Big Brother wants to know
    exactly how much you have in the bank at all times?!  -=*) ANN (*=-

    No, not "in other words" -- in *addition* to.  Gov't already knows how much
    you have in your account.  Not only is that information available to them
    for the asking, under the Bank Secrecy Act, but gov't actually has their own
    computer terminals tied into bank network systems.  They don't even have to
    ask for the information from the bank any longer; they just call up the bank
    computer.  And they don't even need a search warrant to do it.

    Message: 80841
    Author: $ Archi Medes
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: frns
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 10:12:21

    RW> The only thing I worship is FRNs.  (And a few other good things)

    The love of money is the root of all evil.

    Message: 80842
    Author: $ Green Lantern
    Category: Religion
    Subject: Bill/Eschatology
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 10:31:25

    I, too, was raised a fundamentalist Baptist, and I think that the
    disappearance of the the Soviet Union presents severe problems for those who
    are predicting the imminent return of Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior
    because --- When I heard the first end-times sermon in 1947, the minister
    was sure that the  power from the north was the Soviet Union. Well, bless
    his soul, the S.U. doesn't exist any more so we have to find a different
    power from the north --- mebbe Lebanon.

    Maybe we'll just have a mini-Armageddon where fundamentalists and Catholics
    slug it out.

    Message: 80843
    Author: $ Felix Cat
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Gordon
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 12:38:28

    Re:  My father said once, years ago, that he didn't much like cards that
    said "Season's Greetings".

    I get a lot of cards from comercial businesses, and without exception they
    were all of the "Season's Greetings" variety.  This was not so 10 years ago,
    but in the mad rush not to possibly offend any non-Christian, the greeting
    "Merry Christmas" has literally disappeared from Christmas cards except for
    those send by some Christians.

    Message: 80844
    Author: $ Felix Cat
    Category: Answer!
    Subject: Rod
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 12:47:28

    Re:  Your little baby boy Jesus excludes much of the world's population.

    You obviously understand neither Paul or Christianity.  Then again it's
    possible you do understand, but react with the same attitude as those who
    sought to crucify Jesus Christ.  Only God and you know; I guess.

    Message: 80845
    Author: $ Felix Cat
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: James
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 12:48:40

    Re:  Did I ever mention, old bean, that I've always considered you an ace
    among men?

    Nick is also a great cook!

    Message: 80846
    Author: $ Felix Cat
    Category: Bulletins
    Subject: Bill
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 12:51:58

    Re:  it's not uncommon for conned little old ladies to go to their banks and
    withdraw large sums of cash as victims of fraud.

    Now I understand!  The IRS is actually trying to protect us from our own
    stupidity when they arrest us for drawing out large sums of money from our
    accounts.  Hmmmmmmm.

    Message: 80847
    Author: $ Apollo SysOp
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Last on FRNs/Banks
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 14:12:37

            You see, there is a reason why NOT to place your money (FRNs) in
    BANKS....  It is really not yours to do with as you please...  Sigh!

    *=* the 'Mighty' Apollo SysOp *=*  <-clif-

    Message: 80848
    Author: $ Fred Smith
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: Structuring
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 16:33:03

    Looks like Arch answered many of the questions the cash heavy folks on here
    had in regard to structuring!!  Of course he interspersed answers with some
    gratuitous stabs at our illustrious govermental authorities to whom we
    should all owe our eternal gratitude as the use the "WAR ON DRUGS" as a
    wonderful excuse for yet another assault on our rights to privacy continues.
      The law on the Structuring "thing" along with various other laws does, in
    fact, violate the privacy that most naive americans would logically expect
    protects them from such gross violations of their privacy rights.  One of
    the laws passed to facilitate governmental intrusion into your private
    financial affairs even goes so far as to totally insulate the banks from any
    lawsuit that a person might file against the bank for the backs violation of
    your privacy when they disclose your financial dealings to the FEDs.  When
    the laws were origainally passed the banks, rightfully, said, We can't do
    this!!! We'll be sued!!!  So the gvt generously added the necessary
    provisions to the law to take care of THAT little problem.  Now the banks
    are not only REQUIRED to turn over your records WITHOUT a search warrant
    they are ALSO PROHIBITED from advising YOU that your records have be so
    blatantly violated.
      And it is not just the banks.  As ARCH mentioned, car dealers are also
    required to adher to that odious law on $10,000+ transactions or structuring
    attempts.  The Law originally said "Financial institutions" were required to
    report.  Then someone mentioned that there were other ways to launder money
    and once again our elected reps, in their ZEAL to protect their consituents
    rights GENEROUSLY changed the law so that now, virtually ANY business that
    deals in transactions (gee what business doesn't!!) must beware of violating
    the laws provisions if someone wants to do a cash transaction of $3000 or
    more.
      While ARch and Cliff think I am in bed with our governmental goons they
    are quite mistaken - I merely am not of the same conspiratorial mind that
    ARCH has or the same fixation on gold that Cliff has nor do I think that
    economic chaos is just around the corner.  But in terms of overweaning gvt,
    I think we have long ago turned that corner.  We are close to living in a
    fascist state - much more benevolent then that of Nazi Germany perhaps but
    we are working our way there.

    Message: 80850
    Author: $ Apollo SysOp
    Category: Chit Chat
    Subject: last two posts
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 17:03:28

            WoW!   Fred Smith sounded like a different person then the "Put it
    in the Bank, you'll get interest" Fred Smith of a week ago.

    *=* the 'Mighty' Apollo SysOp *=*  <-clif- Scratching my head...????

    Message: 80851
    Author: James Matlock
    Category: My Dinner with...
    Subject: Guido and Biff
    Date: 12/26/91  Time: 21:03:10

    (Biff??  I never realized how complex and layered the *real* mafia is
    compared to the oversimplified, ethnically homogeneous cinema version.)

    When I asked you for money, Nick, I didn't mean to imply a loan.  And
    really...isn't 51% interest compounded daily more than you should be
    charging your old pals from Apollo?  Oh, the horror...the horror...
    -- Oh, sorry; wrong character.

    And what kind of nickname is Nick "the Homo sapien" Ianuzzi, anyway?  I know
    you're cerebral, but c'mon!