Background: Vitacost.com is a vitamin and nutrition supplement online retailer out of Boca Raton, Florida. Vitacost sells national label items as well as items made for their own label using a distribution warehouse built in Lexington back in 2007 with expansion made possible in part by both local incentives as well as $450,000 from One North Carolina Fund in 2010. Listed as VITC on NASDAQ the stock is thinly traded and has remained in the $4.50 to $5 range since it was halted back in December of 2010 after disclosure by the company that it’s financial statements dating back to 1994 were unreliable. Legal action was taken by a group of share holders in 2010 claiming that certain Company officers and directors had “breached their fiduciary duties and unjustly enriched themselves.”

In reviewing a purchase I made with Vitacost I noticed the sales tax rate did not seem to add up and in doing the math I came up with a charge of just over 9%. I then pulled up older orders and found the sales tax rate charged had been incorrect on orders dating back for a year. I emailed the company about the errors and was told that yes they agreed the wrong rate had been charged and if I would provide background information on the orders they would take care of it. I did exactly that but I also stated I was not satisfied with the answer as it appeared this was not a single occurrence and that it looked like the company was charging the incorrect sales tax rates for all North Carolina residents. Needless to say I got no response and didn’t pursue the matter as we were talking about $3-4 so it really wasn’t worth my time. With several months of no response I decided to check their website again and not only were the sales tax rates incorrect but they had gone up to 10.2%! I again emailed the company stating I had pulled the computed sales tax rates for multiple counties in North Carolina and had found not only have they not refunded any money to me but continue to charge an incorrect sales tax rate, of course again I got no response.

So this time I decided to waste a little time and pull some information together for future reference and since I had that info I might as well post it here as well. Using zip codes pulled from Areaconnect.com and Sales Tax Rates from Zip2Tax.com I attempted to checkout using an address based in each of the following zip codes and found the corresponding tax rates being charged by Vitacost.com on a $10 item.

To show I am not just making this up below you will find the checkout form for each of the above zip codes. Does this look like a “math” error to you?

"We believe a large proportion of today’s high unemployment is structural in nature, resulting from a huge skill mismatch between the jobs being created and the existing skill sets of jobseekers," said Mark Vitner, a senior economist with Wells Fargo Securities.

Winston-Salem Journal, July 15, 2011

As I have stated in the past with a shrinking business climate and fewer worker bees you will see a general drop in revenue generated for the local governments. This will result in those governments being required to drastically cut budgets and that means laying off more workers, granted we could do with some trimming of public employees around here. Those cuts however won’t be enough to meet deferred cost on expenses the city of Winston-Salem has taken on such as the Baseball stadium and surrounding obligations or plans for a downtown rail line. As the city will have to meet those obligations the only way to do it in a generally smaller and smaller revenue pool is to raise tax rates. Raising taxes on a workforce that is already leaving the area due to high unemployment will just exacerbate the situation in my opinion and in general delay but not solve the problem. As people are taxed more, see fewer opportunities there is a delay in the ultimate leaving of those workers for other areas of the state or country but it is only a delay as they make those plans, it does not stop the migration or the ultimate result.

Maybe it’s time for The Chamber, The Mayor, Winston-Salem Business Inc., Winston-Salem Alliance to stop chasing “Boys of summer” dreams and start wondering why small business after small business is moving outside of the Winston-Salem area or how a almost 43,000 square foot building set empty for TWO YEARS in a prime retail location? By the way I am speaking of the old Circuit City building on Hanes Mall which finally sold in May to a developer who plans to repartition the location into a multi-tenant space.

The first I heard about this was in reference to a article in the Charlotte Observer concerning Lincoln County Sheriff Carpenter plans to skirt the new public records law Governor Purdue signed by not providing dismissed employees with anything written down about their dismissal but to inform them verbally. The law that was passed opened up public officials records and soon after it was passed papers like the Charlotte Observer made multiple request to law enforcement agencies such as the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and apparently of the Lincoln County Sheriff for various personnel files. In what can only be viewed as the powerful protecting their own we have the North Carolina Sheriff’s Association, Charlotte’s city attorneys as well as N.C. School Boards Association to name a few all coming out condemning the new law and saying they should not be required to provide such information. Some of those same groups sought an opinion by the N.C. State Attorney General’s Office on the reach of the new law and specifically if it was retroactive and apparently were not happy with the answer they received which was that yes the law was retroactive and yes the law required the written dismissal letters for terminated employees for all state and local agencies.

One would think that makes it pretty clear however per the Charlotte Observer, Sheriff David Carpenter of Lincoln County has no plans to issue any written dismissal letters. The exact quote from the Observer is below as it certainly appears to say the Sheriff doesn’t agree with the State Attorney General’s interpretation of the law and clearly says the Sheriff goes on to say he does not believe the public should have any access to personnel records.

Carpenter, who took office last week, promised to comply with the records law, but said "we’re not going to generate" new documents to satisfy requests by the public.

Read more: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/2010/12/13/1907291/lincoln-county-sheriff-finds-end.html#storylink=misearch#ixzz1RdNOwIdQ

Now this on it’s surface this might not seem so bad but then we have State Senator Pete Brunstetter, a Winston-Salem Republican, submitting a new bill which would reverse the law Perdue signed just last year. Senator Brunstetter’s bill would deny the release of dismissal letters prior to the laws enactment as well as remove any requirement that dismissal letters be written for government employees, thoroughly castrating the open public records law Gov. Purdue signed sending North Carolina back to the time it was considered one of the most closed access Governments.

If the disciplinary action under subdivision (11) of this subsection was a dismissal, a copy of the written notice notice, if created, of the final decision of the head of the department setting forth the specific acts or omissions that are the basis of the dismissal. This subdivision does not require the creation of a notice of dismissal if the creation of the notice is not otherwise required by law.

SENATE BILL 554, § 126‑23, (11a)

Aside from that diversion into the powerful wanting to make sure the powerful stay protected let’s get back to Lincoln County for some more of what appears to be abuse of power. It appears there is or was a criminal case going on between the Sheriff’s spokesman and a local Blogger/News Reporter. I would point you to the post at the News & Observer however they seem to have pulled the post, interesting. So I would point you to the post at news@norman but hmmm, it’s been pulled as well so let’s try the link to the story at The Carolina Scoop but well guess what, it’s missing as well not to mention Google’s cache has no direct hits to the story. It’s almost like somebody has sent DMCA compliant letters to any source of the story so let me see if I can find some more information, ah here we go, “Sheriff’s spokesman charges journalist with harassment.”

Ken Fortenberry, editor and publisher of the Denver-based weekly newspaper news@norman, has threatened to sue TheCarolinaScoop, a Lincolnton Web site, for libel.

Scoop publisher and editor Jon Mayhew, who has also been the sheriff’s publication information officer since June, responded Friday by issuing a criminal summons against Fortenberry for alleged harassment. 

The key here is Jon Mayhew acts as the spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department yet runs a website which competes for readers and one would assume advertising dollars with sites such as the news@norman . Unfortunately other than this single news source it is near impossible to find anything else about what is going on in Lincoln County especially concerning Ken Fortenberry, Jon Mayhew and Sheriff Carpenter. There’s a good number of stories about the prior sheriff’s problems but try to find anything about the above story and it’s a brick wall.

This is why open records and a free press are so important yet North Carolina seems determined to stay an old boys club with the elite protecting the elites and law enforcement doing whatever they want to do, legal or not. Here’s hopping this post doesn’t spark some search warrant…

You may have forgotten that Winston-Salem is taking Davis Garage in an eminent domain case as Winston-Salem wants to refurbish the building and make it the anchor for the new, yet to be planned, funded or developed, city train system or hub. That Hub is is a requirement in order for Winston-Salem to be consider for the even farther fetched High Speed Rail systems being touted by The White House. At a price of almost $700,000 to condemn and take the Garage then who knows what cost to remodel and upgrade it the city appears to want to be on the hook for even more than their current deals with the stadium.

America was founded by men who sought refuge in order to celebrate their faith without being oppressed by the government. They sought to worship as their conscience directed, and in the span of 100 years brought about the beginnings of this great country. The laws that they drafted based on the Judeo-Christian teachings, and reflected in the Biblical laws of the Ten Commandments. The oaths and promises that facilitated the service of the people to the country were steeped in a promise to almighty God that the service would be honest and true and bear true faith and allegiance to that oath.

It is critical to say at this juncture that the statement that the Constitution lays out a clear separation between church and state is a pernicious lie bought into by those whose wisdom fails to reach beyond their eyes. The Constitution says, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; “There is not one single word that says that official offices of government or the property thereto appertaining cannot be where a cross or a star of David is placed, nor a sculpture of the Ten Commandments. The separation of church and state comes from nothing less than those who fear the faith of God in others for it strengthens them and makes it difficult to inflict evil and corruption upon them.

As a nation since the founding and up until the last few decades the United States has lived in a state of grace empowered by the prayers and best hopes of her citizens and many who have benefited from her good works. In the course of that cycle of growth the United States became the preeminent charitable country and gave generously to the world of its wealth, its blood, and its treasure. No country in the world can say that on some level their existence is directly linked to that generosity and largess. The people of the US have not asked for anything in return and in spite having conquered a considerable portion of the world have never asked for reward but rather have rebuilt their enemies to where they were stronger and sounder than before the conflict ensued.

Now we find ourselves beset by those who decry any semblance of faith or religion in the public sector. They decry the Christian display, tear down the crosses, and sue in court to stop people from gathering in their own homes for prayer or religious meetings. A few people of questionable disposition and no faith in them at all have taken the country hostage. They challenge good works, stop religious groups from helping the poor, take away funding for charity because it offends them that any government money should find its way to charitable causes. Woe is us as a people for we have allowed ourselves to be separated from God by people who have no faith while we all the while claim faith.

And what is the reward of all this? We are failing as a country. The President and his Tzars proclaim from their positions of power that God is dead and that socialism is the answer. One man invokes the name of God while all the while trying to get the people to openly revolt. Without God we are lost and our country is in decline from which it may never recover. Our children suffer more for lack as we lose our ability to make better opportunity available for them. Our debt is crushing and the politicians are simply too corrupt on both sides to really do anything about it.

We need a prayer for salvation rising from the masses, calling on God to help us and give us the strength to redeem our faith, our selves, and our country. Without God America ceases to be and only bad things can follow her fall. So as you open your gifts on Christmas day remember that the greatest gift was given 2010 years ago, and that he came into this world so that “He who believeth in Him, though they were dead, yet would they have eternal life.”

When the 9/11 attack happened the country united behind President Bush in his strong response against the Islamic terrorists who committed the act. The Clinton administration had already declared Saddam Hussein a danger to the world and passed a resolution supporting regime change. George H. W. Bush had given his regime weapons of mass destruction to use against the Iranian troops he was fighting, and later he used poison gas, a chemical weapon against the northern Kurds killing men, women and children indiscriminately.  He has publicly stated the desire to procure nuclear weapons and had put over one million of his own people under the sand in mass political executions against a helpless people.

While the ties to Al Qaeda may have been tenuous, it was clear that the militancy in Iraq and her terrorist elements were aligned with the Islamic Jihad and had bad intentions toward America. Afghanistan had been an Al Qaeda hot bed where training camps and alliances with the Taliban allowed the terrorist element to flourish and gave all the necessary support that made 9/11 possible. In our own country democrats gave aid and comfort to the terrorist foe by obfuscating on issues like illegal immigration and diminishing the rule of law by litigating from the bench to castrate the system of laws which are required to protect the people and the sovereignty of any nation.

So in the true spirit of national legislative cowardice, as soon as the first shots were fired in Iraq and Afghanistan the democrats most liberal democrats started to rail against the war and find reasons to make it an evil endeavor that did not require such a response. They accused President Bush of being a liar and taking the country to war based on a lie. They obviously forgot that Clinton had already called for regime change, that they had agreed and passed the resolution, that the US had given Saddam Hussein the WMD’s that were the source of the threat, and that for many years and in spite of our threats Saddam had acted against the myriad of countries surrounding him with virtual impunity. The democrat party was demonstrating yet another pattern or political and national cowardice in the same spirit of Viet Nam. They complained about those who died and were wounded but never acknowledged that it was their political interference that caused a great deal of the problems the American serviceman endured.

Flash Forward to 2010:

The very people who were responsible for the 9/11 attacks are now treated by our government like a special class with consideration for their every need. Americans have been insulted by their representatives and members of government on a daily basis as they allow that very group of people cause inconvenience and downright pain for Americans while they arguably sit back and laugh at the way we’ve all been forced to jump through hoops for them.

Americans are now groped at airports by unskilled minimum wage troglodytes who not only get to make money to serve the Islamic inflicted punishments on the American travelling public, but they also get to a sexual thrill in sticking their hands down the pants of people who with exception of perhaps one individual out of 360 million has ever done anything to deserve it. Travelling by air is now a perversion while cargo and rail travel go on without any supervision or oversight at all. The cowardly politicians and civil servants have their noses stuck so far up the rear end of groups like CAIR, that if they make a sharp turn a broken nose will result.

It has ceased to be about protecting Americans or taking steps to insure the continuity of the American lifestyle. America has become a slave of China, Mexico and Islam and the cowards who lead us are closing down our options to the point where we may one day have to react and they will surely not survive to lead in the aftermath.

Mexico has command posts, observation posts, and sniper nests as much as 90 miles past the border between Mexico and America. Illegal’s get constitutional protections, social security services, discounted educational benefits, and often are able to get them with less trouble than Americans are forced to go through. The cowards who govern in this country have done more to serve those who destroy us than they do for the people of the United States. We as citizens must demand more, complain more, watch more, and hold these people to the levels of service they claim to give us but do not. We are victims of our own government, and our own President who has shown without a doubt that he hates America more and serves everyone else more. When 2012 arrives America will do well to send this liar and dishonest broker packing and look for someone who actually looks to serve the American people. If we do not demand to be the beneficiaries of our own government for a change the downfall and destruction of this great country is certainly inevitable.

You have to make the choice.

In the last several years two things have happened that have demonstrably changed the way America is perceived and the way our way of life is denigrated. We’ve had a Democrat dominated Congress and recently the Presidency which has been taken over by hard left Socialistic Progressives whose disdain for their own country has led them to treat it like the door mat on a messy day. Add to that a sycophantic press which has lost it’s ability to think independently and has become nothing more than the propaganda arm of the left. Between the two bodies they have been disrespectful and even out rightly defamatory of America and her people.

Consider that while Americans have been brow beaten into onerous searches and security measures that include being shown literally naked in a screening machine or succumbing to a pat down that is more like a grope fest, while CAIR has made it plain that Islamic women in full body gowns cannot be forced through the scanners and must not be touched except on the head and neck. What could you hide under such a flowing gown with room for an explosive vest if that was what they wanted to wear.

Consider a child who puts a flag on his bicycle to show his love and respect for his country, who is told by his school leadership that he must remove the flag because of racial considerations. Mexicans in the school district object to an American flying the American flag, in America. What an absurd and idiotic thing to even consider.

Consider the payments made by the Department of Justice to literally thousands of sanctuary cities who disregard the federal law regarding illegal aliens. The American government allows sniper nests and forward observation posts to be built and staffed by Mexican Drug Lords 90 miles north of the Mexican border without any attention to removing them at all. This is an overt act of war because armed Mexicans have invaded the United States and are in fact killing law enforcement and civilians at their whim. Rather they put up a sign warning Americans to stay off land that is part of their sovereign country.

If I continued this list I would spend the rest of my life at the keyboard and never publish a word. But here is my summary: America is getting punked out of her own home by anybody with a notion to push. Our politicians are gutless slugs who talk too much and do too little. Our President is a coward, a fool, and a liar who has done more to undermine this country and the respect she had gained over the last 250 than any enemy or individual we have faced. Personally I am proud to be an American but I am ashamed of my President and the current Congress. I can only hope the new Congress that takes office in 2011 will bring some pride back to this country and undo the damage that Liberals, Progressives, Statists, and Socialists have done to date.

Over the years American leadership has made a startling choice to obey laws they only choose to obey. Since Congress can arbitrarily exempt itself from having to be held to obedience of a law they disagree with, they can serve their own desire for power and wealth by ignoring immigration law and making public statements in support of violating the law and encouraging individuals to violate it and illegally cross into the United States. These they hope are potential voters as soon as they can make the case for amnesty.

The leaders of our country don’t care that these individuals are drug smugglers, human traffickers, or soldiers for the drug cartels setting up Observation Posts or sniper nests on American soil to wound or kill American citizens or law enforcement officers. Why, they openly threaten to do so and our government does nothing. The politicians don’t care about the women that become widows, or the children who become orphans. They don’t care about the rise of drug addiction in America or the rise in the crime rate. They don’t care that Arizona has the second highest number of international kidnappings in the world. Nor do they care about the fact that a foreign power has armed insurgents 90 miles deep into America’s sovereign territory and signs posted to warn Americans against travelling into American property occupied and controlled by narco-terrorists.

The leaders of our country have arbitrarily decided that there are some laws that should be enforced and others that should not. Well, under the equal justice clause in the Constitution, how can you enforce any laws if you don’t enforce them all? And if they are not reasonable laws why doesn’t the government act to repeal them so they would not have to make such an example of violating them? How does one make the decision which laws should be upheld and which should not? And if you think that this anarchistic mentality is limited to the people serving in Washington you couldn’t be more wrong. The city and state governments of the sovereign state of North Carolina list themselves openly as Sanctuary states which is an open admission that they are complicit and corrupt in this national tragedy which is showing itself to be more profitable to the rest of the world than it is to America.

At the end of the day there are three things you need to see in yourself when you look in the mirror;

1. That far from being the courageous and patriotic American you should be you’d rather sanction violating the law than changing it.

1. The reason these laws are being disobeyed and America and her citizens are being made to pay the price is that it is more likely that the politician you voted for was an expedient rather than a well vetted choice.

1. Once that politician gained office you simply let go of your responsibility and never held them to the standard of service that you should have and you let them do this to us collectively.

If you think it’s too far from you check into the status of your city or state and if you find that power and greed motivate the breaking of a law this important, it will probably justify the breaking of a lot more as well. Voting is a responsibility that goes with citizenship and holding your public servants to the legal standard is just common sense. What we have now is a brain dead America.

WAKE UP AND SAVE AMERICA BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE!!!

Government leaders don’t even try to pretend that their system is intended to be for the benefit of society, because men, being frail and cowardly creatures, seek escape from the burdens of daily responsibility and are inwardly unable to face the truth. Leadership is aware of this fact and have only one aim, and that is to amass power. To them power is not a means, it is an end that is justified by the means. Power means having the ability to inflict unlimited pain and suffering on others to accomplish the desired end. For them it creates reality, and in so doing it creates truth. The position of the power elite can be said to be the extreme form of philosophical idealism, but it is more relevant to recognize that the concept of truth and reality are extreme forms of pragmatism by the people in which the truth becomes subordinate to the ruling elite. Truth is proven by the consensus of millions; so how can a minority of one be right?

So, one man in a hundred knows a fact to be true, but the other 99 are instructed by the ruling class that the fact is false and that they must accept that. That one man quickly becomes the crazy man in the room because a fact that he knows to be true is rejected by the masses and group think however erroneous prevails.

If one works for a big corporation which claims its product is better than all of their competitors, whether the claim is justified or not in terms of definable reality is irrelevant. What matters is that as long as one serves this particular corporation, the claim becomes operative truth, and we decline validation of an objectively valid truth. In fact, if one changes jobs and move over to a competitor, we accept the new truth that its products are best, and subjectively speaking, this new truth will be as true today as the old one was yesterday. Again the truth spoken by many overcomes the truth spoken by one, regardless of whether that truth is indeed the truth or not.

This is an age when there are endless amounts of information and access to it is truly ubiquitous. It is a mystery understanding why people are so ignorant or grievously uninformed. They are sheep who either cannot or will not think for themselves, or who simply don’t care. In a country with is the freest flow of information and freedom to be the most knowledgeable people in the world, the people of the United States are content to be used and manipulated because it’s easier than having to pursue the truth.

In a successful manipulation of the mind a person is no longer saying the opposite of what they think, but thinking the opposite of what is true. Thus, if they have surrendered their independence and integrity completely, if they experience themselves as a thing which belongs either to the state, the party, or the corporation, then two plus two are indeed five and they can feel free because there is no longer any awareness of the discrepancy between the truth and a lie. Specifically this applies to ideologies not dissimilar to the Inquisitors who tortured people in the name of their understanding of Christian love. They reject every principle for which their faith originally stood, and choose to do it for what they term the greater good of the people. Even though the content is reversed, the people still act out in the name of their faith.

We present our society as being one of free initiative, individualism, and idealism, when in reality these are merely words. We are a centralized managerial industrial society of an essentially bureaucratic nature, motivated by materialism. Yet there is a continuing adherence to spirituality by many, but rejected by a very hostile but minority opposition.

One can react in two ways. They can become more hopeless and resigned to their fate, or by feeling that there is still time and by responding with a greater clarity and courage. All negative Utopias make it appear that it is possible to dehumanize man completely and yet for life to go on. You may doubt the correctness of this and think that while it is possible to destroy the core of man, one would also be destroying the future of mankind. It is quite clear that even now it is necessary to sound alarms across the country and make people aware how dangerously close they are to destroying the foundations of their free society.

It becomes clear in the modern world that the problem comes not from the droning voice of a single entity bent on driving society into subservience and taking control of the world, but rather that there are so many vitriolic voices dividing the people into opposing groups, all of which have their own potential to divide and destroy the society. There are racial groups, religious groups, social groups, and political groups, each of which proposes a philosophy or psychology which they see as the only truth and which only serves to divide the people against each other. These groups in demonstrations have moved people to violence which has resulted in injury and death, property damage in the millions of dollars, and divisions between people which set neighbor against neighbor. In the end they have failed to produce any workable or positive solution that quiet discussion and common sense couldn’t have resolved better.

In the end it is clear that unless people choose a better way of dealing with each other and respecting a common view of society, anyone who is left in the room will in fact be the crazy man in the room when they are the only representation of common sense. It should be clear that everyone can represent their beliefs, their faiths, or their allegiances without being punished by those in society who don’t share their beliefs. There is a calamity that affects us all in that we will likely divide into factions and set against each other when the smarter path would be to unite and help each other survive. We have to make a choice and we have to have the courage to step up and do the right thing with respect to all people with whom we deal.