Ok, I skimmed through parts of this and just wanted to point out one potential flaw in their logical argument towards Christ being a plagiarized sun god from the Egyptian Beliefs.
The narrator claims that 15 centuries (1500 years) before Christ the Egyptians have writings about immaculate conception through the holy ghost, and then the birth of Jores (spelling?). If I remember correctly Joseph was sold into Egypt sometime around 1600 years before Christ. One could argue that the Egyptians may have adapted their beliefs around those preached by Joseph (a Hebrew who was favored by Pharos and may have taught of the coming of Christ) and not pulled them from astrological thought/beliefs/teachings.
Of course you could never prove it, but because of the position Joseph held amongst the Egyptians where he prophesied of seasons of plenty and then seasons of drought it is a solid assumption that the Egyptians may have accepted many of his personal beliefs. The "similarities" between the Egyptian and Christian Religions could even be used to argue that this was in fact the case. While the Jews as an entire people did not accept Christ as a Savior, individual Jews were his disciples and he continually pointed to Hebrew scriptures that prophesied of his coming.
I also don't believe that a story referencing something BEFORE ancient worlds was plagiarized because multiple different ancient worlds have similar stories.
Also, it doesn't seem that they talked to any real economists when researching the national banking system. The Economic theory behind lending and controlling money is much more complicated then they made out and used by almost all nations today. I would classify their explanation as a half truth but do remember a more full and complete explanation in my economics courses. Unfortunately, I don't remember the details well enough to explain it all here. Also, the gold standard existed until 1968 but in a federal organized manner. This had more to do with the complicated dynamics of World Markets than other factors, and those same dynamics is what eventually lead to a non gold backing of each dollar. Technically, you could take any dollar to a federal storehouse until the end of the Bretton Woods system and exchange it for the equivalent weighed in gold/silver. The movie skipped all those details for some reason, but they do play an important part in understanding why money is no longer backed by precious metals. And The Federal Reserver has to be separated from the Government, other wise you'd have situations like those that have happened in the Philippines and other nations where the Government demands increase in the output of money to meet their spending needs... Essentially making the "value" of the money worthless.
I'm not a legal expert by any means but from my political science backing and brief reading of
this explanation of Income tax law does exist as it is a condition of an act passed by congress in 1913 called the 16th Ammendment.
Amendment XVI
The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.
Additionally, as our government is a living and changing government they can essentially give themselves the power to do anything as long as no other branch questions the legality/constitutionality of the established acts/bills. Its why the President has as many powers today as he does. No one wants to challenge him on them to only to potentially create a ruling that states they do in fact have that right. So, in tradition of common law (and why this first successful suit against a file trader by the RIAA is so important) as soon as one person lost/losses a law case against not paying their income tax, the legal precedent will be established and all future legal cases in similar situations will have to follow the ruling of that case.
Oh, and yes I agree - the Patriot Act is crap... It seriously needs to be amended/adjusted/or removed.
Ikono, what are your thoughts?
I'll watch more when I have some free time. Interesting, but a bit biased in their educational approach.
