The Secret Service vs sanity, Part 2

[DoctorDoom]

U.S. Secret Service agents, who earlier confiscated Gospel tracts from Christians in Texas and Nevada because they carry a message of salvation and an advisory that they are not legal tender even though they look like a $1 million bill, now have taken the same tracts away from a Los Angeles man.

Jim Thomas, who with his wife Charlene had just finished an evangelism training program at their church, told WND he was handing out the tracts near an escalator at a downtown Los Angeles mall "and everything was going very well."

Then, he said, a man approached him and told him that "there's a problem here."

He introduced himself as a Secret Service agent.

"He began to ask me questions, like 'have you read the rules and regulations about bills similar to currency?'" Thomas said. "So he just kind of informed me what I could do to be in compliance."

He said the officer suggested the bills be larger or smaller than regular currency, or be printed in black-and-white. Then he took Thomas' stack of the tracts, which look like a $1 million bill but have a 160-word Gospel message and other disclaimers.Secret Service confiscates more Gospel tracts (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53727)

Our taxes at work :rolleyes:

[Wolfcounsel]

The Secret Service is made up of human beings, and every human is capable of developing brain farts.

[pinqy]

U.S. Secret Service agents, who earlier confiscated Gospel tracts from Christians in Texas and Nevada because they carry a message of salvation... Does anybody really believe the bolded part is true?

[DoctorDoom]

I would. What other reason would there be for confiscating tracts bearing the image of a non-existent bill, which is by definition impossible to counterfeit?

It's harassment, period, and it's not because there are people out there stupid enough to try to cash or spend one (there are no doubt liberals of that single-digit-IQ mentaliy).

As noted in the item, this is the second time the tracts have been attacked by federal weenies. The first time, the case went to court and the feds found a judge clueless or bigoted enough—or weak enough to yield to pressure—to rule against the tracts rather than laughing his ass off before throwing the case out.

Were this an isolated case of federal harassment of Christians and Christianity, one might assume that it's the result of boneheads. When the tract is attacked more than once, and when other examples abound of gross distortion of the First Amendment by government against Christians, it become a pattern of abuse and oppression.

[nrocpop]

They are just enforcing the law. It is illegal to reproduce any portion of our currency anywhere close to same size.

[Wolfcounsel]

"Does anybody really believe the bolded part is true?"

I believe it.


"They are just enforcing the law. It is illegal to reproduce any portion of our currency anywhere close to same size." --nrocpop

Of course. Those people are really nice guys doing us common people a favor. I could wind up getting my real million dollar bills mixed up with the tracts when I pay for a hamburger or sump'n!<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

[DoctorDoom]

They are just enforcing the law. It is illegal to reproduce any portion of our currency anywhere close to same size.Do tell us, O wise one, what portion of a million-dollar bill the tracts are reproducing. :rolleyes:

Kid, do a Google image search for "million-dollar bill". Look at the results, and tell us why none of the people who make them are being harassed by the feds.

[Rhino]

They are just enforcing the law. It is illegal to reproduce any portion of our currency anywhere close to same size.Not true.

[Book]

The dollar bit?

[Seabee]

I do not think it is a case of harassment, but a case of stupidity on the part of the Secret Service.

[Rhino]

The dollar bit?It's not illegal to produce a facsimile of our currency close to the same size. People do it as a novelty and as collector's items all the time. It's illegal to attempt to circulate it, but not to produce it. One of the most valuable collectors coins out there is actually a fake, being deliberately made from original coins so as to resemble a famous misstamping done by the mint. People do the same thing with bills. Even though they're not real, they're still valuable, and legal as long as they aren't put into circulation. Of course, you would almost certainly be scrutinized for compliance.

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

I have seen such tracts, and even used a couple of them (that were given to my kids in their youth classes). They may, upon a glance, look like real money, but when you pick them up and open them up (they are folded in half) one quickly realizes they are not even close to the same size as a "bill", the coloring is all wrong, and the opposite side (not the face-side) is all typewritten and looks nothing like the back of a "bill." Now perhaps there are different styles, but the ones I've seen, there's no way anyone could pass them off as real legal tender.

[nrocpop]

The Counterfeit Detection Act of 1992, Public Law 102-550, in Section 411 of Title 31 of the Code of Federal Regulations, permits color illustrations of U.S. currency provided:
the illustration is of a size less than three-fourths or more than one and one-half, in linear dimension, of each part of the item illustrated;

the illustration is one-sided; and

all negatives, plates, positives, digitized storage medium, graphic files, magnetic medium, optical storage devices, and any other thing used in the making of the illustration that contain an image of the illustration or any part thereof are destroyed and/or deleted or erased after their final use.

My best guess is the miliion dollar bill contained part of real currency.

I aint no kid! I am a retired printer.

[DoctorDoom]

My best guess is the miliion dollar bill contained part of real currency.Are fictional bills "color illustrations of U.S. currency"? What part of "real currency" is there in a million-dollar bill that does not exist in the real world? Question:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/MillBill1.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/MillBill2.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/SantaBill.jpg

Are the producers and sellers of those "bills" being harassed by the feds?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/MillBill3.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/MillBill3b.jpg

Is there a Million Dollar Bill?

YES, there is and we have them. Our million dollar bills are as real as they get.

(Of course, the U.S. government never printed a real million dollar bill so these bills are not real enough to spend, but almost -- and they're 100% legal.)
These are the most authentic million dollar bills ever printed. Guaranteed. Unique seals, micro lettering and other security features prevent them from being copied on a photo copier or scanned and printed on a laser printer.

Most novelty products are just photocopies and they look CHEAP! That's not the image you want, is it?

These million dollar bills look, feel (and even smell) like real money.

These million dollar bills are printed on one of the most advanced presses in the world. If I were a counterfeiter, this is the printing press I would want to use. Look closely at the million dollar bill picture shown below to see the detail work. (Note: Million dollar bill pictures on the Internet can not begin to show the micro details in these bills.The most wanted Million Dollar Bill on the planet (http://www.bizoprefund.com/products/item7.cfm)

Is the company having its "bills" confiscated by the SS?

This is the tract from Living Waters.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/MillionF.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/MillionB.jpg

Why is that one (http://www.livingwaters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=298&Category_Code=) the subject of two separate conficatory actions by the fedgov, but the one above it is "100% legal"?

This isn't a matter of stupid agents and judges. This is harassment of Christians, pure and simple.

[DoctorDoom]

BTW, I have a forgery of this famous work, but please don't tell Interpol. I don't need the grief.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v349/DocDoom777/Strange/alien-lisa.jpg

[Wolfcounsel]

Secret Service Agent Clouseau and his partner Ponton are going to go after that Mona Lisa forgery! I wonder what became of the fake million dollar bills they confiscated.

With apologies to the real professionals

[nrocpop]

I repent of having defended the SS boys on this one. I could not find one bit of copying of real currency. All the symbols were even different. It sure does seem that somebody over reached to call this tract counterfeiting.