Hannover 96 and Chicken Tax

Hanover Line I-I

I have discovered that Hannover 96 are a much better squad than VfB Leipzig. Hannover 96 currently sit 7th in the Bundesliga and are already through the qualifying stages of the Europa League! They play Club Brugge of the Jupiler League on February 16, 2012. Let's go Die Roten! But again, I did not come to talk Football. I have come to begin my Hanover line of thinking.

Since the Saxony line began with art, I feel I must steer clear of that topic in the Hanover line. While the lines can think on the same thing, it would be improper to start both at the same thinking point. Why? I haven't the slightest of clues, but it seem silly to me to have two lines of thinking on the same topic. Do you disagree?

Traipsing in Leipzig seemed to be a wash so I didn't do the same in Hanover. Nor did I get over to the pub in time to hear such wonderful intellectual stimuli. So, I did what every pseudointellectual does these days, wikipedia and google. Google news is truly and archivist's dream. When I clicked on the news for Hannover, Germany I found articles reading "Yanks moving on Hannover" (April 10, 1945), "Scarlett O'Hara flies from New Orleans to Hannover, West Germany (April 23, 1962) and "Hannover Re expects big loss from oil rig mishap in Gulf" (April 28, 2010) in random order. However, I must conclude that the news happens a lot in April in Hannover and not much the other eleven months based on my two minute scientific inquiry.

I then realized that the Transporter T5 was produced by the Volkswagen factory in Hannover. That seems a perfect place to start the Hanover line of thinking. (I'm sorry but I will interchange Hannover and Hanover throughout my thought processes for no particular reason). The T5 is a neat little auto, and the Volkswagen California Beach (a type of T5) is really cool looking. It could be a spaceship if a rocket were added to it. But, alas, when I went to buy one for my time in the States I found I could not on account of the chicken tax.

The chicken tax was a cold-war era tax stemming from the little known, but very dangerous cold war phenomena known as the "Chicken War". The tax still exists on vehicles classified as light trucks. The Volkswagen California is a light truck and thus would incur a 25% tax immediately upon entry to the states. In layman's terms this means no Volkswagen California for reincarnated Leibniz.

But, as I studied this tax I found that it could be circumvented (as all taxes can be these days). Ford, ostensibly a company the US government designed the tax to protect, actually builds the Ford Transit Connect in Turkey and then imports it to the United States, where it then cuts pieces off of the light truck in Baltimore to get around the dreaded chicken tax. Ironic. Unfortunately, I found that there were no such plans for chopping the California in some seedy Baltimore back alley, reiterating the fact that their will be no Leibnizian California Dreamin' anytime soon.

Join me next time when we move from Chicken Tax to some other form of Tax, Tax loopholes, or Irony in the Hannover line of thinking. Whatever the topic will be, it will be optimistic as we eliminate pessimism from among us.