Tax protester Irwin Schiff's defense, stating that he is delusional and therefore should not be convicted of evading more than $2.5 million in income taxes, fraud penalties, and interest.

Schiff is the country's best-known promoter of claims that no law requires the payment of income taxes. He's written several popular books propounding his theories.

Schiff's psychiatrist, Dr. Luis Carlos Ortega of Las Vegas, wrote last year, in notes placed in the court file, that Schiff has suffered from paranoid delusions about the tax system for decades.

A most entertaining story about this novel "it's all a delusion" defense appeared in Saturday's New York Times.

Hey, they laughed at Dan White's "Twinkie Defense" in San Francisco after he walked into Mayor Alioto's office and blew him away, but White left the courtroom a free man.