Compassionate Murder
Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com - Why Did Bush Bomb? Mr. Rockwell calls a spade a spade in the recent bombing of Iraq. It was an act of agression. Murder by government.
What is it about the office of the US presidency that leads men who would never kill anyone in their capacity as individuals to believe that doing so is fine so long as you use a weapon of mass destruction funded by the taxpayer? What does George W. Bush think when he sees pictures of dead Iraqi civilians and wounded women and children? Is he really (like Madeline Albright) prepared to say it is "worth the price"? Under what system of ethics, what rule of law?
Ray Thomas at Sierra Times - Show Us The Law! Mr. Thomas comments on a full-page ad created and paid for by givemeliberty.org, which appeared in last Friday's issue of USA Today. The ad gives information about the fact that no law requires a U.S. citizen residing in the U.S. to pay income tax. It also reminds us that the sixteenth amendment was never properly ratified.
There's a new article in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:
- Busting the protection racket - The independent taxi drivers of
Nevada are finally getting their day in court against the racket that
protects the big boys from "potentially harmful competition."
Libertarians like me don't believe anyone should require a license
to do anything, including practice medicine. The market does a better
job than a licensing board of weeding out incompetents and is much
harder to corrupt.
But the limo drivers are not arguing they should be allowed to operate without drivers licenses, registration plates, or even some minimum level of liability insurance coverage. They merely oppose a protection racket which allows existing firms to veto new applications on the mere assertion that licensing a new operator will hurt their bottom line.
Of course it will. That's the idea. If some hypothetical state or county "Hamburger Services Authority" had allowed McDonald's to veto the licensing of any fast-food operator whose presence might damage the McDonald's bottom line, what are the chances this valley would ever have seen its first Burger King, Wendy's, or Jack-in-the-Box?
Today's issue of The Offshore Insider has some good words about the theft of taxation. Available by email only, but free.
And yet, when you personalise this idea it becomes absurd. For example: If your son wanted to go to university, but you couldn't afford to support him, would you go next door and demand that your neighbour foot the bill? If you reached 65 years of age and didn't have enough money saved for your retirement, would you stand out- side the supermarket and demand that shoppers each give you $20 towards your living expenses?Of course not, because such demands - if backed by the threat of force - would amount to outright theft.
Well, why does the situation become any different when we appoint "agents" to collect this money on our behalf? Because that's what we do through our redistributive tax system.
