How Government Works

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 17 Nov 2003 13:00:00 GMT

From a friend:

How government works

Once upon a time the government had a vast scrap yard in the middle of a desert. Congress said "someone may steal from it at night." So they created a night watchman position and hired a person for the job.

Then Congress said, "How does the watchman do his job without instruction?" So they created a planning department and hired two people, one person to write the instructions, and one person to do time studies.

Then Congress said, "How will we know the night watchman is doing the tasks correctly?" So they created a Quality Control department and hired two people, one to do the studies and one to write the reports.

Then Congress said, "How are these people going to get paid?" So they created the following positions - a time keeper and a payroll officer, and hired two more people.

Then Congress said, "Who will be accountable for all of these people?" So they created an administrative section and hired three people, an Administrative Officer, Assistant Administrative Officer, and a Legal Secretary.

Then Congress said, "We have had this command in operation for one year and we are $48,000 over budget, therefore we must cut costs."

So they laid off the night watchman.

Kevin Tuma - Equalizer - cartoon commentary on the fact that God made men, but Sam Colt made them equal.

Mike Shelton at The Orange County Register - Freedom can be the future of every nation - cartoon commentary on GW's rhetoric vs. his actions. Hehe.

Claire Wolfe at Backwoods Home Magazine - Red Lights, Big Trouble - Hardyville gets a red light camera! But the story has a happy ending. Hehe. [claire]

Even after Borgo climbed the pole (the regular Hardyville maintenance crews said they'd be happy to watch and maybe even think about trying to catch him if he fell) and fixed the camera, somehow it kept failing to catch good images of licence plates so they'd know who to mail the tickets to. This was possibly due to reflective sprays and reflective films on the plates that made the camera catch nothing but glare.

The camera-foilers were on the license plates of tourists and truckers. Hardyvillians, of course, don't have government licenses on their vehicles. The government doesn't own their pickup trucks; they do. The lack of local license plates for the camera to photograph was another major miscalculation. Deputy Borgo was reduced to studying pictures of vehicle grilles, saying, "That Chevy with the hoof-shaped dent must be Nat's" and "There's a 'Semper Fi' bumper sticker on that one, so Carty gets a ticket."

Any you know what? Not even Borgo or the most dedicated THCTMEDWGFT,WTEION-er was all that enthusiastic about delivering red-light tickets to Nat, the county's toughest old horse-breaker, or Carty, a 250-pound all-muscle dude who looks like Jesse Ventura.

Sorry, no big cash flow there, either.

Mark Lisheron at The Austin (TX) American-Statesman Austin's Free State members pledge to create a Libertarian bastion -

Alan Weiss, Michael Badnarik and Rick McGinnis want to experience their ideal of liberty in their lifetimes.

To secure their freedom, they have pledged to move from Austin to New Hampshire along with men and women from all over the country.

Once there, these people, members of the Free State Project, intend to set about creating a place to prosper without government interfering in how citizens live. Now, if they can only put up with the cold.

Alan Weiss wrote about this story:

[The print version has pictures of myself (Alan R. Weiss) on the front page, page 1 of the Sunday edition, and Mike Badnarik (LP Party Presidential candidate) and Rick McGinnis (Travis County LP Party) on page 11. The continuation on page 11 was most of that page. The print version has more text than the online version and has the pictures. I spent about 2 hours with the journalist, Mark Lisheron, who is definately libertarian and very much intrigued by the FSP. Mark wrote a series of seminal pieces on how the role culture and the arts plays in the blossoming of a city or region into prosperity, influence, success, and livability (and he pointed out that Austin is in danger of "losing it" ...). He is one of the most perceptive newspaper journalists I've had interview me, and did his homework. - Alan R. Weiss, Austin]

Note for Smith2004 people: my picture, on page 1, has me posed against an American flag (in my office), bent over slightly, head cocked, smile on my face, E.A.A. Witness .45ACP in PLAIN VIEW in my holster on my belt, a copy of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution (Cato booklet) in the other hand. I insisted the photographer get me pictured with a sidearm and a smile on my face. :-)

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Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair