Ides of March, 2005
Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 15 Mar 2005 13:00:00 GMT
Wiley Miller's Non Sequitur via Marc Brands Liberty -
Government Knows Best - cartoon commentary on many folks' response
to ridiculous "laws". Way too true to be funny, but I chuckled
anyway. [smith2004]
# Butler Shaffer at LewRockwell.com - Violence and the State - Mr. Shaffer is not, unfortunately, condoning the eradication of gummint vermin, but he explains why it happens and why it will become more prevalent as the state's noose tightens. Can you say "positive feedback loop"? [clairefiles]
Whenever a government official is murdered, the media immediately comes on stage to recite its well-rehearsed script reminding us that the lives of those who work for the state are more important than the lives of the rest of us. The killing of a police officer is always good for two or three days of television coverage, while the death of a convenience-store clerk goes largely unreported. The recent murder of a Chicago judge's spouse and mother received many days of media attention, as did the killing of an Atlanta judge, a court reporter, a sheriff's deputy, and a federal agent.
...
To the media and other state-supremacists, every "problem" is a call for further extending state power; every realm of individual liberty is a "loophole" to be excised from a legislative scheme. Accordingly, statists will remain true to past form in assessing the causes of these recent murderous acts. The need for more armed deputies in courtrooms has already been offered as one prescription, while one can expect the gun-control crowd to go into its knee-jerk reactions to further disarm Americans. Such responses overlook the fact that the Atlanta killing took place because an armed government deputy provided a temptation to an unarmed defendant! The politically-minded might be better advised to offer proposals for disarming the state!
...
Taxes and government regulations continue to escalate, while the contractual promises of the state (e.g., the Social Security system) or the quality of state services (e.g., government schools) continue to collapse. Implicitly -- if not explicitly -- people are becoming increasingly aware that every political system and program is a racket, grounded in nothing but lies and illusions. The expectation that the state will protect your life, property, and income, so that you may be free to pursue your private interests, is an article of faith that no longer fires the social spirit of intelligent men and women.
