Keep Your Religion in Your Pants
"The mess we're in right now, politically, grew straight out of rather too much polite tolerance for certain beliefs. We should have insisted all along -- as the Bill of Rights does, in effect -- that Bush and his subcreatures keep their religion in their pants." -- L. Neil Smith
From root:
"Wars are the hobbies of half-informed children who have somehow come into possession of the levers of power." -- Fred Reed
# John T. Kennedy at No Treason - These Are The Supremes - Mr. Kennedy demands that we stop using the name of a fine musical group for the nine whores in black dresses (my apologies to any honest whores reading this). [notreason]
# Watley Review - New York City Invokes Eminent Domain to Acquire New Jersey - satire on the latest excrement from the nine whores. [clairefiles]
The Constitution says government may take private property "for public use" if it pays the owners "just compensation." Originally, public use meant the land was used for roads, canals or military bases, or to clear blighted areas. In today's decision, the court went a step further and said officials need not claim they were condemning blighted properties or clearing slums. Now, as long as officials hope to create jobs or raise tax collections, they can seize the homes of unwilling sellers, the court said. This "public purpose" is a "public use" of the land, the court said in Kelo vs. New London.
"The Supreme Court decision makes it easier for us to justify this course of action in the name of economic development," said Bloomberg, "although actually we could easily have made the case that taking over New Jersey would be analogous to condemning a blighted property. I mean, come on. Have you been there lately?"
New York will compensate the current residents of New Jersey with "fair market value" for their property, a total amount estimated to be well within Bloomberg's ability to pay out of his own pocket. After evicting all current residents from New Jersey, New York plans to add a new Olympic stadium, a Trump apartment complex, international airport, and, most critically, a 4,000 square mile landfill.
# John Lopez at No Treason - What Can You Do About Things? - practical advice in the light of Kelo v. New London. What can you do? Quite a lot, actually, but don't expect anybody else to help you, unless it's in their best interests, and certainly don't bother trying to vote for what you want. [clairefiles]
# The Castle Coalition, citizens fighting emminent domain abuse, is a project of the Institute for Justice. Their Sound Off page contains email addresses for the New London Town Council and for Corcoran Jennison, the developer who would do the actual work of razing the Susette Kelo's home. I added an icon linking to their web site to the left column of this page.
# The Militant Libertarian - A Thousand Wacos, A Thousand Ruby Ridges - one man's response to Kelo v. New London: [militant]
I vow that if a government entity attempts to take my property from me, for whatever reason, I will stand firm and protect my property with words, physical force, and even with force of arms if necessary. I will not relent in my protection of my property until I have received a fair settlement, the government entity wishing to take my land has relented, or my dead body is plowed under by their bulldozers.
# Lew Rockwell at The Ludwig von Mises Institute - Working Around Leviathan - a history of the birth and growth of the leviathan state, and why and how it is becoming increasingly irrelevant. Long. [clairefiles]
If I can present the following metaphor of how I imagine the relationship of the productive matrix of human voluntarism to exist alongside the leviathan state. Imagine a vigorous game of football with fast and effective players, cooperating with their teams and competing with the other team. These, we might say, constitute the activities of the market economy: consumers, producers, savers, investors, innovators, workers, and all institutions associated with the voluntary sector of society such as houses of worship, educational institutions, charitable endeavors, families, and artistic and literary associations of every sort. They are the players in this game.
However, right on the 50 yard line sits a huge and overgrown elephant, enormously strong but also swelled up, slow, and completely unsuited to being a player in this game. Everyone knows that this monstrous animal is there, and they wish it were not. But rather than attempt to slay it and drag it away, the game proceeds apace, with runners, kickers, and throwers zipping around it. The elephant is powerful and authoritative, more so than ever, but it can hardly move. It can bat its trunk at players that prove especially annoying but it cannot finally stop the game from taking place. And the longer these players confront this strange obstacle, the better they become at working around it, and growing stronger and faster despite it.
I'll block that metaphor before it becomes too implausible, but let me just say this about the future of this elephant state: like a dying large and once-dangerous animal, the state will continue to be an annoyance and even deadly under certain conditions, but it will not be an effective player in our daily lives. The reason is this. The state cannot deal with change, and ours is a time of constant and relentless change. It does not navigate the world with attention to outcomes, and ours is a world in which all human endeavors are expected to achieve. Its bureaucratic structures are fine for dealing with repetitive tasks but it cannot face new challenges. It can consume resources but it is incapable of producing them. It is uninventive, unresponsive, unintelligent, uninformed, and unmotivated to succeed.
...
I'm often asked what an average person can to do further liberty. I say that the first and most important step is intellectual. We all need to begin to say no to the state on an intellectual level. When you are asked what you would like the government to do for you, we need to be prepare to reply: nothing. We should not ask it to save our children, nor provide security, nor give us anything at all.
