Month: August 2012

Let Accusations of Me Being a Communist Begin

What I’m about to write is likely to result in accusations of me being a communist. I fully support actions like the following:

The building unveiled today as the Victor Martinez Community Library was part of a Carnegie Foundation endowment of four libraries given to the city of Oakland between 1916 and 1918. Oakland’s librarian at the time, Charles S. Greene, believed that the city’s people would benefit most from libraries placed within their communities.

Despite this vision, the building was one of seven branch casualties of budget cuts in the late seventies, severing vital library life-lines in poor and working communities. Since then, the “Latin American Branch” library building located at the corner of Miller and 15th st. has mostly sat empty, despite the fact that the next nearest library is miles away, and increasingly difficult to access in a city like Oakland with an increasingly expensive transit system. With its eroding chain link fence and decaying, armored exterior, the building is much more than an eyesore; the unused, but inaccessible, space creates a life-draining dark vacuum of stability that serves at best as a convenient place for the unscrupulous to dump their old mattresses, couches and assorted garbage.

This morning, a group of activists opened this building again for use as a library. Inside is the modest seed for a library and community center—hundreds of books donated by people who envision the rebirth of local, community-owned libraries and social and political centers throughout Oakland. We’ve named the building after recently deceased author, Victor Martinez, who overcame a young life of hard agricultural work to become a successful writer in the Bay Area. His semi-autobiographical novel, Parrot in the Oven, has become a seminal work of the Latino experience. Martinez died last year at 56 of an illness caused by his work in the fields.

I know, I know, only a dirty communist would support a group of activists opening up an abandoned building for public use. Bear with me for a moment. The building that the activists opened was a sealed up public library. As I’ve stated before I don’t believe the state has any legitimate claim to property ownership and therefore I don’t believe they have a right to take a building paid for by tax victims and seal it up. Why let such a building lie vacant? Why not put it to use? Just because the state doesn’t want to use it doesn’t mean members of the community don’t want to use it.

Hopefully activists in Oakland will spend more time on actions like this and less time on bitching about the nebulous “one percent.”

Break the Law, Help Another in Need Today

Jay over at MArooned shows us yet again that the reason people don’t help one another today isn’t because they’re selfish, it’s because doing so brings the violence of the state upon them:

A Pennsylvania woman who offers free lunch every day to low-income children in her neighborhood faces a $600-a-day fine next summer if she continues because she did not clear the food giveaway with township officials.

[…]

Chester Township, which has a per capita income of $19,000 a year, says Prattis lives in a residential zone, hence handing out food to children is not allowed. The township says she needs to go before a zoning board to ask for a variance, which would cost her up to $1,000 in administrative fees.

If you want to help your neighbor it’s going to cost you… unless you do it under the table. Break the law, help your neighbors through the wonderful world of agorism!

The Market for Prisons

One of my friends posted this story about a federal investigation into the Lauderdale County Juvenile Detention Facility:

Officials in Lauderdale County, Mississippi, have operated “a school-to-prison pipeline” that violates the constitutional rights of juveniles by incarcerating them for alleged school disciplinary infractions, some as minor as defiance, the U.S. Department of Justice said Friday.

My friend blamed the conditions on the free market, namely for profit prisons. I had to contest this fact because for profit prisons are only able to enjoy profits because of state interference in the market. My take on the issue is to rely on a free market instead of allowing the state to run the justice system. As I expected he disagreed and stated disbelief in a free market being able to provide prisons. While I agree with is assessment that the free market would likely be a poor provider of prisons the reason I see for it is different. He believes prisons couldn’t be supplied by a free market due to the sheer expense of building cages, hiring guards to watch the cages, feeding the caged individuals, etc. whereas I believe prisons wouldn’t be supplied by a free market because there isn’t a demand for them.

The idea that imprisonment is a form of justice baffles me. Most people want to be compensated when they’re wronged. If somebody’s car is damaged in an accident they want their car replaced and any legal and medical expenses covered. When their television is stolen they want it replaced. I haven’t met a person yet who, after being victimized, wanted to pay more money to put their aggressor in a cage and pay for that aggressor’s food, water, and medical expenses. That’s what the prison system does, it makes victims into victims again as a portion of their wealth is stolen to pay for the construction, maintenance, and operation of prisons. What’s worse is that victims often of uncompensated for their losses. Is that what people really want? To be forced to pay when they’re victimized? History would say otherwise.

History is peppered with successful stateless societies. Two of the more famous instances of such societies are medieval Ireland and Iceland between the years 1000 and 1300. Medieval Irish law is noted for being created and executed privately [PDF]. While there were kings of sorts in Ireland during that period they held no power to create or execute law. Instead individuals were charged with creating and executing law and this is likely why the legal system in Ireland revolved around compensation instead of imprisonment. Iceland’s period of statelessness is also notable for the compensatory nature of their laws. Like Ireland, Iceland had no central coercive authority dictating law and enacting punishment, instead such matters were left to individuals living on the island. The legal system revolved around godi who were representatives. A godi held no actual power as association was voluntary instead of forced within arbitrary borders. Any individual could chose any godi to represent them and thus more successful godi were ones who best delivered justice in the form of compensation for is constituents’ losses.

In the absence of state coercion dictating laws and punishment societies have tended towards compensatory models. Compared to caging individuals in prisons getting compensation is relatively cheap and we know that markets tend towards efficiency. Therefore a compensatory model has the advantages of getting compensation for victims and is relatively inexpensive. If it wasn’t for the state dictating that aggressors and violators of state decrees be caged we would likely not have any market for prisons and thus people are correct when they say a free market would be a poor provider of prisons. Markets provide for demands, if there is no demand then there is no market.

Fast and Furious Just Got More Interesting

Operation Fast and Furious has been one of the most entertaining episodes of Politics: The Reality Television Show for Suckers but many viewers have been expressing concern that the writers are running out of fresh ideas. The end of season cliffhanger has been Eric Holder’s refusal to comply with Congress’s investigation and people have been trying to figure out what the Attorney General is so afraid of having revealed. My friend Kurtis has brought some information to my attention that could tell us what’s in store for next season. A high ranking member of the Sinaloa Cartel has come forward with claims that the United States government has been arming the cartel and allowed them to sell drugs unhindered:

A high-ranking Mexican drug cartel operative currently in U.S. custody is making startling allegations that the failed federal gun-walking operation known as “Fast and Furious” isn’t what you think it is.

It wasn’t about tracking guns, it was about supplying them — all part of an elaborate agreement between the U.S. government and Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel to take down rival cartels.

The explosive allegations are being made by Jesus Vicente Zambada-Niebla, known as the Sinaloa Cartel’s “logistics coordinator.” He was extradited to the Chicago last year to face federal drug charges.

Zambada-Niebla claims that under a “divide and conquer” strategy, the U.S. helped finance and arm the Sinaloa Cartel through Operation Fast and Furious in exchange for information that allowed the DEA, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agencies to take down rival drug cartels. The Sinaloa Cartel was allegedly permitted to traffic massive amounts of drugs across the U.S. border from 2004 to 2009 — during both Fast and Furious and Bush-era gunrunning operations — as long as the intel kept coming.

The pleadings in The United States of America vs. Vicente Jesus Zambada-Neibla [PDF] are an interesting read. Needless to say this entire political fiasco would begin to make sense if Zambada-Neibla’s accusations hold up. The United States government has a long history of working with enemies of enemies. They went so far as to provide military training and money to the Khumer Rouge regime, which was noted for having killed between 1.4 million and 2.2 million civilians. Furthermore the United States government loves granting and then protecting monopolies. Considering those two facts it wouldn’t surprise me to find out that Fast and Furious was done to armed the Sinaloa Cartel in order to help them secure their monopoly against other drug cartels. The fact that Fast and Furious could also be used to advance the cause of gun control may have been seen as a happy benefit.

After reading this I believe people will be tuning in for the next season of Fast and Furious.

Fighting Global Warming

Several people including Zerg539 and Rob sent me this solicitation from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) for ammunition and shooting targets:

The DOC NOAA National Weather Service – Western Acquisition Division ? Boulder requires the following items, Purchase Description Determined by Line Item, to the following:
LI 001, 16,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP). No reloads may be used with these weapons. All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production.
?Inside Delivery? to locations below:
NED:
8,000 rounds to: Ross Lane DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 130 Oak Street, Suite 5, Ellsworth, ME, 04605
8,000 rounds to: Troy Audyatis, DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 53 North 6th Street, Room 214 New Bedford, MA, 02740., 16, Cases;
LI 002, 24,000 rounds of ammunition for semiautomatic pistols to be factory-loaded .40 S&W caliber, 180-grain jacketed hollow point (JHP). No reloads may be used with these weapons. All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production.
?Inside Delivery? to locations below:
24,000 rounds to: Jeff Radonski, A/DSAC DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, SED 263 13th Avenue South, Suite 109, St. Petersburg, FL, 33701., 24, Cases;
LI 003, 6,000 rounds of frangible, 125-grain CFRHT .40 caliber. No reloads may be used with these weapons. All service furnished ammunition for issued firearms will be U.S. factory production.
?Inside Delivery? to locations below:
6,000 rounds to: James Cassin DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 3350 Highway 138, Suite 218, Wall, NJ, 07719, 6, Cases;
LI 004, 500 Transtar II blue 24″ x 40″ paper targets
?Inside Delivery? to locations below:
200 paper targets to: Ross Lane DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 130 Oak Street, Suite 5 Ellsworth, ME, 04605
200 paper targets to: Troy Audyatis DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 53 North 6th Street, Room 214 New Bedford, MA, 02740.
100 paper targets to: James Cassin DOC, NOAA, NMFS, OLE, NED 3350 Highway 138, Suite 218, Wall, NJ, 07719, 500, Items;

That’s a lot of ammunition. At first I just assumed that NOAA was planning a literal war against global warming but it turns out that the weather agency has armed agents and performs raids:

They could be from the Environmental Protection Agency, the Labor or Education departments, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management or the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the agency known for its weather forecasts.

Agents from NOAA, in fact, along with the Fish and Wildlife Service, raided the Miami business of Morgan Mok in 2008, seeking evidence she had broken the Endangered Species Act trading in coral.

The agents had assault rifles with them, and the case documents indicated her house and business records had been under surveillance over a six-month period, says Ms. Mok. Under the 1973 law, the departments of Interior and Commerce (home to NOAA) must write regulations to define what is endangered and how it must be protected. One of those regulations specifies coral.

Why does a weather agency need armed thugs? Because they’re a state entity and the state only knows violence. Apparently they can’t even forecast the weather without the capacity to wield violence.

I Question My Friends’ Sincerity

I question my friends’ sincerity. They told me that the primary election was important because it will allow us to appoint the right people to save this country. They also told me that every vote mattered, and constantly harassed me to go out and vote. Yet when I offered to sell my vote not one person took me up on it. I didn’t even receive an offer. This really confuses me because you would think people who believe that every vote matters would jump on the opportunity to net another vote for their candidates of choice.

As far as I can see there are only three possibilities. One, my friends don’t actually believe every vote matters and thus are unwilling to buy mine to help ensure their candidates’ victories. Two, my friends don’t actually believe that this will be the most important election in our lifetimes and thus have little interest in ensuring their candidates’ victories. Three, my friends simply hate America and Minnesota.

On the upside if my friends’ candidates don’t win they cannot blame me for not voting, they can only blame themselves for not buying my vote.

Buy My Vote Today

Today is Minnesota’s primary election and I’ve been hearing two things over and over: every vote matters and this is the most important election in our lifetime.

I like to help my fellow individuals and that’s why I’m making the following offer: for $50.00 you can buy my primary vote. It’s very simple, you pay me $50.00 before entering the polling place and I register as your preferred party, vote for your preferred candidates, and provide photographic evidence of the ballot sheet so you know I performed as expected.

Do you believe $50.00 is too high? If this is the most important election in our lifetime and every vote counts you can effectively change this country for a mere $50.00. To me that sounds like a steal! With that said $50.00 is just my buy it now price. For $50.00 you’re guaranteed my vote but any offer will be considered including precious metals and other goods.

Change the course of this country today, buy my vote!

Defending Yourself on a Bike

Minneapolis has a well developed biking culture. One cannot drive in the city without seeing numerous cyclists on each road and the city has even paved several trails exclusively for the use of bikers and pedestrians. One of the more popular trails is call the Greenway and is also known for being unsafe to travel during nighttime hours. Incidents of assault and robbery happen periodically and there has even been an incident of numerous individuals ganging up on and assaulting a cyclist.

If you’ve ever ridden the Greenway you can understand why it’s a hotspot for assaults and robberies. The trail is located at the bottom of a ditch and is secluded from nearby buildings and roads. Several bridges dot the trail, each having several cement pillars one can lay in wait behind for unsuspecting travelers. At several points the trail is notably narrow and maneuvering room is nonexistent if somebody attempts an ambush from either side. This is a crucial point to note for cyclists because any strong impact from the side means an imminent meeting between the cyclist and ground. Unlike the people driving cars on the streets above, cyclists and pedestrians lack a surrounding cage of steel, plastic, and glass to protect them from would be attackers. Another disadvantage cyclists and pedestrians have when compared to motorists is the fact that a cyclist’s and pedestrian’s ability to run away from danger vanishes once they’ve impacted the ground.

In an attempt to reduce the number of incidents on the Greenway the Midtown Greenway Tail Watch Coalition (MGTWC) was created. MGTWC is a group of volunteers that ride the trail and attempt to add extra sets of eyes on the bike trail. They’re of little help for somebody being attack though since their guidelines [PDF] specifically state that volunteers are forbidden from intervening in a situation and from carrying weapons. In other words they can watch you get your ass beaten but they can’t actually attempt to intervene without breaking MGTWC rules. The only thing MGTWC members can do, without breaking their guidelines, is call the police. Due to the way the Greenway is constructed there are only a handful of access points from the above streets and that will affect police response times. In general you’re on your own even longer on the Greenway than on the above streets.

What can a traveler of the Greenway do? There are several steps you can take to protect yourself while traveling the Greenway. First and foremost, don’t travel the Greenway after dark. Everywhere the Greenway can access the above streets can access. In Minneapolis cyclists have equal rights on the streets as automobiles so there is no reason one must use the Greenway. Lake Street parallels the Greenway and can be ridden instead. For pedestrians there are the sidewalks that line Lake Street, and there is even a bridge cyclists and pedestrian can use to cross the Lake Street/Highway 55 intersection. Unlike the Greenway, Lake Street is well lit, almost always populated, and has fewer effective ambush points. There is the additional risk of being hit by an automobile although such incidents are rare as far as I know.

Another point to consider is whether or not your should stop. One of the incidents that occurred on the Greenway on June 25th details what can happen if you stop:

9:00 a.m. on June 25th. Reports that two groups of juveniles, one group of females and one group of males, were throwing rocks at bicyclists. One 17 year old male bicyclist stopped and was surrounded by a group of youth, then assaulted and robbed of an ipod.

Don’t stop. When you stop you make yourself vulnerable and any attempt by another to make you stop could be a trap. One of your best advantages while on a bicycle is speed, you’re going to be faster than anybody on foot and if you ride regularly there is a good chance that you’re going to be faster than many of the thugs on bikes. Keep your speed up.

What happens if you’re on the ground? At this point things become very dangerous because it’s likely that you’ve been injured from the fall. Just because you’re down doesn’t mean your out though. Even if you’re knocked off of your bike there are still several things you can do to protect your person. Krav Maga Minneapolis teaches self-defense classes aimed specifically at cyclists. I can’t testify to the effectiveness of such classes as I’ve never taken one but I’ve seen the class recommended by several cyclists so it’s something to look into. It’s also a good idea to carry some kind of defensive spray while riding a bike. Oleoresin Capsicum (OC) spray is useful for deterring both two legged and four legged (and there are four legged critter running around) attackers and is light enough to not make the weight weenies cry too much.

Let us also remember that Minnesota is a shall-issue state. If you apply for a permit to carry, pass the required class, and aren’t a prohibited person the state must issue you a permit. I can hear a few people reading this article going, “A gun? Where the Hell am I going to conceal a gun when I’m on a bike?” Worry not readers! Not only is Minnesota a shall-issue state but once you have a permit you can legally carry a gun openly. This is what I do. If you see a man on a red and black 29er mountain bike with a Glock 30SF strapped to his hip it’s probably me (feel free to say hi). Minneapolis isn’t very friendly towards open carry and people who see you openly carrying a gun on the Greenway are likely to call the police and the police are likely to stop and harass you. Don’t let them intimidate you, the state of Minnesota has preemption on gun laws and local municipalities cannot prohibit carry or forms of carry. They may bully you with the hopes of getting you to stop carrying a gun but there is no reason for you to submit to such antics, they have no legal ground to stand on. You can kindly inform them that if they were doing the job they promised to do you wouldn’t need to carry a gun so they can get you to stop if they can guarantee no further attacks will happen in the future (and deliver on that guarantee).

A firearm is the most effective means of defending yourself once you’re on the ground. Martial arts are effective if you’re assailed by one unarmed individual and not severely injured from the fall. OC spray is also limited in the number of attackers and it can deal with and carries the risk of not actually deterring your attackers. A firearm can be operated from the ground, in many states of injury (even if one of your arms is broken), and can engage multiple attackers. On top of that, if the number of people openly carrying on the Greenway increased dramatically it’s quite possible the number of attacks would decrease as well. Nothing deters a criminal like armed individuals.

I know the traditional cyclist culture and the traditional gun culture often clash but that shouldn’t be the case. Gun rights activists urge people to legally arm themselves, especially if they’re vulnerable to attack, and cyclists are vulnerable to attack, especially if they travel the Greenway.

Lawsuit File to Force Executive Branch to Comply in Fast and Furious Investigation

House Republicans have filed a lawsuit in federal count in an attempt to force Eric Holder and his staff to comply with the Fast and Furious investigation:

A civil lawsuit filed Monday by House Republicans asks a federal court to enforce a congressional subpoena of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. in his refusal to turn over documents sought in an investigation by a House committee into the failed Fast and Furious gunrunning operation.

Things would be much simpler if Obama and Holder would just fess up to the fact that they signed off on an operation to arm the Mexican drug cartels and the operation lead to the American government being accomplices in numerous murders. You would think the Obama administration would try to get this entire matter settled as soon as possible so resources could be used to build more weapons to kill Middle Easterners instead of running investigations into other government misdeeds.

Do you know what the saddest part about this story is? I wouldn’t be surprised if the courts ruled against the House Republicans. The House Republicans have a stake in making Holder comply with their investigation since it could cause the Democrats some headaches in November’s election. On the other hand the federal courts have no stake in the outcome of the investigation and the default behavior of state entities is to help one another coverup wrongdoings.

Ademo Freeman Found Guilty

Ademo Freeman, the man brought up on felony wiretapping charges for recording incidents of police brutality, has been found guilty:

Twelve individuals today decided that Ademo Freeman was guilty of three counts of felony wiretapping for recording his conversations with public officials per his attempt to bring accountability to a situation where it was noticeably absent – the assault of 17-year-old Frank Harrington, a student at Manchester’s West High School at the hands of Darren Murphy, the school resource officer and employee of the Manchester Police Department.

Ademo is ordered to spend 12-months in the so-called “House of Corrections” with 9-months suspended. He’ll then be under “good behavior” for the next three-years, which, if violated, means strangers with guns will force him into a cage at state prison in Concord for one-to-three-years. With “good time” he should be out in mid-October.

There isn’t much to say, the situation really speaks for itself. If individuals can be found guilty of felony charges for holding police officers accountable then justice truly is dead in this country. In essence Ademo will spend time in a cage because he witnessed police officers brutalizing other human beings and told anybody willing to listen about it.