Month: February 2013

How to Legally Race on the Road

Have you ever wanted to drive down the road at 125mph but were afraid of what the police would do to you? Fear not, there is a very simple way to race down the road legally, just call the police and claim your car won’t stop:

When Frank Lecerf drove off to do his weekly supermarket shop in northern France, he was not expecting to embark on a high-speed car chase that would force him over the Belgian border and on to the national news bulletins.

Lecerf has filed a legal complaint after his Renault Laguna, which is adapted for disabled drivers, jammed at 200km/h (125mph) and the brakes failed, forcing him to continue careering along a vast stretch of French motorway and into Belgium. Police gave chase until he ran out of petrol and crashed into a ditch.

The 36 year old was on a dual carriageway on his way to a hypermarket when the car’s speed first jammed at 60mph. Each time he tried to brake, the car accelerated, eventually reaching 125mph and sticking there.

Apparently it never occurred to him that he could turn the car off, shift it into neutral, or hit the emergency brake (although that quickly loses value as speed climbs). Of course all that assumes that Mr. Lecerf actually wanted to stop, which he probably didn’t (and I don’t blame him, racing down the road at 125mph sounds like fun). With that said the police provide him an escort, likely because they wanted to cruise around at 125mph as well.

Missouri Law Makers Looking to Confiscate Firearms

It appears as though law makers in Missouri are looking to confiscate firearms:

Missouri Democrats introduced an anti-gun bill which would turn law-abiding firearm owners into criminals. They will have 90 days to turn in their guns if the legislation is passed.

Here’s part of the Democratic proposal in Missouri:

4. Any person who, prior to the effective date of this law, was legally in possession of an assault weapon or large capacity magazine shall have ninety days from such effective date to do any of the following without being subject to prosecution:

(1) Remove the assault weapon or large capacity magazine from the state of Missouri;

(2) Render the assault weapon permanently inoperable; or

(3) Surrender the assault weapon or large capacity magazine to the appropriate law enforcement agency for destruction, subject to specific agency regulations.

5. Unlawful manufacture, import, possession, purchase, sale, or transfer of an assault weapon or a large capacity magazine is a class C felony.

Why do so many gun control advocates continue to claim they’re not coming for our guns? It has become blatantly obvious that they are coming for our guns. Of course the state can say it has the power to confiscate anything it wants but that doesn’t mean people have to comply.

As a side note I just want to point out that more news organizations should provide helpful links to the text of bills being discussed in their stories. It’s greatly appreciated.

Digitizing Books for Fun and Preservation

With the introduction of e-readers such as the Amazon Kindle and Barnes and Nobel Nook e-books have finally gained a foothold. In fact it’s been almost one and a half year since Amazon announced that they sold more e-books than hardcover books. It’s easy to see why e-books have taken off, it’s far more convenient to have every book you own on a single device instead of lugging around a handful of books wherever you go. Unfortunately there are some books that still aren’t in electronic format, many of which are very rare. For example, I have a copy of The Black Flag of Anarchy Corinne Jacker. It’s a very interesting title that covers anarchism in the United States but, as far as I can see, no electronic copy exists and no electronic copy is likely to be made. That is, at least, until I follow these instructions for building a do-it-yourself book scanners:

Daniel Reetz, founder of DIYBookScanner.org, had been making kits available for those looking to build their own device. Finding a need for a scanner himself, Reetz built his first book scanner from the trash he found from dumpster diving. He created an Instructable to share his experiences and discovered a diverse group of individuals who also had the need for a book scanner. The group ranged from a man from Indonesia hoping to preserve books from flood damage to a group of engineers looking for a new and interesting project to spark their interests. The DIY Book Scanner had modest beginnings, but over a period of two years it evolved into a movement of individuals using readily available resources to create solutions.

The article primarily discusses the trials and tribulations faced by the ArsTechnica writers who built one of the do-it-yourself scanners. It’s not easy but it is possible and the technology is guarantee to improve and become more accessible. Digitizing books is the most effective way to make rare titles available for everybody’s enjoyment and is currently the most effective way of preventing such titles from disappearing entirely. It is my hope that every piece of written literature will someday be available in electronic format.

Fighting Against the State’s War on the Homeless

The state is at war with the homeless. City governments, especially in large cities, have been working hard to make the lives of homeless individuals miserable in the hopes that they’ll leave and, effectively, become another city’s problem. Fortunately there are people who are trying to fight the state. One of the ways people in London are fighting back is through a tactic called guerrilla benching. If you live in a large city you’ve likely noticed an increasing number of divided or otherwise oddly shaped benches. Although it seems like these odd benches are so shaped for artistic reasons the truth is that they are designed that way to prevent homeless people from sleeping on the benches. Guerrilla benching is the act of clandestinely installing benches that individual can sleep on in public spaces.

It’s a rather clever tactic that is difficult to fight. Who is going to pay any attention to a newly installed bench? Who is going to call the police to report a bench that homeless individuals can sleep on? Who is even aware that oddly shaped benches are so shaped to prevent homeless people form sleeping on them? The tactic is brilliant because it exploits the ignorance of the average person. Even city officials are likely to pay little attention to the newly installed bench since they aren’t aware of the day-to-day operations of the city they purport to run.

I would like to see this kind of thing grow. There is little reason to actively prevent homeless individuals from sleeping on public benches. In fact I think it speaks quite ill of our society that resources are being actively invested in making the lives of individuals who have nothing even more miserable. Why not invest those resources in helping those in need instead of hindering them?

The Best Summary of the RonPaul.com Fiasco

What started as a seemingly innocent argument over the control of the domain name ronpaul.com is turning out to be one of the best dramas the liberty movement has seen since Jesse Benton screwed over his grandfather-in-law last year. Lew Rockwell, a personal friend of Ron Paul and a champion of anarcho-capitalism, came to the Paul’s defense by claiming that Paul is legitimately using the mechanism put forth by the private Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) and therefore is in the right. What is yet to be seen is Rockwell’s justification for considering ICANN, a government create corporation, legitimate while he considers Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, two other government created organizations, illegitimate, and fascist, creations. Either way Lew Rockwell’s post has lead the owners of RonPaul.com to believe Lew Rockwell is actually behind the attempted seizure of their domain. I expect the plot to thicken over the next week or so.

Through all of this drama I’ve found one summary that explains the entire situation succinctly:

So, we must ask what it means to “own” your name. Can “the” Ron Paul use his name to identify himself? Certainly. No one has interfered with that.

Can “the” Ron Paul control the use of his name so that others may not use it? Certainly not! Ron Paul has no right to tell other parents surnamed Paul that they may not name their child “Ron.” And he has no right to sue the other 100+ Ron Pauls in the United States, telling them that they may not use that name.

Here in a nutshell is the distinction between “use” and “control,” a distinction which many “intellectual property” advocates tend to blur. Ron Paul owns his name in the sense that he may use it as he sees fit — for his medical practice, for his political campaigns, or even to market the Ron Paul Supercharged Dildo if that is his fancy. And no other Ron Paul has the right to stop him, as embarassing as it might be for them.

McElroy’s use of the term Ron Paul Supercharged Dildo ended this argument and, quite successfully, destroyed any argument that Ron Paul has a legitimate monopoly claim to his name.

Without the State Purely Scientific Research Wouldn’t Receive Funding

Many people believe that the state is necessary to fund scientific research, especially pure scientific research. In fact a common rebuttal statists make when I advocate anarchism is that we need the state to fund scientific research that isn’t likely to turn a profit. These people believe that private funding for scientific research only happens when the research is like to make a profit. Quite the opposite is true as Jack Horner, one of the most famous paleontologists in the world, explained during his interview on Slashdot:

How will science be funded in the US next?
by damn_registrars

For a long time the primary source of money for scientific research has been the federal granting agencies (NIH, NSF, DOE in particular). All three of them are facing either budget cuts, budget stalls, or increases in their budgets that do not match inflation. This does not seem to fare well for new scientists or established ones who are looking to further their careers. Where do you see research money coming from next? Alternately, are we looking ahead to a time where fewer people will be doing science because the funding just won’t exist to pay even their meager wages any more?

Horner: Like most researchers in the early part of their careers, I relied on writing grants to NSF, but as these government agencies became more stringent and stingy with funding for dinosaurs and other purely scientific endeavors, I moved away from government funding to private funding, and I think this is where most all research funds for dinosaurs will eventually come from. Private people who have the financial where-with-all and interest in the field currently fund most of the dinosaur collecting, research and exhibitions in the United States. It is up to us paleontologists to make sure we engage the public in all venues, and keep their interest high, if we expect to continue these kinds of studies. The government is much more interested in practical sciences (renewable energy, climate change, medical) these days, a trend I would expect to continue for quite some time.

When it comes to purely scientific research the state has little interest in providing funding. Instead scientists wanting to perform purely scientific research, such as paleontology, have to seek funding in the private sector. What many statists fail to realize is that there are people out there that have a deep interest in purely scientific research and are willing to donate money to its cause.

Raising Minimum Wage

One of the things Obama urged during his State of the Union address was for Congress to increase the minimum wage to $9/hour:

He urged Congress to work with states to provide “high quality” preschool to all low- and moderate-income 4-year-olds, and he proposed raising the federal minimum wage to $9 per hour, up from $7.25 today.

Those of us who have studied the Austrian tradition of economics duly point out that increasing minimum wage also increases unemployment. Minimum wage laws create a barrier for entry, especially for those just entering the workforce and therefore unskilled.

Let’s look at minimum wage laws another way. If raising the minimum wage actually increases the average wealth of the lowest paid workers why stop at $9/hour? Why not make it $100/hour or $1,000/hour? Isn’t it time we stopped screwing around and made everybody millionaires? Wouldn’t that put everybody above the poverty line? No, it would make almost everybody in the workforce unemployable, at least legitimately. Most people don’t produce $100/hour worth of value let alone $1,000/hour. If raising minimum wage to $100/hour sounds preposterous and unworkable why do people think raising it to $9/hour is any different?

In Lieu of Due Process LADP Burns Down A Cabin

The Christopher Dorner chase has apparently come to an end with Dorner burned alive inside of the cabin he barricading himself in. At least that’s what the media seems to be implying. As it turns out the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) may have purposely burned the person they believed to be Dorner alive:

Scanner audio apparently broadcast by the Los Angeles CBS affiliate KCAL on Tuesday captured angry officers yelling to “burn this motherfucker” prior to a cabin fire that is thought to have burned the body of fugitive ex-LAPD officer Christopher Dorner.

In a video recording posted to YouTube on Tuesday, the anchor pauses to let the viewer hear the mostly-inaudible scanner traffic.

“Do it right now,” one voice says. “Fucking burn this motherfucker!”

“Police officers, understandably upset,” the anchor explains.

A separate recording of scanner traffic — which has not been verified — features officers talking about going forward “with the burn.”

“All right, Steve, we’re gonna go — we’re gonna go forward with the plan, with — with the burn,” a male voice on the recording instructs. “We want it like we talked about.”

“Seven burners deployed and we have a fire,” the voice later adds.

“Copy,” a female voice replies. “Seven burners deployed and we have a fire.”

I think everybody knew the LAPD never intended to bring Dorner in alive. Still, burning a man alive seems quite drastic, especially when we’re continuously told that the United States is a land of laws and everybody is innocent until proven guilty in court.

Prohibitions Are Business Opportunities

In the state’s war on obesity public schools around the country are either severely restricting or outright banning soda. Statists still believe they can control behavior through prohibitions but history reminds us that isn’t the case. During Prohibition entrepreneurs setup businesses where individuals could purchase alcohol in a social environment. These businesses eventually became known as speakeasies, as individuals discussed them quietly in public in order to avoid tipping off the police. Although the public school system has tried to beat all forms of creativity and historical knowledge out of American children they continue to overcome their oppressors and bypass school prohibitions:

A School is believed to be the first in London to become “water only” and ban fizzy drinks for pupils.

[…]

Some entrepreneurial teenagers have spotted the “business potential” of smuggling in contraband cola, lemonade, orangeade and other soft drinks to sell at inflated prices. The ban was announced in a newsletter to parents. No food was banned, with sweets and chocolate cleared for consumption in the grounds.

Pupil Jake Phillips, 15, said that “speakeasies” are starting up selling the prohibited drinks. “There is business potential now there’s a gap in the market,” he said.

“Gangsters sold alcohol in America when that was banned. Prohibition always leads to supply and demand. That means anyone who sneaks it in can make a lot of money.” Pupils under 16 are not allowed out at lunchtimes so they cannot buy drinks elsewhere.

It’s good to see students learning from history and ignoring draconian mandates. Perhaps, someday, these children will be the destroyers of the state.