I was out late last night so didn’t time to post a lot of interesting stories. Instead I’ll direct you over to this article titled Myth and Truth About Libertarianism so you can learn rebuttals to common statist arguments.
Tag: Not So Crazy Libertarian Ideals
The State’s Not So Hidden Gun
While I keep trying to point out the fact that we each live under the constant threat of the state’s gun people usually don’t see it because the state is smart enough to keep that gun concealed most of the time. Yet the fact remains that any action you take that isn’t expressly approved by a state agent will be met with the threat or us of violence against your person, even if what you’re doing has been declared legal by the state:
A Wyoming sheriff’s deputy who detained a combat veteran in handcuffs for openly carrying a pistol offered to let him go if he agreed to let another deputy draw his weapon and shoot if the veteran made any sudden moves while driving away, court records show.
[…]
Pierson, 31, of Pensacola, Fla., was carrying the pistol, which is legal in Wyoming, when he was pulled over by Deputy Corry Bassett of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office.
In a sworn statement this month, Bassett acknowledged he offered to release Pierson if he allowed Deputy Rob Andazola to draw his weapon and cover Pierson.
What that officer meant to say was, “You want to challenge our monopoly on carrying firearms? Well then we’re just going to have to threaten to kill you, slave.”
Even when the state removes its direct threat of violence for performing an action the state’s low level goons will still make it clear that your ability to perform that action only comes at their express permission. Carrying a gun may be legal in Wyoming but that doesn’t mean a cop won’t pull their gun on you, threaten you, and even murder you because you made a “sudden move.”
It’s Not Detainment, It’s Just Illegal to Leave
This recent Florida court decision has left me confused about the definition of detainment:
Motorists can be held indefinitely at toll booths if they pay with large denomination bills, according to a federal appeals court ruling handed down Wednesday. A family of drivers — Joel, Deborah and Robert Chandler — filed suit last year arguing they were effectively being held hostage by the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) and the private contractor in charge of the state’s toll road, Faneuil, Inc.
Under FDOT policies in place at the time, motorists who paid with $50 bills, and occasionally even $5 bills, were not given permission to proceed until the toll collector filled out a “Bill Detection Report” with data about the motorist’s vehicle and details from his driver’s license. Many of those who chose to pay cash did so to avoid the privacy implications of installing a SunPass transponder that recorded their driving habits. They were likewise unwilling to provide personal information to the toll collector, but they had no alternative because the toll barrier would not be raised without compliance. FDOT policy does not allow passengers to exit their vehicle, and backing up is illegal and usually impossible while other cars wait behind. FDOT dropped the Bill Detection Reports in 2010.
[…]
“The fact that a person is not free to leave on his own terms at a given moment, however, does not, by itself, mean that the person has been ‘seized’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment,” the court wrote in its unsigned decision. “In Florida, a person’s right and liberty to use a highway is not absolute; it may be regulated in the public interest through reasonable and reasonably executed regulations.”
So you can’t move forward until you comply with the “Bill Detection Report”, you can’t leave your vehicle, and you can’t reverse and escape the situation but you’re not being detained? Interesting. So if I setup a roadblock on my lock street, demand drivers get out and perform a little jig before being allowed to proceed, and hold them at gunpoint until they comply I’m not detaining them?
One can argue that the Florida highway department can enforce whatever regulations they want but without an option of leaving you are effectively detained.
Some Germans Looking to Address Their Country’s Gun Laws
It appears as though some people living in Germany are thinking it’s time to reconsider the country’s strict gun laws:
ANGERMUENDE, Germany – Not long after the Polish border crossing into Germany fully opened in 2007, the Russian mob arrived. But it took until this summer for people in this newly capitalist German region of farmland, forests and lakes to start fighting back.
Small businesses have lost millions of dollars’ worth of agricultural and construction equipment to thieves from beyond the German border. The thefts have made some Germans wary of their neighbors and triggered an unprecedented debate on gun use, as well as the installation of private fences, electric gates and surveillance systems.
The Germans living on the Polish border are learning what happens when the state disarms you and fails to protect you. Effectively they make you vulnerable to anybody who is unwilling to respect your property rights and/or life. In such cases one is left with only two options: submit to criminals or fight back.
Criminals prefer easy prey and no easier prey exists than unarmed individuals. When you arm those individuals the cost of performing crimes against them increases and if that cost increases enough the criminals are forced to either find a new line of work or face retaliatory violence.
The Absurdity of War
War has to be one of the most absurd concepts humanity has invented. Somehow we, as a race, are so incredibly stupid that we can’t even see the absurdity of people dying in the name of colorful pieces of cloth that denote imaginary lines on a map. Beyond the absurdity of the concept itself there is also the additional absurdity of the wasted resources that go into blowing one another up. In fact I think this picture concisely shows the mind boggling waste involved with warfare:
Consider for a moment the cost of war. Not only does it cost human lives but every ton of metal, hour of labor, and gallon of fuel is wasted on destroying other things made of metal by human labor that are powered by fuel. You don’t only have resources sunk into building weapons of war but you also have to sink more resources into replacing everything that was destroyed during the war. If you’re a military contractor or a construction company this may seem like a good idea but even for them it’s not. Warfare is nothing more than the biggest example of the broken window fallacy ever conceived. While it seems the military contractors and construction companies are getting rich off of warfare they fail to consider all the resources they’ve sunk into blowing stuff up and replacing stuff that was blown up could have been put into creating new and better things.
People often complain about the consumer culture we live in today where products are thrown away into of being repaired. Warfare is a great example of this on a very large scare. Think about the Javalin missile, an $80,000 tube that can only be used once. $80,000 thrown down the tubes every time you launch one of those missiles. On top of that you also have the massive cost of resources required for research and development to create the missile. Who thought that was a good idea?
Some groups have figured out that Achilles’ heel of warfare and have begun relying on cheap technologies and easy tactics to win wars. When you consider what warfare is you realize it’s nothing more than a competition to see who can maintain the most resources. If you’re tossing away $80,000 missiles willy nilly and your enemy is using cheap easily constructed explosives you’re not going to last in the long run.
Voting Doesn’t Make You Free
I can’t wait until the election is over with and we know which of the two running douche bags will be fucking us for the next four years. I’m getting sick of hearing people trying to tell me who I have to vote for. Romney’s supporters are, perhaps, slightly more annoying than Obama’s supporters. Those demanding I cast a vote for Romney are claiming that he’s our only hope of being at least a little free for the next four years. How does choosing a master, any master, help me be free? You want to know what I think about voting? I will assume you do since you’re reading this post. Voting, in my opinion, can best be summed up as the following:
Just because you get to choose who rules over you doesn’t mean you’re free. Freedom means the ability to make your own decisions in life. When you get to choose what you eat, what you drink, what you buy, who you sleep with, who you marry, whether or not you want to get married, etc. you are making free decisions. When you beg an uninvolved third party for permission to eat, drink, have sex, or get married you’re making yourself a slave. You’re saying that you recognize that uninvolved third party’s authority over your life and accept his or her decision in matters affecting your life. This is why I’m confused by those voting for Obama based gay marriage stance. Why are you begging the president for permission to marry somebody of the same sex?
The president is nothing more than a master who rules over your life using coercive force. If you smoke a verboten substance the president’s minions will come to your home, kick in your door, and either kidnap or murder you. If you grow wheat in spite of the state’s rationing of wheat production the president’s minions will come to your home, kick in your door, and either kidnap or murder you. Do you really want to recognize such a man as an authority figure?
Why do you care who the president is? Why do you recognize the president as an authority figure? Why do you allow yourself to voluntarily be a slave? I don’t care if Romney is designated as my master or Obama because I don’t recognize masters.
There’s no need to get worked up over any political race so long as you refuse to submit to the state. You don’t need to ruin a friendship because your friend disagree with you about who a better master is. Don’t buy into the fallacy that voting make you free. Acting free makes you free, voting for masters merely means you get to decide who you will be a slave to.
Greece Serfs Also in Revolt
It appears as though Spain isn’t the only country where the serfs are revolting, the Greece serfs aren’t taking things lying down either:
An estimated 50,000 people have joined the protests.
A march past parliament turned violent as anarchists wearing black balaclavas and carrying sticks threw petrol bombs and broken bits of concrete at riot police on Syntagma Square, says the BBC’s Mark Lowen in Athens.
Wednesday’s strike has brought the whole country to a standstill, adds our correspondent, with doctors, teachers, tax workers, ferry operators and air traffic controllers all joining the protest.
Normally I would bitch about the media again blaming anarchists but considering this is Greece and considering how hard the Greek people are being raped I’m not surprise the anarchists are making a big stink. As much as I detest violence I understand why it’s being employed in Greece. The Greek state has been seizing money from suspected tax evaders’ accounts (not that the state is seizing money from suspected tax evaders, not convicted tax evaders), almost a quarter of the population is unemployed, and their state continues to take more and more while giving less and less.
You can only beat the serfs so long before they decide to rise up. It appears as though a general strike is effectively in place in Greece, which is good. A general strike doesn’t mean trade has ceased, it merely means official trade has ceased. Since all trade occurring during a general strike is off the records books it’s not taxed and thus the state is deprived of its usual taxes. It’s actually a pretty effective way of grinding a state to a halt while causing minimal pain to the people living in the state.
I’m glad to see some people still have fire in their bellies because the average American does not.
When the Serfs Revolt
While the manor lords continue to reign over the serfs their reign only lasts as long as the serfs are unaware of their numerical superiority. It seems the serfs in Spain are starting to understand they outnumber of manor lords:
More than 1,000 riot police blocked off access to the Parliament building in the heart of Madrid, forcing most protesters to crowd nearby avenues and shutting down traffic at the height of the evening rush hour.
Police used batons to push back some protesters at the front of the march attended by an estimated 6,000 people as tempers flared, and some demonstrators broke down barricades and threw rocks and bottles toward authorities.
Television images showed officers beating protesters in response, and an Associated Press television producer saw five people dragged away by police and two protesters bloodied. Spanish state TV said at least 28 were injured, including two officers, and that 22 people were detained. Independent Spanish media reported higher numbers that could not immediately be confirmed.
Americans will rant and rave when some referee makes an unpopular call in a football game but when they’re getting fucked by their government they merely complain that the wrong party is in power. It’s nice to see America’s apathy isn’t universal, people in other countries actually begin to rise when they’re being raped by the state.
6,000 people showing up to surround parliament is impressive and the Spanish should be proud that they can rally such large numbers to protest the state.
The Problems with Keynesian Solutions to the Current Depression
I apologize but real life has been interfering with this blog quite frequently as of late. As you can guess it’s interfering again today so instead of a critique of a story, a discussion on anarchism, or other such common content I’m going to be lazy and let Robert Murphy explain why Keynesian solutions to the current depression are wrong:
Just a Minor Mistake
When you or I kick in some innocent schmuck’s door and gun him down it’s called murder. When the police do it it’s called a mistake:
A 61-year-old man was shot to death by police while his wife was handcuffed in another room during a drug raid on the wrong house.
Police admitted their mistake, saying faulty information from a drug informant contributed to the death of John Adams Wednesday night. They intended to raid the home next door.
Yes, the police admitted their “mistake.” Of course their mistake would be deemed murder if anybody without a state issued costume and badge did it. True liberty cannot exist so long as one set of individuals enjoys legal privileges other sets do not.