Monday miscellany
- Where you might live if you wait long enough, then leave the U.S. Okay … where your great grandkids might live. Not enough trees for me, though. Imported trees don’t count. (Tip o’ hat to Pat.)
- Poor, poor pot growers! They just barely, almost, kinda-sorta get their business legal and … governments start to Wal-Martize them — that is, shut the little guys out and make alliances with monied collaborators — license, tax, hand out exclusive deals — all the usual. And then the hapless growers might get ordered to give their valuable product to the poor. Can’t win, can ya? Government’ll git you one way or another. If they can’t illegalize you to death, they’ll legalize you to death.
- But … somehow, against all odds … gun owners do keep on winning. Exhibit A: Federal judge not only orders sheriff to issue a gun permit to a political hellraiser, but sends said sheriff to a First-Amendment class! (And no, I still theenk we don’ need no steeenkin’ permits.) Exhibit B: The ACLU — the ACLU! — sues to sues to get an old man’s guns back. Actually, I know that some state ACLU reps have been pro-gun for years; they’ve just been held back by national organization policies. Could it be that the ACLU will now actually stand up for the whole Bill of Rights???
- No big surprise here: Small businesses in Massachusetts — the very model of an Obamacare state — are starting to drop their health-care coverage and urge their employees to sign up for government-subsidized plans. I have an acquaintance in MA (who might just be reading this post) whose private insurance went up from a “mere” $11,000 per year to more than $20,000 per year, thanks to Massa-care. The word “ouch” hardly covers it. Ain’t that a glorious vision of your future?
- Remember the Iroquois lacrosse team that wanted to travel on their tribal passports? The U.S. government let ‘em. Gave ‘em a one-time exemption. Alas, the Brits wouldn’t let ‘em in for the tournament. (The article has more on tribal passport issues, identity, and sovereignty.)
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July 19th, 2010 at 8:26 pm
That moon article reminds me of something I’ve been pondering on and off. How would one support the ideals of freedom and self-rule, in an environment such as a space colony, where even the food you eat and the air you breathe must be rationed by necessity?
July 20th, 2010 at 6:04 am
The question is answered by the method used for rationing. Will it be by voluntary, mutually beneficial trade, or by coercion and violence? Whether on the green earth or in an airless void, the method used to organize society determines whether or not it is free.
July 21st, 2010 at 11:16 am
I’m hoping government control in the veggie business outlaws small growers like me, so us small veggie growers can get some of those empires going like the drug cartels. Remember when veggies are outlawed, prices go up!
July 21st, 2010 at 6:36 pm
Jack Veggie — You mean, “When broccoli is outlawed, only outlaws will grow broccoli”?
Hey, you know, that could catch on. ;-)
July 21st, 2010 at 8:37 pm
Jack Veggie: Isn’t that what they’re trying to do with HR 875?