How can people know that the state is a powerful club, yet still believe it to be omni-benevolent?
Why do people continue to believe the government exists to help them when the phrase, “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” is known as an irony to one and all?
How can anyone think their health-care system will improve once it’s operated by the kind of people who run the DMV?
Why will some people glibly answer that question with, “Get a better job!” In this economy? You kidding?
Would I eat my dogs if things got really bad?
If I died and nobody noticed, would the dogs eat me?
Well, of course they would, but the real question is would I then be remembered forever as “Claire? Oh yeah, she’s the one got eaten by her dogs”? (For the record, I’m not the slightest bit bothered by the prospect of my dogs eating me, but I’m horrified at the thought of being remembered that way.)
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How come pot growing was so much simpler before Washington v*ted to make it legal?
Why don’t people get that, if you’re going to have “public policy” at all, this is the principle on which it must stand: “I think the burden of proof in public policy should fall on those who seek power rather than those who seek liberty; in short, there should be a presumption in favor of liberty.” — Art Carden (Which may also be the most brilliantly succinct statement of minarchist principles ever uttered.)
Young goldendoodle saves pregnant woman and her unborn baby. (H/T ML) Also, while this “news” isn’t new, it’s a nice v*te of confidence for bully breed dogs. (One of my neighbors has the most gorgeous, most sweet pit bull/American bulldog mix — aka aka Bullypit or Colorado bulldog. I could fall in love.)
“Why I’m getting rid of most of my stuff.” By the inimitable (and slightly crazy) James Altucher. (I can identify. I’ve been in an accumulating mode since buying this house; after a couple of years of that, I find myself wanting to “travel light” again.)
One bit of bad (but not unexpected) news: the great film critic Roger Ebert has died. His love and knowledge of movies enriched the lives of millions of movie fans — and millions of non-fans, for that matter.
At the end of December, Bob Owens looked around his local gun stores and wrote, “This isn’t a society stocking up on certain guns because they fear they may be banned. This is a society preparing for war.” (H/T BW)
And he mentioned something I can’t recall ever hearing about, though it was an important precursor to the American Revolution: The Powder Alarm. Yep. That’s a good analogy for where things stand now. The tyrants hadn’t yet started killing people to get their guns and ammo. They just confirmed their intentions and the colonists’ suspicions.
Hey, look! Business owners, here’s yet another “benefit” from the fedgov and possibly another addition to your “three felonies a day” quota (and you are doing your share to keep up, aren’t you?). You could become a criminal for running criminal background checks on prospective employees.
Parody alert: Small Hispanic women aren’t the only ones (speaking of the “only ones”) cops shot because they looked didn’t look like Madman Dorner. (H/T MWD, and to JS for pointing out that this news is so close to reality that it has to be a joke.)
OMFG. Here’s an aspect of cannabis legalization that not many of us considered (when we really should have): Regulation might be put into the hands of — gasp! — the ATF. (Also H/T MWD)
Whoohoo! Somebody has made a video adaptation of F. Paul Wilson’s 1978 story, “Lipidleggin’.”
Wilson (a physician when he’s not writing great, freedom-tinged supernatural fiction) wrote it back in the day when the fedgov insisted margarine was just the healthiest thing in the whole, wide world — which somehow makes it even more amusing now.
Thanks to Jim Bovard for finding and sharing the link with me on what appears to be the very first day the video went on YouTube. And thanks to John Marc Green & Company for making it.
That’s not the only comment Rats! earned in the last week or so. A gentleman (I presume he’s a gentleman) named Butzy, who has some interesting background, wrote (with slight cleanup by me; I don’t think English is Butzy’s native language):
Good primer.
But most important, as you said but not really, do it by yourself. You have no friends. You know the old joke: you’re in the wood and a bear chases you and your best friend. You don’t have to be faster then the bear, only your friend. And as you pointed out one of us might be KGB or even worse Stazi — or even worse just arrested for jay walking and just got a new job at Pizza Hut cleaning bathrooms and needs a way out. But as you pointed out you ain’t got no friends — just folks that want your drugs, your boots or 15 min of fame or to walk.
As one of my local bodyguards said in Serbia when I worked for an alphabet institution: “Nun sacciu, nun vidi, nun ceru e si ceru durmiv.”
“I know nothing, I didn’t see anything, I wasn’t there, and if I was there, I was asleep”
“Say nothing do nothing and hopefully ask for an get and attorney.”
Peace,
Butzy
(I didn’t get his permission before printing this, so Butzy, if you object, please let me know. I don’t think the email address that came with this message was real.)
But I’m gonna predict that even if the murderous drug-thugs in DC succeed (with the encouragement of murderous drug-thugs in Mexico) in crushing Washington and Colorado, this is a battle that, in the long run, they are not going to win.
