who's your nanny?

How Dare Such Knaves Be Graced by the Presence of the Holy One Without Permission!

On Tuesday some uninvited guests crashed a state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at the White House. The Secret Service is embarrassed that this happened. The couple did have to go through the metal detectors, but still there was the threat that such uninvited plebeians would absorb the Holy One's essence without permission. His essence is of limited supply and if there are more people at a gathering than planned, he just collapses as he is drained of his life giving force. We simply cannot have the unwashed uninvited masses soiling the holiness of the presidency. One must be cleansed of his impurities by a thorough vetting of the Secret Service, and then, and only then, may he enter into the presence of a president.

In response to lapse in security, the Secret Service has fired the agent who was checking the list and did not follow proper protocol. I'm just kidding. Of course it did fire anyone. However, it is considering charges against the couple. This makes perfect sense as the couple has defiled the temple and besmirched the Holy One. MSNBC reports that "Federal law makes it a crime to knowingly and willfully falsify statements on matters within the federal government’s jurisdiction." Given that the US Federal Government has a military presence in over 150 countries and regulates damn near every aspect of our lives, this law pretty much means that the US government can arrest anyone at anytime on suspicion of lying for any reason. Isn't democracy great?

Earlier in the week the Secret Service reported that the president was in no danger because everyone had gone through magnetometers. But since the couple actually took pictures with the president, the Secret Service has backed down from this claim. Given that the unclean couple has defiled the White House with their presence, the Secret Service wants to keep the option of jail. Saying that the president was safe might lessen the chances. But if the magnetometers and presence of hundreds of agents were not enough to keep the president safe, why should having some names on a piece of paper suddenly make him untouchable?

Environmentalism Extremes

I just walked past a co-worker's desk and noticed a bag of Eco Golf tees, biodegradable golf tees that apparently degrade naturally in less than 60 days and help "save millions of trees that are cut down each year in order to produce traditional wood tees."

As a small business owner myself, I'm intrigued by all sorts of interesting business ventures. Inasmuch as it's even any of my business to offer my opinion on the merits of any product that's found its place among voluntary consumers, I just think initiatives aimed at preserving renewable natural resources are a little over the top.

Trees are wood; tees generally are made of wood; wood is biodegradable; and trees can be replanted. What is it that I'm missing here? I mean, we could all forgo toilet tissue in the bathroom in favor of our hands again too, but I just don't see that as much of a win for humanity at the end of the day.

Hologram of Liberty: Chapter 8-The Hard Truth

This is the ninth essay in my live-blog of Hologram of Liberty by Kenneth Royce. You can also read my summary of the Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, Chapter 4, Chapter 5, Chapter 6, Chapter 7.

In this chapter Royce spends several pages discussing how Lysander Spooner's No Treason: The Constitution of No Authority influenced his thinking on the Constitution and the US system of government. According to Royce, Spooner's argument devastated the notion that America is governed by lawful with a simple observation:

The Constitution is supposed to be a compact between "the people" and their agents, yet I never signed it. Well, if I never signed an agreement giving government agents power over me, then how can they allege my "consent" and lawfully act as my authorized "agents"? How can men (especially those long since dead) presume to bind my nonviolent actions via a document which I not only never signed, but was not even alive during its creation?

Royce cites Spooner to make this point:

Where would be the end of fraud and litigation, if one party could bring into court a written instrument, without any signature, and claim to have it enforced, upon the ground that it was written for another man to sign?...Yet that is the most that could even be said of the Constitution. The very judges, who profess to derive all their authority from the Constitution--from an instrument that nobody ever signed--would spurn any other instrument, not signed, that should be brought before them for adjudication...

Moreover, this supposed contract, which would not be received in any court of justice...is one by which...all men, women and children throughout the country, and through all time, surrender not only their property, but also their liberties, and even lives, into the hands of men who by this supposed contract, are expressly made wholly irresponsible for their disposal of them. And we are so insane, or so wicked, as to destroy property and lives without limit, in fighting to compel men to fulfill a supposed contract, which inasmuch as it has never been signed by anybody,...

Spooner's point, says Royce, is that Spooner "merely demanded that consent of the governed be honest and open through individual signature of contract between the people and their agents." Royce cites Spooner's famous Highwayman passage which describes the payment of taxes as a robbery, but only worse because at least the highwayman leaves you alone after robbing you. The government, on the other hand, assumes to be your rightful "sovereign", on account of the "protection" he provides. He also quotes Spooner's attack on democracy at length.

Spooner's influence on Royce's thinking becomes apparent when Royce examines the myth of "the people". According to this myth under our democracy, "everybody ('the people') is the State, the State is nobody in particular." "Without individual political responsibility," comments Royce, "there is no incentive to diligently supervise political agents and their actions." Royce continues

"The people" are simultaneously everybody and, and nobody. That's why lecturing an uppity bureaucrat with the "I-pay-your-salary" speech achieves only a smirk. The bureaucrat understands: he's responsible only to "the people"--not you.

Royce also makes a trenchant observation about taxation I wish more people would also recognize:

The cold truth is this: There is no purpose of government so vital as to justify theft from, injury to or death to peaceable Americans for mere nonpayment of taxes or nonviolent civil disobedience. Nothing that our government does or claims to provide is so important that passive, hard-working folks should be evicted from their homes, have their businesses shut down, and imprisoned for mere nonpayment of taxes. It is that simple!

Royce is dead-on here. Every service for which there is a demand can be provided through the free exchange of goods and services. This includes the very services which the government monopolizes. And no one should have to worry about being imprisoned just because he wishes to opt out of government-provided services and seek similar services on the market. Peaceful people, says Royce, "should have nothing to fear from their government and its laws."

Obama's Priorities

We should all be thankful today for having such a benevolent leader of the empire. In a move exuding grace and class, Obama spent his first presidential pardon on ... a turkey.

Not any of the millions of nonviolent "criminal" Americans, of course, who've fallen victim to tyrannical federal drug and gambling laws, or any of today's "gooks" in the Middle East the U.S. is responsible for torturing and murdering.

The presidency is a criminal enterprise, along with the rest of the American state. I'm thankful this Thanksgiving Day that I have the clarity to realize that.

I'm Officially a Journalist

After years of being accused of being a shitty journalist by people who didn't know the difference between a news story and an op-ed, I can now say I've officially published my first article as a reporter, and it's a scoop. So folks -- you know who you are -- you can let me have it if you find the piece rife with opinion. But you won't.

John Edison Jr., the southern Maryland boy who was railroaded last year by police and prosecutors for allegedly raping a 12-year-old -- and who was acquitted last December after the jury deliberated for a whopping 20 minutes -- has filed a civil suit against the state of Maryland, the two girls who accused him of rape and physical assault, and two detectives -- St. Mary's County Det. William Raddatz and Maryland State Police Det. Leo Nims -- responsible for filing charges against him despite no evidence but a mere statement from the girl.

The story runs today in the County Times, a free St. Mary's County newspaper. The paper is available on news stands locally and online in PDF format, so you'll find the story on p. 12 in the "Crime & Punishment" section of the Nov. 25 issue.

[Edison attorneys] Winkelman and McDevitt write in their court filing that during interrogation their client repeatedly denied the rape allegations, yet Raddatz told at least one fellow officer that Edison confessed to the alleged sexual assaults and sexual intercourse.

Edison's attorneys also charge that Raddatz photographed and documented a mark across Edison’s chest as a scratch that he knew, or should have known, to be an impression left by a table during his interrogation. This "scratch," they allege, was used by Raddatz and Nims to confirm the accusations of the young girls and thereby secure a search warrant on Edison’s residence.

Winkelman and McDevitt further argue in their filing that a search of Edison's house revealed no evidence of a struggle or blood; that medical records indicated no occurrence of sexual or physical assault; and that both detectives were aware that the alleged victim and witness changed their story of events at the hospital but nevertheless proceeded in their case against Edison.

Unfortunately, today's edition hasn't been published online yet but I'll link to it just as soon as it is. And if you want a good recap of the entire case written at the time of Edison's acquittal, go here.

UPDATE: Here is the online version of the paper. Scroll to p. 12 for the article.

How Americans View the World

I have to apologize to David Kramer for yanking this right off the LRC blog, but it's just too good not to reprint here. Click to enlarge.

St. Mary's Hospital, Steny Hoyer, and Me

Last night my wife and I attended the St. Mary's Hospital Gala, an annual dinner and dance fundraiser in St. Mary's County to benefit the hospital. Its primary donors comprise local businesses, which pay between $1,000 and $10,000 (and up) for a table, and it's generally a good opportunity to network with other companies. And this year I even bought a real tux for events like this instead of renting a burlap one, so I looked hot.

Now, private charity is a noble and wonderful thing. But the St. Mary's Hospital Gala is nothing if not a political event, always providing a good opportunity to witness corporatism at its finest, especially as the heads of local/national military contractors schmooze it up with Steny Hoyer looking for a heads-up on handouts of new contracts.

The night starts with a presentation of "the colors" -- the empire's assortment of flags -- and continues with the national war hymn. Initially, it's hard to tell whether you're at a charity event or a major national sporting event. Dr. Shah, who donated $25,000 to the hospital, kicked off dinner with a speech pimping MedStar Health, which to my knowledge doesn't directly operate St. Mary's Hospital but it must subsidize it pretty heavily because the good doc said something to the extent that we couldn't survive without it.

It was at this point that I turned to my wife and asked her if she too thought this sounded like a political speech, and my suspicions were validated a mere moment later as Shah praised Our Holy Lord Steny for taking time out of "his busy schedule" to grace us with his presence. I vomited in my mouth a little bit upon hearing that. Not least because that also meant taxpayers must subsidize this hospital pretty heavily too.

Funny thing about St. Mary's Hospital is that it sucks. Big time. I mean, it would be funny if generally horrible service and quality weren't so potentially devastating to people who need the direct opposite on one of the worst days of their lives. I'll spare you the story about how I had to diagnose my wife's appenticitis for the doctors in the ER about 10 years ago, but the running joke around town is that if you aren't dead when you arrive at SMH, you will be by the time you leave.

OK, maybe that's a little harsh. But seriously, dudes, I swear they must hold this fundraiser every year just to help settle malpractice suits. A sister-in-law told me last night that it primarily funds scholarships aimed at attracting good doctors to the area, so what do I know? All I really know is that every doctor wears a white lab coat with an "MD" after his or her name, but how many times have you gotten completely opposite opinions from two different doctors? Just sayin'.

I didn't start this post to criticize doctors. However, I will guarantee that if people like Steny Hoyer and his ilk get their way and nationalize health care even more, St. Mary's County and every other county in the country will see a decline in the quality of service before they see an increase.

But enough of that; I need to get to this story. The bartender working right across from our table last night wasn't exchanging patrons' mixed drink glasses with new ones when filling orders; she was just refilling used glasses and stirring them all with the same fancy glass stick she kept by her side the whole night. During flu season. At a hospital fundraiser. And no, she didn't sanitize the stirrer in between.

I'm not saying it was a conspiracy, but generally I don't believe in coincidence either.

We've Passed the Point of No Return

Arkansas police use a Taser on a 10-year-old girl.

A police officer in a small Arkansas town used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl after he said her mother gave him permission to do so. Now the town's mayor is calling for an investigation into whether the Taser use was appropriate.

According to a report by Officer Dustin Bradshaw, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, police were called to the Ozark home Nov. 11 because of a domestic disturbance. When he arrived, the girl was curled up on the floor, screaming, the report said.

Bradshaw's report said the girl screamed, kicked and resisted any time her mother tried to get her in the shower before bed.

Now, I'm not going to say this girl's mother doesn't have issues for calling police because her daughter has a temper tantrum. But I have much graver concerns about any "man" who feels the need to electrocute a young girl in order to physically overpower her.

This is basically all you need to know about the state of our venerable union these days:

The police chief, who has been Tasered [sic] twice himself during training sessions, said his department has never had to Taser [sic] a child or elderly person before, but that in some instances, that could be necessary to ensure safety.

"We don't want to do things like this," Noggle said. "This is something we have to do. We're required to maintain order and keep the peace."

I haven't read anything this idiotic since Dick Jauron said he was "blindsided" after being fired by the Buffalo Bills.

(Thanks to Wolf for the tip.)

GM to Begin Paying Back Loans from US Government

GM will begin paying back the $6.7 billion loan it received from the Federal Government by the end of 2009 and could pay of the loan entirely in 2011. The company plans to accomplish this despite a $1.3 billion third-quarter loss. This article reports

Under the plan to pay back the $6.7 billion, the Detroit automaker will make quarterly payments of $1 billion to the U.S. government and $200 million to the Canadian government beginning in late 2009. GM would be on track to pay off the $6.7 billion U.S. debt and a $1.4 billion debt to Canada by the middle of 2011, well ahead of a mid-2015 deadline to repay the two governments.

The person said GM was in a position to make the payments ahead of schedule because the company performed better than expected during the bankruptcy and the company's sales and overall performance since then have been modestly better than expected.

The automaker will draw on about $13 billion that remains deposited in escrow by the government to help make the payments. (emphasis added)

So let me get this straight? GM will pay back part of its $6.7 billion loan from the government by drawing on about $13 billion ($16.4 billion according to this article) which was given to it by the same government which lent the company $6.7 billion?

GM Chairman Ed Whitacre said last week that GM was committed to repaying its government loans.

"Can GM pay back its loans? You bet," Whitacre said during an address at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. "I can't tell you when, but it won't be very long."

Well, duh! If my mortgage company simply gave me $500,000 in escrow as a gift, I would have no problems paying off my $150,000 mortgage, either.

This point has not been lost on all congressmen: "What is the logic in repaying government loans with taxpayer dollars?" asked Brooke Buchanan, a spokeswoman for Republican Sen. John McCain.

But at least one person sees a method for this madness:

Brad Coulter, director of O'Keefe and Associates, a financial consulting firm near Detroit, said using government money to pay off the government debt is partly a public relations move. But it also indicates rising confidence at GM, which may feel it won't need all the contingency money, he said.

Who am I to question such an irrefutable assertion by Mr. Coulter? I am but a lowly loser libertarian writing from his one-bedroom condo who was invited by Trevor as a guest blogger. I simply do not have the pedigree as a director of financial consulting firm.

Nevertheless, I do wonder how giving GM $13 billion ($16.4 billion according to this article) as a contingency in case car sales do not pick up to assist in paying off a $6.7 billion loan designed to aid GM which is foundering due to mismanagement and falling car sales is supposed to be a good PR move. I also don't understand how giving GM $13 billion ($16.4 billion according to this article) as a contingency in case car sales do not pick to assist in paying off a $6.7 billion loan designed to aid GM which is foundering due to mismanagement and falling car sales is supposed to indicate rising confidence at GM. If private investors really thought that GM were making a comeback, wouldn't they come to the rescue and bailout GM themselves? If the management at GM really thought that the company was on the verge of making a comeback, wouldn't the company ask for private investment which does not have government restrictions?

But what do I know? I waste my time reading useless books on economic theory like What Has Government Done to Our Money, The Mystery of Banking, Economics in One Lesson, Meltdown, The Case Against the Fed, The Politically Incorrect Guide to Capitalism, and Economic Science and the Austrian Method. These books have compelled me to purchase Man, Economy, and State, Human Action, The Theory of Money and Credit, Socialism. I waste even more time reading articles on Mises.org like Anatomy of a State, The Politics of Obedience-The Discourse on Voluntary Servitude and Our Enemy, the State to gain some insight into political theory. Clearly I am wasting my time with all of these books because one does not have to know sound economic theory or understand politics to become a director of a financial consulting firm.

What the IRS Giveth, the IRS Taketh Away

Only the government can give people back their own money and then claim that truthfully they do not deserve to keep all of it. And only a brainwashed people who has been taught that taxation is not theft would allow the government to get away with this. Thanks to an accounting "error", many taxpayers who received a tax credit last spring will have to repay the money.

More than 15 million taxpayers may owe the government $250 or more because of how the IRS last spring set up President Barack Obama's tax break that was designed to help consumers spend the U.S. economy out of recession.

Individuals with more than one job and married couples in which both spouses work may have to repay the government $400, either through a smaller tax refund or a larger tax bill, according to a report released Monday by the Treasury Department's inspector general for tax administration. Social Security recipients who also earn taxable wages may have to repay $250.

Perhaps this is why our government likes tax credits rather than flat tax cuts. An individual has a much higher chance of incorrectly filing a tax return given the red tape involved to claim a tax credit than a simply seeing a lower rate of tribute to extract from his earnings. Moreover, the red tape involved in creating a tax credit permits "errors" of this sort which then benefit the State.

Cause, Effect, and the State

As I was clicking through the channels Thursday night, I saw a local report about a 14-year-old boy in Virginia who mysteriously came down with Guillain-Barre syndrome hours after receiving a vaccination for H1N1.

I've had very little time to write lately, but Karen De Coster also noticed this story and commented on the absurdity of the CDC's insistence that the boy's ailment was mere coincidence.

Dr. Claudia J. Vellozzi, deputy director for immunization safety at the CDC, said “there’s no clear link between the new vaccine and the disease.” She states that these GBS cases are “events” that just “happen” after the vaccination. They are just coincidence. Doctors at the hospital refuse to talk about GBS in connection with the vaccines, and accordingly, they are giving the press very limited information.

I agree with Karen. Just like Tasers never cause death -- people's hearts just coincidentally "happen" to stop after they're electrocuted by police.

The Top Ten Most Destructive Government Actions Are...

1. False Deficit Figures
2. Looted Social Security
3. Hidden Welfare Costs
4. Duplication of Federal Programs
5. Financial Mismanagement
6. Misinterpreting the Constitution
7. False Tax Policies
8. Unfunded Mandates
9. Alternative Minimum Tax
10. Waste, Waste, Waste

This is according to conservative writer Martin L. Gross. From an anarchist perspective, this list can be condensed into two actions: government taxes the population without consent (points 1-5 and 7-10) and government does not obey its own laws (point 10). Interestingly, war is nowhere to be found on this list. And that is all you need to know to understand the unwavering commitment to peace and liberty so eagerly displayed by American conservatives.

I'm Channeling Eazy-E

I'm not completely on board with the argument that you can't be taken seriously as a writer if you use blatant profanity, but there's nevertheless some merit to it. So with that, I'll try to hold my tongue for now -- click here if you don't know what I mean by the title.

As for what's got me so riled up, check out this personal story from my good buddy Jon Wolf.

Significant Increase in Wounded in Afghanistan

Report here.

At least 1,800 troops were wounded in Afghanistan in the first 10 months of this year, about 40 percent of all the wounded U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Nearly 1,000 of those injuries occurred in the last three months.

Well, gee, what else would you expect when you needlessly escalate the occupation of a country that's sick of its invaders?

Give up the Fight

I support the troops this Veterans Day. In fact, I implore every serviceman entangled in illegal, immoral wars to refuse to continue enabling their craven, opportunistic slavemasters in Congress and the presidency by simply walking away.

Certainly you deserve better than working for an employer that tries to imprison or kill its employees merely for wanting to find a different job.

Save yourselves, your families, and your futures. You are being used by the state to enrich the power elite. Throw down your arms. Stop killing the innocent. Give up the fight.

Taser Time Utah

Utah police tased a DUI suspect after the man tried to escape from their squad car.

The man was apprehended by the Utah Highway Patrol in the Salt Lake City area. He was traveling southbound down 1-15 Friday and pulled over on suspicion of DUI. When the UHP handcuffed him and placed him in the back of the squad car, he attempted to escape while the car was in motion.

The suspect apparently slipped out of his handcuffs and tried to kick open the back door of the car. Shockingly, it appears some people don't like to be kidnapped by state agents for causing harm to no one.

According to reports, the man's "vital signs remained strong" throughout the course of his public electrocution. Ostensibly, this is reason enough to risk killing us so the Gestapo no longer have to worry about breaking finger nails as they mete out the justice!

Same Crap, Different Year

The national soap opera known as electoral politics was on center stage again last night. Washington is abuzz that the results spell trouble for the Obama administration, as two candidates for whom the thief-in-chief campaigned personally lost to Republican candidates.

Conservative Republican Bob McDonnell's victory in the Virginia governor's race over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds and moderate Republican Chris Christie's ouster of unpopular New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was a double-barreled triumph for a party looking to rebuild after being booted from power in national elections in 2006 and 2008.

Apparently some voters really, really weren't ready for the third Bush term.

I'm consumed by the hilarity of it all, actually. Well, you know, to the extent that rampant, institutionalized theft and murder are hiliarious. The GOP sucks, let's elect the Democrats! The Dems suck, let's elect Republicans. Rinse, repeat. I seriously believe humanity is doomed.

Clearly there can be no other way.

How the State Defuses Discontent

The D.C. Government is upset at its citizens' poor response rates in the national Census. The reason the D.C. Government wants to increase the response rate is money (I'm sure that you didn't see that coming). Many of the city's residents are "considered 'hard to count' such as immigrants, college students, homeless people, singles, renters and the poor." According to Mayor Adrian Fenty, every individual not counted costs the city $3,500. The article reports that about $430 billion are distributed to State and local governments each year, based in part on Census figures. The District's share is about $2.5 billion.

The Washington Post reports:

The District, like most urban areas, usually has a low response rate of people who mail in their census forms without prompting. In the 2000 Census, only 60 percent responded initially, compared with the national average of 67 percent. The rate in Maryland was 69 percent, and in Virginia 72 percent. When people don't send in the forms of their own accord, the Census Bureau hires temporary workers to knock on their doors and encourage them to be counted.

D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown (I-At Large), who has been named council liaison for the census, blamed the District's low rate partly on "myths" about the consequences of being counted.

"Some people think that if they do fill out the form, the government will come after them about parking tickets," Brown said.

How does the District plan to overcome this distrust of government? By partnering "with 'trusted voices,' such as grass-roots organizations, to help promote the census and its importance. D.C. residents are being sought out in every ward to get out the message and help with the count." The Post quotes D.C. Planning Director Harriet Tregoning saying

Our most important strategy is to deploy people who know their neighbors and who are known by them...We want to make people aware that they can trust the census. It's safe. It's important. It matters to them. It matters to their neighbors. It matters to their family, and it matters to the city.

There are times when the State is so open with its plans I find myself shocked. The D.C. Planning Director is saying quite explicitly and openly that her plan is to recruit members of society that the public trusts to aid the government in spreading its propaganda about the Census. Some people do not trust the government, but if their neighbors spread the message, these people might be disabused of their mistrust and participate. What an effective strategy.

You might be thinking, "Clearly this is doomed to fail. This plan is out in the open for all to see and the masses will not be duped. Such a candid admission of the strategy and the goals of the program should keep most clear-thinking people from falling for this." And you would be wrong. During WWI the US Government instituted a draft. Government officials learned from Lincoln's attempt at a draft that such direct measures will lead to resistance. Thus, Secretary of War Newton D. Baker created local civilian boards which would select men for the draft rather than military personnel. These boards served a fundamental purpose. According to Provost Marshall General Enoch H. Crowder, the boards served as

buffers between the individual citizen and the Federal Government, and thus they attracted and diverted, like local grounding wires in an electric coil, such resentment or discontent as might have proved a serious obstacle to war measures, had it been focused on the central authorities. Its diversion and grounding at 5000 local points dissipated its force, and enabled the central war machine to function smoothly without the disturbance that might have been caused by the total concentrated total of dissatisfaction.¹

Robert Higgs comments on this quotation saying

Such frank public admission of Machiavellianism is rare in American history. Clearly the top governmental officials were unmoved by the "concentrated total of dissatisfaction." Their ruling imperative was to feed the war machine whether or not people objected to being fed into it."²

Clearly the District's use of this technique for the Census is not as destructive as the Federal Government's use for the draft. But the general purpose is the same. In both cases, the people show a clear distrust of the State and are resisting the will of the rulers. And in both cases, the State diffuses public discontent of its policies by recruiting regular citizens as "buffers" between the individual citizen and the government. 

Some writers are already informing the masses that they only have to give their name and address only, and not the other private information which Census Bureau workers will ask for. Government workers who attempt to collect census data will probably be met with resistance and odium. However, if residents of DC are approached by their neighbors who know them and are known by them, they will not concentrate their discontent on the State. They will be more likely to participate and even those who are still upset will probably project their unhappiness onto their neighbors, not the State.

This is a brilliant use of Machiavellianism to diffuse discontent and distrust of the State's machinations. If I were an agent of the State with no moral scruples, I would do the same thing.

¹ Robert Higgs, Crisis and Leviathan (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 133-134.
² Ibid., p. 134