who's your nanny?

What I Learned from Hurricane Irene

I've noticed many commentators have pointed out that yet again the government has revealed its incompentence in dealing with natural disasters. Close down the subways, everyone evacuate, stay in your homes! Fear, fear, fear! We're from the government and we're here to help! As I was driving to the gym yesterday, the ABCNews 7 scroll in Arlington posed the question "Was Hurricane Irene caused by global warming?"

Most of us experienced a really bad rainstorm with high winds. This isn't to say that there was no damage done. I know of three deaths. Many have lost power. Some have had their cars and homes damaged. But the end-of-the-world scenario that the government predicted did not happen. But that does not matter. Government agents were able to practice their fearmongering and were able to push the limit of obedience. They have a better idea of just how much they can get away with in an emergency. And that is the lesson I take away from this weekend. 

How the State Has Compelled Me to Increase My Time Preference

By simultaneously reducing the supply of present and (expected) future goods, governmental property-rights violations not only raise time-preference rates (with given schedules) but also time-preference schedules. Because appropriator-producers are (and see themselves as) defenseless against future victimization by government agents, their expected rate of return on productive, future-oriented actions is reduced all-around, and accordingly all actual and potential victims become more present oriented. Hans-Hermann Hoppe, "On Time Preference, Government, and the Process of Decivilization"

It's been two years since I started a new job and for two years I thought long and hard about what to do with my 401(k). Should I roll it over into an IRA? How about a Roth IRA? Should I just pay the penalties and cash out? After two years of contemplation and observation I have decided to cash out. I'm not eligible for retirement (and I mean age eligible to access the money without penalty) for another 30 years. I have no clue as to what the account would be worth in 30 years nor do I have a clue as to what tax rates will be 30 years from now. So I plan to cash out, pay off my student loans and credit cards, and buy a new car. Perhaps a Lexus or Infinity. What ever is left over, I'll put into gold and some foreign currencies. How did I come to this conclusion? Allow me to describe the trends that I see in this country that have persuaded me to live for the now rather than the future.

As everyone who reads LewRockwell.com, Mises.org, William Grigg, William Anderson, Radley Balko and other like-minded website regularly knows that things look grim. The Federal Government, State governments, and local governments are becoming desperate for revenue. These entities could possibly increase their loot by removing economic burdens like minimum wage laws, health care laws, regulations as well as ending all wars, lowering taxes and returning to sound money. Such lightening of the yoke of the State on the productive class would lead to more wealth for more people and possibly more tax revenue for the State. This is not to condone the State's theft known as taxation; I'm simply pointing out the possibility that the government at all levels might have more revenue if people were free to produce. However, it is clear that the corrosive effects of power precludes such thinking among the ruling class.

Nevertheless, the ruling class is not going to lower their living standards as the economy collapses. This says to me that no wealth anywhere in the world is safe form our Federal Government. No matter where we try to hide our wealth, they will search for it and they will take it from us. The Federal Government already claims that it can tax expatriates who claim citizenship in another country for up to 10 years. As the money runs out I expect our ruling class to become even more ruthless in their efforts to steal money and property from their subjects. The people who depend on government largess will encourage Federal, State, and local governments to collect whatever money wherever they find it. I expect the State and local governments to use asset forfeiture more liberally as time goes on. It would not surprise me if police being pulling people over not just looking for drugs, but other contraband such as raw milk (since governments are raiding raw milk producers, I don't find this hypothesis far-fetched). I expect government officials to eye 401(k)s, IRAs, and Roth IRAs. I expect exchange controls. I even think it possible that the government could ban buying and selling gold. It's really hard to predict what exactly would happen, but when a government is desperate for money, every crime imaginable is on the table.

Ron Who?

Jon Stewart blasts the mainstream media for continuing to ostracize Ron Paul even after he nearly won the Ames straw poll over the weekend (begins at 4:37). The media's behavior is no surprise to Paul fans or most libertarians for that matter, but this is a great illustration of the joke that is media coverage of national politics.

 

Maybe If More People Saw the Caskets ...

... more people would object to the unnecessary fucking wars that create bereaved families in the first place.

I Am Not Amused

In response to my post on the civil war between black people and niggas, Unamused writes:

Okay, so where do African niggas come from? And why are niggas worse in Africa than in any civilized (white) nation?

You know the kind: no written language, think gang-rape is a normal part of childhood, chop up albinos for use in magic spells, have sex with babies and animals because they think it cures AIDS, might hunt Pygmies like game animals if there's a civil war, throw acid on suspected child witches, really hate white people and want them out of the country (until they actually do, and the country goes to hell)...

Gee, what are the liberals doing to Africa, to make it so much worse than Detroit and New Orleans? Well, slightly worse than Detroit and New Orleans, at least.

Because OBVIOUSLY it couldn't possibly be the case that blacks are genetically predisposed to lower intelligence (which we already know they are: in America, 9 out of 10 are below the white average in intelligence, and 1 in 4 are borderline retarded), or that lower intelligence correlates with negative social outcomes like crime and poverty and illegitimacy and disease (which we already know it does). I mean, come on: just look at the crime rates of poor Chinese people! (Very, very low.)

You're missing the big picture, which is biological. The State has to keep American blacks under control to prevent most of them from becoming feral. It has failed to do so in recent decades -- ever since the Civil Rights Movement, actually.

How much more data against the social/cultural/governmental/environmental hypothesis do you really need, before you're ready to accept that genetic differences between the races (which we know exist) are the root cause of social differences, and the best the State can do is damage control (and immigration control)?

Unamused seems to think that only Africans engage in brutality and believe in ludicrous myths. Did blacks start the War between the States that was one of the most brutal wars ever? Did blacks start the Spanish-American War? Did blacks lead the U.S. into World War I to spread democracy across the world? Did blacks institute a draft to fight that war? Did blacks pass the Sedition Act that criminalized free speech? Did blacks create the Federal Reserve Bank to finance that war? Did blacks force farmers to kill their pigs during the Great Depression while millions were hungry to keep pork prices high? Did blacks provoke the Japanese to fire on Pearl Harbor so that the U.S. could be drawn into World War II? Did blacks drop atomic bombs on two cities, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians? Did blacks start the Korean War? Did blacks start the Vietnam War? Did blacks invade Iraq, not once but twice? Did blacks start the war in Afghanistan?

You want to hold up the U.S. as a paradigm of civilization? This civilized (white) nation uses SWAT teams to arrest people who are selling raw milk. Milk? One set of government bureaucrats in this civilized (white) nation threatens violence against little girls selling lemonade. Another set of government bureaucrats in this civilized (white) nation molests children and adults at airports to "keep us safe". You call that civilization? You really want to contrast the brutality of the African with the brutality that our own government visits violence on its own people daily? You really think that a group of (white) people who hunt down Afghanistan civilians and keeps their body parts as souvenirs is more civilized than a people who hunts Pygmies during a civil war?

The Civil War between Black People and Niggas

Who's more racist, black people or white people? Black people. You know why? Because we hate black people too. Everything white people don't like about black people, black people really don't like about black people. There's some shit going on with black people right now. There's like a civil war going on with black people. There's two sides. There's black people and there's niggas. And niggas have got to go.~ Chris Rock

I generally don't watch the news, but one day I was watching Fox Channel Five and saw a story about teenage flash mobs in which several youths suddenly showed up at a store in Georgetown and robbed the place. There was video of the robbery and before the video began my first thought was, "Please don't let this be black people." However, this is Washington, DC, so of course a gang of about 15-20 niggas entered the store and robbed the place. Unfortunately, this is type of robbery is not rare. But what is worse is that there appears to be a trend of teenage mobs attacking and robbing people across the country. Recently a pack of niggas attacked innocent white people in Wisconsin at a fair. While this type of criminality is new, there has always been a civil war within the black community between black people and niggas. Black people are the folks trying to hold down real jobs, take care of their families, and make a positive impact on their communities. Niggas, in the words of Chris Rock, just "fuck it up for everybody."

Just what is the cause of such feral behavior among blacks? Are blacks barbaric? Are blacks inherently inclined to criminality? Are blacks just an inferior race who cannot be expected to conform to any standards of decency? Several commenters at the Unamused Park's post on the attacks in Wisconsin think so, as do several other writers I have read in the manosphere. However, I have yet to find anyone touch upon the root cause of such behavior and that is the State.

The Humble Libertarian Puts the Smackdown on Hypocritical Liberals

Remember during the Bush years when liberals were pissed off about violations of civil liberty, endless war, bailouts for rich bankers, and presidential gaffes? One almost got the impression that liberals were principled. However, after Obama was elected president we now know for sure that, with very few exceptions, liberals are a bunch of unprincipled hypocrites who will tolerate the same civil liberty violations, wars, bailouts for rich bankers, and presidential gaffes as long as a Democratic president is in office.

The Humble Liberatarian has compiled a list of 100 ways in which Bush and Obama are similar. This is one of the best comparisons you will read all year. Actually "similar" is not the best word because in many of the examples given Obama is actually worse than Bush. For instance, Bush merely detained accused terrorists indefinitely rather than give them a trial; Obama wants to assassinate them. Neverthless, if liberals did have any principles, they would have been even more outraged at Obama than they were at Bush since Obama continued most of Bush's policies. But it's hard for liberals to speak truth to power with Obama's dick in their mouths.

It's Hard Out Here for a Redneck

Don't look now, but a South Carolina woman is fighting for her right to dangle "truck nuts."

On July 5, Virginia Tice, 65, from Bonneau, S.C. pulled her pickup truck into a local gas station with red, fake testicles dangling from the trailer hitch. The town's police chief, Franco Fuda, pulled up and asked her to remove the plastic testicles.

When she refused, he wrote her a $445 ticket saying that she violated South Carolina’s obscene bumper sticker law.

I'm trying to figure out why a town police chief is writing tickets to enforce state laws, but I guess when there's no rule of law it's just stupid to try to make any sense of this stuff in the first place.

Tice lawyered up and said that she was preparing to challenge Fuda in court. But before she could ask for a jury trial, Fuda, in a rare move, beat her to it.

Fuda says he is pushing for a jury trial and hopes the outcome will clarify the state’s obscenity laws, leaving no room for misinterpretation.

“The law is very clear, and I am prepared to take it all the way,” Fuda told FoxNews.com.

It's easy to "take it all the way" when you don't have to pay for lawyers with your own money, eh Chief?

It's hard for me to get worked up about stuff like this when this is an entirely predictable outcome of public roadways. So if you voters want government roads, this is the type of shit you sign up for.

For all I know Ms. Tice will win her case. I hope she does. But I have one word of caution: In an age when cops are given paid vacations for beating and murdering people just for being "uncooperative," don't think for a minute they won't be given the authority to ticket you for tacky truck nuts.

How White Slavemasters Could Have Kept the Game Going

They should have given slaves the right to vote. Not on anything substantial such as "Should blacks be treated equally with whites" or "Should slavery be abolished". But slaves should have been able to vote on who their masters should be. If a group of slaves wished to abandon their current master because he was too cruel, they could vote to leave that master and choose another master. The system should be designed so that even a master who loses his slaves could still receive a portion of their labor from the new slaveowner. Since slaves could leave their masters, slavery would not appear as cruel to many whites nor to the slaves themselves. Some whites would probably have argued that such a democratic system prepared the African for life among the whites and would have facilitated integrating him into his second-class citizenship among the whites. Many slaves would have been grateful at any opportunity to leave cruel and violent masters so much so that they might not have demanded true freedom or questioned the institution of slavery at all. Slaves who complained that voting was not true freedom would have been excoriated by other slaves. "How can you complain about your treatment? We have work and food, and we replace our master if he mistreats us? Surely we cannot do everything we like, but this is the best system of slavery ever. Who are you to question this system?" Slaves who stepped out of line would be beaten or killed by whites who had no tolerance for insolence of uppity negroes thinking that they were equal with whites. Radical whites who recognized that slaves voting for different masters still meant that they were slaves would be ostracized by average whites, some who benefited materially from slave labor and others who benefited their position as the superior race that was reinforced by the system.

I don't know how long African slavery would have continued under such a system given that Lincoln attacked the South for economic reasons. However, it's clear that this democratic system would have been a good foundation for keeping slavery alive, convincing the slaves that life would never be better than what they experience on the plantation and convincing the average white person that slavery was not the horrible, dehumanizing institution that radicals said it was. Our current democratic system has been quite efficacious at convincing the average citizen that the United States is the freest country on earth and life will never be better than what our Federal Government and its vassals permit us to do despite all the evidence to the contrary.