tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1251957134941538612024-02-19T06:02:11.165-05:00Reason and Liberty CentralThe Capitalist blog you love to hate and hate to love.<br>Unfair & Unbalanced<br><i>Illegitimi Non Carborundum</i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger474125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-83958720230186503292021-07-12T01:47:00.002-04:002021-07-12T01:51:06.122-04:00Cock Island Line <p>Now, this here's a story about the Cock Island Line </p><p>Well, the Cock Island Line, she runs down into Pussy Town </p><p>There's a big gal gate down there, and you know </p><p>If you got certain things on board when you come to the gal gate </p><p>Well, you ain't gonna get yourself no gal </p><p>Well, a pile driver, he pulled up to the gal gate </p><p>And the gal pouted and asked him what all he had on board, and he said </p><p><br /></p><p>I'm a snowflake </p><p>I'm a snowflake </p><p>I got Marx </p><p>I got blacks </p><p>I got masks </p><p>I got rules </p><p>I got all feminist </p><p><br /></p><p>Well, she said, you're alright boy, you are gonna get this gal </p><p>You can just go right on through, so he went on through the gal gate </p><p>And as he went through, he started pickin' up a little bit of speed </p><p>Pickin' up a little bit of steam </p><p>He got on through, he turned, and looked up at the gal, he said </p><p><br /></p><p>Well, I fooled you </p><p>I fooled you </p><p>I'm a Trump man </p><p>I'm a Trump man </p><p>I got all MAGA </p><p><br /></p><p>Down the Cock Island Line, she's a mighty good road </p><p>Cock Island Line, it's the road to ride </p><p>Cock Island Line, it's a mighty good road </p><p>Well, if you ride it, you got to ride it like you find it </p><p>Get your ticket in a blue state for the Cock Island Line </p><p><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-36456674780289499662021-04-14T10:55:00.002-04:002021-04-14T10:55:23.299-04:00Internal Chronology and Status of the Kevin Traynor Stories as of April 2021 <p>Gunpowder Tea (Young Kevin Traynor) (fragment, may be abandoned)</p><p>Traynor and his future best friend Nick Parker meet during an adventure in Casablanca.
</p><p>Torch in the Night (available)
</p><p>Traynor, Parker, and Jennifer Jordan have to stop a conspiracy to destroy the United States.
</p><p>Phantom Train (available)
</p><p>Traynor, Parker, and mining engineer Connie Chandler investigate a phantom train depopulating an Arizona mining town.
</p><p>Mysterious Boat (available):
</p><p>The Mystery of the Mysterious Boat
</p><p>Traynor, Jennifer, and Parker investigate a mysterious boat haunting an old house in Malibu.
</p><p>The Secret of the Lost Tribe
</p><p>Traynor and Jennifer encounter Indian ghost riders in New Mexico.
</p><p>Mystic Triangle (writing)
</p><p>Traynor, Jennifer, and Parker get involved in an Anarcho-Capitalist revolution.
</p><p>Kevin Traynor, P.I. (working title):
</p><p>The Phantom of Broadway (fragment, abandoned due to boring)
</p><p>Traynor's Broadway theater is haunted by a phantom.
</p><p>The Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors (available)
</p><p>Jennifer's Frank O'Connor paintings are stolen from a locked room.
</p><p>Eighty Million Maniacs (rewriting, editing)
</p><p>Howard is kidnapped to force Traynor and Jennifer to find a hidden treasure in a medieval town in the land of eighty million maniacs.
</p><p>Chelsea Cinderella (editing)
</p><p>During a party, the crown jewels of Nassau-Wittgenstein are stolen from that country's embassy in New York City.
</p><p>The Riddle of the Ratty Rock Star (fragment, may be postponed to a later book or abandoned)
</p><p>An unsavory punk rocker is killed in a locked room.
</p><p>Kevin Traynor and Crypto Queenie (working title):
</p><p>Time Slip (writing)
</p><p>Traynor and crypto currency wizard Britt Coyne travel back to the Middle Ages in a castle in Latvia.
</p><p>Voynich Manuscript (writing)
</p><p>Traynor, Britt, and Parker follow the clues encoded in the Voynich manuscript to find its treasure in Prague.
</p><p>La Serenissima (idea, plotting)
</p><p>Traynor and Britt fly to Venice, Italy, for a romantic getaway; hilarity ensues.
</p><p><br /></p><p>
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</p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-85241298189046577232017-06-14T00:00:00.000-04:002017-06-14T00:00:08.312-04:00The Battle Hymn of the God Emperor Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;<br />
He is trampling out the idiots where the democrats are stored;<br />
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword:<br />
His truth is marching on.<br />
<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
His truth is marching on.<br />
<br />
I have seen Him in the pictures of a myriad memic clone,<br />
They have builded Him an altar in The Donald Reddit zone;<br />
I can read His righteous sentence on a dim and flick'ring phone:<br />
His day is marching on.<br />
<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
His day is marching on.<br />
<br />
I have read his fiery gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:<br />
"As ye deal with my contemners, so with you my tweets shall deal";<br />
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the leftoids with His heel,<br />
Since Trump is marching on.<br />
<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Since Trump is marching on.<br />
<br />
He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;<br />
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat;<br />
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! Be quick to like His tweet!<br />
Our God is marching on.<br />
<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Our God is marching on.<br />
<br />
In the beauty of the lilies Trump was born across the lea,<br />
With a courage in His bosom that transfigures you and me.<br />
Like He lives to drive cucks crazy, let us live to make men free,<br />
While Trump is marching on.<br />
<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
While Trump is marching on.<br />
<br />
He is coming like the glory of the morning on the wave,<br />
He is Sanction to producers, He is Succor to the brave,<br />
So Europe shall be His footstool, Angela Merkel His slave,<br />
Our God is marching on.<br />
<br />
(Chorus)<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Glory, glory, hallelujah!<br />
Our God is marching on!<br />
<br />
Happy Birthday, God Emperor Donald J. Trump!<br />
<br />
"I can't spare this man — he fights."<br />
<br />
— Abraham Lincoln<br />
<br />
Happy Flag Day, one and all!<br />
<br />
Praise Kek!<br />
<br />
Shadilay, my friends!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Ai3_pTg560U" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-51256110376649091952017-01-18T07:17:00.001-05:002017-01-18T08:00:07.763-05:00Little Red Riding Hood <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Once upon a
time, Little Red Riding Hood went visiting her grandmother. So Little Red
Riding Hood put on her little red riding hood and set out on a dangerous hike
on the winding paths under the gloomy canopy of trees, where the wilding wolves
had taken many a jogger. Finally, after a perilous journey past the tree
huggers, hippies, bums, junkies, and perverts of the forest, she emerged on
Central Park West. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When she
got to the tiny cottage at the end of the limestone canyon where her
grandmother lived, she knocked at the door. "Granny, Granny, are you home?
I brought you your favorite rugelach!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But when
the door creaked open, it wasn't her grandmother opening it, but a handsome,
charming prince with a head of luxuriant blond hair, much like a golden
pussycat. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Why,
what orange skin you have!" exclaimed Little Red Riding Hood in wonder. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
better to stain you with!" the prince growled. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"What
tiny, deep-set eyes, framed by pale circles, like a negative image of the
raccoons in the woods, or a highwayman's mask, you have!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
better to ogle you with!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"What
short, vulgar fingers you have!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
better to grope you with!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"What
shiny big hair you have!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
better to seduce you with!" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Uh,
is my Granny home, sir?" Little Red Riding Hood timidly changed the
subject. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"No,
she very, very, very much isn't! And you'll really, really never see her again,
you little red anchor baby! I deported your huge illegal alien grandmother to
her ancestral homeland! Sad. Will you marry me, you huge little hater and
loser?" the prince boldly changed the subject. "It's going to be
amazing. Believe me." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"But
why would I marry you, you who deported my Granny?" Little Red Riding Hood
sobbed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Because
you're a really, really hot piece of ass under that very, very, very silly
little red riding hood, plus I really, really like marrying aliens. Because I'm
the God Emperor Donald J. Trump, and I'm very, very, very rich. I'll give you
$10,000,000! Because I'll make you great again, like everything I touch!
Because I have huge, well-formed hands! Look, having God Emperor Donald J.
Trump — my uncle was a great professor and scientist and engineer, Dr. John
Trump at MIT; good genes, very good genes, OK, very smart, the Wharton School
of Finance, very good, very smart — you know, if you’re a conservative
Republican, if I were a liberal, if, like, OK, if I ran as a liberal Democrat,
they would say I'm one of the smartest people anywhere in the world — it’s
true! — but when you're a conservative Republican, they try — oh, do they do a
number — that’s why I always start off: Went to Wharton, was a good student,
went there, went there, did this, built a fortune — you know I have to give my,
like, credentials all the time, because we’re a little disadvantaged — but you
look at the nuclear deal, the thing that really bothers me — it would have been
so easy, and it’s not as important as these lives are (nuclear is powerful; my
uncle explained that to me many, many years ago, the power, and that was 35
years ago; he would explain the power of what's going to happen, and he was
right — who would have thought?), but when you look at what's going on with the
four prisoners — now it used to be three, now it’s four — but when it was three
and even now, I would have said it's all in the messenger; fellas, and it is
fellas because, you know, they don't, they haven’t figured that the women are
smarter right now than the men, so, you know, it’s gonna take them about
another 150 years — but the Persians are great negotiators, the Iranians are
great negotiators, so, and they, they just killed, they just killed us. Oh, and
otherwise, I'll have to deport you to your ancestral homeland. You'd really,
really be a not smart person. Believe me. Sad." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">By now,
Little Red Riding Hood was deeply in love with the God Emperor Donald J. Trump,
with his unwarranted self-confidence, his money, his power, his fame, his
charm, his wit, his intellect, his handsome good looks, and his beautiful hair,
like all women. Plus, he had freed her from her really, really not good, nasty,
horrible, fat, old illegal alien grandmother with the face of a dog (who used
to bleed from every possible orifice in her younger days). <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And they
lived happily ever after, if he didn't leave her for a younger woman. Sad. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">A Fairytale
of New York <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-6911031070064486562016-10-17T04:55:00.000-04:002016-10-17T04:55:43.510-04:00Hilly and the Great Man (With apologies to Tanya Tucker.)<br />
<br />
He came ridin' in on the sunrise on a hot West New York day<br />
A fancy man in a golden limo with some fancy things to say<br />
Looks like you folks need some greatness, well, greatness is my game<br />
And if you folks can raise some one trillion dollars, I betcha I can make you great<br />
<br />
Step back, nonbelievers, or the great will never come<br />
Someone start them crosses a-burning, somebody stroke my bum<br />
He said, some may think I'm crazy for making all these claims<br />
But I swear before this year is over you folks are gonna be so great<br />
<br />
They all just stood there a-staring, trying to believe<br />
But there was one named Hilly Clinton who said he was a lying cheat<br />
She said, you call yourself a great man, well, you oughta be ashamed<br />
Starting all these people dreamin', thinking you can make 'em great<br />
<br />
Step back, nonbelievers, or the great will never come<br />
Someone keep them crosses a-burning, somebody stroke my bum<br />
He said, some may think I'm crazy for making all these claims<br />
But I swear before this year is over you folks are gonna be so great<br />
<br />
Hey, Hilly, well, a man's got to have a dream<br />
And if you will come on inside with me, I'll grope you in between<br />
Oh, come with me, Hilly, and the arse will write your name<br />
And if you still think I'm lying to you, look yonder, there comes the great<br />
<br />
Step back, nonbelievers, or the great will never come<br />
Someone keep them crosses a-burning, somebody stroke my bum<br />
He said, some may think I'm crazy for making all these claims<br />
But I swear before this year is over you folks are gonna be so great<br />
<br />
[Repeat and fade]Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-38116828727720259782015-01-02T18:00:00.001-05:002015-01-02T18:00:51.265-05:00Happy 2015! Happy New Year! Happy 2015!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5yNRXjCFA-U" width="560"></iframe>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-87419248097411728772014-12-23T20:01:00.000-05:002014-12-23T20:01:20.990-05:00Merry Christmas from Satan Claus <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Drunken
Bums, or Merry Christmas from Satan Claus, or Christmas in the Ghetto <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ghetto
sidewalks, dirty sidewalks dressed in vomit and bile, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In the air
there's a feeling like dry rot <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Children
brawling, people passing, picking fight after fight <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And on
every street corner you hear — drunken bums <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Drunken
bums, drunken bums) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Drunken
bums <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Drunken
bums) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It's
Christmas time in the ghetto <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ring-a-ling
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Ring-a-ling,
ring-a-ling) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hear them
sing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Soon it
will be judgment day <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Broken
street lights although cop lights blink a bright red and blue <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As the pigs
rush by to commit murder <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hear the
shots speed, see the kids bleed <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">This is
Satan's big scene <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And above
all this carnage you hear <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Drunken
bums <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Drunken
bums, drunken bums) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Drunken
bums <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Drunken
bums) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It's
Christmas time in the ghetto <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ring-a-ling
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Ring-a-ling,
ring-a-ling) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hear them
sing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Soon it
will be judgment day <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Drunken
bums <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Drunken
bums, drunken bums) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Drunken
bums <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Drunken
bums) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">It's
Christmas time in the ghetto <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Ring-a-ling
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(Ring-a-ling,
ring-a-ling) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Hear them
sing <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Soon it
will be — judgment day <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/5X4o73ETgsc" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-53692362718973365402014-08-31T17:51:00.000-04:002014-08-31T17:51:42.883-04:00Wave in an Ice Bucket <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">An open
letter to all the collectivist morons that participated in the notorious
"ALS ice bucket challenge." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Rarely have
I encountered on this planet full of morons a horror as revolting as this ice
bucket nonsense. First off, the obvious. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Making
donations based not on data where a donation might do good, but on stupid
pranks and videos <a href="http://universityprimetime.com/infographic-reveals-differences-diseases-donate-diseases-kill-us/">predictably
leads to a massive misallocation of resources</a>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then, this
stupid stunt can quite easily kill the very people trying to save lives the
armchair activist way. <a href="http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11294023">Getting
doused with cold water on a hot day can easily give you a heart
attack,</a> and <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/scotland/11054784/Teenager-dies-after-taking-ice-bucket-challenge.html">at
least one person died jumping into a particularly large
"bucket."</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But far
worse than any misallocated money or death from freak accident is the sheer
primeval mob spirit in which these pranks are performed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When do you
soaked, shivering rocket surgeons exactly plan to use your brains, to the
extent that you have any, and start thinking for yourselves? When someone
nominates you for a "light a firecracker in your mouth" challenge?
When Al Qaida collects $100 million because they have a cool video? Before you
vote for the next fuehrer because he has a cool party trick? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If you
cheer mob spirit and irrationality, if "nominating," shaming,
guilting, peer pressure, and blind following is the coin of your realm, this is
what you are cheering on: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/vsjzTyJnM7s" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Don't ask
who is destroying the world. You are. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If the
world goes down your path, you are going to solve the ALS issue ironically,
because people will once again be slaughtering each other before they ever get
a chance to develop ALS, just like in the Dark Ages, just like in World War II.
That is the nature of barbarity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">As
ironically, if you would quit wasting time on collectivist blackmail and use it
instead for teaching people to think for themselves, people would become more
productive, GDP would increase, and more money would be available for all
research even without pressuring people to give. That is the nature of
progress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You and
your methods are disgusting, no matter how noble you claim the ends you
advocate to be. Plus, wet, you look ridiculous. Now go away and be ashamed of
yourselves.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-24801054256520156782014-01-29T20:16:00.001-05:002014-01-29T20:18:52.132-05:00Surfin' NSA <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">(With
apologies to the <strike>Bitch Boys</strike> Beach Boys.) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If
everybody was like Snowden <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Across the
USA <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Then
everybody'd be surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Phreakin'
the CIA <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You'd see
'em breakin' out netbooks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Anarchic
vandals, too, <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">With
tablets, smart phones, and dumb Nooks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You'd catch
'em surfin' at Langley (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Anne
Arundel County line (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At the
ports and bases (inside, outside USA) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Mediterranean
(inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">All over
Manhattan (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And on
Doheny Drive (inside, outside USA) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Everybody's
gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We'll all
be crackin' us a router <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We're gonna
take real soon <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We're
bringin' down their networks <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We can't
wait for June <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We'll all
be gone for the summer <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We're on
safari to stay <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Tell Obama
we're surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At
Feinstein's and Schumer's (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Pacific
carriers base (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Foggy
Bottom and Georgetown (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Outside the
Pentagon (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">All over
the Beltway (inside, outside USA), <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At Waimea
Bay (inside, outside USA) <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Everybody's
gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Everybody's
gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Everybody's
gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Everybody's
gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Yeah,
everybody's gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Surfin' NSA
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Yeah,
everybody's gone surfin' <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Surfin' NSAUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-9696601461495879472013-09-29T21:35:00.000-04:002013-09-29T21:35:01.906-04:00Why Men and Women Never Get Along She just said, "Do you want to marry me?"<br />
<br />
She thinks she said, "Do you want to be the father of my children and live with me happily ever after?"<br />
<br />
He heard, "Do you want to give me half your stuff and pay me a pension once I leave you?"Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-1972556176800029232013-07-31T19:48:00.000-04:002013-07-31T19:48:18.164-04:00Scottish Objectivist Explains Benefits of Smoking In this enlightening video, a Scottish objectivist explains the benefits of smoking: Smoking is where all the great ideas come from.<br />
<br />
"My life was terrible without cigarettes. I did nothing with my time. I was like, 'Oh, where am I going? What am I doing?' Now my life is rich and true and good and strong."<br />
<br />
It even is good for your lungs:<br />
<br />
"It makes your lungs bigger 'cause you're sucking."<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/8TNPsvKIPK4" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Here it is with subtitles:<br />
<br />
<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/embed/video/x12htro" width="480"></iframe><br /><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x12htro_scroogin-on-a-greg_fun" target="_blank">SCROOGIN ON A GREG</a> <i>by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/willanderson0" target="_blank">willanderson0</a></i>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-10049195460398264912013-07-14T15:09:00.001-04:002013-07-14T15:09:57.084-04:00A Simple Way to Control the Fundies <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Here's a
simple way to get the fundies and conservatives under control: Everything that
is illegal for some group of people automatically becomes illegal for
Christians. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Gays can't
marry? Fine, Christians can't marry, either. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Teenagers
can't have sex? Fine, Christians can't have sex, either. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Weed is
illegal? Fine, so is altar wine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Let's see
how long they can stand their own medicine. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-49867852920606117682013-07-04T01:39:00.000-04:002013-07-04T01:39:29.314-04:00Happy Birthday, America! <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Happy
Birthday, America! Here's the present: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><i><i>The
Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors</i></i>, <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Kidnapped-OConnors-ebook/dp/B00DCR3FNM/">free
to download for your Kindle</a> today, July 4, 2013, midnight to midnight
Pacific Time. <i><i>The Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors</i></i>,
the new Kevin Traynor mystery. A locked room mystery about art, anarchy, objectivity,
and madness. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">When his
girlfriend's prized paintings are stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art,
Kevin Traynor has to find them fast, lest she slip from her usual objectivity
and rationality into madness, mayhem, and murder. There is no lack of suspects
— and no way how any human being can have smuggled the paintings out of that
proverbial locked room. There simply is no explanation that is both rational
and plausible. The hunt for the thief leads the couple into one dead end after
another. It dawns on Traynor that the only way to find the thief is to find the
paintings... But is he up against a mere mortal thief, or against The Phantom
of the Met? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kevin
Traynor. With the right to be politically incorrect.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-79623142594287699862013-06-30T17:44:00.000-04:002013-06-30T17:50:51.972-04:00US Doesn't Understand the Concept "Ally" What do the Mongol Empire, the objectivists, and the US government have in common?<br />
<br />
They have no concept of "ally."<br />
<br />
<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franco-Mongol_alliance#Reasons_for_failure">The Mongols knew only three conditions of foreign relations:</a> "enemies", "conquered," or "in rebellion." The concept of "ally" was foreign to them.<br />
<br />
In 1245, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cum_non_solum">Pope Innocent IV wrote a letter to the Mongols</a>, expressing a desire for "peace." But in the Mongol language, "peace" is a synonym for "subjection."<br />
<br />
Khan Güyük understood it the only way he could and replied with a demand for submission:<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
You must say with a sincere heart: "We will be your subjects; we will give you our strength." You must in person come with your kings, all together, without exception, to render us service and pay us homage. Only then will we acknowledge your submission.</blockquote>
<br />
<a href="http://www.lewrockwell.com/rothbard/mozart.html">As for the objectivists:</a><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
As advocates of laissez-faire capitalism, avowedly committed to the supremacy of reason, it seemed as if the Randians would be valuable allies.</blockquote>
<br />
<blockquote>
But the Randians did not understand the concept of "allies": in their universe, you either agreed with all of their positions, or else you were consigned to the Outer Darkness.</blockquote>
<br />
As the Edward Snowden affair has shown, the imperial federal government is no different. It expects to get everything in return for nothing. It expects unconditional and absolute submission to the evil empire.<br />
<br />
The US government believes it can spy on the citizens of its allies, without bothering to obey its allies' privacy laws or applying for search warrants from its allies' courts. But then it expects those same courts it contemned to extradite its fugitives.<br />
<br />
It's either or. Either Hong Kong and Russia are the United States' allies, or they are not.<br />
<br />
If they are allies, how can the US government dare to bypass their laws and their courts and to violate the rights or their citizens? If they are not allies, why should they comply with US requests?<br />
<br />
It appears that for the US government, too, there are no allies, but only conquered provinces, which have a duty to pay tribute to the US, no matter what outrage the US has perpetrated against their citizens the day before.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-79726870116220672782013-06-27T20:48:00.000-04:002013-06-27T20:48:51.931-04:00Open Letter to Bill Nelson re Ed Snowden In reply to <a href="http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/os-ed-front-burner-nsa-programs-pro-20130627,0,179395.story">"NSA Surveillance Efforts Are Effective, Limited, and Legal"</a> by one Senator Bill Nelson:<br />
<br />
General warrants for all the phone numbers there are are highly unconstitutional, no matter if they're "only" for the metadata.<br />
<br />
If you believe it makes any difference if you're spying "only" on foreigners, you should not be surprised if your allies thus spied on stop being your allies and stop caring whether or not you get hit by another terrorist attack — and stop extraditing "criminals" to you, as well.<br />
<br />
As for the alleged terrorist attacks your spying stopped: Pics, or it didn't happen.<br />
<br />
Ed Snowden is an American hero. Your actions and thoughts, sir, are un-American.<br />
<br />
It is you that betrayed the principles of your founding fathers, and it is you that is to blame that liberty is once more homeless on earth, as Lafayette would have put it. Shame on you.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-71439882696856427342013-06-18T20:52:00.003-04:002013-06-18T20:57:06.871-04:00The Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors, Chapter One, Part Two <a href="http://reasonandlibertycentral.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-case-of-kidnapped-oconnors-chapter.html">Begin with the beginning.</a><br />
<br />
To save himself from exploding with laughter and from his girlfriend's ensuing ire, Traynor sauntered over to the column wall, where his best friend, Nick Parker, stood staring at <i>Diminishing Returns</i>, going, "For some reason, I like that mannequin…"<br />
<br />
Short but muscular, with dark eyes and wavy black hair, Parker looked like a bull ready to charge a red rag. Apparently, he was giving the redhead he had been flirting with some time to miss him before he reeled her in. Traynor followed his friend's stare. The painting featured a painter's wooden mannequin sitting on a turquoise drum in turn sitting on a reddish cliff. Below, a blue ocean, or at least a reservoir, like Lake Powell on the Colorado River, stretched beyond a reddish headland. Above, a cloud in several shades of blue with a silver lining covered most of a blue sky. The mannequin was juggling what looked like colorful Christmas balls, with a red one already shattered on the ground.<br />
<br />
To Traynor, it looked like surrealism, and not very good surrealism at that. The most he could make of it was a caricature of Howard Roark gone crazy on his cliff. According to Jennifer, the official Objectivist line was that the playful lay figure represented gaiety. If it made her happy…<br />
<br />
As far as Traynor was concerned, the exact opposite might be just as true. The inescapably surreal nature of the painting might symbolize statism. The wooden, faceless, soulless stick figure might be a government bureaucrat playing with and casually breaking the baubles produced by capitalism.<br />
<br />
Others said that the mannequin, having hooters, the drummer on her turquoise drum, was Ayn Rand, and that the balls she was juggling bore self-portraits of her husband Frank O'Connor. You take it from there. To Traynor, any interpretation was as good as any other in this case, as any the other flavor of intellectuals offered for the nonobjective art in the other galleries.<br />
<br />
Parker stirred. "Gotta go now, look after another lay figure."<br />
<br />
Traynor looked languidly on as his friend left the gallery. As languidly, the muddy river of the mayor's speech emptied into an ocean of applause. Now the crowd grew restless, some milling to the paintings, some out of the gallery to one of the impromptu bars. Traynor headed back to his girlfriend.<br />
<br />
Whoosh!<br />
<br />
Suddenly, clouds of smoke billowed from the air conditioning vents. The fire alarm sounded.<br />
<br />
"Fire!" Panicky cries rang out, interspersed with coughs.<br />
<br />
People rushed to the exits, but that moment something or somebody triggered the burglar alarm, and the massive steel doors clanked shut, locking everybody in. Traynor ducked under the thickening smoke screen. Where was Jennifer?<br />
<br />
He dashed toward the place he had seen her last, rooted through a forest of legs, homed in on a fair pair under a black miniskirt, ran into her, and grabbed her by the wrist. "Gotcha!"<br />
<br />
"You play with Nick for five seconds, and bang, there's a fire."<br />
<br />
"I try to do my best. But I'm not sure that there's fire where there's smoke."<br />
<br />
However, the gallery kept filling with dark-gray smoke. Some people tried to filter the smoke by breathing through tissues or handkerchiefs. It did not seem to help much. Others dropped to the floor for clearer air. Panicky people cursed, screamed, raged, ranted, and banged their fists against the steel doors.<br />
<br />
"Fuck!"<br />
<br />
Cough!<br />
<br />
"Fire!"<br />
<br />
Cough!<br />
<br />
"Terrorists!"<br />
<br />
Cough!<br />
<br />
"Anarchy!"<br />
<br />
Cough!<br />
<br />
"The end of the world!"<br />
<br />
Wheeze!<br />
<br />
"I knew we shouldn't have come here!"<br />
<br />
Gasp!<br />
<br />
"Give me that tissue!"<br />
<br />
"Get your own tissue, bitch!"<br />
<br />
Cough!<br />
<br />
"Call 911!"<br />
<br />
"Where's my phone?"<br />
<br />
Cough! Gasp!<br />
<br />
"Where are the firefighters?"<br />
<br />
"Where are the police if you need them?"<br />
<br />
"Stand back!" ordered one of the mayor's bodyguards.<br />
<br />
"Freeze!" ordered another.<br />
<br />
"Stand back!"<br />
<br />
"Freeze!"<br />
<br />
Wheeze!<br />
<br />
"Stand back and freeze!"<br />
<br />
Cough! Wheeze!<br />
<br />
"Everybody, stay clear of his honor, or we'll fire!"<br />
<br />
"The building has already been fired!"<br />
<br />
Wheeze! Cough!<br />
<br />
"I'm not even close to his honor!"<br />
<br />
"Where does he have any honor?"<br />
<br />
Gasp! Cough!<br />
<br />
"Shut up! I bought his honor last week! A clean million into his Swiss bank account! Now it's strictly for the birds! What an irony, to die like this, together, like two rats!"<br />
<br />
"Birds? Rats? Keep your imaginary zoo to yourself, or his honor will sue you! His honor doesn't have any bank account in Switzerland. He can't even find Switzerland on a map. He doesn't even know how to spell it."<br />
<br />
"Who cares? He can't sue, 'cause we're all gonna die in here!"<br />
<br />
"Gasp!"<br />
<br />
"I never voted for that rat anyway."<br />
<br />
"Who cares what you voted for? We're gonna die!"<br />
<br />
Cough! Wheeze! Gasp!<br />
<br />
"There ought to be a law against this shoddy construction!"<br />
<br />
"There ought to be a law against these steel doors!"<br />
<br />
"There ought to be a law against fires!"<br />
<br />
Cough! Cough! Cough!<br />
<br />
"Jesus, we're all gonna die!"<br />
<br />
"Oh my god, the end is nigh!"<br />
<br />
"Oh my god oh my god oh my god…"<br />
<br />
"Yea, though I walk in death's dark vale, yet will I fear no ill. For thou art with me, and thy rod and staff me comfort still…"<br />
<br />
Cough! Cough! Wheeze! Wheeze! Gasp! Gasp!<br />
<br />
"Sam, I have a confession to make. I've been lying about my age for years. I'm not going to turn thirty next week. I'm turning forty."<br />
<br />
"I know. I know. The divorce papers are in the mail."<br />
<br />
Cough out loud!<br />
<br />
"My poor hair! Oh, that damn smoke. It's going to ruin my hair!"<br />
<br />
Rolling on the floor wheezing!<br />
<br />
"Take the phone, Ferris, and say goodbye to the children!"<br />
<br />
"Oh, come on. I know they're not my kids."<br />
<br />
Cough-o-copter!<br />
<br />
"Oh, those fucking terrorists!"<br />
<br />
Cough! Cough! Wheeze! Wheeze! Gasp! Gasp!<br />
<br />
In people's minds, the smoke grew into everybody's personal nightmare, be it fire, bombs, or poison gas. It became impossible to see anyone or anything more than a couple feet away.<br />
<br />
Jennifer shook off her boyfriend's hand. "Where are the fire extinguishers?"<br />
<br />
"There are some over there, but where's the fire? Maybe not such a great idea, blindly emptying the fire extinguishers into the ventilation ducts."<br />
<br />
That moment, a busty brunette standing and coughing nearby, lacking a handkerchief, ripped off her blouse, sending buttons flying every which way, one hitting Traynor in the chest, and used it as a makeshift gas mask.<br />
<br />
Through the smoke, Traynor watched her hooters strain against her bra and wobble with every cough. "Maybe coming here was not such a bad idea, after all. Too bad Nick isn't in here. He'd love that."<br />
<br />
Coughing herself, Jennifer shot her boyfriend an icy glance. "You want me to compete on these terms?"<br />
<br />
Traynor grinned. "Well, you'd be one step ahead of her, oh my braless wonder. Besides, she can't compete with you anyway."<br />
<br />
"Thank you."<br />
<br />
" 'Cause she isn't even blond."<br />
<br />
"Thanks. I think."<br />
<br />
Traynor drew his .45 Colt M1911 pistol and chambered a round. "Better 1911 than 911."<br />
<br />
"Doesn't help much against the fire, though," cautioned his girlfriend.<br />
<br />
Traynor coughed. "What fire? What about the burglar alarm and the steel doors? Looks more like a heist to me."<br />
<br />
With the doors shut and the smoke, there seemed to be nothing they could do, except to be ready to defend themselves and to wait for the smoke exhaust system to cope and firefighters to fight the alleged fire and to open the doors. Through the smoke and the noises of the alarms and the charging mob, Jennifer and Traynor thought they heard a swishing sound from the center of the gallery. A shadowy figure clad all in black brushed past them. Jennifer gasped involuntarily. He or she — or it — had no face! There was nothing there but a dark blob of slime!<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Kidnapped-OConnors-ebook/dp/B00DCR3FNM/">Buy the full story.</a><br />
<div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-25341654158441947362013-06-16T14:43:00.001-04:002013-06-18T20:59:57.802-04:00The Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors, Chapter One, Part One <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Chapter One
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The Phantom
of the Met <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Kevin
Traynor yawned. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Jennifer
Jordan rolled her blue eyes, then looked up at the ceiling of the Metropolitan
Museum of Art's new south wing. Not that she expected any help from anywhere up
there. Yes, it was boring — but did her boyfriend always have to put on a show
on what he thought about others? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Serves
you right," she hissed. "You kept me waiting for half an hour." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Traynor
brushed his hand through his dark-blond hair before he put his arm around her,
flashed a roguish grin across his angular face, and looked her disarmingly into
the eyes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">His
sparkling blue eyes utterly denied the importance of being earnest or late.
"Not my fault. As I said, Nick had two tickets for the Foxy Boxing World
Championship." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"He
had tickets? I thought he ran that circus." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Anyway,
you could have moved the opening to another night. Could easily have been more
than half an hour. Was hard enough to bum a ride off of Nick to get here from
the Garden. He wanted to go backstage, comfort the losers, and celebrate with
the winner." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Nothing
good could come out of a serious argument with Kevin Traynor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"But
he did drive you here." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"I
told him there would be chicks. By the way, you used to enjoy a good catfight
in your day, if I may say so." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"My
day? I have not yet begun to fight! Anyway, you better watch out. My sources
keep telling me that The Great D'Ancy is in town." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Rene
D'Ancy, the famous French art thief?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
same. Rene Honore D'Ancy. He's a genius with disguises. You better watch out.
Anybody in here could be D'Ancy. Hell, I could be D'Ancy." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"That,
we'll find out tonight." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"I
don't think so. After all, you could be D'Ancy." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Would
that make any difference? Anyway, rest assured I don't feel terribly D'Ancy
tonight." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"At
least try to be a little more vigilant." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"I
can't help it. That guy's a walking, talking bromide. It's more interesting to
watch paint dry — or for that matter, to watch these columns grow." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
speaker, a portly gray-haired gentleman by the name of Publius B. Vandam IV,
droned on and on about how his great-granduncle, the noted progressive,
reformer, and philanthropist, had been martyred on a cross of gold by those
Gilded-Age robber barons. Vandam was the chief executive officer of the company
that had designed the interiors and the lighting of the new galleries. Before
Vandam, Leslie Ford, the museum director, had exhorted the audience that art was
not a commodity, but a public trust. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Before
Ford, one Geraldine "Jeri" Culpepper, an elderly socialite, culture
vulture, and philanthropist apparently well-known among the Four Hundred, had
lauded donors for contributing to the cultural cause, but urged them to match
their donations dollar for dollar with charity for the poor. Traynor figured
that she had inherited or married into her money. Now her guilty conscience was
as black as her dress and gloves. She could not "give back" her
unearned wealth fast enough — to those who had not given it to her. Well, her
problem. The trouble was that she wanted to force her betters, those who had
made their money, like Jennifer and Traynor, "to give it back" as
well. To whom? To those who had not made it. And before her, there had been a
long line of similar silver spoon socialist speakers Traynor had forgotten or
repressed. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The new
north and south wings of the museum had been paid for by a hundred-story
apartment tower rising above each wing. First American Corporation had built
the towers and the reinforced concrete shells of the museum wings on which they
stood. Jennifer was First American's Vice President for Safety, Security, and
Special Assignments, while Traynor, who had held that job before her, continued
as a consultant. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">However,
the museum had insisted on awarding the contract for the interior design of the
museum wings to Vandam Construction. After all, would it be fair for one
multi-billion dollar corporation, and the world's largest at that, to monopolize
the whole project? Moreover, Vandam was among the museum's most generous
benefactors. Nevertheless, like his construction company was but a small part
of the fortune he had inherited, his patronage of the arts was dwarfed by his
charitable giving championing the poor, the underprivileged, and the
disenfranchised. A philanthropist so public-spirited could not be ignored
without a social backlash — in other words, without bad PR. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For
Jennifer, her donation to the museum had been a chance to get her collection of
Frank O'Connor paintings displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, much to
the horror of every curator up to the director. Neither what he had called
their "proto-fascist" provenance nor their amateurish technique had
helped any. Ultimately, only Jennifer's thinly veiled threat that her position
at First American permitted her to maneuver the Met Museum Towers project on a
back burner through an uncharitable safety assessment had gotten her what she
wanted. This had an even more horrified director gnashing his teeth, grudgingly
permitting "those paintings" into his holy halls, half recognizing
that she who pays the piper calls the tune, half rationalizing that one of the
paintings having been featured on the cover of an enormously popular bestseller
permitted a retrospective of the painter in the holy halls his paintings may in
part have helped to build. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Consequently,
the grand opening of the new wings was nothing short of an utter nightmare: Not
only were there the usual inane speeches, but the silver spoon socialist
speakers tried to outdo each other in their condemnation of the selfishness the
O'Connors represented. The silver spoon socialists resented the fact that the
new south wing would be named for First American's chief executive officer,
whose name they scrupulously avoided to even mention. Culture vultures were
furious that they had to thank what they called "those crass
materialists" for the museum expansion, that they even had them
materialists perch like eagles in their nests above the culture vulture haunt.
But what they hated most was Jennifer's O'Connor paintings displayed on the
wall of the sturdy column in the center of the windowless gallery, behind
Vandam. They hated those paintings even more than they hated the fact that columns
supporting the towers above intruded into the new museum galleries, which they
believed they should have gotten for free. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
painting Traynor found most interesting, or frankly, the only one that aroused
more than a passing interest in him, was <i><i>Man Also Rises</i></i>,
Frank O'Connor's painting of a cityscape at dawn, which graced the cover of the
twenty-fifth anniversary edition of <i><i>The Fountainhead</i></i>.
Four white shafts of sunlight broke out of a gray cloud over a city skyline. In
the foreground, the red steel frame of a skyscraper under construction rose
through the right third of the painting. As Traynor loved the book and loved
skyscrapers even more, he found the painting, however crude, appealing.
Jennifer had purchased a couple more O'Connors, but to Traynor they constituted
diminishing returns, and not only the one that was named thus. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Finally,
Vandam having finished, the mayor launched himself into a flight of fancy
extolling the nobility of public service. Mayor Mark Messing was as short and
stocky as Ford was tall and slim. Together they looked like Mutt and Jeff.
Apart from the mayor's head of carefully parted silvery hair, that is. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In
contrast, Ford's tousled brown hair reminded Traynor of ruffled feathers. In
fact, with a small head and a big nose shaped not unlike a toucan's bill, and a
tendency to abruptly look hither and thither for imaginary smudges, scratches,
chips, and tears on his treasures, the museum director did look like a bird on
his perch. The two of them made for a preposterous picture. Traynor was
chuckling inside. He could not look at the two of them for any length of time
for fear of having to laugh out loud. <o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span lang="EN-US"><br /></span>
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://reasonandlibertycentral.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-case-of-kidnapped-oconnors-chapter_18.html">Read on…</a></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Kidnapped-OConnors-ebook/dp/B00DCR3FNM/">Or buy the full story.</a></span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-15521769910133812662013-06-12T16:10:00.000-04:002013-06-12T16:10:32.693-04:00The Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors Now available for your Kindle: <i>The Case of the Kidnapped O'Connors</i>, the new Kevin Traynor mystery. A locked room mystery about art, anarchy, objectivity, and madness. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Case-Kidnapped-OConnors-ebook/dp/B00DCR3FNM/">Free to download</a> tomorrow, June 13, 2013, midnight to midnight Pacific Time.<br />
<br />
When his girlfriend's prized paintings are stolen from the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kevin Traynor has to find them fast, lest she slip from her usual objectivity and rationality into madness, mayhem, and murder. There is no lack of suspects — and no way how any human being can have smuggled the paintings out of that proverbial locked room. There simply is no explanation that is both rational and plausible. The hunt for the thief leads the couple into one dead end after another. It dawns on Traynor that the only way to find the thief is to find the paintings... But is he up against a mere mortal thief, or against The Phantom of the Met?<br />
<br />
Kevin Traynor. With the right to be politically incorrect.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-76252068741750044772013-05-14T12:10:00.000-04:002013-05-14T12:15:03.702-04:0057 Coincidence of the day:<br />
<br />
In 1957, Humphrey Bogart, age 57, a heavy smoker and drinker, dies of cancer of the esophagus, after losing his esophagus, two lymph nodes, and a rib to cancer.<br />
<br />
In 1957, Ayn Rand, a heavy smoker, publishes <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>, a book that she claims contains the gospel truth on all things in the universe (she claimed it encompassed her whole philosophy and that that was a closed system, i.e., not amenable to amendment), a book that features scenes that glorify the cigarette as symbol of the fire of the mind:<br />
<br />
"When a man thinks, there is a spot of fire alive in his mind — and it is proper that he should have the burning point of a cigarette as his one expression." (P. 64.)<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
She had driven far down the winding road, and the lights of the diner were long since out of sight, when she noticed that she was enjoying the taste of the cigarette he had given her: it was different from any she had ever smoked before. She held the small remnant to the light of the dashboard, looking for the name of the brand. There was no name, only a trademark. Stamped in gold on the thin, white paper there stood the sign of the dollar. </blockquote>
<blockquote>
She examined it curiously: she had never heard of that brand before. Then she remembered the old man at the cigar stand of the Taggart Terminal, and smiled, thinking that this was a specimen for his collection. She stamped out the fire and dropped the butt into her handbag.</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Train Number 57 was lined along the track, ready to leave for Wyatt Junction, when she reached Cheyenne, left her car at the garage where she had rented it, and walked out on the platform of the Taggart station. (P. 310.)</blockquote>
<br />
She was a slow learner. Later in life, she lost a lung to cancer and finally died of heart failure.<br />
<br />
These days, aging objectivists are slowly smoking themselves to death. Though they are self-proclaimed advocates of reason, no amount of reason, logic, and evidence can convince them that that work of fiction is wrong and that smoking kills.<br />
<br />
So sad.<br />
<br />
And at the other end of the Nolan Chart, the authoritarians are busy confiscating weed. Not that killing people to save them from themselves would ever make sense, but if they would steal their cigarettes instead of their weed, that would be at least slightly less illogical. Not that there is any sort of smoke that isn't carcinogenic, though.<br />
<br />
Don't drink and smoke, folks. That combination is as sure to kill you as you're to kill someone else if you drink and drive.<br />
<br />
Here the movie version, thanks to Murray Rothbard:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/KIk5C2qsRH8" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
And here the remake:<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/6tk-OkeKxq8" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
End of the public service announcement.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-72631821858789839682013-05-13T07:44:00.000-04:002013-05-13T07:51:35.137-04:003D-Printed Guns: Orwell Was Wrong, So Was Rand <div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/05/05/meet-the-liberator-test-firing-the-worlds-first-fully-3d-printed-gun/">3D
gun printing process</a> doesn't constitute the invention of a new wheel
of undocumented gun cottage industry. <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/mitchfree/2013/05/12/3d-printed-gun-fires-a-new-shot-heard-round-the-world/">Skilled
gunsmiths and semiskilled machinists have always been able to
manufacture</a> undocumented ("illegal,"
"unlicensed") guns. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The true
significance of the 3D-printed gun is the "democratization" of gun
manufacturing. Now all the equipment you need is a 3D printer and the skills
required to operate it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
knee-jerk reaction by the people's rulers, New York Senator Chuck E. Schumer
and Congressman Steve Israel? <a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2013/01/18/meet-steve-israel-the-congressman-who-wants-to-ban-3d-printable-guns-qa/">They
want to ban all plastic guns.</a> <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"But
if you're going to download a blueprint for a plastic weapon that can be brought
onto an airplane, there's a penalty to be paid." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">That
doesn't even begin to make sense. Hijacking aircraft is already illegal. A
hijacker, particularly if he's a suicidal religious fanatic, isn't going to be
deterred by an additional gun charge. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Over at the
<a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/josh-horwitz/will-the-guys-with-the-pr_b_1953692.html">Huffington
Post</a>, the assorted fascists, commies, gun control freaks, and other
intellectual bottom feeders creeping around there are huffing and frothing at
their mouths. But just that they don't like reality doesn't change it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"This
elegant statement of purpose [the Preamble to the US Constitution] confirms
that our Founders saw a more energetic, more capable federal government as the
best possible guarantor of individual rights." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Only that
this government turned out to be the most vicious destroyer of individual
rights. Apparently, the huffy poster is unable to distinguish between
individual rights and the will (the tyranny) of the majority. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"He
prefers an anarchical society where government lacks the ability not only to
accomplish great things, but also to do the mundane, like ensuring that
judgments are enforced and laws executed." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Let me take
Israel's nonsense statement and turn it around into something meaningful: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">We're all
for enforcing (Anarcho-Capitalist) laws against true crime. But if you're going
to raid someone's house to steal his books, computers, and weed, to lock him
into a cage, and to murder him if he tries to defend himself, there's a penalty
to be paid. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If
everybody has a gun, no organization, be it a fascist state or an
Anarcho-Capitalist corporation gone rogue, can afford to enforce laws against
victimless "crimes." Neither fascist pigs nor Anarcho-Capitalist
security guards will be at all eager to enforce contempt of cop on even the
lowliest individual. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The case of
3D-printed guns proves two popular antifascist writers, George Orwell and Ayn
Rand, wrong. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In
<i><i>1984</i></i>, Orwell painted the dystopian picture of an omnipotent
state enslaving its subjects through technology. Now we see that technology is
not the evil tool of the fascist state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">At worst,
technology is morally neutral, neither good nor bad, its moral worth depending
on which party uses it, the state or the freedom fighters. At best, however,
technology is so disruptive that, once genie is out of the bottle, it reduces
any organized monopoly government ad absurdum. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Murray
Rothbard correctly stated that: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Capitalism
is the fullest expression of anarchism, and anarchism is the fullest expression
of capitalism." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Which, as
this case demonstrates, can be turned into this corollary: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Technology
is the fullest expression of anarchy, and anarchy is the fullest expression of
technology. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Advanced
technology makes totalitarian rule impossible, and the absence of pointless
regulations allows more technological progress. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Rand
believed that anarchy would result in the rule of brute force, and consequently
fantasized about how to keep some hypothetical "limited government"
limited. Now we see that anarchy is not the rule of brute force, but of force
controlled by the mind. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Anarchy is
the "rule," for lack of a better word, of those who can operate 3D
printers. Not the rule of decrepit old men like Chuck E. Cheese, who cannot
tell the "intertubes" from their feeding tubes, old men who love
nothing better than to at the drop of a hat make laws to kidnap and murder
random individuals who never harmed anyone. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">If you want
to wrap your mind around how far the lunacy of the government toadies goes,
look at this huffy poster contradiction: <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
concept of a government 'monopoly on force' may sound inconsistent with the
political traditions of a country steeped in stories of its own revolution, but
it is the fundamental organizing principle of <i><i>any</i></i>
nation-state." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Versus <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"We
don't know if the project will be producing serviceable handguns and assault
rifles anytime soon, but if it does — and if these weapons avoid regulation —
political violence could one day replace political dialogue as the hallmark of
our democratic system." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In the
first quote the gun control freak extols the state's monopoly on force. In the
second quote he condemns political violence. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But what is
the state's monopoly on force, if not political violence, political violence
perpetrated by the majority to enforce its will on the minority? Looks like
political violence is fine with freaky-boy as long as it has been rubberstamped
by the majority. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Majority
tyranny, democracy, is fine and dandy for him. Looks like he expects to always
have a leftist majority to back him up. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But be
careful, freaky-boy. A government that is powerful enough to give you anything
you want is also powerful enough to take away everything you have. I dare say
that if your authoritarian government turns on you, saving an authoritarian
like you from death row will be the lowest of the low priorities for any
anarchist. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You dirty
fascists, commies, conservatives, and socialists. Your government stole our
herbs, guns, and books it didn't approve of, locked us in cages, and murdered
us. When we complained, you basically told us to go fly a kite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Now liberty
and anarchy is coming to you, and you don't like it one bit. You complain to
us. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You know
what? Go fly a kite. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Anarchy is
the way of the future. Better get used to it. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/k_wfF9pZZlo" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The shot
heard 'round the world.</span></div>
</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-27104774599938109632013-04-25T10:03:00.001-04:002013-04-25T10:37:43.257-04:00What Is the Market? <div>
One reason why anarchists and minarchists are arguing at cross-purposes is the failure to understand what the (free) market is and how it works. Let me explain. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What is a market? A market is a place where people exchange goods and services. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What is free? Free means free from initiatory force. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What then is a free market? A free market is a place where people exchange goods and services voluntarily. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The state claims a coercive monopoly on the provision of certain goods, i.e., defense and justice. The state claims only it is qualified to provide them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Anarchists hold that the market will provide these goods better, cheaper, and more humanely, like it provides all other goods in that fashion. Minarchists claim that for a free market to exist, it needs to be created and protected by a preexisting limited government, but they cannot explain how such a limited government could come into or remain in existence. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This apparent contradiction is best explained in a model. Let's assume there's a world that contains three individuals: Alice, Benito, and Carl. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The three of them go to the market to trade. Alice is more intelligent than Benito and Carl. Therefore, her products are more advanced and more valuable to every one of them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Because she is more intelligent, Alice has made a pistol for her self-defense. Benito and Carl have only slingshots, as they don't know how to build anything more advanced. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Now, the archist argument is that that market is not free, because Alice has got a gun, but the other two haven't. Alice can force the other two to trade on terms that they would not agree to if they were on equal terms in firepower. Therefore, archists claim that the three of them have to set up a government, which will somehow administer the gun, i.e. the use of force, objectively. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Yet, governments do not exist independently of individuals. Governments consist of individuals. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So in our market, Alice, Benito, and Carl establish a government and have a democratic vote on whom to use the gun against. I bet you can imagine what happens next. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Right, Benito and Carl gang up on Alice and vote to point the gun at her and expropriate her superior products from her, so they get for free what they could barely have afforded in a hypothetically truly free market, where no one can threaten to use force against their trading partners. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
This is precisely what has happened in our world. The minarchist solution is to plead with Benito and Carl for one of them to side with Alice. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
They promise Benito and Carl that if they let Alice go with her tools now, she will come back with even more and better products, and everyone will be better off. But Benito and Carl only care about free stuff now. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Then the minarchists explain to Benito and Carl that it is immoral to steal Alice's stuff, even if they steal by way of democratic government. But Benito and Carl only care about free stuff now. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Besides, they have rationalized their crimes, so that they can go on looting, but still face themselves in a mirror. Benito makes himself believe that democratic government is holy and can do whatever it wants. Carl makes himself believe that Alice didn't really create her goods, but just found them somewhere, so she doesn't really have a right to them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
So in the real world you only have two options: Alice keeps her gun and makes the rules for everyone, or Benito and Carl vote on what rules to make and enforce at the point of the gun they could never have created. The market cannot and should not be free as in "Everyone has the same firepower" or "No one should be able to threaten the use of force against trading partners." The market can only be free in terms and to the extent of "Everyone gets to keep the guns he can manufacture to defend himself with." This way, the most intelligent have the most firepower, and initiatory force and injustice is thus minimized as much as humanly possible. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Sure, it's not ideal to have the intelligent and productive make all the rules, for to be intelligent and productive does not necessarily mean to be moral and just. But it sure beats the current situation, where the stupid and unproductive gang up into a majority and force their superstitions on their betters and loot from them. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
For a representative government to work, the majority would have to be intelligent and productive, instead of stupid and unproductive. Given that it isn't, there are only two ways to establish civilization on this planet. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Either you adopt Anarcho-Capitalism straight, where the rules are made by corporations, where the richer shareholders have more votes. Or you have to go back to "anarchy light," i.e. the system the Founding Fathers established, with census suffrage, where the rich got more votes than the poor, so the latter could not outvote the former to loot from them. ("Anarchy light" because it attempted to replicate the results of Anarcho-Capitalism without fully going there, without recognizing individual sovereignty.) </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But if you go that far, you may just as well go the whole nine yards to Anarcho-Capitalism. But then, you can bury your head in the sand like the minarchists and hope that someday some miracle will happen and establish a market where no one has more firepower than anyone else. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
The funny thing is that the minarchists (or at least the objectivists) are vociferously opposed to a world government. I.e., they abhor the state of nature among individuals, but they are adamant that the state of nature be preserved among nations. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
But in logic, if it is wrong for individuals to live by the law of the strongest (which means the most intelligent, as conflicts are no longer decided by bare fists and brute muscle), then it is wrong for nations, too. So if you want a government to rule individuals, you have to want a world government to rule nation states. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
What we have right now between nations is the Alice, Benito, and Carl state of nature described in the beginning. Alice, the US, the most rational — or rather the least irrational — nation, rules as she sees fit, and Benito and Carl, or the socialist slave states of Europe and the theocratic states of Islam, want to disarm her via the UN. </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Which means that archists, minarchists, and objectivists have no argument on their side but the status quo. We need world anarchy, or the world government will democratically vote to disarm the US and annihilate Israel. But we cannot have individual anarchy, because it's never been fully tried and is scary. The archists are afraid of change and can only resort to "discussions" along the lines of "La, la, la, I'm not listening to this." </div>
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prove me wrong and try to prove me wrong. If you can. Otherwise I hope those government boots you're licking at least taste good. </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-7025852219753971092013-04-23T23:50:00.000-04:002013-04-24T02:58:27.703-04:00The Bankruptcy of Minarchy <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">For a
declaration of bankruptcy of minarchism, look no further than this <a href="http://www.theobjectivestandard.com/blog/index.php/2013/04/hunt-for-boston-marathon-terrorists-demonstrates-absurdity-of-anarchy">blog
post</a> in one objectivist gazette by the name of <i><i>The
Objective Standard</i></i>. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
objective standard. What a claim. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You'd think
if that's their objective standard, it's their best shot. Yet the claims I had
to read in that post are patently illogical, the author doesn't seem to have
read even the basics on anarchism, and that whole tempest in a tea post amounts
to one big fur ball fight randroid vs. straw man, a trap set by knaves for
fools that never heard about anarchy except as in "chaos." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Events
last week surrounding the hunt for the Boston Marathon bombers were instructive
regarding the contradiction that is anarchy." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">On the
contrary, as the pigs made a huge mess out of that manhunt, using excessive
force against suspects who turned out to be innocent, and the case was solved
by a civilian in the end, those events were in fact instructive regarding the
contradiction that is the state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Anarchy,
the absence of government, leaves political justice to the will of the general
public." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Democracy
leaves political justice to the will of the general public. Anarcho-Capitalism
leaves it mostly to corporate professionals, but also to individuals, if they
choose to accept the liability risks of taking the law into their own hands. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Had
there been no government… no law… how would these killers have been identified
and apprehended? By individual citizens investigating and prowling around on
their own?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Not likely.
That would be very inefficient. Capitalism leads to division of labor. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Also, that
there are no governments in a free world does not mean that there is no law. In
a free country, the law is made by corporations, by free, voluntarily
cooperating individuals, just like everything else. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In our
mixed economies, the state makes no bread, but that does not mean that there is
no bread. In fact, thanks to corporate and individual bakers, we have more and
better bread than the soviet slaves got from their state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"By
multiple private 'defense agencies,' … following their own favored practices
regarding the use of force?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Yes, law
and security will be manufactured by private corporations, just like everything
else. Why would any different practices regarding the use of force be a
problem, assuming that they would not be standardized through a negotiated body
of intercorporate law in the first place? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And why
don't the obis have a problem with the fact that different governments follow
different practices regarding their use of force, which have not been
standardized by international law? By that logic, only a single world
government would be permissible. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">By they
way, it's not like there aren't multiple agencies under government that get in
each other's way. Only that they don't compete. So in that respect you already
have the downsides of anarchy without the upsides. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"Over
the course of that week, how many people were wrongly identified as 'suspects'
by the police… Without… the rule of law and due process, how many innocent
people would have been assaulted and possibly slain?" <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Obviously,
fewer than by the pigs that rampaged through Boston like Rambo. Who could the
poor people of Boston call against the pigs raiding their homes? No one. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In
Anarcho-Capitalism, any would-be pig has to be real careful not to
"assault or slay" any innocent individual, as that pig would find
itself at the receiving end of its victim's defense agency. The same is true
for individual vigilantes. Defense agencies would try rogue security guards and
vigilantes alike for murder if they ended up lynching the wrong person, so
there is no additional incentive for lynch justice in Anarcho-Capitalism. In
fact, there is less incentive for legalized lynching, as there finally will be
someone you can call against the pigs. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Governments
unjustly slay more innocent people than defense agencies would, precisely
because democratic voting and the lack of competition permits the government to
operate without reason or objectivity. Capitalist competition will lead to
better standards of evidence than the ridiculously low standards the government
uses and that get all those innocent people on death row right now. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"The
hunt… illustrates why the use of
retaliatory force (outside of immediate self-defense) must be placed under
objective control — that is, control of pre-established legal processes enacted
by a government strictly limited to the protection of individual rights." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The
eagerness with which governments aggress against the innocent accused is the
one best argument against government. Government courts are little better than
legalized lynch mobs, where you find little reason or objectivity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And
"outside of immediate self-defense"? Funny. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">By the obi
logic, self-defense would in fact have to be outlawed. If individuals are too
nonobjective to mete out justice without harming the innocent, how can they be
objective enough to defend themselves without harming the innocent? In a
hypothetical obi land, the randroids would in fact have to stand, deliver, be
raped, and be slaughtered rather than defend themselves, for fear of using
"nonobjective" force. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">And who
exactly should or would pre-establish that strictly limited government? The
people? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In other
words, the majority? No one hates strict limits on government more than the
majority does. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In
democracy — or any other form of "one man, one vote" representative
government the objectivists may prefer to egalitarian, direct democracy — it's
the majority that elects the politicians. And it's the politicians that make
the law according to the majority's wishes. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The majority
does not intend to give up legalized looting. Nor does it intend to stop
sacrificing liberties for sham security. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Only if the
law is made by capitalist corporations in a free marketplace can things change
for the better. In a corporation, the poor shareholders cannot gang up on the
rich ones, as the latter get more votes, according to the number of their
shares, which is, the size of their fortunes, which is, their productivity. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Anarcho-Capitalism
rewards intelligence, merit, and productivity. Egalitarian government rewards
mob rule. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">In
Anarcho-Capitalism, you're free to build a defense agency that does not
sacrifice liberty for sham security, even though the majority may hate it. All
it takes is enough customers, and wealthy enough customers, that vote for you
with their wallets. With that money, you can fund your Navy, Air Force, and
Army, strong enough to keep any rights-violating gangs and fascist nation
states at bay. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The funny
thing is, for all their harping on about governments' real and anarchists'
hypothetical rights violations, the TOS obis committed a rights violation
themselves in that post. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:MurrayBW.jpg">pic of
Murray Rothbard</a> they used is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution license. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Yet I can
find no attribution in the post. There's just a link back to Wikipedia, but no
attribution to the Ludwig von Mises Institute. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">I don't
think it's fair use, as the post is on anarchy, not on Rothbard. The post
doesn't comment on or even mention Rothbard.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-21746184101325750692013-03-25T21:11:00.000-04:002013-03-25T21:30:56.134-04:00Why Do People Love Public, Hate Private? Move over, <i>Atlas Shrugged</i>, here comes real life! You'd believe that <a href="http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2013/03/postal_workers_others_rally_do.html">this article on unionized postal "workers" protesting the end of six-day delivery</a> was a satire. Yet it appears to be authentic, and the people quoted seem to really believe what they say.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
She added, "We will lose the security of the mail because if we don't deliver on Saturday, somebody will and you don't know who will be delivering on Saturday."</blockquote>
<br />
This is wrong on so many levels. In my experience, pretty much every time I deal with a private business, I get cheaper and better service than from one that's regulated or even run by the government. Any service the government pretends to provide can be provided cheaper, better, and more humanely by the free market.<br />
<br />
So the government won't deliver on Saturday anymore? Somebody will? We don't know who it is?<br />
<br />
Yay! Whoever it is, if experience is a judge, the service will get better!<br />
<br />
Of course, the unionist that made that original statement had an ulterior motive. She'd say anything, any nonsense, to keep her and her looter and moocher accomplices' jobs.<br />
<br />
But I keep hearing that insane sentiment from people independently of whose ox is being gored. Why do people root for the state like that?<br />
<br />
(In other countries even more than in the US. In Europe, people complain if corporations collect their customer data and send them to the US with its less restrictive data protection laws for processing, but don't mind filling out all the bullshit forms their governments force them to, giving their governments personal data they'd never even dream of giving out voluntarily. The best thing about the US is that it's the only country where there are still freedom-loving people left that don't trust the government.)<br />
<br />
I don't understand why most people are such knee-jerk collectivists. Why is it that most people tend to approve of anything if it comes from the state, but criticize anything that comes from private industry?<br />
<br />
Is it because in a democracy everybody gets one vote in the state, so the state is "we," but a private company is "they"? Is it because the majority figures they can vote to force the minority to pay for the service? Is it because private industry is out to make profit, and religion holds that profit is immoral?<br />
<br />
Anyways, the article continues with plenty of funny antics from your local chapter of the CCCP (Communist Clowns and Comedians of the Posts) union.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
We want the PMG (postmaster general) to know we stand in solidarity, all of the craft unions," Warren said in a speech to the participants, eliciting applause from the group.</blockquote>
<br />
So delivering mail is a craft now? What special skills does it require?<br />
<br />
Fitting rectangular envelopes into rectangular slots? Checking the numbers on the stamps against tables with the correct postage?<br />
<br />
What's next? The Wal-Mart cashier craft? The burger flipper craft?<br />
<br />
Oh, my bad! Of course it's all crafts. I forgot about those hygiene technicians and appliance technicians. :)<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/IgUAm4pOfoM" width="420"></iframe><br />
<br />
<blockquote>
With ongoing cuts including the Saturday delivery, she worried that "we'll be a private company" when its over.</blockquote>
<br />
Again, what's so bad about private? The loss of your cushy benefits and homing from work?<br />
<br />
Reminds me…<br />
<br />
Sacking out on his sacks of mail, a postal "worker" finds himself lying on something hard punching him from below. Rooting for it, he finds an old oil lamp. He proceeds to rub it, and out comes a genie.<br />
<br />
"Hi! Thanks for getting me out of that cramped lamp," says the genie. "For that, I owe you three wishes."<br />
<br />
"Hmm… Lemme think… First, I want to go to Hawaii."<br />
<br />
Bang!<br />
<br />
He's lying on the beach in Waikiki.<br />
<br />
"Second, I want a beautiful girlfriend."<br />
<br />
Bang!<br />
<br />
There's a supermodel lying next to him.<br />
<br />
"Third, I never want to work again."<br />
<br />
Bang!<br />
<br />
He's back lying on his sacks of mail.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
Clay Myer, vice president of the Alabama Rural Letter Carriers Association, said customers want to retain the six-day delivery. "We work for the American people and the American people want six-day delivery. That's it," he said.</blockquote>
<br />
Unfortunately, the American people want six-day delivery only if they don't have to pay for it, buster.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-1324743716031649722012-10-29T21:28:00.000-04:002012-10-29T21:35:16.106-04:00The Lie at the Base of Obama's Heart If you want to know the big lie underlying Resident Obama's politics, look no further than this <a href="http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/obama-and-the-road-ahead-the-rolling-stone-interview-20121025?page=3">interview</a> in the house organ of the Democratic National Committee, <i>Rolling Stone</i>.<br />
<br />
<blockquote>
You look at Abraham Lincoln: He very much believed in self-sufficiency and self-reliance. He embodied it — that you work hard and you make it, that your efforts should take you as far as your dreams can take you. But he also understood that there's some things we do better together. That we make investments in our infrastructure and railroads and canals and land-grant colleges and the National Academy of Sciences, because that provides us all with an opportunity to fulfill our potential, and we'll all be better off as a consequence. He also had a sense of deep, profound empathy, a sense of the intrinsic worth of every individual, which led him to his opposition to slavery and ultimately to signing the Emancipation Proclamation. That view of life — as one in which we're all connected, as opposed to all isolated and looking out only for ourselves — that's a view that has made America great and allowed us to stitch together a sense of national identity out of all these different immigrant groups who have come here in waves throughout our history.</blockquote>
<br />
I submit that for Obama to invoke the intrinsic worth of every individual, Lincoln, and the abolition of slavery in order to enslave every individual under socialism is obscene. But that's not the big lie.<br />
<br />
"That view of life — as one in which we're all connected, as opposed to all isolated and looking out only for ourselves" — this is the lie at the base of Obama's heart, the false dichotomy that permits him and his Obamabots to pursue the enslavement of man to men in the name of "freedom."<br />
<br />
The question is not whether we do things together, or are all isolated and looking out only for ourselves.<br />
<br />
The question is whether we do things together as free, voluntarily cooperating individuals, or do things together at the point of a bureaucrat's gun.<br />
<br />
What's more, that bureaucrat forcing us to cooperate according to his notions would in a free country be found barely competent to clean toilets. Nevertheless, he got his spot in the bureaucracy because he's a friend or donor of Obama. That's why government programs are usually boondoggles.<br />
<br />
The question is whether we work together as free men, or as the slaves of Obama, the government, and the majority that elected those rapscallions.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-125195713494153861.post-8350325629543077812012-10-25T21:03:00.000-04:002012-10-25T21:14:27.108-04:00Obama Snatches Defeat from the Jaws of Victory <div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US"><iframe allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen" frameborder="0" height="315" src="http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/klXTb-s7d9A" width="560"></iframe><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Make my day
and vote for Romney. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Why? Why
should anyone care one way or the other? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"America
is assured her independence, mankind's cause is won, and liberty is no longer
homeless on earth." — Lafayette. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Don't let
Obama undo this. Don't let him make liberty homeless on earth again. Don't let
that socialist turn America into another European-style welfare state. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">No honest
person has anything to win from socialism. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Obama tells
you he will take the money from the rich and give it to you. But the rich don't
have that much money if you divide it among 300 million people. Particularly
not if you first have to pay for multiple trillions of government waste. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">You may
think that you're not rich and that you'll get a share of the spoils. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">But if your
country goes down the road to socialism, if your government has bled the rich
dry and killed the engine of productivity, your government will soon turn to
you to confiscate your money to pay off those poorer than you. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Look at
Greece. Look at Cuba. Look at North Korea. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Of course,
socialism doesn't have to get that bad. Chances are that it will get stuck
somewhere in the middle of the road. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">Then you
get a country like Germany, where you still have to pay the high taxes and
comply with statist regulations, but find that your government — having killed
off innovation and progress and having spent all the confiscated money on
bureaucrats and wasteful projects that the free market rightly rejected as
pointless — has no money to give you the freebies it promised. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">And even
that uneasy truce, that semi-socialism, where you pay and get nothing back, can
only last if whatever productive people are left are altruistic enough to pay
the high taxes to fund the waste. It seems to work, badly, in France, Germany,
and Scandinavia. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">It doesn't
work in Greece. I doubt it will work in the US. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Look at
their two respective deficits. Does it look like anybody is willing to pay for
the welfare state? <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Don't go
there. It is not a nice place to be. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">The only
ones that profit from the welfare state are politicians, bureaucrats, and
corrupt "businessmen." Look at Solyndra. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">The needy
are better off with private charity, even though that means they will have to
say "please" and "thank you" when they want help, as they
should, instead of demanding that the non-needy be their slaves by birthright.
And no productive person has any use for a government that takes a dollar from
him to give him fifty cents back. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">No honest
person has anything to win from the welfare state. Go for a standard to which
honest men can repair. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">"America
is assured her independence, mankind's cause is won, and liberty is no longer
homeless on earth." <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span lang="EN-US">Don't sell
this for a handout you'll never get.</span></div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0