We're All Going To Become Criminals Soon- The Sunday Collage
Many years ago in Moonbat Valley, the rich folks donated a bunch of money to build a skateboard park. The community wanted the park.The Chief of Police wanted the skateboard park. So did I. Year after year, we received hundreds of calls from local merchants complaining about skateboarders loitering, tearing up private property- chipping concrete and wood benches- and being smart asses when merchants asked skateboarders to "beat it." Skateboarders countered with the great "skateboarding is not a crime" campaign.
After we built the park, the park became an area of drug dealing, bullying, vandalism, and littering. Petty crimes mostly. Complaints began to rise again. There was no way to effectively police the park. I learned several important lessons from the skateboard park experiment.
Kids are a pain in the ass. People break laws. The more laws you pass, the more laws will get broken. Enforcement costs a lot of money and at some point- a point we have passed already- laws become unenforceable and only arbitrarily applied when it is convenient.Those are just the "good" laws. What about all of the bad and unjust laws- laws that demand that we do something we simply cannot afford to do? Are we going to allow government to spend us into oblivion and then demand that we turn over all of our money via tax law so that they may redistribute it to their banker buddies, defense contractors, and health care providers?
Of course not. At some point, we are all going to become criminals. We are going to cheat on our taxes, work for cash and barter, and do what we need to do to survive. We are going to break laws, unjust laws, and I see that as a good thing. I'm not the only one either. You might say Howard Zinn saw the dangers of becoming the society of sheep that we have become.
“Civil disobedience, as I put it to the audience, was not the problem, despite the warnings of some that it threatened social stability, that it led to anarchy. The greatest danger, I argued, was civil obedience, the submission of individual conscience to governmental authority. Such obedience led to the horrors we saw in totalitarian states, and in liberal states it led to the public's acceptance of war whenever the so-called democratic government decided on it...
In such a world, the rule of law maintains things as they are. Therefore, to begin the process of change, to stop a war, to establish justice, it may be necessary to break the law, to commit acts of civil disobedience, as Southern black did, as antiwar protesters did.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
Zinn was against the Vietnam War before it was fashionable to be against war. His story is pretty fascinating. Our government did everything they could to label him a criminal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn
In Idaho this past week, we had a great statewide debate over whether college kids would be allowed to carry guns on college campuses. They were debating a law which was constitutionally guaranteed to us 240 years ago. The right to bear arms. Like they had the authority to nullify the Constitution.
Several years ago, while living in the great shooting gallery known as New Orleans, I routinely carried a gun. I did not even attempt to comply with whatever local laws they have in New Orleans. I didn't care. I remember an old cop adage from decades before.
It is better to be judged by 12 than buried by 6.
The great temptation of all legislative bodies is to pass laws. That's what they do. They show very little restraint because it is much more difficult to tell constituents that a new law will be ineffective, unenforceable, and costly. And rarely, if ever, do legislative bodies go back and remove outdated or ineffective laws. To this day in Idaho- we still have sex laws that prohibit oral sex between a man and his wife and liquor laws that prohibit merchants from stating the brand name of a beer on exterior advertising. A typical marquee sign here reads, "premium beer, 12 pack, 9.99."
One of my favorite examples of the wholesale fleecing of people occurs in the insurance industry as that industry has managed to pass laws making it mandatory that you buy their products. Auto insurance, homeowner insurance, health insurance, mortgage insurance. Insurance companies have been granted a virtual monopoly by the state while pretending to offer competitive pricing. It's all quite laughable.
I don't get too worked up anymore by all of this law passing. It's beyond ridiculous. I have simply resigned myself to the following parameters. I am not going to break any laws that potentially harm someone else. That's it. I am drawing the line. I am not going to submit to some ridiculous law (ACA) while our leadership consistently demonstrates a complete dereliction of duty and no respect for the rule of law. Obama, Holder, and Clinton should all be criminally charged for any number of things- the least of which was their failure to prosecute thousands of criminal bankers and the worst which was their lies and cover up of the deaths of Americans in Benghazi.
Sooner or later, this administration will be forced out. They represent the worst possible leadership- a Republic gone awry. Or maybe they represent what happens when you have too many laws and nobody enforcing them. Somebody is gonna have to pay for this shit show and Uncle Sugar is going to come looking for you. Remember...
Everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
After we built the park, the park became an area of drug dealing, bullying, vandalism, and littering. Petty crimes mostly. Complaints began to rise again. There was no way to effectively police the park. I learned several important lessons from the skateboard park experiment.
Kids are a pain in the ass. People break laws. The more laws you pass, the more laws will get broken. Enforcement costs a lot of money and at some point- a point we have passed already- laws become unenforceable and only arbitrarily applied when it is convenient.Those are just the "good" laws. What about all of the bad and unjust laws- laws that demand that we do something we simply cannot afford to do? Are we going to allow government to spend us into oblivion and then demand that we turn over all of our money via tax law so that they may redistribute it to their banker buddies, defense contractors, and health care providers?
Of course not. At some point, we are all going to become criminals. We are going to cheat on our taxes, work for cash and barter, and do what we need to do to survive. We are going to break laws, unjust laws, and I see that as a good thing. I'm not the only one either. You might say Howard Zinn saw the dangers of becoming the society of sheep that we have become.
“Civil disobedience, as I put it to the audience, was not the problem, despite the warnings of some that it threatened social stability, that it led to anarchy. The greatest danger, I argued, was civil obedience, the submission of individual conscience to governmental authority. Such obedience led to the horrors we saw in totalitarian states, and in liberal states it led to the public's acceptance of war whenever the so-called democratic government decided on it...
In such a world, the rule of law maintains things as they are. Therefore, to begin the process of change, to stop a war, to establish justice, it may be necessary to break the law, to commit acts of civil disobedience, as Southern black did, as antiwar protesters did.”
― Howard Zinn, You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times
Zinn was against the Vietnam War before it was fashionable to be against war. His story is pretty fascinating. Our government did everything they could to label him a criminal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Zinn
In Idaho this past week, we had a great statewide debate over whether college kids would be allowed to carry guns on college campuses. They were debating a law which was constitutionally guaranteed to us 240 years ago. The right to bear arms. Like they had the authority to nullify the Constitution.
Several years ago, while living in the great shooting gallery known as New Orleans, I routinely carried a gun. I did not even attempt to comply with whatever local laws they have in New Orleans. I didn't care. I remember an old cop adage from decades before.
It is better to be judged by 12 than buried by 6.
The great temptation of all legislative bodies is to pass laws. That's what they do. They show very little restraint because it is much more difficult to tell constituents that a new law will be ineffective, unenforceable, and costly. And rarely, if ever, do legislative bodies go back and remove outdated or ineffective laws. To this day in Idaho- we still have sex laws that prohibit oral sex between a man and his wife and liquor laws that prohibit merchants from stating the brand name of a beer on exterior advertising. A typical marquee sign here reads, "premium beer, 12 pack, 9.99."
One of my favorite examples of the wholesale fleecing of people occurs in the insurance industry as that industry has managed to pass laws making it mandatory that you buy their products. Auto insurance, homeowner insurance, health insurance, mortgage insurance. Insurance companies have been granted a virtual monopoly by the state while pretending to offer competitive pricing. It's all quite laughable.
I don't get too worked up anymore by all of this law passing. It's beyond ridiculous. I have simply resigned myself to the following parameters. I am not going to break any laws that potentially harm someone else. That's it. I am drawing the line. I am not going to submit to some ridiculous law (ACA) while our leadership consistently demonstrates a complete dereliction of duty and no respect for the rule of law. Obama, Holder, and Clinton should all be criminally charged for any number of things- the least of which was their failure to prosecute thousands of criminal bankers and the worst which was their lies and cover up of the deaths of Americans in Benghazi.
Sooner or later, this administration will be forced out. They represent the worst possible leadership- a Republic gone awry. Or maybe they represent what happens when you have too many laws and nobody enforcing them. Somebody is gonna have to pay for this shit show and Uncle Sugar is going to come looking for you. Remember...
Everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.
Comments
2) You can break your life and live the law, or break the law and live your life. Choose.
3) I'll do whatever I damned well please, provided no one else gets hurt.
4a) Why should I pay taxes, of any kind, when the powers-that-be can print as much money as they require out of thin air? After all, we're not on a gold standard any more, right? Let them print what they need and leave me alone.
4b) The party/candidate I vote for never has and never will win (in a winner-take-all, loser-get-nothing system), so why vote? I therefore have no voice and no say in how I am governed, but continue to be taxed (by people I never voted for). That is called taxation without representation and I am not pleased with that arrangement (proportional representation might induce me to vote, but that's another argument).
5) Government is the politically correct term for "organized crime".
6) Carry concealed is good. It gives the innocent a chance to fight back and makes for a more polite society.
Think drones. Our government has the upper hand- they can simply bomb us on our own soil with superior advantages incl. unmanned aircraft. The future- as I love to say- looks incredibly interesting.