Category Archives: Government

UPDATED: Organized Vs. Disorganized Crime (US Vs. China)

China, Criminal Injustice, Government, Individual Rights, Justice, Law, Liberty, Private Property, Regulation, The State

Statists stateside have come down harshly on me for even suggesting that your average Egyptian under Mubarak or Libyan under Gadhafi was probably less likely than his American counterpart to be jailed, harassed or have a threatening encounter with the state’s emissaries.

Do you think these former dictators retaliated against “Their People” with diabolical efficiency for selling raw milk and homemade lemonade? Or unintentionally violating Honduran law of which the Hondurans themselves were ignorant? Or attempting to erect a structure on their land?

It’s the difference between organized and disorganized crime: Uncle Sam runs an organized criminal syndicate; Third World despots run disorganized criminal endeavors. It is not unreasonable to suggest that it’s easier to live off the grid in those tin-pot dictatorships America is forever overthrowing, than in the USA, the land of the “free.”

“Illegal Everything,” as John Stossel sees it. He “argue that America has become a country where no one can know what is legal.”

Kids who open lemonade stands are now shutdown by police. I tried to open a lemonade stand legally in NYC. That was quite an adventure. It takes 65 days to get permission from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
With government adding 80,000 pages of rules and regulations every year, it’s no surprise that regular people break laws without even trying.
A small businessman spent 6 years in federal prison for breaking Honduran regulations (and, to make it worse, the Honduran government said he didn’t). A family in Idaho can’t build a home on their land because the EPA says it’s a wetland-but it only resembles a wetland because a government drain malfunctioned and flooded it.

MORE.

UPDATE: “The US Is More Authoritarian Than China,” writes Lew Rockwell:

China is nowhere near as authoritarian as the US, and where authority is exercised it appears to be with more restraint. There is no TSA at Chinese airports. My son has entered the country when the customs and immigration checks were simply closed (because it was outside normal working hours) and walked off the plane and into Beijing.
On the surface, there are a lot of “rules” in China, but no one pays any attention and the authorities don’t enforce them.

As I’ve written, “US In The Red And Getting Redder”:

It’s time we came clean about our economic system. The Chinese are honest about theirs; they call it “socialism with Chinese characteristic.” We call ours free-market capitalism, when in fact it is a Third Way system too: “Socialism with American characteristics.”
The picture of China to emerge from behind those pretty Chinese screens is complex. The embodiment of feng shui it is not. The trend, however, is unmistakable: China is becoming freer, America less free. The devil is in this detail.

UPDATED: Brothers And Sisters On Top (Meantime, In Lefty La-La Land)

Affirmative Action, Christianity, Government, Homeland Security, Left-Liberalism And Progressivisim, Race, Racism

LAYING OF THE HANDS BY HOMELAND SECURITY. Feel free to come up with other captions to this image, in which a young woman, palms up, endures a TSA head massage. It joins a growing stash of similarly themed Americana, in which minority members—represented in federal agencies in greater numbers than among the larger population—lord it over the maligned and despised majority.

This is no spiritual ministry.

In my case, a large African-American woman had summoned me with a crooked finger for a pat down, during which I thought of the film “Midnight Express.” And in particular, the scene where Billy Hayes’ far-from-delightful Turkish jailer schemes to enjoy some time alone with the young American. My tormentor wore the same sadistic, atavistic expression. Her giant digits were soon upon my chest and between my legs.

In the TSA grope-a-thone, a preponderance of manifestly angry minorities face off against the submissive majority. It’s not easy to prove—more so because there is no will to prove it—but you’d be hard pressed to view this sort of TSA pat-down, in this case, of a toddler in a cast (via LRC.COM), as racially insignificant or innocent.

Catholic nuns are notoriously liberal—having recently been admonished by the Vatican for infidelity to the Church’s teachings. So this nun probably doesn’t much mind having her habit disturbed by a similarly clad TSA handmaiden.

If you find footage of TSA agents frisking black tots, or elderly and crippled black old ladies, please send it along.

UPDATE (April 22): Meantime, In Lefty La-La Land.
A naive, lefty parallel universe RG (in Comments) has going there, in opposition to what is looking like a critical mass of facts and anecdotes. What was the last sentence in this post? “If you find footage of TSA agents [black or white] frisking black tots, or elderly and crippled black old ladies, please send it along.”

Step Closer to Nationalizing Natural Gas

Barack Obama, Constitution, Energy, Ethics, Government, Regulation, Socialism

As America, led by the mindless media, fusses and frets over the parasites and the prostitutes—the poor women have been stiffed by the worms, as in not always paid for services rendered—news comes, via the SPPI Blog (hat tip to Roger Chaillet), that BHO has surreptitiously issued a Presidential Executive Order:

The Supporting Safe and Responsible Development of Unconventional Domestic Natural Gas Resources Executive Order seeks to create what amounts to a Presidential super committee that will oversee the regulation and development of the ‘unconventional’ natural gas industry for the purpose of ensuring a long-term natural gas supply for the United States, as well as to do so in a safe and environmentally responsible manner.

Expect energy costs to go up some more, although the last is the least of our problems.

Politicians Are Not Patriots; Prostitutes, On The Other Hand…

Crime, Ethics, Etiquette, Government, Labor, Media, The State

If regular visits with prostitutes kept the political class from launching trillion-dollar war- and welfare programs, and financing Fanny, Freddy and the Fed—I would personally contribute to a prostitution fund.

These prostitutes would be patriots.

(I mean no offense to prostitutes in this post. They are self-reliant, tough people who provide a necessary, if unsavory, service. I use “prostitute” here purely as a convention.)

A million here and there for a good time; that’s nothing in the grand scheme of the crimes committed by the Empire’s foot-soldiers and stooges and the cost of these crimes.

I’m referring to the latest storm in a C-Cup over which big media is having a conniption. It is the scandal at Hotel El Caribe in Cartagena, Colombia, last Saturday, currently being finessed as an “alleged misconduct” and as a mere “incident.”

“The Secret Service sent home some of its agents for misconduct that occurred at the hotel before President Barack Obama’s arrival on Friday for the Summit of the Americas.” The scandal involves at least 10 members of the U.S. special forces, no less.

Wouldn’t you like to be “sent home” when you blow an assignment at work and leave the tab for the boss?

Note that not once did Dana Bash of CNN or Bret Baer of Fox News float the concept of firing the oink-sector scum. All share an understanding that no one who serves Uncle Sam and his agencies ever gets dismissed or disgraced. TSA pimps have license to fondle a crippled child or feel up the scarred breast tissue of a cancer survivor at the nation’s airports–and their identities and jobs remain protected.

Yeah, “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”

Another minor scandal, where dismissing the detritus involved does not seem to be an option, is the General Services Administration’s $800,000 Las Vegas orgy at our expense, with GSA official Jeffrey Neely at the helm. Wouldn’t you know it? Mr. Neely “just invoked his fifth amendment rights and refused to answer any questions in the committee’s inquiry.”

As to the safety of the parasites and whether it was compromised by the prostitutes: I hope so. I want working for government to be one of the most dangerous jobs ever (unfortunately, the honest work of fishermen earns that distinction).