Monthly Archives: June 2007

A wonderful first step – a person is arrested for voting

Democracy, Dumbasses and Authoritarians, Immigration

I’ve long agreed with Lysander Spooner who wrote:

IX. The Secret Ballot
What is the motive behind the secret ballot? This, and only this: Like other confederates in crime, those who use it are not friends, but enemies, and they are afraid to be known, and to have their individual doings known, even to each other. They can contrive to bring about a sufficient understanding to enable them to act in concert against other persons; but beyond this they have no confidence, and no friendship, among themselves. In fact, they are engaged quite as much in schemes for plundering each other, as in plundering those who are not of them. And it is perfectly well understood among them that the strongest party among them will, in certain contingencies, murder each other by the hundreds of thousands (as they lately did do) to accomplish their purposes against each other. Hence they dare not be known, and have their individual doings known, even to each other. And this is avowedly the only reason for the ballot: for a secret tyranny; a tyranny by secret bands of tyrants, robbers, and murderers. And we are insane enough to call this liberty! To be a member of this secret gang of tyrants, robbers, and murderers is esteemed a privilege and an honor! Without this privilege, a man is considered a slave; but with it a free man! With it he is considered a free man, because he has the same power to secretly (by secret ballot) procure the robbery, enslavement, and murder of another man, and that other man has to procure his robbery, enslavement, and murder. And this they call equal rights!

If any number of men, many or few, claim the right to “govern” the people of this country, let them make and sign an open compact with each other to do so. Let them thus make themselves individually known to those whom they propose to “govern.” And let them thus openly take the legitimate responsibility of their acts. How many of those who now support the pretended “constitution,” will ever do this? How many will ever dare openly proclaim their right to “govern”?, or take the legitimate responsibility for their acts? Not one!

I therefore take a dim view of those who go out and vote for people. Like other crimes, such as murder or theft, I want it to go away entirely. So I am especially happy to hear that one Zoila Meyer has been arrested and charged with the crime of voting. Unfortunately, the state considers her act a crime not because she voted, but because she voted despite having spent the first 9 months of her life outside the United States. » Read more

tarran
I am an anarcho-capitalist living just west of Boston Massachussetts. I am married, have two children, and am trying to start my own computer consulting company.
https://thelibertypapers.org/author/tarran/

Hugo Chaves Trying To Fuel Revolution With Submarines

Dumbasses and Authoritarians, Foreign Affairs, Military, Socialism

Hugo Chavez, like most socialists, is starting to have paranoid delusions. He seems to think that America, a nation stuck in two middle eastern nations, led by a President who considers Venezuela to be problem number 16 on a 10-item list, is going to invade Venezuela. And the man who cares so much about his nation’s poor is spending billions on a Navy and air defense system:

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said his government may buy a fleet of Russian-made submarines when he visits Moscow next week, continuing an arms buildup that has cost his nation more than $4.3 billion since 2005.

“The only way Venezuela could totally discard the idea of not buying submarines is if we didn’t have a sea,” Chavez told cabinet members at a televised ceremony tonight in Caracas. “We have to protect that sea.”

Chavez said he also is looking to strengthen the nation’s short-range air-defense system to counter supersonic and “invisible” radar-evading aircraft he claimed Venezuela would face in the event of a U.S. invasion. Most U.S. analysts deem such an offensive unlikely.

Chavez, who is using his country’s oil wealth to promote socialist policies across the region, often urges developing nations to unite against the U.S. “empire,” winning allies abroad and scoring political points at home by attacking the U.S. for draining Venezuela’s natural resources, propping up a corrupt elite and funding groups that aim to destabilize his government.

…

Venezuela spent $4.3 billion on arms in 2005 and 2006, more than China, Pakistan or Iran, according to a U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency report. More than $3 billion of that was spent in Russia, where Venezuela has signed contracts to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 50 military helicopters and 24 Su-30 jet fighters, the report said.

You don’t feed the poor with Kalashnikov’s. The playbook Chavez is using is not a new one. He’s slowly cementing power, because like all socialist nations, eventually the money supply runs out. He’s already had a coup attempt on him, and he knows that his best bet to remain in power is to make sure his generals are fat and happy, and willing to carry out his rule with an iron fist. That way, when the bottom drops out, and the poor who he’s been feeding begin to tighten their belts, there won’t be enough loose power in society to take him on.

As Eric used to point out here while he was still blogging, the best way to cement power at home is to use an external threat. That’s true whether you’re trying to convince Americans to give up essential liberties to fight a vague terrorist threat, or whether you’re trying to convince Venezuelans to support giving you dictatorial powers to fight off an imagined American invasion.

A few billion military dollars spent, and Chavez is home free. When the Venezuelan people finally realize what’s going on, they won’t have the power to stop him.

Brad Warbiany
https://thelibertypapers.org/

The Victims Of Kelo

Constitution, Property Rights

Turns out, it’s the poor who are hurt the most by eminent domain abuse:

According to the data, those who live under the threat of eminent domain consistently live on significantly fewer earnings, with a median income of less than $19,000, compared to more than $23,000 in nearby neighborhoods. Twenty-five percent live at or below poverty, compared to only 16 percent in surrounding communities.

Those under eminent domain’s threat have completed less education and are more likely to be racial or ethnic minorities — some 58 percent of the population in threatened areas, compared to only 45 percent outside of project areas. All of these results were “statistically significant,” meaning the outcomes weren’t merely the result of chance; they can be considered representative of the overall population studied, that is, residents targeted by eminent domain.

This analysis — consisting of 184 neighborhoods ranging from small towns to large cities across the nation — vindicates the dire warnings of Justices O’Connor and Thomas. Although the data do not show that local officials and developers target specific areas because residents are lower-income, minority or less-educated, the fact remains that the awesome power of eminent domain is disproportionately trained on them. As Justice O’Connor wrote, “The Founders cannot have intended this perverse result.”

And yet here we have it.

Doug Mataconis
http://www.belowthebeltway.com
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