COMMENTS I’VE POSTED
- Posted to Facebook here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here —
Straight outta Spooner
Arvin Vohra
Monday, October 9, 2017 at 3:53pmYesterday, many of you pointed out that it wasn’t fair to call government school teachers and users thieves. In fairness, I have to admit many of you were right.
A thief generally has to rely on a considerable amount of labor to get the money. Pickpockets, burglars, muggers, embezzlers, and armed robbers have to put in effort, skill, risk. They misdirect those things, sure, but it’s hard to argue that burglary doesn’t take any effort.
Now compare that to the public school user, who can’t be bothered to work to pay for schooling for their kids, to provide the education themselves through homeschool, or even steal on their own. Their laziness is far deeper than that of any thief.
I don’t know what the word for “thief who is too lazy to do their own stealing.” Or “welfare receiver who refuses to acknowledge or be grateful for the welfare they receive.” Or “person who inexplicably believes he has some moral claim to the fruits of someone else’s labor.” Or “person who thinks having a kid entitles you to steal, but also to not have to do any of the work of actually stealing, so you delegate others to steal for you, and then act all righteous about it.”
I should have used a word that meant one of those things, not the word “thief”.
So to all thieves who do their own stealing: I apologize to you. I disagree with your ethics, but it was unfair to suggest that you were too lazy to do your own stealing, or so deluded that you think your stealing is somehow morally justified.
Respectfully,
Arvin Vohra (L)
Libertarian Party Nominee for U.S. Senate - Posted to Facebook —
What is the phrase “cultural appropriation” supposed to be other than a snide attack on politically-incorrect cultutal appreciation?
- Posted to Facebook —
So when does urban KKKalifornia become the Bugchaser Capital of the World?
(“Bugchasers” are people who deliberately seek out infected persons and have unprotected intercourse with those persons, with the intent of becoming infected themselves. Then they proceed to use their infectious status to get sympathy from family and friends.)
- nmpolitics.net: Re: End systemic disenfranchisement of independent voters —
I agree with the idea of uniform ballot access requirements, regardless of partisan affiliation.
Instead of tax-funded “open primaries,” simply end the practice of using tax dollars to fund the conventions and primaries of the “major party” organizations. Let them pay for it themselves — they’re perfectly able to afford it.
At the same time that tax dollars are not being spent to fund parties’ conventions and primaries, let them pick their candidates however they see fit. Privately-funded and -managed primaries or caucuses, high-card draw, shooting dice behind the dumpster — as long as non-members aren’t forced to pay for the process or otherwise support it, who cares? There’s wisdom in the saying “Let the buyer beware.”
http://nmpolitics.net/index/2016/11/libertarian-solutions-to-closed-non-competitive-elections/
- Posted to Facebook —
Nirvana — If Cobain hadn’t have killed himself, no one would care one bit about him or them.
- Posted to Facebook —
From Lysander Spooner’s No Treason No.6 — The Constitution of No Authority :
The payment of taxes, being compulsory, of course furnishes no evidence that any one voluntarily supports the Constitution.
It is true that the theory of our Constitution is, that all taxes are paid voluntarily; that our government is a mutual insurance company, voluntarily entered into by the people with each other; that each man makes a free and purely voluntary contract with all others who are parties to the Constitution, to pay so much money for so much protection, the same as he does with any other insurance company; and that he is just as free not to be protected, and not to pay any tax, as he is to pay a tax, and be protected.
But this theory of our government is wholly different from the practical fact. The fact is that the government, like a highwayman, says to a man: Your money, or your life. And many, if not most, taxes are paid under the compulsion of that threat.
The government does not, indeed, waylay a man in a lonely place, spring upon him from the road side, and, holding a pistol to his head, proceed to rifle his pockets. But the robbery is none the less a robbery on that account; and it is far more dastardly and shameful.
The highwayman takes solely upon himself the responsibility, danger, and crime of his own act. He does not pretend that he has any rightful claim to your money, or that he intends to use it for your own benefit. He does not pretend to be anything but a robber. He has not acquired impudence enough to profess to be merely a “protector,” and that he takes men’s money against their will, merely to enable him to “protect” those infatuated travellers, who feel perfectly able to protect themselves, or do not appreciate his peculiar system of protection. He is too sensible a man to make such professions as these. Furthermore, having taken your money, he leaves you, as you wish him to do. He does not persist in following you on the road, against your will; assuming to be your rightful “sovereign,” on account of the “protection” he affords you. He does not keep “protecting” you, by commanding you to bow down and serve him; by requiring you to do this, and forbidding you to do that; by robbing you of more money as often as he finds it for his interest or pleasure to do so; and by branding you as a rebel, a traitor, and an enemy to your country, and shooting you down without mercy, if you dispute his authority, or resist his demands. He is too much of a gentleman to be guilty of such impostures, and insults, and villanies as these. In short, he does not, in addition to robbing you, attempt to make you either his dupe or his slave.
The proceedings of those robbers and murderers, who call themselves “the government,” are directly the opposite of these of the single highwayman.
https://lysanderspooner.org/s/NO-TREASONn6.pdf
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/No_Treason/6 - nmpolitics.net: Re: We are a Gun Nation —
Lonsway nails it here —
“Gun control legislation is useless. We can legislate guns until we cover every single facet of every single purchase of every single weapon ever manufactured, and it won’t change the fact that we have an estimated 270 to 310 million firearms in this country, and more being made every day. We are a Gun Nation. Laws that govern the legal aspects of purchasing and possessing firearms are ‘feel good’ statutes. The only people those laws protect us from are ourselves, those who would obey the law anyway.”
“They don’t protect us from criminals. Criminals do not care about laws; words written on paper mean nothing to them and protect no one. ‘Law’ and ‘penalty’ are two different beasts. Penalties come after the written word of the law has been violated. Never confuse the two.”
Also —
“We can’t legislate mental health.”
Attempts to legislate morality and ethics are equally foolhardy.
Either a person is moral and ethical in their behavior towards other people, or they’re not.
If they’re not, then all the law can really do is address the situation after the fact.
Copied to Diaspora*, Ello, Facebook here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here,here, and here
LISTENING / READING / WATCHING
- Tor Books [Tom Doherty Associates] — Icehenge by Kim Stanley Robinson
- nmpolitics.net —
- End systemic disenfranchisement of independent voters by Ashley Beyer
- We are a Gun Nation by J.R. Lonsway
- The Lucky Libertarian by Tarnell Brown — Bill Weld: The Fight For The Soul Of The LP
- Breitbart News — Bannon: Corker Should ‘Resign Immediately’ After Revealing GOP Establishment Wants to Nullify ’16 Election by Tony Lee
- Status 451 — Days of Rage by David Z. Hines
- Overkill — The Grinding Wheel
- Albuquerque Journal [Albuquerque, New Mexico] — Report criticizes NM school district spending by Kim Burgess
- Black Mirror
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