03 Sep 2006
No Treason VI

Lysander SpoonerLysander Spooner (1808-1887) was a Massachussetts barrister noted for his vigorous and brilliant opposition to the steady encroachment of the State upon the liberty of the individual. A businessman as well as a legal scholar, he challenged the postal monopoly by setting up the American Letter Mail Company in 1844, resulting in sharply reduced postage rates, and eventually the Private Express Statues, banning private delivery of first class mail.

This little treatise had a profound effect on my political thinking when I first encountered it in 1970 in a reprint edition from the now defunct Society for Libertarian Life. It remains as powerful and fresh as when first written in 1870. Playboy Magazine called it "the most subversive document ever penned in this nation...", and that may be an understatement.

Like the Emperor in the famous fairy tale, the Constitution has no clothes when Spooner gets done with it. The excerpt below, comparing the government to a highwayman, should give you a feel for the flavor.

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.

(No Treason VI: The Constitution of No Authority) [Lysander Spooner]

19:21 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

The Internet Not for Old People

Ya know, this is pretty awful, but isn't it just a variant of the same policy that keeps teens from surfing freely?

The real problem is that people deserve to be judged on their competency, and instead they get judged on their age. Or race. Or gender. And there's a really simple reason for this plethora of patronizing, too.

There's too many of us. Judging us as individuals would take an inordinate amount of time, and undoubtedly drive up costs. Better to set an inflexible policy and let the chips fall where they may.

Of course it speeds things up to make blanket judgments on whole groups, and, at times, it might even be warranted, as in the case of forcing drivers over 70 to pass a driving test at each license renewal. But the net effect is to reduce each individual's liberty, and conflate it with other members of some real or imagined group of people.

But groups don't have liberties, people do. And reducing the liberty of individuals by assigning them to groups does nothing to enhance freedom for anyone: it's does just what it claims to, it reduces liberty, either by restricting economic choice or simply closing off the political process (note the claim in the comments on the original piece that persons over 70 are restricted from jury duty in the UK).

There's really no good solution to this except to try to slap it down whenever it rears it's ugly head.

The Daily Mail is reporting that if you want an Internet connection and you are over 70 you may be in for a surprise. From the article: "After walking the Great Wall of China and making plans for a trip to Russia, Shirley Greening-Jackson thought signing up for a new Internet service would be a doddle. But the young man behind the counter had other ideas. He said she was barred - because she was too old."

(link) [Slashdot]

15:05 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

Khatami condemns US policy

WTF? I thought Bush was loudly proclaiming that our enemy was Islamo-fascism. So what is the State department doing granting an unrestricted visitors visa to the former head of a nation with which we have no diplomatic relations, and which is arguably a genuine Islamo-fascist state?

When we had a vague inkling that Saddam might possibly still have a few old chemical or biological WMD's, we beat the drums of war loudly and rapidly. We know for a fact that the Iranians are pursuing a nuclear weapon, and yet the same government that was so anxious to effect "regime change" in Iraq is moving at a snails pace against Tehran.

Methinks that there's more going on here than meets the eye or we are governed by incompetent idiots, take your pick. And I sincerely hope it's the former, because we've still got over two years of this Administration left to run.

Ex-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami savages US foreign policy at a gathering of Muslims in Chicago.

(link) [BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition]

12:38 /Politics | 4 comments | permanent link