So how did you react when you heard the woefully misnamed Supreme Court had upheld Obamacare? I first felt a flat, cool anger — without passion because it was so without surprise. I had expected the court would shoot down the individual mandate while leaving the rest — a recipe for economic disaster, of course, since the individual mandate pays for the whole — but a snarkily satisfying slap in the face and at least a small nod in the direction of the Constitution. But nothing those government supremacists do could surprise anybody who’s observing carefully. Their actual decision is…
Category: Official thuggery, bad prosecutions, and bad law
Show this to the innocents in your circle the next time one of them says if you obey the law you have nothing to fear. Whole family loses everything and goes to jail for … failure to speak Spanish when the feds use a Spanish speaker to frame them. Should we ban the word “trillion”? Naw. Good think piece, though. “Pry the Big Gulp from My Cold, Dead Fingers.” (H/T MJR) Sheldon Richman gives another good whack to David Brooks. “Why My Child Will Be Your Child’s Boss.” (Hint: because my child isn’t being turned into a risk-averse ninny.) (Tip…
Earlier this month, the Tubz were rattling over David Brooks’ plea for us all to know our places and respect our betters. And I was surely glad to see Radley Balko give Brooks and his Olde Establishment snobbery a good fisking. But me, I laughed. Brooks’ demand for obedience to Authoritah (any old Authoritah) was so pathetic, so obviously a dying cry from the Ancien Regime, that it delighted me. Yay! We’re out of control! Hooray! We point and snicker at the undersized dangly bits and bloated bellies of our naked emperors! That’s just how things ought to be. Today…
EPA requires refiners to add unobtanium (or at least unable-to-obtanium) to their products. (Via Wendy McElroy) How to make an herbal raw honey ointment to treat burns and wounds, provided you don’t mind slathering something that looks like gelled split pea soup on yourself or those you love. And speaking of those you love but (take it from me) others probably don’t, Malaysia Airlines, bless the marvelously shriveled little hearts of its executives, is experimenting with child-free sections on its aircraft. I’ve marveled at how, when I get on an airplane, I’m always seated in the crying-baby section. Or next…
I persecute the prosecutors: “It’s a crime, what they’re doing.” (My other blogging gig is just once a month, so not much competition for BHM. But I always like writing for Paladin Press.)
Another big, ballyhooed federal prosecution, that is. The jury just found Roger Clemens not guilty on all six counts. Man, how many blown federal prosecutions is that? John Edwards (who may be a complete cad, but …). The Africa sting. Going back a few years, the Irv “Gotti” Lorenzo (hip hop producer) money laundering trial. All big deals, all cases in which some fed prosecutor hoped to stage a big show and make a big impression. And every one of them based entirely or mostly on testimony (or testilying) from informants (or stings cooked up by informants) with little real…
Proof positive. The Canadian government is as filled with paranoid weirdos as the U.S. fedgov. (H/T MJR.) Is it a good sign that even the mainstream media is starting to notice the DEA’s war on pain patients and their doctors? Speaking of the war on freedom, here’s your question of the day. Eric Holder: Liar, incompetent or both? If you liked J.D. Tuccille’s book, High Desert Barbecue, you might want to give it a v*te. How will the world end? You get to help decide. Not exactly new, but a healthy reminder: Humans may not be the only animals with…
A certain “victim of the American drug war” has wisely said goodbye in her own inimitable style to posting about her experiences as a snitch. Apparently, she’s been in this mood for a long, long time — though I suppose it’s “statist” of me to say so. Speaking of statist, a gifted Virginia schoolboy has been suspended for touching the American flag. We may live in a police state. But at least we can still drink our troubles away. Idaho is going to permit Five Wives vodka to be sold after all. But only after a famous lawyer threatened to…
Back from a good — but busy and tiring — weekend. As Dave says, the Mother Earth News Fair was even bigger and better than last year. My friend and I were there only a few hours in a very full weekend. Some links and a couple of funnies for you: Part one of a four-parter on how DC cops SWATTED a vet because they thought he might have some unregistered guns. (Several people sent me this one, thank you.) The FBI and ATF bust yet another harmless but idiotically careless victim. Check out the middle name on that young…
I’m off for a weekend of wild abandon, debauchery, and carousing. Well, a weekend of going to garage sales, hitting Costco, and spending time at The Mother Earth News Fair, courtesy of Earthineer and Backwoods Home. Which is as close to debauchery as I get, these days. So I leave you with these links and will see you in a few. You may already be on the “do not fly” list — and who knows how many other lists in how many other dark governmental places. But now — something new! You can petition the White House to add you…