Do Police Always Lie, Or Does It Just Seem That Way?

Maryland resident Shawn M. Leake was enjoying an evening drive near Hyattsville on May 25, 2008 when he caught the unwelcome sight of a police car behind him, its running lights on.

When he pulled over he was accosted by Prince George’s County Police  Corporal Steven Jackson, who told him that he was following up on “inquiries” about Leake’s auto insurance. Jackson later claimed that he stopped Leake because the windows of his Cadillac were tinted.

Much about the ensuing conversation, which was captured by Jackson’s dashboard camera, remains unclear. A few minutes into the stop, after Jackson’s backup arrived, the corporal ordered Leake from the car. Puzzled and wary, Leake hesitated, asking why this would be necessary.

“Step out of the car now, or I’ll have you out of the car,” exclaimed Jackson.

“You yelling, but you have to give me a reason to step out of the car,” protested Leake, pointing out that he was trying to comply but his foot was caught on an obstruction.

When Leake finally exited the car, a shaved fraction of a split second transpired before Jackson slugged the taller motorist twice before bull-dogging him to the pavement. During this whole time, as the video clearly shows, Jackson did nothing to provoke the violence; he neither hit nor threatened the officer, nor did he assume a “fighting stance.”

After the two of them hit the ground off-camera, a hissing noise and choking can be heard suggesting that the tax-feeder had pepper-sprayed the driver. Jackson is heard accusing the motorist of hitting him and tackling him.

“You hit me in the f*****g lip,” grumbled Jackson petulantly.

Read the rest of this entry »

The State Hates the Internet

Had the regime underststood what the internet would mean– the destructon of official media and the proliferation of unofficial thinking, booming web commerce instead of brick and mortar stores, etc.–it never would have allowed it to come into existence. Given their typical mistake–they are always trying to catch up to the market–surely the smartest minds in the state stay up late thinking of how to wreck the internet in ways that will not undermine the state through public anger. Here is the latest scheme from beloved neocon Richard Posner. This government judge proposes outlawing linking without prior permission, to destroy Google news and other aggregators that necessarily have no government-approved gatekeepers, and all unapproved web media. In particular, Posner–a crazed IPnik as well–also wants to protect government’s beloved newspapers, as if any young person would then pick up one of these expensive, hand-staining pieces of federal propaganda. So what would happen if Posner got his way (impossible, I guess, given all the great hackers, etc.)? We’d all link to foreign sites only, which would then cover US goings-on even more fully, because they would want the traffic. The Washington Post, the New York Times, and all the rest of the CIA’s house organs would continue to decline until they are bailed out by some Obama stimulus, thus making clear what has long been the case, that they serve the state. (Thanks to David Kramer)

The Murdering, Thieving, Enslaving, Unlibertarian Continental Army

Murray Rothbard wrote that “There have been only two wars in American history that were, in my view, assuredly and unquestionably proper and just”: “the American Revolution, and the War for Southern Independence.” Now these wars may be just under “just war” theory, but in my view they were all unjust by libertarian standards. The use of conscription and taxation alone–by the US in the former, and the CSA in the latter–is enough to condemn the actions of these states as criminal.

Libertarians are not usually reluctant to condemn state crime and war, but for some reason if you make similar observations about the Revolutionary War, or the Civil War (either Lincoln’s, or the CSA’s, criminal actions), libertarians become apoplectic. Case in point: the reaction to my post Happy We-Should-Restore-The-Monarchy-And-Rejoin-Britain Day! “Proud Patriot” in the comments says that I “blame the freedom-loving patriots of the American Revolution for the mass murdering tyrants of the twentieth century”.

Well, some libertarians may want to overlook the typical crimes committed by states anytime there is war, but I don’t. The Declaration of Independence of course led to all the standard evils of war and raising an army-as Hummel noted, “unfunded government debt, paper money, skyrocketing inflation, price controls, legal tender laws, direct impressment of supplies and wide-spread conscription.” Read the rest of this entry »

When Obama socializes medicine, take your baby to Mars!

Women & Children’s cares for Ontario ‘miracle baby’

One-week-old Ava Isabella Stinson — all 2 pounds of her — has made quite a dramatic entrance into the world. First her birth. Last Thursday, her parents, Natalie Paquette and Richard Stinson, rushed to a Hamilton, Ont., hospital, where she was born 20 minutes later — more than three months before her due date. She weighed 2 pounds 4 ounces at birth. Then came another complication that doctors couldn’t treat — there was no room at the inn for Ava in the Hamilton area. Lack of any empty beds in a neonatal unit in Hamilton’s McMaster Children’s Hospital forced authorities to prepare to take Ava across the border to Women & Children’s Hospital in Buffalo.

More

Book Banning Courtesy of Copyright Law

In Reason: Copyright Should Last Half A Century I mentioned libertarian writer Cathy Young’s advocacy of a 50-year copyright term in discussing the looming book-banning of a Catcher in the Rye sequel based on copyright. Well, the judge has made her decision and banned the book. Yep. Here, in America, land of the free, home of the brave, we are literally banning books–and what’s worse, this is due to a law that many libertarians support.

Congratulations, Ms. Young, and other pro-IP libertarians. Shame, shame.

Question: if being pro-war is not enough to revoke your libertarian credentials–how about book-banning?

Update: On Masnick’s blog, someone recommended Eugene Volokh and Mark Lemley’s “Freedom of Speech and Injunctions in Intellectual Property Cases” (which I have not yet read).

The Church is No Sancturary from US Police State

Pastor Jose Elias Moran was preparing for an early Wednesday prayer service yesterday (July 1) at the Iglesia Profetica Peniel in Webster, Texas when he was informed that a member of his congregation had been stopped by the police.

Out of concern for the church member, Pastor Moran went out to inquire what had happened, only to have the officer, Raymond Berryman, snarl at him to go back inside. According to witnesses, when Moran tried to explain, “I’m the pastor,” Berryman grabbed at his shirt.

According to Berryman’s official account, Moran pushed him and then fled into the church and returned with 40 other congregants. Moran, his family, and others present at the scene dispute this version, insisting that the pastor never touched the officer and went inside to enlist some church members to act as witnesses.

Berryman pursued Moran to the doors of the church and began kicking them. As soon as the doors opened, Berryman broke out the pepper spray and assaulted the congregants.

At the same time, a second officer who had arrived on the scene (tax-feeders, like other armed bullies, specialize in overkill) attacked Pastor Moran, a 42-year-old man with a heart condition, with a Taser and arrested him for “interfering” with a police officer.

The officers likewise threatened to arrest Moran’s wife Maria after she came to his aid following the Taser assault. “My husband has a heart condition and with electrocution who knows what could have happened,” Maria points out.

“They treated him as if he were a drug dealer or a murderer, but he is a pastor that tries to help the community,” complained Moran’s son Miguel, who witnessed the police assault. Although the police insist that Pastor Moran remains in their custody, he was taken to a local hospital for treatment and additional tests following the assault.

Kealey on Government-Funded Science

There’s a (90-minute) video of Terence Kealey giving a recent talk about whether science is a public good. I do not believe that there are goods that the market can not provide, but Kealey’s research in this area reveals that the argument of science as a public good is not supported by any evidence, on the terms of mainstream economics.

He makes his point early in the video, but the whole thing is worth watching. During the question period, topics such as higher education and patents come up. He gives a great accurate description of Copernicus’ discovery, which is a story that is almost always simplified beyond recognition. And he has numerous other historical anecdotes about discoveries and who funded what.

H/T to Kelsey A.

Re: Patriotism

Chris: A dictionary definition informs us that the word “patriotism” means not simply a love of one’s country [and is "country" synonymous with "state"?], but to favor one’s own country above all others. This leads to the moral dilemma - and conflicts - noted by many others: “our” patriots go off to fight and kill “their” patriots. If patriotism is a virtue, isn’t the young man who kills and dies for the “enemy” equally virtuous and, if so, what does the vacuous Karl Rove offer to resolve that obvious dilemma?

My principal criticism of “patriotism,” however, is directed to parents who inculcate their children in such self-destructive nonsense: why do so many mothers and fathers love the state more than they do their own children?

The Easy Credit Regime Corrupts Even the Amish

Hans Hoppe, Karen DeCoster, and others have made the point that an easy credit monetary regime not only distorts the economy, but it also has an effect upon personal time preference habits of individuals, enabling people to live (temporarily) beyond their means and to encourage high-end consumption that only leads to a bigger bust.

As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, apparently no one is immune, not even the Amish, who in some communities were living something akin to the high life before the bust hit:

“People wanted bigger weddings, newer carriages,” Mr. Lehman says. “They were buying things they didn’t need.” Mr. Lehman spent several hundred dollars on a model-train and truck hobby, and about $4,000 on annual family vacations, he says. This year, there will be no vacation.

It became common practice for families to leave their carriages home and take taxis on shopping trips and to dinners out.

And there was more:

Read the rest of this entry »

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Patriotism, 2009

Samuel Johnson called it the “last refuge of a scoundrel,” but today Karl Rove gives it new heft (and takes it to a new low): now the scoundrels use other people’s patriotism to vindicate and glorify — themselves!

Wednesday Leaders

The three best-read articles yesterday were: Gerald Celente on Obamageddon; Matt Taibbi on responding to Goldman Sachs; and Justin Berger on Congress paying attention to to Ron Paul’s audit the Fed bill.

A follow-up to those Tea Parties

Writes JB in response to this article:

Seems the hypocritical conservatives are at it again in Kentucky.  On Friday night [6/19/09] many of those tea party attending conservatives will be forking over the big bucks for Trey Grayson, who will likely be Rand Paul’s main opponent in the Republican senate primary.  When Rand came to this area to speak, not one local member of the Republican county committee showed up.  Yet when Grayson (a former Democratic delegate for Bill Clinton) shows up, these supposed champions of small government line up to meet him.

Before Rand Paul got the treatment on 6/19, JB had written me earlier about Paul’s treatment in Kentucky:

Well we haven’t been three weeks removed from that GOP pep rally, or Tea Party, where the Republicans told us they were opponents of big government and deficit spending, and the Republicans in Paducah and all across Kentucky are showing their true colors.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Another “winner” in a tied election

Posted by Ryan W. McMaken on July 1, 2009 10:18 PM

Al Franken was finally declared the winner in his campaign against Norm Coleman for the U.S Senate seat in Minnesota. Norm Coleman conceded indicating that he won’t drag out the eight-month recount any longer.

The ritual behind the concession is an interesting one. Any time there is a close (essentially tied) election, the perceived loser after the initial count can concede or he may call for a recount or for a series of legal challenges. He does this in the hope that enough of the opponent’s votes might be invalidated or enough of his votes might be “discovered” during the recount process.

The idea that “counting every vote” provides a definitive conclusion to an election is one of the many great myths and gossamer clouds upon which democracy is perched.

Read the rest of this entry »

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The Power of Language - When the “Liberated” Protest the “Liberators”

Posted by Kathryn Muratore on July 1, 2009 08:50 PM

PRI’s “The World” reports on a crackdown on a factory in Spain. The lead-in states that Chinese laborers in a “sweat shop” were freed/liberated by police. Then notes the surprising turn of events when the laborers protest the crackdown - they want their jobs back. The story continues to pose a question that Spaniards and the police are presumably asking: “Why would anyone want to return to an illegal and exploitive sweatshop?” The working conditions were described as slave-like by a bureaucrat.

By framing a situation with words such as free, liberate, slave, exploit, and sweat shop, even though the words are not very accurate, the stage is already set. I’ve never taken a journalism or public policy class, but this has got to be 101 stuff. The media, politicians, and bureaucrats know what they are doing when they use words in this way.

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California IOUs

Posted by Kathryn Muratore on July 1, 2009 04:57 PM

I keep hearing that California “may have to start paying bills with IOUs.” A friend who lives there sent me to the state Controller’s office that explains a little about how the IOUs work and what “may” means. Basically, after tomorrow, people who are not receiving SS or unemployment checks, may get an IOU from the state that can not be redeemed until after Oct 1st (and then, only if the state has the money to pay). Any wagers on whether the state will be able to pay after Oct 1st?

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Tuesday’s Stars

Posted by Lew Rockwell on July 1, 2009 03:22 PM

The three best-read yesterday were: Christopher Wanjek on the dangers of cow milk; Bill Bonner on hyper-deflation or hyper-inflation; and Charley Reese on his basic premises.

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June Jewels

Posted by Lew Rockwell on July 1, 2009 02:11 PM

Do you know these gems, the 10 best-read last month? Have you read them all, for an A+, or none, for an F-, or someplace in between for a gentleman’s (or gentlewoman’s) C? What’s your grade?

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Teens and Taxes: Because You Have To Start Them Early

Posted by Manuel Lora on July 1, 2009 01:22 PM

From the Massachusetts Department of Revenue:

That’s right; it’s probably not the first thing teens are thinking about. But teenagers work too — even if only at an after-school, weekend or summer job. And like everybody else, they need to know the basics to understand how their tax system works.

With that in mind, DOR announces the first release in a new “Teens ‘n’ Taxes” video series designed to educate teenagers about their tax responsibilities. The first video is set on a teenager’s first day on the job — and discusses the Form W-4, Employee Withholding Allowance Certificate, she needs to fill out.

As part of the department’s mission to educate younger residents about the tax system, Teens ‘n’ Taxes — like the successful DORM (Department of Revenue Media) video series for college students, — will be distributed to Massachusetts schools and posted on YouTube, Twitter and other social networking sites.

Nothing like teaching kids that they, too, shall be subjected to the same tyranny. Equality for all!

Update: Here’s the video.

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The Decline of Thinking

Posted by Butler Shaffer on July 1, 2009 10:10 AM

The political establishment’s response to the global warming doubts raised by EPA researcher, Alan Carlin, is remarkable. The mantra chanted by one EPA official - and dutifully echoed across the media - is that Mr. Carlin “is not a scientist.” This fact, of course, has not kept Al Gore from becoming the patron saint of the environmental religion. (Gore received his PhD in which of the recognized sciences?)

An assertion of this sort is evidence of the anti-intellectualism that has metastasized across academia and spread to other venues of expression. Universities have become so dominated by an insistence upon the inviolability of the “turfs” of various disciplines as to make one unworthy to speak on matters of which he or she has not been certified to utter opinions by fellow academics. There was once a time - many decades ago - when a “liberal arts” education was regarded as a means of introducing people to a wide range of subject areas that would permit them to think and speak intelligently on various matters affecting their lives. Collective thinking - which now permeates college campuses - rejects such an idea, conferring subject matter monopolies according to one’s acknowledged “expertise.”

When my “In Restraint of Trade” book was first published twelve years ago, an academic reviewer from a respected history department spent most of his time acquainting his readers with the fact that I taught in a law school and not a history department. The review ended up being little more than a strident defense of turf, and a condemnation of my efforts to focus attention on matters unfamiliar to historians.

I enjoy watching Jonathan Hoenig every Saturday morning on Fox News’ “Cashin’ In” program on investment analysis. He is a consistent advocate of free-markets, individual liberty, and private property. He recently stated that humans “must think in order to survive,” but that we have recently been “outsourcing” this function to others. Such a practice now prevails on university campuses, and helps to explain why academia is a source of so little original and meaningful thinking. Don’t wonder about what anything means: the “experts” whose jobs are dependent upon advancing the agendas of the political establishment will explain it all to you!

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Another Unanticipated Effect of the Greenspan Depression

Posted by Thomas DiLorenzo on July 1, 2009 06:48 AM

The U.S. Dept. of Agriculture is planning on telling us to eat more goat meat.  I can just see the USDA-approved commercial, with smiling children sitting down at the dinner table saying, “pass the goat meat, please.”  And, “can I have a hoof, dad?”

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Schiff Can Beat Dodd

Posted by Lew Rockwell on July 1, 2009 06:46 AM

The latest poll shows “political unknown” (though actual man of substance) Peter Schiff almost tied with long-term, corrupt senator and hollow man Chris Dodd. And the poll does not take into account the national fundraising ability of Schiff among smaller donors, and his national volunteer-attracting capability. Dodd is supported only by rich people on the federal dole, and paid campaign workers. (Thanks to Travis)

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June 30, 2009

Christianity and War Podcast

Posted by Anthony Gregory on June 30, 2009 10:48 PM

Norman Horn is doing a podcast audiobook at his blog Libertarian Christians of Laurence Vance’s wonderful book. The first installment is the Foreword, Introduction and first essay. Great stuff. Here’s my review of the book’s first edition.

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Liberty, Interrupted

Posted by Karen Kwiatkowski on June 30, 2009 08:01 PM

This via email from Jim:
“I just read your Lew Rockwell article, “Liberty, Interrupted.” (For which, thanks – it’s excellent.) I just wanted to say that I think I know what you mean. A few weeks ago, I was in Philadelphia and stopped by to see the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. What a bucket of chuckles that was! Contemplating the line to “go through security,” it occurred to me that if Patrick Henry were to somehow visit that little mausoleum of “liberty” that morning, he’d have been in the slammer at Gitmo by lunchtime.”

Amazing.

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On ending the 401k taxation

Posted by Michael S. Rozeff on June 30, 2009 04:47 PM

Now that most 401k accounts have fallen greatly in value, all the 401k account holders should demand that the Congress end all taxation whatsoever on 401k holdings. This would immediately increase their value to the account owner and help offset their losses. The increase would be greater the closer the owner is to withdrawing funds.

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How Not To Handle a Crisis

Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 30, 2009 04:03 PM

Writes Steve Fairfax:

NPR’s “Ombudsman,” Alicia Shepard, posted a rather pathetic defense of NPR’s policy of using euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation techniques” for torture.  Her tortured argument (couldn’t resist) is rather difficult to reconcile with her job description: “The Ombudsman is the public’s representative to NPR.”

Hundreds of comments, almost universally critical, were posted, many times the normal volume of comments.

The formidable Glenn Greenwald dissected Shepard’s arguments and uses them to illustrate “the decay of American journalism.”  Greenwald invites Shepard to an interview on Salon Radio.

Shepard disappears for a week.  The Appalachian Trail was not invoked, but despite an intern’s claim that Shepard is unavailable, Shepard makes a 5-minute appearance on another NPR radio show, “On the Media.”  This provokes many more comments from furious NPR listeners.

Shepard refuses Greenwald’s request for an interview, provoking another good dissection by Greenwald.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Norm Coleman’s Second Embarrassment

Posted by Butler Shaffer on June 30, 2009 02:27 PM

The media is informing us that the U.S. Senate race in Minnesota is now official, and that the incumbent, Norm Coleman, has been bested by the third-rate comedian, Al Franken. On the surface, this should be embarrassment enough for Mr. Coleman. However, he was more thoroughly humiliated a few years ago when the British MP, George Galloway, came to Washington to respond to charges Coleman had made against him. Galloway all but undressed Coleman before a Senate committee, leaving the Minnesotan a mumbling bowl of jelly. It was an interesting commentary on the pathetic state of American politics that, during his subsequent speaking tour of this country, Galloway was repeatedly asked if he would consider moving to a U.S. state to run for the Senate!

Minnesotans can expect the same kind of gurgling nonsense from a Sen. Franken that they heard from the erstwhile Sen. Coleman. Now, however, the comic relief will be coming from a man professionally trained to deliver it!

On Galloway vs. Coleman, see Part I and Part II.

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The Limited Mugger

Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 30, 2009 11:20 AM

Writes David Bardallis:

Charley Reese often says things that need saying, but when I read a sentence like this:

“True conservatives have argued for years that government, even a benign one, is like a clumsy, retarded giant, and therefore you have to be careful to limit what tasks you assign it.”

…my reaction is “Who would assign ANY tasks to a ‘clumsy, retarded giant’?” I have LRC to thank for that reaction, of course, or else I might still be spouting such illogic about government today.

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Re: On Being Well-Adjusted

Posted by Butler Shaffer on June 30, 2009 10:15 AM

Ryan: A similar analysis was developed by Snell and Gail Putney in their book, “The Adjusted American: Normal Neuroses In the Individual and Society.”

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Don’t You DARE Scare A Police Officer!

Posted by William Grigg on June 30, 2009 10:07 AM

Last Friday, the Encintas station of the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department wrote another chapter in the annals of law enforcement overkill by dispatching an eight-man force, augmented by a helicopter, to deal with a spurious noise complaint prompted by a congressional fund-raising party in nearby Cardiff.

According to guests, the reception for candidate Francine Busby — which attracted about thirty people, most of them comfortably into middle age and none of them particularly boisterous by nature — was interrupted by “a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes.”

Someone, most likely the heckler in question, called in a noise complaint. The Sheriff’s Office dispatched the large force under the command of Deputy Marshall Abbott, who has been with the force for about two years and, as we’ll see, displays the perverse eagerness to escalate a confrontation that is a persistent trait among younger law enforcement personnel.

Abbott approached hostess Shari Barman to inquire about the complaint. No doubt thinking of the polite fellow who had hurled epithets at the gathering earlier, Barman replied with an epithet of her own.

Abbott asked Barman for her birth date. Puzzled by the question, Barman asked why that information was necessary, not understanding that under the martial law mind-set prevailing today, anything other than immediate, docile obedience to any directive issued by a goon in a government-issued costume is considered a crime.  Read the rest of this entry »

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Oh Thrill, Oh Joy

Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 30, 2009 09:20 AM

The US’s Iraqi puppet government has declared today to be a new puppet government holdiay, “National Sovereignty Day,” because US occupation troops are withdrawing (except when they are not) from Iraqi cities to their gigantic bases elsewhere in that US possession, National Pentagon Radio informed me this morning.

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Cardinal O’Brien on Nuclear Weapons

Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 30, 2009 09:00 AM

There is some controversy in the UK, as there is not in the US, over possession of weapons of mass destruction. Here is the plain-spoken Cardinal of Scotland:

In any and all circumstances the use of a nuclear weapon would be immoral. Since, to use these weapons would be immoral, to threaten their use is immoral and to hold them with a view to threatening their use is also immoral.

Here is the whole article. Of course, these murder missiles are supplied by the US to its British puppet state to make it feel important. (Thanks to Matthew Alexander)

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Monday Marvels

Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 30, 2009 08:29 AM

Here were the three best-read yesterday: Dave Deming on why he’s a “global warming denier” and a “traitor to the planet,” like all thinking non-commies;  Jeff Knaebel on why he’s renounced his citizenship in the US government and wants nothing more to do with it; and Mike Gaddy on why he owns guns (hint: he doesn’t want to be a government slave).

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Ron Paul on the Deadly Climate Bill

Posted by Lew Rockwell on June 30, 2009 07:34 AM

(Thanks to Minnesota Chris)

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Another Rev-ealing “Hate” Crime

Posted by David Kramer on June 30, 2009 06:03 AM

From the country that gave us pseudo-free market icon Adam Smith, here’s a story that should really get you revved up:

A DRIVER spent two nights in jail after being accused of “revving his car in a racist manner”. Mechanic Ronnie Hutton, 49, yesterday described his court ordeal which finally ended when prosecutors dropped the allegation of racism. But he was still convicted of a breach of the peace for revving the engine of his £25,000 Lotus.

Witnesses claimed he had been trying to intimidate a Libyan couple on the pavement. Ronnie, of Stirling, claims he was only revving the powerful V8 engine to avoid another £15,000 repair bill.

Talk about driving on a road to hell paved with good intentions.

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June 29, 2009

A nation of “well-adjusted” people

Posted by Ryan W. McMaken on June 29, 2009 10:05 PM

Marshall McLuhan is most famous for popularizing the notion that “the medium is the message.”  He did so in a somewhat lengthy and very complicated book called Understanding Media, first published in 1964. The theory notes that the content of media isn’t so important as the medium itself. For example, even when content is similar, a person who gets his news from the internet is going to have an entirely different relationship with others and with the world in general, than a person who watches television for news.

In an effort to popularize his theories further, McLuhan released a book in 1967 called The Medium is the Massage (Note that it is “Massage” not “Message”).  The book features a variety of unusual images and sparse text, but is designed to quickly communicate the central ideas in McLuhan’s theories.  Consequently, it is full of McLuhan’s more anti-status quo observations such as this one:

Read the rest of this entry »

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