This story isn’t getting much attention but the implications are profound. This shows clearly where the state is in principle most vulnerable. It also makes clear that that the crucial blows against the state will not be struck by ideological libertarians, but rather by businessman out to protect private property from the state.
Told you so: The Revolution Will Be All Business.
We don’t want to come across as the nanny state, but the important thing is to see pigs happy in their environment.
Out of Brussels has come another stunning edict. EU law now requires European pig farmers to provide playthings for their potential pork or it’s the pen! That’s right. Hauled into The Hague for a farm crimes tribunal. Jail time. Three months in a Draguignan hellhole for any hog-herding desperado who neglects to supply toys for his pigs.
This from the Countryside Editor of today’s Times Online:
Farmers should be careful about scoffing at the idea: they could be fined up to Ł1,000 or jailed for three months if they fail to amuse their stock…. Mr Meeker, who has 1,200 pigs, said: “I have a note here which says toys must be placed in the sties. I haven’t a clue what it means.” Yesterday he tried out a plastic aeroplane and a grey furry teddy bear. They seemed to please a small group of piglets, but he was less enthusiastic: “These toys won’t last two minutes. We’ve got to give them something that is hard-wearing. It has to be durable enough to withstand chewing for at least six months and we can’t use wood because that will cause splinter injuries and pieces could get caught in pigs’ throats.”
A spokesman said, “We mean footballs and basketballs. Farmers may also need to change the balls so the pigs don’t get tired with the same one. Different colour ones will do. These rules are based on good welfare. We don’t want to come across as the nanny state, but the important thing is to see pigs happy in their environment”
President Bush may hope to shift Medicare services toward the private sector. Good luck, I say, but it’s not likely that the government is getting out of the health care business anytime soon. In fact, Senators the likes of Clinton and Kennedy would love nothing better than to breathe life back into the HillaryCare corpse. Then we could all try for the record.
This is a little long, I admit, but you have to read it all the way to the end to get the joke.
A little bit of background is in order. For the last few years, various slimy liberal types infesting the USENET political groups have been roundly condemning noted No Treason columnist Billy Beck for his personal stand on taxation - generally in the most abusive and scurrilous terms. First, we’ll provide some samples of their usual invective and their usual threats:
(Illiterate stupidity, frothing rabid malice left intact. Warning; some foul language ahead)
“Gandalf Grey” (Richard Hanson) wrote:
“He’s got you there. Beck is a tax-dodger: a social parasite who utilizes the police, the fire department, the roads, etc. while dodging his duty to pay for them.”
“Gandalf Grey” (Richard Hanson) wrote:
“Most of the slimeballs that dodge taxes have at least the decency to keep their heads down. It’s only here on the internet where criminals like Beck brag about screwing the country by refusing to honor their duty to pay taxes.”
“Phil Hughes” wrote:
“Billy you figure you are above taxes, You dont pay any, you shouldnt have to pay any, you are so damned much better than the rest of us. However, I bet you don’t have a bit of a problem using all of the things that the rest of us who pay taxes allow you to use. I call that theft! (If you want to be true to your so called freedom you should be living in the woods and be completely self sufficent)”
“Gandalf Grey” again, getting quite upset:
“Take your dime and go somewhere where there is no legally established government, punk. You’re not wanted here. I’m sure somewhere in the world you can find some empty space where a principled fuck like you can set up life as a miser and local pariah. Anywhere people are actually found would probably have actual laws and responsibilities and we all know that a greedy unprincipled asshole like you isn’t going to toe the line.”
“That’s the real joke about you, Beck. You scream about principles when you have none. You’re a squid and principles are the inkcloud you put out as soon as real human beings show up.”
“Gandalf Grey”. boasting about how he called up the IRS and made a complaint:
“Congratulations on giving me all the information. That number really works.They’re very nice at the IRS. BTW, Beck. They were also interested in any claims you made about yearly income. How much did you make last year?”
and again from our vindictive little wizard, Gandalf/Hanson: (Patience - we’re almost done)
“I don’t know what their attitude toward your mythological “Hanson” might be, but they were really quite courteous and sympathetic about your criminal behavior, Beck. Apparently, the Commissioner is cracking down on lowlifes like yourself now (too bad the corporations are still sliding, but oh well, it’s a start). They forwarded the complaint to the criminal investigations unit, and of course, I promised to cooperate in any way I can.”
And now for the punchline:
On January, 27, 2003, somebody calling themselves “ElementaryPenguin” posted this proposal to the so-called “Democratic Underground” web forum:
What if tens of millions refused to file federal tax returns??
Taxation without Representation - Part II.
Let me get this straight. We’ve got an unelected administration that at the moment is completely disregarding the will and the needs of the American people, is totally trampling our constitution, converts our military into a bullying offensive aggressor force (one even considering the use of “tactical nuclear weapons”), has, without allowing a debate, inserted a foreign policy bent on aquiring and fortifying a global empire for the purpose of serving U.S. corporate interests - and we’re supposed to FINANCE the whole thing - NO QUESTIONS ASKED - pay the salaries of our own oppressors??? We’re to use our own hard earned money to supply these people with the weapons and materials they require to dismantle the very foundations of our nation - and possibly trigger WWIII???
Uh…I don’t think so!! Hundreds of thousands of protestors in the streets not enough to get their attention? How about a mass refusal to file federal income tax returns?? With the economy in the shape it’s in - this might be a form of protest that wouldn’t be all that hard to sell to the American public! (We might even be able to get Freepers to go along with NOT paying taxes!) Does the Bush-Cheney government really possess enough resources to arrest tens of millions of people?? I doubt it. Why not make them prove it??
What’s the alternative? Sit back and watch them plunder nations and murder innocents around the world in OUR name - using OUR money? Watch them destroy every last vestige of the world’s most revered democracy?? Allow incredible greed and shortsightedness to destroy the entire frickin’ planet?? WHY ARE WE GOING TO PAY FOR THAT??? These people want a war so bad?? Let’s give them one - WITH US!!!
How stirring! Suddenly not paying your taxes is GOOD and HEROIC - instead of being all selfish and evil and stuff. There were quite a few responses - most positive, although some doubted the practicality of the plan. No one considered the plan”immoral”, “selfish” or “theft”.
In order to avoid the charge of being liberal hypocrites, I now expect that our USENET progressives, our “Gandalf Grey” and Roselle and the rest will now call their comrades over at Democratic Underground “lowlifes”, “misers”, “punks” or “criminals.”
I expect them to get on the phone and start denouncing the “tax dodgers” over at liberal Democratic Underground (if the DU comrades had the nerve to actually carry out this scheme, which is doubtful) to the IRS and Ashcroft.
Will they? Of course not.
JS
Don’t ask. Just trust me. Have I ever steered you wrong? Go here. Now.
“From his marvelously equipped observatory on his private star, the alert Stardust keeps in contact with the affairs of the planets.”
That friendly happy island in the sea, Japan. (again). Taken from this article about “love hotels” in Tokyo and Osaka.
ADONIS
Adonis specializes in S&M rooms and cute cartoon characters. Maybe it was inevitable that the two would be combined to make the ““KITTY SM ROOM”. Unless you have some kind of sick fetish for all things Kitty we recommend staying away from this one. They also have a room with glow in the dark jelly fish, a prison cell, a high school classroom and some really scary S&M rooms.
Adonis is set off from the other hotels in the Ikutamatera-machi area and is closer to Uehonmachi station, north of Sennichi-mae dori and west of Uemachi-suji.
Address: Osaka, Tennoji-ku, 5-5-15, Tel. (06) 6761-0168
An interesting article about the “Fully Informed Jury Association” by left-anarchist Bob Black
“My best guess is that FIJA would break down the legal system unless the insiders adapted, as they surely would, by beating a strategic retreat from entire sectors of social life. Sex, drugs, guns - the best things in life are free! Or soon would be. And where society is morally polarized it will be legally paralysed. There will be no point prosecuting pro-life or pro-choice “criminals”: they will have to fight out their differences directly. The legislating of morality or ideology might not soon cease, but it might dwindle to a source of only symbolic satisfaction. That will be how anarchy returns, if it ever does. The state will not be overthrown - just ignored. Perhaps the criminal justice system will persist, shorn of state power, as a game - like chess, or Dungeons & Dragons. And the American Bar Association can merge with the Society for Creative Anachronism. “
Although the people at this website would probably find a few things to disapprove of about me, the excerpt below seems worth quoting…
“Suppose that the honorable gentleman from somewhere or other proposed that we sacrifice all our babies to Molech. Suppose further that a few unteachable fanatics opposed the idea. Would it be the voice of moderation to suggest that we only throw half of them in the fire? Would this be oil on troubled waters? Would it be the voice of moderation - trying to get the no-babies-to-Molech and the fewer-babies-to-Molech factions into the same big tent?”
Last night I was channel flipping (which I rarely do, but, hey, free cable here in the Cardboard Box Arms) and chanced upon THE WEST WING - you know, that TV show where, like, Martin Sheen is President, or something.
My memories of the show are rather vague. (But vague recollections are what will give this weblog entry a certain naive charm.)
Martin Sheen is President, and he’s coping with all kinds of problems in a caring, sharing liberal guy kind of way. Some Middle Eastern type named Ragu or Abu or Sabu The Jungle Boy has committed some kind of terrorist atrocity and blown up a bunch of Americans. Martin Sheen is preparing to show that he’s a caring, sharing, patriotic kind of liberal by blowing up Sabu. (This is the unspoken, unspeakable and yet universal liberal wish-fulfillment fantasy; “if only 9-11 had happened when our Bill Clinton was president! If only, if only….”)
Martin Sheen looks awful. I hadn’t seen him in anything since Apocalypse Now and his appearance in THE WEST WING was something of a shock. His features seem bloated, as if from internal gas pressure from inner pockets of rotting flesh - at any moment I expected his pulpy face to split open (oozing green ichor) and slide off his pale white skull. (Then our President could be a caring, sharing liberal LIVING SKULL OF HORROR! With, like, bare staring eyeballs, dude.) Icky!
Lily Tomlin was on as well. Lily Tomlin looks like a horse. But then, she always did.
But this is a liberal show, so our living-dead President isn’t merely facing the menace of Sabu (or Abu). An unlikely domestic organization called the “Patriot Resistance Army” (or something like that) has apparantly been slaughtering innocent schoolchildren with pipe bombs and assault weapons. (Perhaps they may have tried to slaughter Our Undead President as well, but this isn’t clear) While there is a great deal of legalistic soul-searching about going after Abu, (or Sabu), there is none at all when President Sheen is informed that the Patriot Resistance Army has been cornered and surrounded somewhere. Another liberal article of faith - the enemy, the real enemy, is always the domestic Right. The same liberals who deplored Afghanistan cheered Waco.
At some point in the proceedings, somebody tells the President (in clumsy, expository fashion) that our Patriots like to “get high” by mixing up “tractor starting fluid” and “allergy medicine” and straining the result to make methamphetamine.
Indeed.
This bit of chemical misinformation is provided by morally superior cokehead Hollywood screenwriters, and after enduring fifteen minutes of this preachy, sanctimonious, Democrat-party-campaign-poster TV show, I feel as if I would enjoy mashing up some Sudafed in a bowl of starter fluid and forcing the resultant glop up the nose of anyone remotely connected with THE WEST WING.
The superficial message is that crystal meth is the new Devil Drug - snort one line and you torture small animals, snort two lines and you pipe-bomb high schools - snort up a third line and you become a Republican. The deeper message is that anyone who isn’t a caring, sharing, lawabiding, boringly middle-class liberal must be a baby-killing agent of Chaos.
The liberal ideal is no longer freedom (if it ever was) but an organized, static, unchanging hierachical society, with Eurovan-driving, sensible-shoe wearing horse-faced white liberals permanently at the top, and the ignorant, racist, violent masses permanently at the bottom, dependent upon and supervised by the State.
Presently I switched off THE WEST WING and put on my new DVD of Joseph Losey’s MODESTY BLAISE (1966). I watched Rosella Falk strangle a helpless mime to death with her bare thighs and felt much cleaner.
Those who delve into the dark noisome archives of this weblog may remember when I referred to D. Harry’s first band, Posted in General | No Comments »
Go here and click to play.
(QuickTime required)
“The problem of placing the right line in the right place has absorbed all of my interests across these many years, I am still enchanted when an unaccountable line describes and communicates the inexplicable.”
Al Hirschfeld 1903-2003
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