I read the other day that overwhelming majorities of Americans support federal fuel economy mandates: 77 percent of Republicans and 92 percent of Democrats, according to a recent poll (see here). That means they also support the $1,300 line item on the window sticker of the new Cadillac CTS-V GM dropped off for me to evaluate this week. It’s not a wheel/tire package. Not an upgrade audio system. Not special paint.
It’s a “gas guzzler” tax.
You buy the CTS-V, you pay $1,300 extra – on top of the sales tax; on top of the title taxes – with the money you’ve got left after paying federal, state, local, Social Security and Medicare taxes. And why? Because your fellow (and frequently flag-waving) Americans are anti-freedom. They resent you – the buyer of a car like the CTS-V, which uses more fuel than they think it ought to use – and have put in place mechanisms designed to punish you for having the effrontery to buy such a car.
They will cry, “but the CTS-V is a gas hog!”
And they are liberty hogs – because they cannot comprehend that whatever gas the CTS-V uses – whether it’s a lot or a little – every last drop of it was paid for in toto by the owner of the car. These people have no more right to bitch about the gas that goes into the tank of a CTS-V than they do about the gas that goes into the tank of a Prius hybrid. In both cases, the owners of the cars bought the gas. It is their gas. Whatever stake that amorphous entity that goes by the name of “society” might have had in the disposition of that fuel prior to the sale of that fuel is vitiated by the fact of its purchase – at which point the fuel becomes the property of the person who bought it. Who paid for it in full – including the regressive and confiscatory motor fuels taxes that are part and parcel of every gallon purchased.
The buyer of a car such as the 556 horsepower supercharged CTS-V, which does indeed use a great deal of gas, also pays a great deal more in motor fuels taxes than the Prius driver. That means, he pays more to maintain “our” roads than the Prius driver. A great deal more, in fact. It says so – in bold face type, right there on the MSRP window sticker: “You SPEND $6,150 more in fuel costs over five years, compared to the average new vehicle.”
The Prius driver should applaud the CTS-V driver, who is subsidizing his hybrid. At the least, he ought to have the decency to leave him in peace. After all, he’s paying the lion’s share of the tab for “our” roads – not the Prius driver.
Instead, the Prius driver, the freedom-hating American, wants to punish the driver of the CTS-V.
Again. (Don’t forget all those other taxes, already paid – and in greater proportion, since “the rich” who buy cars like this also pay disproportionately higher taxes).
It’s despicable.
But also indicative of the envy-addled, control-freak cancer that’s metastasizing across the country. The sickness of mind – and heart – that begrudges others their liberty, their free choice. And which is determined to impose its values and views on others by force. 
It’s not enough for such people to choose a fuel efficient car for themselves – and leave others free to choose whatever type of car meets their needs (and wants). No. They insist others buy the type of car they believe they ought to buy. Hence CAFE – the acronym that stands for the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy edicts – and the broad spectrum public support for such measures.
CAFE is responsible for sea-change distortions of the car market by infusing government “incentives” – that is, artificial incentives – which displace natural free market incentives (free people exercising free choice). The sole reason for the existence of legions of bulbous SUVs – the bete noirs of the people who venerate CAFE – is because of the existence of CAFE. The “loophole” (a lower CAFE standard for so-called “light trucks”) that incentivized their mass production has been closed – but new distortions have been effected.
Cars are becoming much more complex – and costly – just for openers.
Cars like the CTS-V – a very high-performance car – are black swans; cars that manage – despite all the obstacles – to get built, if only in very small numbers and sold at very high prices Very few people can afford one, given a base price of $63,215. Even accepting the control freak’s premise, the effect of such a car’s consumption on “our” resources is not even measurable, given the minuscule production of such cars. (And if you did wish to measure it, how about measuring the consumption of every CTS-V made against the consumption of oh, I dunno, a division of M1 Abrams battle tanks? Or Dear Leader’s armored – and 4 MPG – limousines? But then, “gas guzzling” only applies to the conveyances of Mundanes.)
And so – out of pure spite – a $1,300 “gas guzzler” penalty is affixed belligerently to the CTS-V’s window sticker, as if to shame the buyer as well as financially penalize him.
Cars like the CTS-V (powerful V-8 engine, rear-wheel-drive) have become all-but-impossible to make as mass-market cars, because of CAFE. But it’s not enough that nine out of ten people will never get the chance to drive such a car. The one out of 10 (more like one out 10,000) who manages to somehow retain a sufficiency of funds – after being fleeced at multiple levels by federal, state and local taxes – to be in a position to afford a car like the CTS-V (and to afford to put gas into a car like the CTS-V, to afford being able to pay 2-3 times the motor fuels taxes that the average driver pays) must be punished one more time. 
How long before wealth-and-freedom-hating Americans decide that “we” need a luxury tax on cars more opulent than a Hyundai Accent or Toyota Yaris? Before it is decided that “we” don’t really “need” privately owned cars at all?
I have no doubt such is in the works. It’s the logical terminus of a society – and people – that not only no longer understands freedom but which actively despises it.
Throw it in the Woods?
I once heard someone argue (I believe it was in regards to ObamaCare) that sometimes people have to be forced into charity.
That phrase has always stuck with me. One would assume that the sheer nature of the words ‘forced’ and ‘charity’ would make using them in a sentence in relation to each other anathema in our language but alas, apparently we can have ‘forced charity’ in this country and no one that graduated from a public school blinks an eyelash.
Americans love freedom only insomuch as they individually possess it and their neighbor does not. So I guess they love the freedom to have the power to oppress. Unfortunately, the lack of conscious recognition of these thoughts and short-sightedness leads to the oppression of all.
Hi Julie,
Yup – I’ve encountered that screwy intellectual-philosophical point-of-view many times. Underlying it is this incredible arrogance that they (the ones forcing others to be charitable) know best – not to mention the simple ugliness that it’s not their resources being stolen. They simply arrogate unto themselves the right to take and re-distribute the resources of others.
They’re despicable.
Julie, I’ve encountered that one as well. So now I differentiate with coerced charity and voluntary charity.
To counter this argument I use their own thinking against them. I argue that if it is such a good idea that nearly everybody wants then they can do it voluntarily. This is one of the arguments I use that often results in a fit of emotion and rational debate ends on their part. Some of the brighter ones will counter with the idea of free-loaders who will want in after the fact. Once something happens to them they want the fire protection service to put out the fire or some such. I respond that they have a tough call to make whether to help them or turn them away, but if they didn’t pay in, that’s the situation they put themselves in. In the fire example I’ve often suggested something like charging three times actual costs but putting out the fire.
It’s not difficult to figure out a voluntary society. The problem is one of mindset. People are set in thinking in terms of force.
My problem with it (well, one problem with it anyway) is that to use the term ‘forced’ means only one thing. It means that the final decision will be made at the end of a gun point. You must FORCE me to donate. If I choose not to and it escalates the only threat the State has left in any situation is at the cost of my life.
So my argument is always this: Would you kill me for not ‘donating’ (seeing as how this is charity and all). And of course they wouldn’t kill me. They’d let strangers do their dirty work for them.
I think the sole point of this debate resides in the belief or disbelief that your body is your property and that your property is your property. If your body is your property and you own your body do you have the right to abuse your body? Do you have the right to abuse your property? Do you have the right to go to your neighbor and face them with a gun drawn and demand that because you are obese or sick or injured or bored that they must comply and give you their property?
The system functions on the sole premise that Americans don’t have to get their hands dirty and it’s not our property being taken (yet) or abused (yet) or stolen (yet).
!_
Is the CTS-V wagon taxed as a guzzler? I bought an Dodge SRT-8 Magnum in 2006 because, while I liked the SRT-8 Charger, the wagon was cheaper as it was classified as an SUV for EPA requirements and thus void of the gas guzzler tax.
Hi Dr.
Yes, I thought I made that clear. See the window sticker that’s pictured at the top of the article.
A couple of things you missed with this essay. First let me state I do not believe in the state or authority and I would describe myself as an anarcho-capitalist. I understand your point of view, totally. But you are way off with your Libertine rant.
The state kills to get gas, in fact the American state kills millions and uses illegal weapons to do so, they even staged 911 to get the gas in the Middle East. We all know that. So to say Americans hate freedom because they want a gas hog tax on some god awful ugly Cadillac made in China is a laugh, they hate freedom because they do not believe in freedom of others, like the right to their own lives or for their skies to be free of Predator Drones killing wedding parties with Hellfire high explosive missiles that can level a city block.
Dude, have you been paying attention? The American Fascist Empire is bloodletting the planet and killing men, women, children, dogs and rice paddies and olive trees because we don’t have fuel efficient vehicles. I’d like to see you to get strafed at a mandatory checkpoint by some high school jock strung on steroids driving an M-1 Abrams turbine powered tank and see how much you like American freedom. Your fuel has been socialized by official state policy.
I am also a car mechanic, or was, because now I ride a bike ONLY. I said fuck America and the oil corporations price gouging and fuck the gas burning infernal combustion low efficiency piston engine which is only about 25- 35% thermally efficient meaning that 65-75% of the energy in gasoline turns into heat. Why is it that straight south of Houston, a nation with more proven oil reserves than Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, sells a gallon of gasoline for 12 cents?
I turned wrenches for years and I know all about cars and engines and how modern cars are near impossible to work on – the engine compartment is crammed full of useless technology on an oversize engine that pushes fat profile, high drag, low aspect ratio tires. I also understand energy efficiency, friction, drag, tires, etc. Modern cars are Satan’s playthings, they are evil inefficient gas hogs made for egotistical hypocritical unthinking assholes that wave the flag and think they are free.
Anyone that wants to buy, purchase, or caught driving a Cadillac CTS-V, or any similar ugly bloated SUV like vehicle, should be immediately shot dead as an supporter of American state terrorism and the car crushed and destroyed and melted down so that no one ever has to look at one.
Ares,
First (where to begin?) the CTS is assembled in Lansing, Michigan. Not China.
Second, you describe yourself as an anarcho-capitalist, yet you favor the use of state violence to punish people for buying a car you consider excessively consumptive. Do you not see the problem with this? Whatever philosophy you espouse, it cannot be anarcho-capitalism. Because you contradict yourself at the most fundamental level. What you advocate is coercive collectivism in the name of some higher-order (as you see it) collective “good.” Anarchists are anti-government, by definition. That is, they are opposed to organized state violence. The gas guzzler tax is organized state violence. You will pay this fee – or else. Capitalists don’t support state interference with the free market – with free choice, exercised by consumers.
The oil companies and their activities are neither here – nor there – as regards punishing a car buyer because you dislike his car.
I understand state violence and have been a victim of it. We don’t have freedom, and because we don’t and because the state bombs country for oil there is no way people are going to allow you to drive anything you want. So even though I am against the very existence of the state, I do realize the reality of life on planet earth, statism is rampant and not going away.
I am against gangster style cars with big oversize engines that play to aggressive arrogant Americans who are expressing there inadequacies. The system is not fair, there is no level playing field, so I can imagine that defense contractor executives who are stealing taxpayer funds for the warfare state would want to buy a car like a Cadillac STS. So those who still have money in the permanent warfare state, the Dick Cheny’s of the world I bet just love those Cadillac gangster cars.
So according to you, anyone should be able to buy a Ford Apocalypse:
http://www.threedonia.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/zombiesmasher.jpg
Well if that’s ok then maybe you wouldn’t mind if I buy a used F-15 fighter jet and buzz your house, its my freedom.
BTW the STS was a one time produced in China:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadillac_CTS
“CTSs are manufactured at GM’s Lansing Grand River plant in Lansing, Michigan. The CTS was also assembled in China during 2006, and production was subsequently discontinued.”
Ares,
Not personally liking a “gangster style” car – as you call it – is one thing. That’s ok. We each have our personal likes and dislikes. No one – not me – would force you to buy a car you don’t like, or advocate the subsidization of any car (as per electric/hybrids). But you allow your personal animosity toward this car to get the better of you, because your animosity has crossed to the line to endorsing the punishing of people who do like it and wish to own such a car. That is not ok – and certainly not “anarcho-capitalist.”
You write:
“…aggressive arrogant Americans who are expressing there (sic) inadequacies.”
Wow. That’s a hell of a blanket indictment. Ever occur to you that maybe some people just enjoy a powerful car? Do you consider that evil? Evidence of a psychological defect? Please. That nonsense can very easily be turned around on you, too.
Has it occurred to you, moreover, that not every person or even most people who buy a car like the CTS-V are Dick Cheney or one of his minions? I’d like to have a CTS-V and could conceivably buy one, if I saved up and made a few sacrifices here and there. I’m a self-employed writer, never taken a penny from you or anyone else by force or fraud. Yet you advocate punishing me with special taxes merely because you dislike the type of car I wish to buy with my money.
Whatever you are, you’re not an anarcho-capitalist!
PS: Can you read?
The STS is a completely different car. It was last made in 2011 – two years ago.
The article was about the 2013 CTS-V.
eric, for every Ares I can point out a dozen people who would love this car. Torque monster, horsepower monster, huge tires and brakes, what’s not to like? I love a point and shoot car. Not having to whip it into a frenzy as many high power cars have been in the past is a huge plus too. Big seats, big inside, all the plushness you’d want and an exterior that more than hints at what’s inside. Yeh, if I could afford one I’d get in it right now while the temp is still down and go for a ride, wouldn’t even care if I went to a town, just go for a ride, maybe even with the windows down so Cholley Jack could get some good smells on the wind, the supercharged wind.
Ares, the state has rubbed off on you. You want to tell your neighbors what they should and should not buy, have, do. It doesn’t matter what you believe, if you want to do that, the state has you.
Ever notice the people who want to control their neighbors but hate the government are rarely a problem for the government?
Ares, the empire does not kill for us to have (cheap) gasoline. The empire kills so its friends can control the oil and raise the prices above what market price would be otherwise.
You are falling into the empire’s trap. The empire starts wars over oil so then people buy into the idea that the empire has to control their behaviors to conserve oil. Remember when gasoline was really really cheap? Back before Gulf War 1? Gulf War 1 was the result of a chess game to get SH to stop flooding the market with oil. Because the state department had told SH the US federal government would stay on the sidelines, he went ahead and invaded Kuwait over a slant drilling dispute.
SH asked permission of the empire to do what he did and it was essentially granted. The empire lies and was very upset with SH selling so much oil. So it suckered him. It needed a reason to sell the american people on a war. All the state department had to do was say they would ‘act to preserve the present borders’ or something like that and there would have been no invasion.
Modern radical Islamic teerrrorism is the result of deliberate action and manipulation of US and UK intelligence. They are a tool of domestic and foreign policy. The empire uses your tax dollars to incite, create, fund, manipulate, and use these groups to achieve its economic and political goals. It is the result of many decades of meddling in the affairs of others. What funds it is not buying oil, but your taxes.
Had there not been meddling, destabilizing, etc and so forth many middle east countries would be first world by now, enjoying the fruits of their labors. Some people however cannot tolerate others living well and that’s why they attack the standard of living of regular people everywhere, including in the heart of the empire.
Very well-said, BrentP!
And exactly what I’ve found in my research too.
Why is it that Iraqi oil production is still a small fraction of what it was under Saddam’s reign?
And that gas prices are three times what they were before Gulf War I?
It’s about artificial scarcity–a meme the New World Order plutocrats and banksters use successfully on multiple fronts. They’re doing it with oil, water, and now food…never mind we burn half our fucking corn in useless ethanol projects…and deplete and destroy the finest agricultural soil in the process.
They don’t WANT prosperity; prosperity breeds a middle class, the middle class accrues capital, the capital builds wealth…and wealth challenges in-bred family monopolies. Why would the Rothschilds, having lived in total isolation and unimaginable riches for three hundred years, want a bunch of scraggly rabble competing with them?
And a prosperous middle class gets uppity. Much easier to control starving peasants; as Kissinger said, control oil, control the country; control food, control the people. May the fleas of a thousand camels infest his pustulent groin.
meth, I can’t seem to get this point across to guys who own lots of XOM stock, they just won’t have it and can’t admit BP ruined the Gulf just for avarice, mo money. So there are leaks in the floor, another big one doesn’t help and neither has Corexit. Kissinger should have died long ago, 60 years ago, from lead poisoning. Oh, in another post, I said a friend does do internet but meant he doesn’t…..too bad.
Ares, you would do well to move to afghanistan. Your intolerance fits that country of pigs perfectly. You would do well to wallow with pigs. That bike you ride was well and truly made in china. How do you get your groceries home? Make several trips to the store, one bag at a time. What happens to you in the rain and snow? Bikes are hard to ride in snow, sleet and slush, not to mention a 40 mph headwind, blowing dirt and sand in your face, as you barely move forward. And the bike riders that I see here in Oz show no regard for road rules. I tried bikes several years ago, until I was spending more money and time repairing the bastards than I was spending on my car. The real terrorists are people like yourself, who so hate successful people that you wish to kill them. With people like you in the USSA, who needs NSA surveillance? I pity the people who know you.
Excellent, Eric. Did notice one typo: should be “metastasizing”.
Well said, Eric.
This piece reminds me of an ambiguous official at a national park who, while my wife and I were idling our rental car while waiting for our turn on the one-lane road (about a 20-minute wait). It was hot outside; we were running the air and listening to music. After about 10 minutes one of two guys in some kind of kindof-official-looking ranger-type uniform got out of an SUV and walked over to our car and stared at me. I rolled down the window and said hello. He said “you sure are burning a lot of gasoline.” I asked if that was a bad thing. He said “yes. yes it is.” Then he went back to his car and proceeded to tell other motorists, who had gotten out of their cars, something inaudible but surely something about us since he and they kept looking in our direction. We were causing a scene because some moron in a uniform decided were were using too much of our own gas. The funniest part was that we were in a new Toyota corolla while they were in an old SUV that probably got 12-15 mpg. The differential in gas usage is high enough that by the time we exited the park, my wife and I would have used far less gas on our journey to the park exit than the “rangers” – even counting our excessive and irresponsible use of gas for our comfort. I thought about explaining this to the idiot “public servant” but given the ambiguity of his position, I felt it better to just crank up the a/c and stereo and otherwise mind my own damn business like he should have been doing in the first place.
Mr6, guess he would have been miffed with my old diesel sitting there idling and yammering, clacking(can’t hear it inside ha ha ha ha). I might have had to clear its throat a couple times, see if it would chunk out some black for him. JFHAFHFH.(just fuck him and feed him fish heads). When he wants to start paying my fuel bill then we’ll negotiate idle time.
Thanks, Mr6 –
And, just wait until the ambiguous official has the legal authority to enforce his idiot effrontery at gunpoint.
As another poster here often puts it: Brawndo has electrolytes.
eric, been through that with a state trooper. I told him I wouldn’t kill my engine since I didn’t know if it would start and I wasn’t gonna find out. He didn’t like it but screw him. I wasn’t lying. You never know if the next time will be when something doesn’t work. No way for sure I could know if it would start and besides, it was hot as hell and the elephant in the room? He car was running…..and I’m paying that bill.
My god, the arrogance of that porcine POS!
I’m not sure I would have had an appropriately acid reply, I would have been too stunned in the moment.
Probably would have settled for a less-than-clever but perfectly appropriate “Go fuck yourself”.
Is it time to start shooting yet or should we wait longer? This critical-mass thing is starting to make me impatient.
You can’t make people see ten minutes past their noses when they get a self-righteous corn cob up their butts. Think of all those Americans who thought they were voting to stick it to the fat cats by endorsing the 16th amendment, the income tax amendment. They were just cutting their own throats, but not even God could have convinced them of their short-sightedness.
Well I want to subscribe to a blog of somebody who can use “vitiate” in a sentence. My friend Larry (and I can’t figure out if he is left-wing or right wing, but I think more tea) sent me your link. You complain of the fascism of the so-called “progressives”. Political correctness run amok. Look what is happening to Paula Deen – I have a few issues with that, and I might actually boycott The Daily Show for their smear the other night (June 20, it was Tom Brokaw). Why can Jamie Fox get away with it, but no white person can ever even THINK of denigrating any urban crackhead of color. Why no! — celebrate their ethnicity, put them on a pedestal bedecked in a toga and wearing the wreath of glory! Make up for the sins of the past! It is only politically correct! But those of color may be free to denigrate you, if you are white and not an immigrant, because it is YOUR forebears that owned their forebears. course my ancestors were Irish escaping the potato famine, so I don’t think they were owning any slaves. But nevertheless, if I knew then what I know now, I’d a picked my own damn cotton (or so says my tea party friend).
I belong to both the ACLU and the NRA – I see only consistency in that. Can I be a Barry Goldwater-western-style conservative AND want European-style socialism? You bet, its the cheaper choice to what we have now. You don’t think Canada has its conservatives? – and they support their socialized state.
I’m sorry, this political correctness isn’t getting us anywhere, except away from free critical thought and free speech, and towards fascism — real intellectual fascism. And its making our kids stupid.
Hi John,
As a Libertarian, I oppose any use of force against people who’ve not initiated force themselves (i.e., the only ethically acceptable use of force is in self defense). Thus, someone has every right to be obnoxious – even “offensive” – insofar as saying or writing whatever is on their mind. And on any subject. Listeners/readers are free to listen/read – or not. They may respond if they wish – or ignore the speaker/writer altogether. Or, they may agree and affirm. It is a matter for each individual to decide for himself.
I agree that PC amounts to a another form of thought suppression and vehicle for enforcing compliance (at least outwardly) with various orthodoxies. Much of the “I’m offended” strikes me as whiny and contrived. Also hypocritical (as you’ve pointed out) and frequently just silly (e.g., the flap a few years back over someone’s use – correctly, mind – of “niggardly” in a sentence).
What’s interesting to me about the Paul Dean situation is her poltroonery. Why didn’t she just say something along the lines of: My fans know who I am; they either like me, like my show – or they don’t. They’re free to watch – or not.
Nothing more. No apologies, no cringing faux-teared pleas for forgiveness. Man up. The brutal fact is the people who she is apologizing to will never forgive her. They will grind her into the dirt, as they did to the Greaseman (remember him?) and so many others.
Throw ’em in the Woods. No one ever shamed Al Sharpton off the stage after the Tawana Brawley outrage (and many others besides)>
Eric, I originally ” found you” on lewrockwell.com.
All I can say is, ” what a blessing”‘ someone who actually gets it across the spectrum. Yes, the roads, life, your person, it is all about freedom. Of course, it comes with the understood caveat that you and I deserve total and complete sovereignty so long as we do not trample on others’ person or property. I have tried to link some of your good stuff on facebook, but it gets no “likes” because nobody takes the time to read anything, yet I wrote of my cats ripping up a baby rabbit and my ultimately failed attempt to nurse him back to health and everyone and their mother commented on that one. Says something about society. Thanks for your great work, I appreciate it, so in the end it’s all that matters.
BTW, may I email you with a story and question about the “passive-agressive clover” I encountered with nearly deadly consequences Friday? I would really appreciate the opinion of someone who doesn’t have their head up their…..well, you get it. No, I haven’t asked family/friends and had them disagree for most of them are clovers in life and on the road.
Why do Facebook?
Please, get out of there – it is not a place for rugged individualism.
Thanks, G3Ken – glad you found us, too!
Facebook… ugh. It is part of the infantilization of the country. Its de-evolution into a congeries of low-rent narcissists who give more thought to which contestant on “The Bachelor” is not going to get a rose (or how “our” team is doing) than they do to anything of substance and relevance.
Actually FB is a front for the CIA! Gee, I thought everyone knew that?!?!?! I just want to point out one thing that I think needs to be said. I am a staunch defender of LIBERTY! However, Freedom is a much abused word and doesn’t always mean what it says. Freedom to do what? To whom? From what? From whom? I have yet to find anyone to misunderstand the term LIBERTY. Everyone knows it means from tyranny. Remember Tyranny can take many forms. In my opinion, the united States goonberment is the most tyrannical government on the face of the earth. After all it is the only one what will demand you owe them revenue from the money you earn while living in another country that happens to be a shithole on the face of the earth. Not one other goonberment does that, not China, Russia or even the current villain Syria. So really? Which country has more liberty? Think about it.
Dean was groveling to save her empire but you can never please the PC bastards because once you grovel they smell blood in the water and tear you to pieces like hungry sharks.
John, I guess it shows how little attention I’ve been paying to TV or celebrity news lately, but I hadn’t heard of the Paula Deen dust-up. After a quick Ask search, I found this on HuffPo (a site I despise, FWIW). If what HuffPo describes about the incident is at all accurate, than I call BULLSHIT in giant, loud letters.
“The Food Network said Friday it’s dumping Paula Deen, barely an hour after the celebrity cook posted the first of two videotaped apologies online begging forgiveness from fans and critics troubled by her admission to having used racial slurs in the past.” (emphasis added)
“In the past.” Like, when? Yesterday? Two weeks ago? Last year? Decades ago? In another part of her life when she was a whole different person? So all of us are going to be judged and condemned to death for something we said (or might have said) months, years, or decades ago?
JEEZUS, Key Riced All My Tea, are these people fucking INSANE??!!
I used to like watching the Food Network, which always had very interesting and instructive programming, but I don’t think I’ll be watching it anymore. If PC nonsense has really become this all-pervasive, then I have no use for them or their programming anymore.
Paula, tell these people to KISS YOUR WHITE SOUTHERN BELLE ASS!
As I understand, Paula’s comment was the “N-word” (People Magazine, I think most people here know I don’t give a rat’s ass about language these days, except WRT the black guy we were working from, who was from Sudan – I didn’t want to offend him without reason.)
She used it, like, last week or something. She called a bunch of niggers, niggers. (My understanding.)
Now, they were servers at a party, blacks wearing white tuxes.
Perhaps the word was ill-chosen, but – in my ( limited) experience – black skin correlates at a high percentage to nigger. It sucks – but the only ones who can change that, are AMERICAN BLACKS. Stop acting like the world owes you a living, and go EARN things yourself. (And “taking” it at point of a gun doesn’t mean shit, either.)
FWIW, I wish my Sudanese coworker the best on his annual visit home, may he return safely with good news. HE worked his ASS off, and though I thought he was slow – He worked his ass off to (a) learn, and (b) GET IT RIGHT with minimal instruction: he took the lesson and ran with it.
And he was a F*cking INTERN.
Man’s got balls.
Compared to the shit in the inner cities – and I’ve known them, too, though from a “safe distance.” There’s places a white boy don’t go in Newark, NJ – or Washington, DC.
The faux, meretricious outrage of such as Matt Lauer makes me almost choke on my own bile. Please. Your maudlin “concern” about the “offense” caused to the “African American community” (gag) is sufficient warrant to write you off as anything more than a pathetic shill.
I want a ’70-74 corvette stingray with the 454.
All I have to say.
BTW, thanks for the brake bleeding tips for motorcycles- my 85 suzuki gv1200 thanks you too!
Anchar wrote, “a ’70-74 corvette stingray…”
They seem ok. The 1969 seems ok too:
http://farm1.staticflickr.com/177/449038445_17b2c6362e_z.jpg?zz=1
Here’s a nice 1970’s, and it’s the best color, imho.
http://www.clevelandcorvetteclub.com/images/members/DSC_4574.jpg
I’m not too fond of this style and color, but I wouldn’t kick it out of my bed for eating crackers or chips:
http://s1.hubimg.com/u/1719696_f260.jpg
Which got me to thinking, does EPA have a girls with cars thread?
My local Hooter’s is having a bikini contest this month, how come you guys don’t have a girls with cool cars contest?
[I’m just trying to get certain other unpleasant images out of my mind. Is that bad?]
How about a “Girls that love cool cars” contest?
Hi Anchar,
Me too!
I especially like the milder (hydraulic-cammed) 454 of ’73-’74. Like the 455 in my ’76 Trans-Am, it’s a high torque engine with decent hp, ideal for a fun street car. The higher-strung big blocks (LS6, etc.) are great for bracket racing but not so fun for just cruising around. Been there/done that – with both types of engines!
Nice bike, by the way – haven’t seen one of those ’85 Zukes in years!
Hey Anchar,
Harbor Freight sells a sweet kit for bleeding brakes that attaches to an air compressor. I bled my front brakes on my Kawasaki Vulcan VN750 in 5 minutes with it. OMG, I swear by it! It comes with a supply bottle you fill with brake fluid (BTW the bottle comes with a shutoff valve), a hose you attach to the bleeder valve and a reservoir that looks like a paint sprayer. You hook up the reservoir to the air compressor and connect all the stuff as per the instructions and shazzam! no air, no water, no shit in the brake system! I have dual rotor/caliper front brakes. The best part? the kit is inexpensive! How inexpensive you ask???? ok ok ok…try $29.99! Since then, I’ve used it to flush my 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab truck and my 2004 Honda Civic. This makes brake fluid maintenance easy peasy. I wish i’da had it 20 years ago! BTW here is the HF part number so you can take a gander at it….#92924. http://www.HarborFreight.com Before you ask, NO! I don’t work for harbor freight! LOL!
Na. Shelby Cobra with a modern 427, like the 7-liter Corvette Z06 engine.
And a proper coil-over suspension. With Brembo brakes.
‘Cause even sharks deserve a warm meal.
I do not like to advocate violence, and Lord knows I have seen enough of it, but barring a peaceful dissolution of the united States (yes, I meant the capitilazilation as it stands)., the only solution will be the one that occurred under Lincoln when he unconstitutionally and dictatorillary forced the “Union” to remain together. This time, hopefully there will be enough to see that some states just aren meant to be joined with others.
“the united States”
– Ha. It’s the unitedstate.
More accurately, the United Fascialist State of Amerika (UFSA).
Yes – but let’s take a little farther down the road:
If it’s right for states to be able to “leave the union,” then by the same reasoning, surely, it is right for individuals to reject the ties that bind them (without their consent). This idea – individual sovereignty – is the one that must gain traction.
Exactly, Eric. The whole focus on states’ “rights” was misguided 150 years ago, and it’s just as misguided today. People –individual human beings– have rights, not nebulous, amorphous political abstractions like “states.” Also, as it’s probably superfluous to point out to anyone here, merely organizing miniature tryannies, which is what any “independent” states will quickly become (and which is just what each of the Confederate states became 150 years ago during the failed attempt to secede), will do nothing to advance real freedom. Succession of individuals, or groups of like-minded individuals, from the any form of centralized, coercive government, on ANY level, is the only way to ensure freedom for EVERYONE.
The “States,” spoken of in the Declaration as “free and independent,’ were intended by MOST of the framers to have rights they had not ceded to the central gunverment. But true, they’re no walk in the park either, especially places like “the Free State” [sic] of Maryland.
But individual freedom, now you’re talking. Read anything Michael Rozeff has written on ‘Panarchy.’
Phillip, I read everything I can find by Rozeff. He and Sowell are always accurate and brief. Sowell can write the least amount of words and get the point across better than anyone I ever read. I enjoy Walter Block a great deal too.
Phillip, Maryland really is the free state: the state is free to do whatever it wants. 😉
I find Mike Rozeff a bit long winded. But to put a fine point on it, States do not have rights. They have power delegated by the sovereigns of the state, i.e. the individual. Having said that however, all states depend on a majority and as we all know the majority isn’t right 99.99.99% of the time. This is what brings on the legal/illegal vs moral/immoral mindset clashes. It is my considered opinion that all drug laws are immoral but any goonberment thug will scream they are legal! My question is..how many people does it take to make an immoral act legal?
As for reading, I much prefer Eric Peters, Butler Shaffer and Karen DeCoster. They can write incisive pieces without rambling on. Short, Sweet and too the point!
Long live the short essayist!
Does not the IRS do violence to your property?
Does not the IRS auditor who demands to examine your books and records do violence to your property?
Does not the judge who dismisses your lawsuit against a prosecutor upon the basis of absolute immunity do violence to your property?
Does not the gendarme who puts his hands on you, without your consent, do violence to your person?
Does not the firefighter who accepts his paycheck knowing that the source of the same was confiscation of another’s wealth do violence to your property?
Does not the public school teacher who accepts her paycheck knowing that the source of her sinecure confiscation of another’s wealth do violence to your property?
Does not the united states military do violence to the person of Afghani children?
Does not the united states military do violence to the person of Yemeni children?
Does not the agriculture department do violence to the property of raw milk producers?
Force has already been initiated.
Force has already been initiated.
THIS.
It’s been unrelenting for at least the last 148 years and is now reaching its apex.
liberranter, didn’t you used to post at H&R?
H&R?
H&R as in Reason Magazine’s blog. I could be mistaken, but, IIRC, a person with your handle was a regular poster to the blog.
Okay, thanks for the clarification. No, it wasn’t me. Have never posted there that I can recall. I used to subscribe to the tree-pulp version of Reason (cancelled the subscription a few years ago when they became too obviously Beltwaytarian for me to stomach them any longer) and still occasionally grok at the online version, but have never posted there.
I’d leave out the firefighters. 😉
They still serve a useful function, and while we could argue back and forth about who should pay them, some places are just too large to have well-allocated resources – including firehouses, engines, pumps, etc. And volunteer won’t cut it in the modern world – need the equipment. So SOMEONE ends up passing the hat, and it’ll be called “government.” (The term may be inaccurate, but it’ll still be named, without our consent, if you will.)
Now, private companies could do the same, and probably more efficiently, but then you still need to get the payments from a town or county or city, and allocate house locations, engines, etc. So for those who are at least useful and want to benefit the society, let’s at least make sure they’re at the END of the list.
Reform the others first – police, military, hospitals (not for-profit model), education, agriculture.
Though I concede I need to learn more about the reality in a big city.
Jean, it seems to me you’re thinking inside the box too much about firefighters, re: station houses and engines. Seems like a better approach is out there. A decentralized and much smaller and more numerous service might be more efficient and faster.
I don’t see why you say, volunteer won’t cut it in the modern world. They seem to do a pretty good job around my neck of the woods right now.
One big thing I Don’t like about goberment firefighters, they are the ones running around giving citations to businesses, forcing inspections on businesses and causing startup businesses to fail due to not being in compliance with this law or that law. In that respect, they are just cops-lite.
Hi Jean,
Government never “passes the hat” – a colloquialism for asking for donations. It shoves a gun under your chin – or threatens to – and says: Pay up!
Don’t fall into the trap of making exceptions to the NAP for things you think are “necessary” – and thus, justify the use of aggressive violence.
I’d rather have a not-so-great volunteer fire department – and run the risk that my house might not be saved if it catches fire – than the sure thing of a coercive collectivist state that claims a right to take my property at gunpoint because those who wield the guns believe their “needs” trump my rights.
I forget the source of the quote, but it goes something like
A dispute resolved by violence has not been resolved at all.
Lincoln’s tyranny, echoing down 150 years, has left reverberations that are now resonating and the wrongs covered up then are resurfacing now as the tectonic plates shift.
Some of what we’re seeing is the anti-federalist, confederate will re-emerging. No, we’re not talking about slavery–nor was the War of Northern Aggression about slavery.
We’re talking about the ONLY true political conflict: between collectivism and individualism.
Much of the rest of the world taxes fuel a lot. In the USA the control freakism drove CAFE to control what’s on the market directly, but that’s probably only part of it.
So we’ve got Mr. and Mrs. Clover. We have CAFE and the associated gas guzzler tax because of how their minds work.
They want cheap gasoline.
They want conformity.
They are collectivists who want to ration resources politically.
They are spiteful of people who have, through savings or earnings or both made themselves financially more secure than them.
They don’t want other people to have more than them.
Add these things up and CAFE is a perfect political solution. This way they can control their neighbors and have cheap gasoline. If gasoline were simply heavily taxed they would have to pay it. They want other people to pay. People who don’t conform to their norms. People who have more than them.
Pick other subjects. It’s the same pattern. Health care for instance. Look at Obamacare. Same themes.
Exactly, Brent.
Fundamental to clover’s paradigm is jealousy/envy; addressed in the 10th commandment as covetousness.
It’s the hypocrisy that gets me. The poorest of the poor in America are rich compared to the rest of the world. So, clover’s whole justification of his covetous actions is baseless because it could be directly applied to him by someone overseas.
“Equality” is one of several notions unfortunately espoused by our founders. One person isn’t exactly the same as any other person. And that’s what equal means- the same. Equal rights? Maybe. But that’s where it ends. Someone always has more ability and exercises it more and ends up having more. I empathize with the feelings of envy. But where the rational man parts ways with clover is where clover wants to do something about the guy who has more.
Yeah. Okay. Feel free to go help the guy with less however you want; as an individual voluntarily helping another individual. I’d agree that each individual should do this. But, again, leave me free to choose not to help. And leave the producer free to achieve.
Clover, I understand that you want to mold the world into what you want it to be. I, too, wish I could influence things in greater ways. But don’t get together with your fellow clovers and force the rest of us into your mold.
Persuasion, yes. Force, no.
Is it a violation of the NAP to take action against a clover who “sees something” and then “says something” to one of the King’s men about you?
“Equal justice under the law” is what it was supposed to stand for back then. But then of course it did not apply to those imported for forced labor.
Actually, “equality” was NOT a virtue the Founders espoused.
Equality BEFORE THE LAW, yes.
But “equality” means equality of outcome now – not opportunity nor before the law.
A Cadillac CTS-V, eh?
……Blow some clovers off the road and enjoy every minute of it!!
Well – Tax BS aside – you got a sweet car for the week – full tank of gas, open road….so
Drive it like ya stole it and let us know if it was worth it!
Oh yeah… !
I want to drive it. plain and simple. I’d eventually want to try out the other seats not that I’d ever need them. I’d like to see if I could powerbrake it and make it light up all four. I have a good two lane as wide as a four lane near me I’d love to run it about 60 miles all out on the big sweepers, enough straightaways to get a top end on too, no side roads, all ranch country. I used to take my cars up there and pound them.
God, so sad Eric–I was seriously considering buying a used one.
But as I’ve said before, I’ll never buy a GM product. They took my money without asking…so they’ll never get a dime of it voluntarily.
Not even a used GM car; because I’d have to buy parts from them.
Can anyone think of a way around this? I’m drooling over used Corvette Z-06’s, too.
Can I get one without giving the bastards money?
Meth,
I made a similar decision a few years ago with regard to buying Smith & Wesson revolvers: buy used and don’t get any new parts from them. I think the car equivalent is to go for a popular used car and then go 100% used/aftermarket parts.
Alkylidene
meth, unfortunately, out here in the west Tx. boonies there was a time you could drive anything as long as the occasional state trooper didn’t appear. You could do for decades probably without trouble driving Farm to Market roads everywhere. We used to do it a great bit. I’m not talking about roads we haven’t done 160 on plenty of times. We used to plan our trips with these explicit county maps that the TxDOT(not what it was then)sold, even showing the turnrows, old roads etc. We’d take a 200 M drive all on back roads, often at double and a half the double nickel. That was fun and never had to worry about an LEO’s because we either were driving something too fast to catch or a 4WD we could simply disappear with, equally good. Damn, it was a whole nother world.
Methyl I agree in principle but I think used cars are reasonable because the damage is already done. If you don’t buy AC Delco parts then I don’t see why you’d be supporting GM anymore versus buying nothing GM. Yeah the re-sell value might help a previous GM owner go buy another new GM, but my thinking is that new car owners don’t care what the price of the item as long as credit and money is EZ anyway and for young credit card serfs and government workers there is plenty of money right now.
If you buy an even older car than pre-ban when they took the money then you could even feel righteous about that. And further with the cash for clunkers program I think the idea of government is to make used cars less affordable and reduce used car ownership period. They simply hate used cars GM or otherwise. So buy buying an older GM car you are satiating yourself away from what the government wants anyway.
If I find GM makes a great product even with government help I see no reason why I shouldn’t recoup some of my taxes buying at minimum used product. But in general when government gets involved you really won’t want the merchandise anyway soon. Junk is usually the result of communist planned vehicles. It may not be this year but 10 years from now I’m sure we’ll see GM reaping the rewards of its slacker government handout attitude. The beauty of the free market is that we don’t have to artificially remove ourselves from logically choosing what is best for us even when government is pulling strings. If GM is still a good product we can buy that, the laws of physics will take care based just on how the reward system is implemented and fed back. Handouts always destroy companies all by themselves.
Well at least, and at long last, you get to test a “fun” car once again. Can’t wait for the review. Maybe you can give a little analysis about how much bang for the buck it provides, compared to similar cars. On the other hand, at this price, subjective values probably outweigh niggling cost ratios. In either case, I don’t think the CTS-V Coupe would be my top choice. Now if we were talking about the wagon……..
A tall can of Brawndo for all notice the misuse of it’s. It should be its but the it is got electrolytes works better for a hopey changey improveamentated rainbow collective. Of course they hate freedom. It could *gasp* be dangerous and the outcome is always in doubt. There is no security in it. No welfare check, no declaring personal choice habits a disease, no picking and choosing winners, no 2000 page laws that no one reads, no rules and regulations that belong somewhere in Gulliver’s Travels, no one size fits all EPA approved bubble wrap safety suit with cloud condoms so no thin skinned creampuff gets offended.
The control freak nosy busybody mindset of Amerikans is almost legendary. A few years back, I had a nicely restored gas guzzler; a 1983 Dodge Ram 4X4 pick up. The 16 y.o. son of one of my coworkers tee boned me trying to pass while I was turning left. Toyota zero, Dodge one (won). It was clearly his fault, but I talked to the Trooper and thwarted a ticket on his record (and the additional hit on his parents’ insurance) in exchange for their assurance that they would “take care of all the damages.” It turned out that the frame was bent and the truck was totaled. After checking around for an equivalent replacement, the boy’s dad was sitting on my couch lamenting that there was nothing in the area that even came close to my 20 year old truck for under four grand. Then Mr. Typical Amerikan looks at me and asks “Do you really need a four wheel drive?” It apparently never occurred to him that when you, or your minor offspring in this case, take away someone’s property you need to restore them to the condition they were in before the accident. Or “Gee we really screwed you. But will you take less than what you had before we did this to you?” What really iced the cake was this city dweller’s nearly new Chevy 4X4 sitting in my driveway at the time! So at times it’s even worse than “I drive a Prius and you should too.” No, it even seems to be “I can afford to drive around in a big gas guzzler, but I don’t think YOU should.”
So as Eric alludes to above, the pols have no problem wantonly burning unbelievable amounts of petroleum every year between executing their “official duties” (including boondoggles and lavish tax payer funded vacations) and their world wide imperial war machine, all the while recommending that we walk, ride a bicycle or take mass transit or pay up for the privilege of “driving.” We the sheeple, who are being fleeced by these scumbags to support all this, are supposed to passively grin and bear ending up with less of what’s rightfully ours and often less than what we started out with each year. Sadly there are more than a plenty of our fellow Amerikans cheering this whole rotten business on. Sorry boys and girls, but when I see something like the gas guzzler tax further limiting my choices and by extension my Liberty, it’s one more reason you won’t see me out waving the flag at the local “Independence Day” celebration. How the heck Amerikans can claim independence, much less freedom, with all of these professional dependents eating out our substance is beyond my comprehension.
Amen, Boothe.
Your story is galling beyond description. Bad enough when people try to screw you out of compensation – but when they do it after you’ve done them a huge favor well, words fail me.
How did the story end? Did they make it right?
Eric, the idea of people screwing us out of compensation after we’ve done them a huge favor sums up Amerikan gun-vernment from top to bottom very nicely. The naive public elects these parasites based on promises, that carried to their logical conclusion, invariably involve robbing Peter to pay Paul. These elected parasites and worse, the hired bureaucrats, have been done a huge favor by the public since they enjoy pay and benefits they would never receive in the private sector. Most aren’t talented, skillful or sufficiently self motivated to participate in a truly competitive labor market. Then they turn right around and devise myriad rules and regulations to rob their benefactors, us, way above and beyond their already generous compensation packages. When the country’s leadership, people who are supposed to be a cut above the unwashed, do this in front of Joe Sixpack, ol’ Joe figures it must be okay. After all, right and wrong have now been supplanted by legal and illegal. We can look at any political system (or any company or organization) as a piece of string. If you think for one minute the folks on the back end of the string (us) can push that string where they need it to go, you’d be sadly mistaken. No, it will bunch up in front of you, become a snarled mess and you will go nowhere. It’s the folks at the head of the string, the leadership, that pulls the string in the whatever direction they desire and those at the back have to go along too. In the case of our present situation, where this string we call the United States finds itself, our leaders past and present are fully to blame. They’ve done this in no small part by setting an example of official theft, graft, fraud, murder, counterfeiting, deceit and cover ups. Is it any surprise then that our neighbors see screwing us and each other as business as usual? After all, if it’s legal…
The way my story ended with the truck was this: When he dared question my needs irrespective of my previous status, I told Mr. Typical Amerikan we were done talking and he needed turn it over to his insurance company. They were with AmFam and the adjuster said my truck was only worth $1800 due to its age. I explained all the parts and work I had in it, to which Ms. AmFam Adjuster responds “If you’ve done everything you say you have, then I suppose you’ve kept all the receipts?” I replied “As a matter of fact I have” and sent her 37 pages of documentation. My “old truck” magically became worth $4200. Imagine that. But with less than 4 grand to work with (I bought my old truck back for $400), I ended up with a rusted out 90 Dodge 4X4 farm truck. Hardly what I’d call having them “make it right.” But I can’t seem to kill this truck with an axe! It’s butt ugly for sure, but the original 318 and OD transmission are approaching the 300K mark with no major repairs. On the positive side I have no fear of it anyone stealing it. 😉
“Restoring the person wronged or injured (or their property) to the condition in which they/it existed prior to the commission of the tort” is one of the biggest myths behind the insurance mafia. Like the “broken window fallacy” of economics, it just will NOT die, no matter how much the stake of logic and fact is driven through its heart. This is why, in many states, lawsuits are so common; people are NOT “made whole” by insurance settlements. Some states have wised up to this and have essentially banned tort lawsuits that have been subject to insurance claims. Of course the fraud behind the insurance racket stands to reason; the insurance mafia is another state-protected monopoly, meaning that there is no incentive for it to satisfy its “customers” (a “customer” of an insurance firm is a “customer” in the same sense that we’re all “customers” of the IRS) by providing them with anything of actual value.
Sorry boys and girls, but when I see something like the gas guzzler tax further limiting my choices and by extension my Liberty, it’s one more reason you won’t see me out waving the flag at the local “Independence Day” celebration.
Tell me about it. I was visiting some in-laws and relatives in Kentucky last “Trading One Tyranny For Another” Commemoration Day and the city of Lexington apparently decided that they weren’t going to have any city-sponsored fireworks displays that year because 1) the city was broke (surprise, surprise) and 2) there had been severe drought conditions that made fireworks displays hazardous. (Number two was probably a lame justification to cover up number one. Besides there were plenty of PRIVATE fireworks displays in various neighborhoods in the city, none of which resulted, AFAICT, in any hassles by the local porcine predator brigades).
Anyway, I commented to various relatives and their neighbors that this was no big deal since “there’s nothing to celebrate anyway.” At first they didn’t understand, but then when I explained to them why there was nothing to celebrate, they became indignant and even angry. Reducing the explanations to nursery rhymes, single-syllable words, grunts and groans, and stick-figure drawings didn’t help. The Clover Conditioning (CC) was too firmly metastasized.
I’m sure the same will be true this year, fireworks or no. It will be flag waving and brainless chants of “USA!” USA!” even as people are hauled off to the hoosegow for lighting off “illegal” fireworks ON THEIR OWN PROPERTY, for consuming aaallllllcohol (oh, horrors!) in public, or partaking of substances randomly designated as “illegal.”
Hundreds of years from now, assuming that mankind survives long enough to breed future generations of historians, they’re going to present early 21st century Amerikan history to classes full of students with the caveat “you couldn’t make this shit up, folks!”
LIb, probably a good thing I wasn’t there. I’d have schooled them, told em James Bowie had to go to Texas to find like minded people, people with some backbone, yeah. I need to contact Johnny Depp, another Kentuckian and see if he’ll play Bowie in my new epic movie, The Alamo, Redux…where Sam Houston rounds up 10 times the amount of men he had and they ran up the Mexicans backs, turning the entire battle field into a bloody hellhole of dead Mexicans. Then they regroup, taking all the materiel and ordinance the Mexicans had and march to Mexico where they set the entire population free after offing Santa Anna. There would never have been a battle of Vera Cruz and the US wouldn’t have touched foot in Texas.
I hated Texas history when i was in Jr. High but I had to do a quick reread of it just to make sure I remember some things clearly. Seeing as history is conveniently written by the victors I’m stunned at the early Texans attitude and how they essential bit the hand that provided them land grants for next to nothing. And on top of that they decided to bring in thousands of slaves which the Mexicans had told them not to do. Hmmm? That part was mysteriously left out of my shool day discussions. So the Mexicans got upset about an influx of “illegals”, back in the day, and today the reverse is occuring. My gut feeling is that the DC Fed fuckers were licking their chops over expansion and probably infiltrated the Texas independence movement from the beginning and most likely instigated it. Much like the FBI “manufactures” terrorists and crys wolf for more action after fomenting false crisis.
MoT, think people like James Bowie and brothers really traveled to Tx FOR anyone but themselves and like minded “entrepreneurs”? This was a tough breed that mostly traveled from places in the SE, Kaintuck boys and Tennesseans. I reckon a guy who’ll take on 3 cut-throats on a Mississippi sandbar and kill them all probably didn’t do the bidding of any other man. Sam Houston left his home and traveled west being one of the few people who could survive Indian territory. These guys didn’t take to a huge central govt. that would only grant them land if they became Catholics and pledged allegiance to the flag of Mexico after they’d married a Mexican. It was one of those “come and take it” periods where empires were snubbed from long range and eventually, short range.
I believe history is so much more nuance, layered, and complex than what our old skrool books told us. Otherwise it wouldn’t be so tidy and easy to manipulate.
EightSouthman,
Would you please explain the lines,
“These guys didn’t take to a huge central govt. that would only grant them land if they became Catholics and pledged allegiance to the flag of Mexico after they’d married a Mexican.”
Asking about the Catholics and Mexico connection. Making an analogy, or referencing historic fact? Never read about that.
jean, in order to own land in Mexico you had to be a Mexican or pledge allegiance to the central govt. and become a Catholic and marry a Mexican who could own that land. As far as owning land in Mexico, it’s still that way in that you can’t own it as anything other than a Mexican and that can be hard to do. You need a Mexican national to “own” anything in that country. Buy a house, it’s in some other person’s name. There are reliable sources for this although it has an ominous sound at first. I know a few people with property there and they don’t sweat it, but then again, it’s not enough to sweat for them.
American Revolution: Trading one terrorist 3000 miles away for 3000 terrorists one mile away.
PRICELESS!
Eightsouthmn,
Thank you for the clarification.
Just didn’t make sense.
Excellent but infuriating story, Boothe.
Most people will never get that some opinion of theirs, though perhaps rational- from a certain point of view, shouldn’t be enforceable.
Smoking is a great example of this; drugs; alcohol prohibition- that’s one that history got a chance to prove wrong.
Anyway, same old story. People think a moral judgement should be codifi-able by law so they can get their jollies pushing others around. It’s a pathetic but true part of the human condition. Bush was so full of crap when he went on about freedom being yearned-for by the human spirit.
Eric, you’re right. Freedom is hated by most. The evidence is all around us. Before you came along, I thought I was just a grump on the road; that I needed to just calm down. I was the problem; I should just learn to drive- to be more like clover. Thanks for showing me I’m not alone; that I’m not the only one who thinks nearly everyone on the road is an idiot. Clover epitomizes the freedom hater. He, whether driving or getting on the bandwagon to otherwise limit others’ freedom, loves the little power surge he gets by holding people back- controlling them.
I really hate clover.
I have to argue from “Devil’s Advocate” POV.
I’ll quote, it’s easy, I’m drinking. 😉
“So I never fell for Vietnam
We got the wall of D.C. to remind us all
That you can’t trust freedom
When it’s not in your hands
When everybody’s fightin’
For their promised land”
Guns’N’Roses, Civil War
Their promised land has us kneeling in subjugation.
We should “correct” their vision. And force is all they understand…
“The illusion of freedom will continue as long as it’s profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater.” – Frank Zappa
Meanwhile I’ll keep riding my pygmy pony on the range, keeping an eye on my dental floss bushes. So it gets 10mpg? Who has to pay? Me. They should thank me for keeping the fuel fresh. hhhmmm maybe I could invoke a fresh fuel surcharge on the fuel sippers, cut my costs. I’d be proud to fill up a CTV-S…..and put a big trailer hitch on it. Boothe, don’t ever fall for “the frame is bent”. BTDT, and the frame machines for the last couple decades make the frames better than they were to begin with.
Thanks for the tip Eight. I’d “parked” an 87 Toyota 4X4 in the woods one night at 45 MPH about 10 years prior. That did bend the frame in the classic sense and I was able to have it straightened. After an alignment, it drove better than new, so I know where you’re coming from. That kid hit my Dodge with a Toyota 4×4 pick up running about 60. He pushed my truck sideways up over a concrete culvert guard, through the ditch and clear into the parking lot I was turning into. He hit me right at the bed / cab junction and the left side of the frame wasn’t just bent, it was drastically pushed inward, upward and crimped. Even though it was technically “driveable” insofar as not needing a wrecker to limp home, the cab and bed were severely damaged, the drivers door wouldn’t open and even the transmission slipped after that. I knew a guy with the skills and equipment to cut out and re-weld the section on the left and straighten the right side. But total repair costs would have exceeded the insurance company payout (I checked around) and I’d didn’t want the hassle of having to sue. With the body and transmission damage, not to mention any unseen axle and spring mount damage from the side impact, it was nothing but a parts truck to me at that point.
Boothe, never mind. It would have been an unusual agent at that point to pay to rebuild the truck. I had a similar situation and had receipts for what I’d done and my truck looked new even though it was ten years old. Even at that though, it was a dicey thing. After getting it fixed, I had to take it to the insurance company with receipts to get them to list it again and remove the moniker of “salvage” from the title. It was kind of funny, everybody at the agency couldn’t believe it was a ten year old truck and with the “painted” from grill, a very expensive item, it looked even better, even custom. They looked inside and couldn’t believe it was the original interior. I keep my vehicles in good shape, mechanically and all other ways if possible.
Frank, we miss you! We NEED you! Imagine the musical art you’d create amidst today’s dystopian collapse!
Indeed. We desperately NEED you!
Frank knew what was coming when he created Joe’s Garage. We live amongst a horde of “Central Scrutinizers”
http://youtu.be/ljnT49jU9vM
Maybe I will move to Montana…
harry, I’ve thought about it….and I live in Tx. It’s those damned winters that put me off. And you’d be hard pressed to catch a Mud Shark there.
Me too, 8-south!
Wife and I looked hard at Kalispell–where Chuck Baldwin et al. have moved.
Friend of mine just bought 40 acres up near there, too; a neighboring farm is a few thousand acres. Invited me to come up and pop a few rounds out of the Barretts…off his back porch.
But I’m like you; the older I get, the more I don’t like being cold. And make no mistake, it is tit-freezing, dick-shrinking, ball-shriveling cold up there six months out of the year.
Hey, it isn’t THAT cold up here; and its much warmer in Kali than this latitude on the great plains is in the winter. But it isn’t a bastion of freedom of up here, being Montana is like being the political party that is not currently in control; that is to say, its about a quarter step above the other, and don’t expect that to last. Further, the valley is getting crowded (okay, rural Montanans idea of crowded) which is making job competition stiff. However, we would love to have a few more libertarians to help offset the mass of liberals that have taken up residence in recent years.
Morning, Meth,
Yeah, that’s my cop-out, too. The cold. Winter – for me – amounts to a recurrent period of home incarceration, as if being punished for some minor-league white collar crime. For three or so months out of the year, I can’t ride my bikes; the classic car stays indoors – and mostly, so do I. Being an outdoor guy, this chafes. And when we have a “long” (for us) winter – say four months of crap weather – I begin to get restless. I doubt I could deal with six months of crap weather.
@Eric–
Morning, Eric….man, I missed you guys! Been gone for nigh on a month. Being sick and staying at home seems to be the way to reconnect 🙂
Work will be a little less frenetic, we’ve completed a major milestone so I’ll be back ranting incoherently and pissing on passers-by from the treetops again.
Yep, exactly. That’s why I’m in Arizona. Hot as hell right now (not that I mind – in fact, I’m bat-shit crazy in that this is my favorite time of year here!), but when January rolls around and most of the rest of the country is buried in three feet of snow and ice and shivering in freezing temperatures, I count my blessings. I don’t miss the East Coast winters AT ALL.
So, yeah, I can appreciate what the folks in Montana are trying to do, but they’d have to find some other place a bit more on the desert or tropical side of the meteorological sphere for me to ever be tempted to jump in.
You think Montana is not a socialist cesspool?
Every place in Amerika is a socialist (actually, fascialist) cesspool. Some places are just more so –or less so– than others.
At least that tax soaks “the rich,” although most performance car types I know proudly point out the guzzler tax with a smile.
It’s not stopping anyone who wants one from getting one. If it really did, GM would put a stop to it immediately.
Using the tax code for morals imposition is an exercise in futility. The founding fathers knew it, and only taxed vice because they knew it was profitable and no one would stand up and complain.
The real crime is subsidizing rooftop solar panels, then forcing utilities to buy power back at retail rates instead of wholesale (net metering). This means poor people (who don’t have big enough roofs or upfront money) have to pay more for electricity while the rich get free power at night.
You might find interest in this article if you’ve not seen it yet. The Tollkeepers on the Road to Serfdom https://mises.org/daily/6460/The-Tollkeepers-on-the-Road-to-Serfdom
Using tax codes to impose “moral” goals (or any others) is simply adding insult to the injury of organized, “legalized” theft. Theft and coercion are no more legitimate when committed against the “rich” than they are when the victims are poor.
Net Metering wasn’t ever meant to be profitable for the small solar electric producer to sell his wares on the power grid. I looked into it a number of years ago thinking I could buy some desert land and produce electricity to sell on to the grid.]
The power utility company executive told me that to sell electricity on the grid you had to have a government vaild and accepted inverter manufacturer which means no China special electronics (big bucks). You had to buy insurance of up to a miliion dollars for any damages done on the power grid. You had to have a real human being with physical presence at the site of power production and with a phone contact from the power company.
This differs in what way from net metering where none of that is needed? Because in the first case the power company is accepting a netbalance of near power zero and acts like a battery to the grid day versus night as you point out, but in the primary of being a net buyer of renewable electricity.
The real downfall is suppose you create a superb way to generate renewable energy on the cheap. You make this electricity on your own property and you want to sell this on the national grid, then the power company gets to come inspect all your innovation and take notes? Not my idea of private property.
My take is that the government has two big lobbyist to support and you aren’t it if you want to create cheap and clean renewable energy for sale. First when it wrote all the net-metering laws it was written to prevent competition to the big generators and power companies. Second it was meant to support the special electronics companies both solar and infrastructure (inverters, etc).
As far as highways and electric grids being subsidized by the government I’m totally against. Though I’m against regulated government utilitiy monopolies also. Quite frankly big companies are always just micro governments in my opinion and I see no salvation of mankind coming in replacing the national highway system by feudal road lords either. That may annoy many who would advocate total private ownership of the road system and they certainly have some very good points about the present system does suck. Highways and transportation infrastructure for wheeled vehicles is probably one of the most hardest issues to solve when it comes to freedom. And like the power grid monopolies either government or big industry are usually contrary to technological risk taking and reward. Again the idea of a small entrepeneur selling power no matter how novel his idea of power generation and no matter how profitable against a big lobbying Edison or PPL is fairly unlikely in a grid owned by a few big companies. And I’m not talking about subsidized windmill farms either.
I suppose with all this talk it makes me think how nice the freedom island idea of man made floating concrete islands would be. The ocean like air does not need private ownership and thus becomes public property of everyone without maintenance requirements or subsidizing. This means that boats riding between individually owned floating or pods of privately owned islands would be able to use the waterway without any royalty or sense of duty for paying unlike roads on terresteral transportaiton.
But on planet dry land the road thing absolutely is a nightmare. You got eminent domain issues, and you got maintenance issues. Private road systems to me would work but still have huge problems because they’d not work unless being big bloated monopolies in my humble opinion. The only other solution to a subsidies road system on terra earth is flying vehicles. Here again though how far up does a landowners right extend from the soil? I’m not one who thinks people can own air nor does the concept of air lords owning air above the soil really appeal to me much and if that irritates land owners I certainly can see why. Again I’d agree that land property rights by actively using land is a necessity to say farm or ranch, and I’d be against land being open communal property where anyone could go pick the cabbage some poor farmer was trying to grown on a plot of land. I don’t think moral hazard works as well say for people owning nitrogen and oxygen in the atmosphere above them. Then again I’d have a problem with saying a hover vehicle on 4 feet above someone’s land property, I don’t thing a flying vehicle should have to pay a cent to a land owner that is flying say 1000 feet above said property.
Freedom is great and again I’m against subsidizing, but I’m not really for big business strangling new innovation either. Nor am I for a few tyrants claiming like kings all the air, land, water to themselves when they couldn’t possible use that most effectively all by themselves. To me freedom is always a bit precarious because when you ask the big questions its gets confusing what ownership really is. Can a man really own something that he had nothing to do with? Can he own a rock, the air, the ocean, even the land that predates him bilions of years? I don’t really think thats feasible from a perspective that there is really only one owner and that is you guessed it the God. But again I don’t think said God would be against people who utilize it for say farming to keep trespassers from trodding on the plant life they are trying to grow to feed the world. Where exactly that becomes excessive I suppose is where you can defend with your own bare hands against and from others. If it takes an entire army of other people’s bodies to do that than I’d say no you can’t be and aren’t owner of said parcel. I’m just waiting for the day that someone like Al Gore comes to me and say’s I owe him for breathing his air. See what I mean? Its a very crazy problem and power grids, highways, and even land, air, and water are really hard to figure out in terms of freedom. And even harder to figure out how to divide up for maximum employment and utility. And I think that the question of how freedom is best applied into this dividing up is about maxium utility by free individuals. And I do mean individuals and not mobs (corporation or governments). I absolutely do not believe in communal property as in government owning anything, what is community property would be something that is owned by nobody out of consideration for everybody. Ocean and air air so far examples of these and they don’t require government either. Maybe utility lines won’t be so much needed in the future and this would basically remove the need for all the problems I’m talking about in a power grid anyway. One can only hope that indeed power is literally shifting back to the individual away from mob thought and control in every way.
Hot Rod
Quite frankly big companies are always just micro governments in my opinion…
Hot Rod, right there with you old friend.
I’ve come to this over the last five years–the notion of a corporation should be abolished right along with the governments that create them!
It’s a statist invention. An unnatural legal entity; a fake “person”.
Bullshit.
If a group of people want to come together and contract with one another–“Bob, you work the lathe, Bill, you ship, and Brad, you manage Bill and Bob. I’ll put up the capital and keep things running smooth.”
Fine.
But no fake legal protection; no fake personhood status and no legal immunity. It’s a group of people contracting freely with each other to participate and cooperate to make a product and sell it.
Why should I subsidize it? And why can’t I sue Bob if he fucks up my AR’s bolt carrier? Come to think of it, they could all as part of their contract promise joint and several liability…or a million other solutions.
Why are there corporations at all?
Stupid question; but I put it out there for rhetorical emphasis:
Because the government likes corporations, the government IS a corporation and the government subsumes and is subsumed by corporations.
Get it? The whole fucking thing is mercantilism.
We didn’t even have corporate “personhood” here until the late 1800’s. It’s a scourge, it’s fascism, and it must end!
Corporations allow the reconstruction of a slavery/serf type system through the state. I agree they are like governments and it’s often difficult to tell where corporations begin and governments end. Corporations don’t reward performance, they reward social skills and sociopathy just like government. The corporate system from the banks on down is about forcing talent into the system. To make it such that there is virtually no way for any single person to make it on their own.
Today’s thing is to be an independent contractor, but where’s the work? For corporations. What kind of businesses do most people have? Franchises. Dealerships. Even people who start businesses of their own often have corporate partners and financing. If not that government.
One giant web now.
The only real businesses these days start illegally (for lack of funds to comply with laws and regulations) and stay under the radar until they have enough money and cash flow to go legit.
“Corporations allow the reconstruction of a slavery/serf type system through the state. I agree they are like governments and it’s often difficult to tell where corporations begin and governments end.”
Exactly right and they even have the voting ballot for the shareholders. And like there big brother government the voting is worthless unless you own 51% of the vote and are the President of the company. I’d never buy any share of corporation, its a fraud as investing in your social security funding. But I’d own a S-corporation only if I was the sole owner, get one business partner and the whole thing becomes mired in rigged votes and played politics and then nothing ever gets done again.
“Corporations don’t reward performance, they reward social skills and sociopathy just like government. The corporate system from the banks on down is about forcing talent into the system. To make it such that there is virtually no way for any single person to make it on their own.”
Its the borg and communism by democratic initiative again. The call the leader of a corpation President for a reason and it comes with political ass kissing just like its big brother.
“Today’s thing is to be an independent contractor, but where’s the work? For corporations. What kind of businesses do most people have? Franchises. Dealerships. Even people who start businesses of their own often have corporate partners and financing. If not that government.”
Exactly right they don’t want 1099 workers anymore because those people don’t pay the government well enough. But if you are willing to fill out a 1000 forms to be a corporation they’ll give you even more goodies than if you were a 1099 in writeoffs and perks.
“One giant web now.”
And the individual spirit, individualist, independent minds are the fly.
“The only real businesses these days start illegally (for lack of funds to comply with laws and regulations) and stay under the radar until they have enough money and cash flow to go legit.”
And even at that the idea that you can stay under the radar is probably next to nil given our spying NSA government philosophy. Nothing but the state in essense!
“But no fake legal protection; no fake personhood status and no legal immunity. It’s a group of people contracting freely with each other to participate and cooperate to make a product and sell it.”
Exactly Methyl! Here is the thing even the founders recognized that the Bill of Rights wasn’t written for mobs (groups of people). That is the old saying that 1 boy = 1 boy, 2 boys = 1/2 boy, and 3 boys = no boy at all is still true. I was very impressed when Ron Paul discussed the fact that government is about lobbying by groups of people say gay people, or ACLU, etc but that freedom doesn’t come for groups of people it comes about because of individual rights. I believe that corporations were instigated by government because just like unions and cartels the government cannot control individuals but it can control organizations of groups of people plain and simple. It benefits the government to sponsor group control in every aspect.
But its worse than the fact that the Supremo Kangaroo court has inverted the bad and good by saying that corporations are an individual because its composed of individual(s). Even though the founders were especially critical of group mob thought. If government would limit itself to the group instead of the individual persecution, then maybe the existence of the super human of 1000 individuals would be fine with me. Like suppose that government couldn’t tax except at the business level or corporate level. Then at least we’d be afforded some privacy as individuals. But here again the idea is to promote group control by rewarding corporation and punishing the individual so it gets inverted again. Government continues to harass the individual while giving a green ticket to corporations. I’ve looked at all the tax codes written for corporations. I’ve seen all the writeoff for corporations that aren’t afforded individuals, all the health care insurance rules written for corporation and against small entities and indivduals. Its purposefully fabricated to destroy individualism. Also while filing my corporate taxes which are much more grueling BTW, I learned that corporations are much less audited by the government than a sole proprietor.
And I’d say like bugs bunny if you can’t beat them join them. And I did and I’d recommend people to get a corporation started when you can afford a salary for yourself and still make more than that normal salary, but the whole thing irks my soul.
Even from a spiritual level it irks my soul. Like if there is any redemption it will be for individuals not groups of people since most seem to feel that we will be judged at the individual entity level. So much for the USA and the flag going to heaven or the USMC for that matter. Obviously natural rights spoken of and given by a God as declared in our declaration of independence is inalienable only to individuals and nothing and nobody else.
I’ve broken everything down in my world view and I’ve came to conclude that though the right to freely associate should never be hindered by a government, the meaning of group thought is lesser not more important.
I also came around to the realization that corporations are fundamentally evil – anathema to a genuinely free economy. First, for all the reasons you’ve laid down. Second, because they are sociopathic. The only consideration a corporation is driven by is profit. Not making an excellent product or delivering exceptional service. Just – make money. Fast. However. There is no human check on the corporation. No conscience. No empathy. No real accountability (see the reasons you laid down).
If I open an antique bike restoration shop, it’s my name on the garage – and I have a direct personal stake in not screwing people over because it’s my name on the shop. And if I do screw someone over, then as an individual/actual human being, I can and should be held to account.
But if my bike shop becomes a limited liability corporation, I no longer have nearly as much skin in the game. The primary consideration becomes “shareholder value” – a polite way of describing a flim-flam. Screw the employees; screw the customers; make things as cheaply as possible by whatever means – just make the next quarter’s returns look good. And if it all goes to shit? Why, someone else will be left holding the bag. After all, it’s a limited liability corporation. I can’t personally be touched – not easily, at least. My assets are safe; the corporation can be sued – but hey, that money’s long gone. …