The other day, I bathed in the solar flare fury of a Clover affronted.
Luckily, I had my radiation suit on.
I was coming home from downtown, via a gravel road that dumps you out onto a paved one. Neither is much-travelled. Most of the time, you’ll be the only car on this particular road.
At the stop sign where the gravel road ends and the paved road begins, I did not entirely stop – but instead merely slowed – and then rolled on. Because – other than there being a sign – there seemed to me to be no reason to stop.
I like to have reasons for things. Reasons other than – it’s the law!
A look to the left and then to the right as I approached the T established that no cross traffic was imminent. Plenty of sight distance in both directions. No possibility of two objects attempting to occupy the same space at the same time.
And so, I rolled.
This triggered the solar flare from the Clover who was standing in his yard nearby. He waved his arms at me in angry exasperation at my failure to genuflect before his totem. I could not hear what he was yelling at me over the V8 symphony of the Mercedes AMG GLE 63 (review here) I happened to be driving – no doubt compounding the Clover’s fury – but I am guessing it had to do with my being a “scofflaw.”
Well, yeah. I pride myself on this.
I scoff at laws. Why not? Shouldn’t everyone?
Isn’t that the obligation of a thinking human being? As opposed to an animal conditioned – through fear of punishment – to mindlessly obey?
At least, maybe question the law?
And if you can’t come up with a better reason to obey than well, it’s the law . . .maybe you ought to do some more questioning.
Some laws stand pat on their obvious – their self-evident – moral validity. And oddly enough, these laws don’t even need to be codified. Much less justified on the basis of their being codified. Everyone – except the psychopathic among us – understands that it’s wrong to kill and also to steal. Most of us would refrain from doing these things even if there were no codified laws forbidding them.
Including “scofflaws” such as myself.
That is an interesting point, when you stop to think about it for a minute.
Or rather, it is a point of difference. A really important one.
What made the body heaps and ovens of Nazi Germany not only possible but inevitable? It wasn’t merely race hatred. No. It was The Law – and a population conditioned to animal-like devotion to The Law. To what is written – and which by dint of being written is sacred, must be obeyed.
Eichmann explained this at his trail in Israel.
He was given lawful orders to organize first the rounding up and ghetto-izing of Europe’s Jews, then their systematic physical destruction.
And he followed those orders.
What he did was not personal – even though it is likely he enjoyed the work. The relevant point is that it was legal. Eichmann and all the rest of them were technocratic-bureaucratic automata who lacked the capacity to scoff at any law.
Something like the Holocaust is not possible in a society that is healthy enough to scoff at laws. That still has enough people in it willing to say hey, wait a minute… that seems pretty ridiculous.
One in which it is considered laudable to disregard stupid laws.
American used to be healthy like that, but no longer is. 
Which brings me back to the Clover I encountered. He would have made a very Good German. It did not matter to him that my slowing-rather-than-stopping harmed no one and (even more importantly) couldn’t have harmed anyone – not unless other cars had acquired Klingon cloaking technology and in that event, a full stop wouldn’t have prevented my pulling out into the path of one.
What drove the Clover’s conniption fit wasn’t a moral outrage. It was the jangling of his doggy-like devotion to The Law, which must always be obeyed. If it had been in his power to have had me arrested, I am certain he would have done so. I am grateful that the Mercedes was swift and my foot heavy; I gave him no opportunity to get a clear sail fawn shot of its license plate and by the time he was on the 911 line to narc me out, it was already to late to “get” me.
But the experience – and others like it – makes me uneasy.
They say – some of them do – that it can’t happen here. But they’re wrong.
Hell, in more than a few ways, it already is happening. And worse is yet to come, you betcha. Unless Americans recover their former capacity to scoff at the law.
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Does the act prohibited by a law:
1) Take away another’s life or materially injure them?
2) Destroy or take away another’s property?
3) Inhibit another’s liberty to do as they please?
If not, it is not a valid law. All valid laws have one thing in common: they have an identifiable, individual (or multiple individual) HUMAN victims. Crimes must be against people. Not “The State”…not “Public Order”…not “Society”. This is why none of the drug war laws are valid, and why most traffic laws are likewise invalid. Because most are prior restraints of peaceful activities in ANTICIPATION of harm (that usually never occurs).
If you would see The Law respected, you must first make it respectable.
Remember ALL laws only do one of two things… period!!!
Tell you what you MUST do!
-or-
Tell you what you CANNOT do!
I run several stop signs daily, and very often a couple red lights too, when it’s safe to do so.
Of course – why not?
I’ve asked several of the High Dudgeon Clovers who denounced me whether they ever “speed.” That is, do they every disobey those signs? Of course they do. We all do – and for the same reason I don’t always obey every stop sign (and “no right on red” sign).
There’s no reason to – other than Obey The Law!
Sometimes I like being sadistic. It was 630 in the morning. At a red light going straight. Cars behind me are honking their horns like crazy getting me to move. I’m like nope… Its red. You aren’t going to pay my traffic ticket.
I don’t understand the mentality. If they want me to break the law and run the red light, why not drive up on the grass or shoulder to get around me? What that’s illegal you say?
Hi C_lover,
Usually, I will yield to a faster-moving car (rare, but it happens!) But there is an exception.
Ever have a guy roll up on you fast, then ride your ass… but this same dude can’t keep up unless the road is straight?
I hate tailgaters.
When I encounter a guy like this, I burn them in the curves – they’re now half a mile behind me. When the road straightens up, the Clover will floor it and rush hard to close the gap, then resume his tailgating. Of course, the bastard won’t pass. That would be illegal.
Tailgating, though, that’s ok to a Clover.
I once let a guy follow me into a fast curve. He lifted off the throttle, mid-curve, as I knew he would. And didn’t make it. He had guardrail for lunch.
Like to leave them on Covington Mtn like that, surprises me how good the old Dak will hold the road( no accelaration , but she is planted pretty good )
Don’t know if i have told the story of a friend who got someone shadowing him in the next lane over to crash into a toll booth.
Anything to not have to pay attention to you’re own driving. Lazy clovers….
The Roman senator and historian Tacitus once stated that “the more laws the more corruption.” He was right in his time except today in America we have many more laws and much more corruption then Rome ever had. I read somewhere that the average American commits 3 to 5 felonies every day without even realizing it. And wasn’t it Beria,who was Stalin’s henchman and in charge of Stalin’s secret police,who once stated that “if you find me the man I will find you the law to hang that same man.” There is no doubt that the Administrative State on all levels has grown way out of proportion to what the Founding Fathers envisioned in our Constitution with its Bill of Rights. In essence America has morphed into a police state. Even Adolph Eichmann,who was one of the architects of the Holocaust,stated at his trial that he was just “following orders” that were covered by the Third Reich’s laws. Laws,law enforcement and the judicial system are set up to ensure the rights of Americans and to protect the society,as a whole,against criminals and others who would attempt to violate those rights and our property. Laws are not supposed to be set up to achieve “social justice” or to dictate the world views of progressives and fascists. Laws are set up to protect our lives,property and rights against people,both in and out of government,who would violate those rights. We cannot pick and choose which laws we wish to obey. This in itself would be bad for society as a whole. However we have the right to nullify laws that we honestly feel are either frivolous,immoral or just don’t apply to us. After all,during World War 2 in German occupied areas it was against the law to hide or harbor Jews. Thousands were saved because enough people didn’t obey that law. You might call that cosmic justice.
This article sparked a kind of a brawl thread on TBP where it was posted. One asshat there said he was going to contact Daimler-Benz and report to them that one of their test drivers ran a stop sign and wrote about it.
https://www.theburningplatform.com/2017/03/28/dancing-with-clovers/#comments
WoW 😮 !!!!!!! Our people are more compliant now than the Soviets ever were….
Forget “RIP America”. RIP humanity. And I’d bet ANYTHING that that turd votes and procreates….. (And likely works for Uncle- or aspires to)
Had to give the fruitbats and clovers a shot of sooty justice from time to time , they cant seem to understand the concept of working for a living.
Clover didn’t realize you were doing him a favor by carrying some momentum through the stop sign- every time someone comes to a complete stop on a gravel road and takes off from the stop sign it creates more of a divot over time until it’s a nice big hole.
I’ll bet Clover has to use that section of road too, and doesn’t realize the value of rolling through a stop sign when safe on a gravel road.
Some people look for any reason to shake their fist at others- it’s the response to trivial issues that clarify if someone is deeply personally unhappy or a closeted totalitarian.(and maybe one and the same)
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to god” pretty much sums it up for me.
And just to pick nits, killing is not a problem, murder is. Killing is frequently justifiable.
As a Christian Libertarian, that pretty much sums up everything for me!
Only it probably would have taken me the space of War And Peace to say it…..
Thanks, Ernie!
I wish I could claim credit, I assume everyone knows that was what Thomas Jefferson… But if I’m going to steal I try to steal the finest!
Ahh! I’m a TJ fan, and I missed that one! Good stuff, no matter where it comes from!
Looks like Virgina’s clovers and Insurance Institute for Higher Surcharges were playing dirty. They set up speed cameras to attempt to make some sort of social argument to lower speed limits and bring back the double nickel.
http://thenewspaper.com/news/51/5172.asp
http://thenewspaper.com/news/49/4990.asp
This is one of the times it would be cool to have the old shit box cars back. You could floor it and leave the clover in a cloud of oily blue smoke.
Once I recover, I’ll swing by there again on the old Kaw two stoke and see whether Our Man is around… he will love “lil Stinker”…
eric, the ultimate payback: 40 tons with a 15 L engine, 60 mph using a too low gear with it wound out, Jake brake turned all the way up and let completely off the fuel about 100 yds away and catch another gear as it brakes to go back up with the decibels on the Jake brake and give him a good, long sound with that locomotive air horn that points to the side as you go right by…….then go on down the road, turn around and do it again. Set your dash cam to see his head explode.
Well said Eric , 8 has a point , being a scoffer myself ( ended up taking a ride for scoffing once, you wouldn’t believe how easy it is to get in the pen) Its safer to run a stop sign when nothing is coming in a slow accelerating vehicle.
Of course, when it is other governments disobeying, everyone seems too be just fine with it:
http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/politics/colorado-officials-say-theyll-stand-up-to-trumps-immigration-orders-but-some-coloradans-fearful
The People’s Republic of Boulder is home to many big government agencies, including National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Aurora is home to Lowry AFB, and a lot of other government contractors and pork recipients. The National Renewable Energy Lab is in Golden and I’ll bet a lot of their employees are living in Denver.
I’d like to think they’re playing with fire, but it’s more like they’re playing with a Bic lighter. If Trump is successful in taming the bureaucrats there will be a day of reckoning.
Part of it too might be that the dweeb keeps noticing “fancy” new cars coming and going on “his road”- and now a Benz- so figures that you’re some kind of hifalutin rich dude who’s “too good to stop”. People are funny like that. He probably rolls through the same stops himself, and wouldn’t care if he saw someone doing it in a 15 year-old beat-up pick’em-up, but if he’s greedy and envious, then it’s like “Who does that fancy rich city boy think he is?!”.
Works in reverse, too- Roll a stop in a crappy old car in a fancy neighborhood, and they’ll be outraged and calling the pigs!
People will tolerate a lot more from “their own kind”. The pig who stops you will be outraged if his machine says that you had a beer once 8 years ago…..but if the guy he stops turns out to be a fellow porker, and is blasted out of his mind, he’ll look the other way and may even give him a lift home and tuck him into bed.
Their laws are only for other people.
People tolerated the imposition of the income tax, because it was only for other people; only for the “top 1% of the very rich”. As long as they think that the laws are just for other people, they’re all for law and order. By the time they realize that those very laws will also snag them and their children, it’s too late to do anything, because they’ve allowed the mechanism of power and control to be erected, and in-fact have participated in it’s erection and furthered it. And even then, few of them step back and say “What have I done?!”. They instead act as if that law is the definition of morality- So they can soothe their consciences by abiding by those laws, and being the enemy of all who transgress it. And thus, a Clover is born!
The real opioid epidemic is that far too may are addicted to a large Ship of State…so long as it’s their hand on the tiller.
eric, what can’t happen here? It’s past tense in my view. What can’t happen until the streets run with blood is getting back the rights and protections we once had.
It’s sad to think of all the heavily armed soldiers who won’t hesitate to mow down anyone without their uniform. And they’ll be doing it as the the talking heads say, for our protection. I’m reminded of the people threatening suicide I’ve seen mown(screw you spell check) down by cops. Evidently, since suicide is illegal in every state I know, being murdered so you can’t kill yourself makes perfect sense to the badged thug crowd.
Sadly, Mr. 8, such is a long-standing characteristic of human nature. Look at what Lincoln’s Yanks were willing to do to their countrymen who were morally superior to themselves. Violence and evil tend to prevail because the violent and evil have no constraints against those traits. And now, when it has gotten to the point where such things become politically organized and supported by the state, there is only one direction in which it can go until it either consumes all opposition, or implodes upon itself.
It’s so sad, that throughout history, there has never been a time when there has not been a lack of people who were willing to take up arms against other nations or their own countrymen, for no other reason than that they were paid to do so, and apparently enjoy doing it. Think of the worst most despicable tyrants and genocidal maniacs throughout history, and all of their acts were only made possible because of the fact that others were willing to perpetrate their violence and brutality and injustice.
Great point Nunzio, neither Hitler, Stalin, or Mao, to name just 3 of the more recent “mass murderers” could have killed that many people all by themselves. They had more than enough willing minions to carry out their evil and most of them probably enjoyed it. The flip side of that is how most of the victims went along without much resistance, like sheep to the slaughter. Solzhenitsyn wrote that perhaps when the “knock on the door” came the Cheka might be a bit more hesitant if the person on the other side of the door was waiting with an axe. Of course the Amerikan Stasi don’t bother with such niceties as knocking, they just smash your door down and toss in a grenade. I hope if the day ever comes when they come for me I’ll have the ability to take a few of them with me as I check out.
MiB, two points you made to me in a backhand fashion. 1. The very reason they’re trying so hard to disarm us and it has backfired on them big time. Guns sell at all time records and same for ammo with guns being better and cheaper every day. CDNN recently and may still be, selling Ruger AR’s for $499 and Colt’s for $200 more and they’re better than ever. 2. They’re waiting for us(you, me, all the old farts who can’t be pushed any further)to die off. There’s a thorn in this too in that young people are buying guns like crazy even though they don’t have much money for the most part. I see young guys and gals buying guns one part group at a time.
Some people think we’ll reach critical mass this year but I hear that from someone every year for the last 15.
My thoughts EXACTLY, Mike!
_________________________
8,
Gun sales are actually down recently. When people don’t feel that the threat of not being able to buy ’em exists, they relax. Very short-sighted. And the ones that do buy ’em: It doesn’t mean much. How many of ’em live in places like CA. where they have to keep them locked away and unloaded in their own homes? And where they could never actually carry them?
And just the fact that anyone who buys from an FFL has their info on record FOREVER, means that “they” know exactly whose houses to go to first, and who has exactly what. Gun control is just a pretext to gun banishment.
Like in CT. when they banned certain rifles recently…they knew exactly who had ’em. Guns aren’t of any real value if you can’t use them, or if merely owning them flags you as the first to have your door bashed in. (And they’ll justify it by saying it was for “saaaafety”, because you are “heavily armed”).
Nunzio, gun sales may be off the dizzying heights brought on by BO, the greatest gun salesman in history, but the industry continues to flourish. Have some design in mind but nobody makes it? Write KelTec and they’ll soon have an improved version of what you asked for ha ha. That double barrel pump with 16 rounds not macho enough? Maybe the new 3 barrel version that holds an even box of 3 inch 12 gauge will slake your thirst.
Call me old-fashioned, but a simple old AK is good enough for me!
Nunzio, I won’t call you anything but the AR’s being made now are all sub MOA and many are sub half and quarter MOA. When I aim for the eye or ear I want to hit the eye or ear.
If you want to go for larger rounds then AR 10’s are there to fill that gap. Right this minute, but maybe not tomorrow, the largest round that will work in the 15’s mag is a 6.5 Creedmoor.
The phrase “suicide by cop” says more about the cops than it does about the mental state of those they kill.
Gettin’ hard to the difference between the suicides and out-right murders by the filthy swine these days….
I make it a point to flagrantly disobey at least one law a day that makes no sense in that context — after first looking around for cops.
After having lived the first 2/3rds of my life in the city in a blue state, the first thing when I got out here to the boonies was to remove that tag from my mattress!
“Everyone – except the psychopathic among us – understands that it’s wrong to kill and also to steal.”
Some kinds of stealing. Call taxation what it is — theft — and almost no one will agree with you.
I’ve had liberals talk proudly about stealing from what they considered big, faceless corporations, but from a “little guy” — now that is wrong.
To summarize — it is OK, for most people, to steal from the little guy if the right words are used and someone else is doing it, allegedly on your behalf. It is wrong, for most people, to steal from that same little guy if they have to look them in the eye, and it is totally OK to steal from others if you don’t have to look them in the eye. Basically, if the victim is not immediately there and looking reproachfully at you and thus causing you guilt and distress, have at it.
For most people.
Point well-taken, Jim.
Unfortunately…
They use jealousy of a single outcome. A poor person may find a life of work and financial prudence to be something worse than death yet those who live in such a way not to be poor are branded as ‘lucky’, privileged, and worse. Why? Because that makes it ok to steal from them.
I would have stopped the car, flipped him off or would have jumped out of the car and asked what his fucking problem is. I can’t stand pepole like that. I’m just in a plain bad mood.
Me too, Swamp… I wishI had thought of that. But I’m seriously gimped by whatever this bug is I picked up. It’s about all I can do to keep the cats fed and their litter boxes clean.
I hope you recover soon. I would pay to see footage of that when you do recover.
I get annoyed at people who run stop signs. Because in doing so they take what is properly my turn and then I’m stuck behind them and they will then proceed under the speed limit and fail to accelerate properly at however how many traffic signals I am now stuck behind them for. I suppose the difference is that all I do is say ‘nice stop’. The only time it might ever be heard is when I’m bicycling.
There’s also the issue of selective enforcement. My own annoyance at someone driving a MB around here comes from that I just don’t see such luxury car drivers enforced upon, ever, for anything, including sloppy driving right in front of cops. Lately about once a week in the morning I encounter a woman who drives an acura SUV about 70mph in a 45mph very aggressively in traffic, riding my bumper, etc. This is the type of person that quite clearly drives like that each and every time she’s behind the wheel. If I drove like that I would get ticketed early and often. Anyway my point being is that an ‘above the law’ effect when one’s self isn’t creates some interesting emotions.
Hi Brent,
I’m with you – if the “runner” behaves in a Cloverific fashion. But when there’s no “butting in” involved (zero/no cross traffic present) and when the “runner” is someone like me who would never hold you up… I doubt you’d care because I’d not be impeding you!
Looking in my mirror and seeing a state cop with lights on is so common I don’t even think about it when I run a stop sign getting to a safe spot to pull over. After all, it’s safer to get across a road or onto the road when no traffic is visible than to stop and give a vehicle not yet in sight or at least not close enough to affect them time to be a hazard after stopping…..so then you have to wait and then getting up to speed or across that intersection simply takes longer. I’ve never even had a DOT mention my not stopping. In fact, when hauling a load I’ll begin watching the road I’m about to intersect as far back in each direction as possible long before I get there if possible and adjust my cornering speed accordingly. In some instances where a road intersects another at the end of a curve I’ll make sure no one is coming from behind me or going to turn onto the road I’m about to leave and won’t even take it off cruise if it’s a smooth transition. Stop signs shouldn’t exist…..only yield signs.
That’s the key. I like seeing fast cars weaving in and out only if they look like they are competent, making smart moves. The flip side is the idiot that can’t use his turn signal, drives slowly, YET always makes it through the light and holding me back, only for me to catch him again.
One of the Youtubers I watch is a guy from South Africa that lives in China (serpentza). He recently had a segment up where he shows all the times he’s been stopped from filming – a policeman or shop owner will come up to him and say “it’s illegal” or more often “You aren’t allowed”
Turns out that a few minutes before each incident, there was an older man wandering by and stared at him for a long time. And guess who was standing behind the policeman when they showed up? Same guy.
He’s calling them the “Evil Uncles” and they’re from the generation that was suspicious of foreigners, where they would get an increase in social standing by turning in strangers (and relatives) to the secret police. In other words – busybodies who can’t let someone else do something they disapprove of.