Potpourri of Ponderings

Well over a decade ago, I worked in the Post Falls, Idaho vicinity at various jobs. The call center from hell was not far from the Buck Knives factory I visited yesterday, and before the soul-crushing desk job of answering phones and selling more phones, I also worked at an agricultural job near Stateline in the spring of 2007. I remember that my boss was quite enamored with left-wing talk radio and an enthusiastic supporter of Democrat politicians. This was around the time I discovered Ron Paul during my shift away from mainstream Republicanism when I was disillusioned with the results of Bush II's presidency.

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The Democrats haven't earned my support as a substitute for the Republicans, though. The US two-party system relies on a false choice between two gangs of liars, each promising to make you half-free if you submit to their control. The zero-sum game of politics is rigged so no matter who wins, liberty loses. Various third parties can only corrupt themselves by trying to play this game, and they're all amateurs facing seasoned pros who are also more than willing to cheat. It's as rigged to favor the house as a casino, and at least one enters a casino voluntarily.

OK, enough of that tangent. On to another?

I was in the area again earlier today because of the outdoors-related attractions, but Stateline has indoor attractions as well. That venue doesn't really appeal to me. I admire the feminine figure as much as the next guy, but I'd really rather not be in close proximity to that next guy in a noisy environment while admiring feminine figures. In addition, based on my co-workers at the agricultural job and their enthusiastic discussions about spending their pay every Friday night, I really don't think I have a high opinion of the average clientele IQ. It's just not my crowd. I may be libertarian, but I'm not a libertine. I may be a prude by some standards, but I'm not puritanical.

I have been told by old-timers that at one point, Idaho had a lower drinking age than Washington, and consequently, Stateline was the destination for young Washingtonians eager for legal alcohol, so it seems the hedonistic party atmosphere isn't new. Now that drinking ages are standardized by federal law, the Washington marijuana laws mean those seeking to circumvent prohibitions against different intoxicants flow across the state line in the other direction. No matter how it is structured, or how those structures change over time, the regulation and taxation of vice for our own good will always perplex me.

And now, for something completely different. Or maybe not. Next subject!

It seems the Virginia gun rights protest was a non-event. No wars were declared. There was no shot heard 'round then world. Odds are, the pompous control freaks will go ahead and write their laws. As with the nationwide bump stock ban, patriots will have to choose between being "law-abiding gun owners" and being free people who reject bad laws infringing on their liberty. The police who proclaimed their support for the second amendment will enforce the new laws just like they enforce every existing gun law, drug prohibition, permit mandate for public events, and every other blatant violation of the plain language of US and state constitutions.

The same prohibitionist power grab is involved whether deciding what people can smoke, when they are old enough to drink, and what sort of gun people may own. Public safety is always the excuse for these authoritarian impositions, but the reality is violent enforcement of bad laws that criminalize people who have harmed no one. If there is no victim who has suffered an articulable and demonstrable violation of life, liberty, or property, there is no crime. When government dictates a prohibition, it necessarily enforces it with threats of articulable and demonstrable violations of life, liberty, or property. That isn't progress, no matter how loudly you proclaim yourself to be a progressive.