Free The Animal

First up this morning, Billy points to “A Bill.” I agree with him. Although, I must say that Barney Frank’s statement goes just about as far as any “lawmaker” can go without just cutting to the essentials of the matter, which is that it’s none of your business…”voter.” Certainly, the implied insanity of the current state of affairs is pretty well reasoned out, within the context of the reality that the State is all powerful and it really owns “your” life & the time of it, and not you. Even so, the title above speaks to just how this will likely go over.

[Read more →]

Well, there’s been a new development since when I saw this earlier, but as I often do, I read this whole post before clicking on the link it referenced. Then, upon seeing the photo of the man, j’ai tout compris. Good thing they found the sand grain-sized pot bit on his shoe (0.003g / 0.0001oz). With that Jamaican look and dreads, he might have had to endure a lung biopsy for any possible non-metabolized bits. Looks like some sense has prevailed, though that would only be after putting the man through the ordeal of an arrest, prosecution and the prospect of a four year jail sentence. So I’m sure that Mr. Brown is just “thrilled to death.” Still makes us look like a bunch of pussies when it comes to “zero tolerance” though, dontcha think?

[Read more →]

I think what follows qualifies for the term. I don’t follow QandO Blog on a daily basis. I check in every so often. Last night I did just that, and came across this entry documenting the federal jury service of Dale Franks, one of the principal self-described libertarian writers of that blog. “Free Markets, Free People;” so they say. Well, let’s see about that. In short, “Mr. Rhett” got stopped at the San Ysidro border from Mexico into the U.S. while going about the affairs of his business: his life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness. Without putting up any resistance, or doing harm to a soul, border agents discovered he was transporting a significant amount of an herb that “the public,” according to Franks, has deemed “contraband.” (It’s always convenient to have euphemisms close at hand; it really greases the skids when it comes to lying to one’s self, or others.) Here’s Franks: So, essentially, we sent Mr. Rhett to a ten-year stretch on the federal pokey. It was really an interesting process—from my point of view, if not Mr. Rhett’s. Especially the deliberations. We really did go through the exhibits carefully, in some cases finding information that hadn’t been…

[Read more →]