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When I was a kid, I was taught to respect and obey police. I was taught that they were my friends. They were clearly the “good guys.”

I don’t always feel that way today. I know there are still many police officers who are decent people who are trying to do the right things — and many of those still believe in police as the “good guys” — but the police culture is coming to be dominated by thugs in the service of an increasingly coercive state.

I was reminded of the difference between how I grew up and how today’s kids are growing up when I heard from someone who read Wednesday’s item about the “lemonade bust” in Iowa. Michael wrote:

“I told my daughter (age 7) about the story on your blog and the lemonade stand. She became upset and wondered if the same thing would happen to her when she noticed a police officer drive by her own unlicensed lemonade stand. She was lucky. He didn’t come back, but now she must spend a lifetime looking over her shoulder for the long arm of the law.”

At some point, the people serving as police officers have to ask themselves whether it’s ethical to continue to serve a state that uses force to act as they’re required to act. The excuse that, “I was just following orders,” doesn’t work for ex-Nazis and it shouldn’t work for cops who are terrorizing families today.

I hate it that kids are learning to be scared of police officers, but it’s the realistic thing to learn.

WASHINGTON — The leaders of the nation’s two dominant political parties announced this morning that they’ve reached a definitive agreement to merge into one super-party in time for the 2012 elections.

Although terms of the deal were not announced, insiders who declined to be identified say that a new corporation will be established to acquire the assets of both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. It’s expected that the newly combined party will have a market value of roughly $7.8 trillion, according to an economist at the Federal Reserve.

“The more we talked about it during the debt negotiations, the more obvious it was to all of us that we needed to consolidate our operations,” said a clearly jubilant Barack Obama, who will serve as president of the newly merged party. “We realized that we’re both working for the same things, so there was no sense in us opposing one another and duplicating our efforts.”

The name of the new party will be unveiled next week, but insiders say the two finalists are the Demopublican Party and the Republicrat Party. Demopublican was considered the frontrunner because of its association with democracy. A new logo combining the two parties’ long-time symbols has already been released.

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The citizens of Coralville, Iowa, are safe tonight from the scourge of unlicensed lemonade. The nationwide “War on Lemonade” never ends.

On the right is 4-year-old Abigail Krutsinger, who had the audacity to set up a table selling her own lemonade for 25 cents a cup.  She was caught red-handed with the merchandise and various lemonade paraphenalia. The police officer who came to shut Abigail down told her that a permit would cost $400 — far more than the $4 she had made.

I’ve covered this very recently, so I’m not going to belabor the point. Government agencies extort money from people who want to engage in voluntary transactions with other. It’s no different from the Mob demanding protection money.

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