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David McElroy

making sense of a dysfunctional culture

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Bureaucrats will find a way to punish you, so don’t make ’em mad

By David McElroy · July 15, 2011

You might remember the story from last week about the woman in suburban Detroit who was facing jail time because her suburb didn’t like her growing veggies in her yard. The good news is that public pressure has forced the city to drop the charges. The bad news is that she’s still facing possible jail time for another offense. The bureaucrats are determined to make an example of her, it seems.

Although the city has dropped the charges about her vegetable garden, she was also charged with failure to have a license for her dogs. After she was charged in June, she immediately bought the license and showed the paperwork to officials. The woman’s lawyer said that charges are normally dropped in such a case after a person buys the license, but the city is pursuing this charge.

The lesson: Don’t make bureaucrats angry. If they want to punish you, they’ll find a way to do it.

Note: Hat tip to the Agitator for alerting me to this update on the story.

Update: At her blog Friday afternoon, Julie Bass clarifies and corrects some things which the newspaper story apparently got wrong. She says the city still might reinstate the charge related to the garden, because it was dismissed by a judge without prejudice.

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False dichotomy: Your choice isn’t coercive state vs. lawlessness

By David McElroy · July 15, 2011

Classic comedian Henny Youngman frequently used a joke in which someone would ask him, “How’s your wife?” His reply: “Compared to what?” When people are asked how they like the modern nation/state, you can’t evaluate their answers without knowing “compared to what?”

If you allow someone else to frame a debate, he can control what your answer is going to be. If you allow the state and its supporters to frame the debate as being between the coercive state on the one hand and the lawlessness and casual violence you see depicted anywhere without the state on the other, most rational people are going to opt for the state as the lesser of the two evils. But it’s a false dichotomy.

Some libertarians or anarchists (of various stripes) want to live in a world with no rules and no order. I want them to be able to live that way, but I don’t want my part of the world to look like that. I want voluntary order, but I want it organized by somebody other than the coercive state — and I want a choice of whose system to live under. What’s more, I want the choice to establish my own system to compete with the others if I want to.

A friend of mine sent me a link to a story that NPR’s Planet Money team did a couple of weeks ago about PorcFest, which is a popular annual “freedom festival” in New Hampshire sponsored by the Free State Project. The headline on the NPR story calls it “libertarian summer camp.” Among other things, the reporter talked about how the bacon he bought for breakfast hadn’t been inspected for safety and how financial transactions were difficult using differing systems of gold and silver. The implied criticism is that this is the way things have to be without the coercive state. Is that true?

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What if a state government shut down and no one noticed?

By David McElroy · July 14, 2011

Minnesota’s feuding Democrats and Republicans announced Thursday that they’ve agreed to a deal that will end the shutdown of state government. I guess some people think it’s a big deal, but I find myself thinking, “So what?”

People have become conditioned to think that it’s a big deal to have state offices close. It’s certainly true that it creates some inconveniences for some folks, mostly related to business that the state is going to force you to conduct another time. Other people have made themselves dependent on checks that various state departments issue with tax money. For the rest of us, though, why would we possibly care?

There are some things that the state currently has a monopoly on, but those things could be dealt with in other ways over time. We could see the rise of new entities that own and operate various areas — competing for customers in the same way that companies compete today. Some people would choose to live outside of those “civilized” places. It’s not a life I’d choose, but some people would. I want an orderly place where services are provided, but I want to know that if I’m not happy with the service or rules I get from one place, there’s another place I can choose — and the rules can’t be changed on me in midstream just because my neighbors decide they want to take my money or tell me what to do in some way.

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Alex poses in an office window late Friday night. Alex poses in an office window late Friday night. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturdayeve
I just got home and Thomas agreed to put up with m I just got home and Thomas agreed to put up with me for a minute or two. But he was quickly done with the indignity of interacting with a mere human. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama #caturdayeve
Alex has decided to stay home and sleep instead of Alex has decided to stay home and sleep instead of going to the office with me this afternoon. I think he’s making a wise decision. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
Thomas has the high ground just before midnight as Thomas has the high ground just before midnight as he keeps watch to see when Alex launches his latest attack. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
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It’s about 2 a.m. and Alex is camped out next to It’s about 2 a.m. and Alex is camped out next to the door between the office and the bedroom. He’s waiting for Thomas to step through the door — and then he pounces at him, starting another round of their late-night chases. They both seem to love it. #cat #cats #catstagram #catsofinstagram #cute #cutecat #pets #petstagram #petsofinstagram #tabby #tabbycat #instacat #ilovecats #birmingham #alabama
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On a live awards show Sunday night, one man made a joke about a female celebrity. The husband of the celebrity was offended and hit the man who made the joke. Or maybe it was staged for entertainment. Who knows? Who cares? Social media is full of discussion — and even arguments — about this idiocy today. This baffles me. Let’s assume for a moment that the event happened as reported. People have been having such idiotic fights ever since there have been humans. Half the bars in the world see such brief dustups regularly. It simply doesn’t matter. The fact that so many people believe they need to talk about this — or even need to have opinions about it — is more evidence of the bizarre media brainwashing that convinces many to care passionately about brain-dead trivia. Your life will be happier and saner if you focus on yourself, your family and your friends, not on whatever scripted (or spontaneous) bilge that the media wants to pipe into your home.

I’m in the middle of migrating this website to new servers this week. This means you might encounter some unexpected behavior until I get all the bugs worked out. Clicking on my links (including this one) might cause your browser to give you the message that it’s a site without a current security certificate. It’s not actually unsafe, but there’s something which isn’t yet set up for the security certificate. I apologize for any such errors you might encounter while the process is going on. If you notice any problems with content which didn’t migrate properly, I would appreciate you letting me know the details at davidmcelroy@mac.com. Thanks for your patience.

I often wonder what animals think when they look at us and consider the society we’ve created. Yes, I know this is fanciful and unrealistic, but what if they could? Would they be astounded at how we treat each other? Would they be disgusted by the ugliness and pettiness which fill so many of our daily interactions? The truth is that I’m feeling pretty disgusted with humanity tonight. I made the mistake of reading some online interactions that I should have avoided — and it sickened me. The people involved appeared to be vile and stupid and arrogant. I wish I could pretend they’re a tiny minority, but I know better. It’s times such as this when I most need to escape much of “civilization” and disconnect from their world. If humans are going to be worthy of “ruling this planet,” we have a lot of growth to do. And I fear that growth is nowhere in sight. So my buddy Thomas, above, and all of his friends would be right to judge us harshly — and to think, “Why do you folks get to be in charge?”

I should have expected this, but I honestly didn’t. The article I wrote last week about disagreements over treatment for autistic children brought me angry emails. You could almost call it “hate mail.” Of the five emails about it so far, two have been to tell me that I’m wrong to even listen to critics of the most popular therapy for autistic children — and the other three tell me I’m wrong for not condemning the treatment as the “obvious” abuse it is. If you read the article, you know I didn’t take a position on the issue, because I simply don’t know enough to have an opinion. But by talking about the issue, I stepped into a heated controversy. The emails from the two sides convinced me of nothing. But they did give me even more empathy for the unfortunate parents who have to figure out for themselves where the truth lies for their children.

Have you ever had what you thought was a new idea — and then discovered that “old you” had the same idea years ago? I had that experience tonight. And it’s been wonderful. I came up with an idea tonight for a very short satirical film that would be a promotion for a fictitious college. The point is to make the college promote — as good things — everything which is actually terrible about most modern colleges. Then I remembered a fake college that I invented back when I was in college. I had created student recruitment brochures and various newsletters back then, so I decided to call my “new” college by the same name I’d invented years ago: Ochita College. As I searched my computer for any old material I might still have about Ochita from the past, I discovered an email I sent to someone in 2009 — outlining essentially the same idea which I came up with tonight. Since I didn’t remember writing that, it felt like magic. So my next film project just might be this one instead. If all goes well, you might soon see “Ochita College: Your Future Starts Here.” This should be fun.

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