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11A064
Above the Law
by Jim Davies, 3/5/2011
At an increasing rate, various parts of government are placing themselves above its own law. Its spokesman proclaim loud and often that this is a "nation of laws, not of men" and that "nobody is above the law", not even high honchos in their outfit - and from time to time they offer proof, by caging one of their own. Texas Rep Tom DeLay comes to mind. George Hansen of Idaho, who just happened to be a vigorous critic of the IRS, was imprisoned too, for failing to disclose certain financial matters. Too late, his conviction was overturned. The reason for this pompous propaganda is to convey and maintain the impression that "the law" is something sacred and superior, before which all ordinary mortals ought to bow down, even the less-ordinary ones in government. Never mind that these creeps are the ones who actually write the law, by a process that has been unfavorably compared to the manufacture of sausages; obviously laws are the outcome of political wrangling, favor-trading and deal-making, but by pretending that even they are subject to the law, their miserable, useless and destructive regulations are somehow elevated to a superhuman status. Despite the importance (to them) of maintaining this pretense, more and more they are no longer bothering - and in an important sense, they never did bother. They make laws against stealing, yet massive theft (they call it taxation, but it walks and quacks just like a duck) is the whole source of government funding. They outlaw murder, yet exempt themselves right there in the Constitution; "Congress shall have power to... declare war" and war is nothing if not mass murder (and to top that off, they haven't even bothered to obey that law about declaration since 1941.) They forbid the use of narcotics, yet one of the largest industries they license is the pharmaceutical one, with truckloads of money passing between them and the manufacturers, and in my State they even operate a retail monopoly on one of the most dangerous drugs, alcohol; they are the biggest drug lords around. Eric Peters gives another, sinister example in a recent LRC column: certain government toll roads will no longer accept cash, even though in plain sight on every Federal Reserve Note are printed the words "This Note is Legal Tender", by which is meant all must accept it in payment, by law, even though we recognize that it is just a worthless piece of paper. That's the foundation of the government's system of financial fraud. Yet now, their road agents are openly flouting that law. Now, in the coming zero goverment society, competing road owners will be free to offer customers whatever terms of use they wish; but the company that refuses payments is, in a free market, one with a short life expectancy. Perhaps it will offer discounts to users of an E-Z Pass, because the cost of administering that is lower than manning a cash booth - fair enough. Perhaps they will offer coin baskets for cash customers, but not a series of manned kiosks. But if they decline payment, they'll lose the toll; and there won't be any need for a law to encode that piece of common sense.
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