Since last Sunday, May 19, rioters have taken to the streets of Stockholm’s suburbs every night, torching cars, schools, stores, office buildings and residential complexes. Yesterday, a police station in Rågsved, a suburb four kilometers south of Stockholm, was attacked and set on fire.
But while the Stockholm riots keep spreading and intensifying, Swedish police have adopted a tactic of non-interference. ”Our ambition is really to do as little as possible,” Stockholm Chief of Police Mats Löfving explained to the Swedish newspaper Expressen on Tuesday.
”We go to the crime scenes, but when we get there we stand and wait,” elaborated Lars Byström, the media relations officer of the Stockholm Police Department. ”If we see a burning car, we let it burn if there is no risk of the fire spreading to other cars or buildings nearby. By doing so we minimize the risk of having rocks thrown at us.”
Swedish parking laws, however, continue to be rigidly enforced despite the increasingly chaotic situation. Early Wednesday, while documenting the destruction after a night of rioting in the Stockholm suburb of Alby, a reporter from Fria Tider observed a parking enforcement officer writing a ticket for a burnt-out Ford.
When questioned, the officer explained that the ticket was issued because the vehicle lacked a tag showing its time of arrival. The fact that the vehicle had been effectively destroyed – its windshield smashed and the interior heavily damaged by fire – was irrelevant according to the meter maid, who asked Fria Tider’s photographer to destroy the photos he had taken. Her employer, the parking company P-service, refused to comment when Fria Tider contacted them on Wednesday afternoon.
The absurdity that is statism.
(via thefreelioness)
True News: The IRS Targets Conservative Groups?
Think again!
Freedomain Radio is the largest and most popular philosophy show on the web - http://www.freedomainradio.com
I disagree with the assertion that “money is the root of all politics”.
Force, fraud, and coercion are the root of all politics.
Money by definition is a generally accepted means of exchange. Just like any other tool, what matters is the human action behind said means. What matters is if said action is consensual or forced.
I prefer consensual relationships and voluntary exchange.
A Boston police officer told a local reporter, per the Associated Press.
:::If this does not illustrate a “police state”, then what will?:::
Does taxation really depend on threats of violence? Isn’t taxation part of the social contract?
You Can Always Leave is the third film in the George Ought to Help series. I hope you enjoy it!
If you’d like to follow the progress of future videos you can ‘like’ https://www.facebook.com/georgeoughttohelp
TORRANCE, CA — Two women were hospitalized after being attacked by police for driving a blue Toyota Tacoma. Police were looking for a vehicle similar to that description in connection to the ex-LAPD officer suspected of murder. Once they found a matching truck, they began unloading their weapons on sight.
There are almost 40 bullet holes visible in this picture. It is obviously in a residential neighborhood.
VIDEO: http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=fHeICQpCGrI
What are the Rules of Engagement for the LAPD? I can guarantee that if it were a soldier doing this in Baghdad, his ass would be getting a General Court Martial. These guys will probably end up with a paid vacation.
If the people who did this hadn’t been wearing uniforms, we would be having the gun control debate from square 1 right now, and Piers Morgan would have his panties all in a bunch.
I hate the police so much.
How many more examples are needed for more people to realize allowing the State to force a monopoly on police “services” which is funded via State theft (resulting in no incentives to do good, as the police monopoly gets paid no matter how atrocious their actions) needs to end?
Complex social issues cannot be solved through aggression/force, it always makes the issue worse in the long run.
The answer is consensual relationships and voluntary exchange.
Try Voluntaryism instead.
Anarchy
(via enemyofthestatist)
Robert J. Ringer (via laliberty)
This is much like the great Franz Oppenheimer’s insight, as paraphrased by Rothbard in Power & Market: “… there are fundamentally two ways of satisfying a person’s wants: (1) by production and voluntary exchange with others on the market and (2) by violent expropriation of the wealth of others. The first method Oppenheimer termed “the economic means” for the satisfaction of wants; the second method, “the political means.” The State is trenchantly defined as the “organization of the political means.”
(via laliberty)
(via laliberty)
Really…you’re both so “adult-like” that you need to use force & threats of violence to get your way (i.e. “taxation” being a fancy word for theft, “economic stimulus” a fancy word for counterfeiting/fraud…etc).
This is like two rapists congratulating themselves for hanging out with each other because they’re from different gangs.
I prefer consensual relationships.
State is gonna State. It can do nothing else. Would eliminating the State eliminate evil? No. But it would eliminate the countless acts of legalized evil committed daily by the State in the names of ALL of its subjects.
Google Voluntaryism.
(via aghoulistmike)
Anyone who says NASA is a waste of money is an idiot.
This is a classic example of what Frederic Bastiat expounded upon in his essay:
“That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Unseen”
Sure, NASA has created some great technologies (“that which is seen”).
However, since they are funded via force/coercion (denying individuals the freedom to choose how to employ the fruits of their labor) we never get to see the absolutely amazing and possibly revolutionary technologies that would have arisen out of NASA-like businesses funded through consensual voluntary exchange (“that which is unseen”).
Overall, businesses operating in a market free from force/coercion are always much more prosperous and efficient, as they must satisfy the customer in order to get paid. Businesses funded via force/coercion have no market incentive to operate efficiently or to satisfy the individuals who fund said business, as said businesses gets paid either way (i.e. “taxation” aka theft).
To claim:
“Anyone who says NASA is a waste of money is an idiot.”
…is like having John Doe break your leg, hand you some crutches, then call you an idiot for not thanking him for the crutches.
I prefer consensual relationships.
Try Voluntaryism instead.
(via existenceandidentity)
Why Is There Corn in Your Coke? [LearnLiberty.org]
Coke is made with corn syrup, not real sugar. Why is this? According to Professor Diana Thomas, part of the reason is because government policies artificially raise the price of sugar.
Although these government policies actually cost Americans approximately $3 billion each year, the laws remain. The law benefits one group of people (farmers) at the expense of another group (consumers). But because the cost to each American is so small, average Americans don’t have an incentive to combat the lobbying groups who fight to keep the laws in place.
This phenomenon is known as “dispersed costs and concentrated benefits,” and it applies in many cases when laws are passed that benefit a small group of citizens. Prof. Thomas says the only way to prevent or end this practice is to limit what government can do.
Learn More:
A defense of farm subsidies, by the Alabama Cooperative Extension System: http://lrnlbty.co/TdO6iS
Introduction to public choice, including the concept of concentrated benefits and dispersed costs: http://lrnlbty.co/SbNc57
An article focusing on the health and environmental impacts of American corn/sugar policies: http://lrnlbty.co/UFHUNA
A detailed piece on the allocation of agricultural subsidies to various plants: http://lrnlbty.co/TO0RNt
A timeline of the economic controls put on sugar from 1789 to 2011: http://lrnlbty.co/WtaHep
