Lions and Eagles

A reddit user asked a question tonight about why "taxation is theft", whether there's more behind the phrase, and how governments could be expected to function without taxes. I'm rather pleased with the answer I gave: I'll answer with a couple of quotes from Lysander Spooner, one of the philosophical giants that Libertarians love: "If taxation without consent is not robbery, then any band of robbers have only to declare themselves a government, and all their robberies are legalized." And: "Taxation without consent is as plainly robbery, when enforced against one man, as when enforced against millions; and it is not to be imagined that juries could be blind to so self-evident a principle. Taking a man’s money without his consent, is also as much robbery, when it is done by millions of men, acting in concert, and calling themselves a government, as when it is done by a single individual, acting on his own responsibility, and calling himself a highwaym

 It's over! We can all rejoice! Political ad season is finally over! If there's one thing voters on the left and right can agree on, it's this: We can't wait to be rid of the ads. Truth be told, we were ready to be done back in November. But because a senator decided to retire mid-term instead of at the end of his last term, and because a podcasting veteran who solicited and spent no campaign money at all managed to take 2.3% of the vote in a three-way race against two incredibly well-funded large party opponents, we’ve been swamped with ads in our mailboxes, on YouTube, robocalls, loaded surveys, even “get out the vote” Christmas Cards. On top of that, trust in both the voting machines and absentee voting is understandably low. Sure, we might be able to work out reforms and improvements in time for next November, but has anything gotten better this time around? Are we in for a miniature repeat of the recounts and challenges that we’ve seen with the Presidential electio

We have yet another election coming up in our area this coming Feb. 9th, this time for Griffin Circuit District Attorney. Again, to try and be a more informed voter, I sent an e-mail to each of the candidates with some questions. Here's the reply from Dexter Wimbish, the challenger:

We have yet another election coming up in our area this coming Feb. 9th, this time for Griffin Circuit District Attorney. Again, to try and be a more informed voter, I sent an e-mail to each of the candidates with some questions. Here's the reply from Marie Broder, currently appointed to the position since the previous elected DA was appointed to a judicial seat: