Police Tell Woman to Pay Son’s Bail in Cash, Then Steal it
21st May 2012
Welcome to ‘civil asset forfeiture’, the law that allows local governments to do retail what the Feds have been doing wholesale since Woodrow Wilson. (Google “Chuck Schumer” for a picture to go with.)
Apparently the best government that money can buy feels undervalued.
For further adventures in government pocket-picking, see When the Government Is the Looter by George Will.
And people wonder why Republicans don’t trust government and want to shrink it.
May 21st, 2012 at 11:32
We don’t wonder why you don’t trust it. We just don’t see any other viable alternative between anarchy or totalitarianism.
The debate isn’t really about bigger vs. smaller government, although that’s how it’s usually framed.
The debate is actually about what government’s proper role(s). And that’s been raging since 1783. I don’t think it will go away soon.
May 22nd, 2012 at 16:10
Just read a great post on this topic.
http://www.philmon.blogspot.com/2012/05/patriotism.html
When one sees governance/government as the solution or baseline from which to influence/govern all areas of life, every form of freedom is at the least an annoyance.
May 23rd, 2012 at 05:28
Interesting blogpost, even if founded on sweeping but unsubstantiated overgeneralizations…as are most of Goldberg’s writings.
(Yes, RealRick, I read Jonah as well as Ann Coulter. Surpised? I thought you would be.)
(Sidebar: why do so many conservative writers reference ‘conservatives’ with a small ‘c’ while simultaneously capitalizing ‘The Left’, as if it were some monolithic not-so-secret organization marching in lock-step to the commands of a nebulous and nefarious central authority? Subtle propaganda, or is that really how they see the world? Maybe there’s a reason why most of the wackier Conspiracy Theorists seem to emerge from the right side of the political spectrum…)
Most on the left do not see government as the solution or baseline, but rather as the only instrument left to correct that which the market cannot, or has failed to, address. Even conservatives admit that the market isn’t sublimely perfect in all areas–just listen or read Arthur Brooks, head of the American Enterprise Institute. The debate is not over whether government should ‘intervene’, but rather where, how, and how much it should intervene. Form follows function (usually), and the size of government will vary depending on the function(s) required.