ACME License Maker

In a follow up to my previous post on license plates, here is the ultra-cool ACME License Plate Maker. Have fun!

He fought the law, and the law won

Dudley Hiibel's loss is a loss for us all. "Conservatives" like Scalia and Thomas have proved utterly worthless at protecting liberty against gov't encroachment. But we have to elect a Republican or a Democratic president will appoint bad judges. Bah!

Man loses license after telling doctor about drinking

This is what happens when doctors become servants of the state.

This Land

This video animation is 3.7 MB, so it will take a while to download (streaming) unless you have a fast connection, but I assure you, it is worth seeing (repeatedly).

Bureaucrazy

In a post entitled Your Money's No Good Here, Jason Dietz at AntiWar.Com relates the incredible hassle he had while unsuccessfully trying to open a bank account, due to new anti-terrorism ID requirements. I had a similar experience at the Post Office.

I wanted to open a new P.O. Box for a business. I currently receive mail at my apartment mailbox. So when I went to open the P.O. Box, they wanted my current address. No problem. They wanted ID. Again, no problem. Then they wanted to see some mail from my current address. Why? They said to prove I lived there. Why do I have to prove that, I said? They had no good explanation, nor could they explain what a person who did not receive mail at a physical address was to do, since under this requirement he obviously would not be allowed to open a P.O. Box. Finally I went home and got some mail, and brought it back. Then they said they had to wait for my mail carrier to come back so she could confirm that I lived there. WHAT?! How can she do that? Yeah, sure, she finally remembered me after I refreshed her memory by reminding her about a package I had asked her about (one mailed to me which the Post Office lost), but surely she can't be personally acquainted with all the hundreds of people on her route. Many of her stops are apartment buildings with multiple residents, whom she never meets. So what's the point of asking her anything? I doubt there is any such requirement, since in legal parlance, it would be "arbitrary and capricious" to deny someone a P.O. Box because the mail carrier can't remember whether they live at such-and-such an address, but the bureaucrats at the Post Office probably misunderstood the actual requirements, or just made up their own crazy procedure. Stupid and Evil.

Man Sentenced To Two Life Terms Plus 10,000 Years Eligible For Parole

This is ridiculous. These lengthy sentences apparently mean nothing. If this guy does get out, it will be an outrage. Triple murderers get released while nonviolent drug offenders rot in prison--your government-run justice system at work.

Some People Just Don't Get It

This story from the Montgomery Advertiser is about how some people in Autauga County want zoning to protect their "property values." A quote:

"I'm for zoning because trailers bring down your property value. Personally, I don't have anything against trailers. It's just that if I want to sell my house, I want to sell it for what it's appraised for," Kareem Howard said.

Some people just don't get it. Howard is black. Take the statement above. Replace "zoning" with "segregation" and "trailers" with "blacks." Think he'd get it now?

The article notes that some other property owners have made private agreements with their neighbours to protect against unwanted development. This is called a restrictive covenant, and is perfectly legal and legitimate from a libertarian point of view. Other people just want to force their preferences on others without bearing the cost themselves.

Zoning, like segregation, is using the force of government to keep people from using their property as they wish. Segregation had to be enforced by government to survive, because discrimination is expensive. Let us hope that Alabama counties do not acquire the power to legislate. That is why they are always clamouring for home rule. If they ever get it, they'll be no place left in this state where you can live without getting government permission to light up a BBQ or water your lawn.

New Alabama License Plate

A friend in the SCV writes:

"Camp members have complained about what they thought was the new Alabama SCV tag. I haven't seen one but I am told it uses some kind of ugly crayon font to spell out ALABAMA. I just spoke with Ronnie Simmons who heads up our tag program. Ronnie tells me this is the new generic tag. Same blank tag with stickers that we have been using. (as well as other groups) The state just decided to use an ugly font (who knows why?) Ronnie tells me THIS IS NOT THE NEW ALABAMA SCV TAG. Our new tag has not been produced yet. Hopefully, it will go into production this fall. Leave it to the state to screw up something simple."

Here is an image of the new generic tag:



When people shell out more money for specialty tags a portion goes to the state and part to the organisation. Sometimes I suspect that the state produces an ugly regular tag design to induce people to buy the specialty tags. The state designers seem to really like tags that look like they were designed by kindergarteners or monkeys with crayons.

Here is the current generic tag for the SCV:



And finally, here is my favourite Alabama regular tag, from back inthe 1970's:



It had everything you could want: "Heart of Dixie," an image of the Alabama Capitol building, the name of the county, and the state flag.

Here is a good website with images of more old Alabama plates. Here is a chronological history in photos of Alabama's plates. The pre-'77 plates are pretty austere.

Piling Law Upon Law Leads to Disaster

In his recent book, Harry Browne wrote:

"People can be divided into two types--politically active people who want to use government to acquire what they couldn't get otherwise, and politically passive people who simply want to be left alone. When the passive people get a law passed they think will protect them from the actives, they fail to realize that it's the active people who will influence the writing of the law and the adminsitration of it. And so laws designed to stop discrimination wind up promoting discrimination; laws to reform welfare make welfare much bigger. It is the very idea that laws can solve problems that makes government bigger and bigger. The answer is to repeal laws, not pass new laws to paper over the problems created by previous laws."

Liberty A to Z, quote #420.

Politicians greatly prefer passing new laws rather than repealing old ones. Now in Virginia they have created a potential train wreck because of amendments to a stupid puritanical blue law, which could put small businesses out of commission if enforced.