Austro-Athenian Empire » No Borders

But Some Think Our Attitude Should Be One Of Gratitude

Roderick — Sun, 13 May 2012 19:06:13 +0000

Here’s what I wrote in the comments section of this article:

If one prison guard beats you twenty times a day while the other guards beat you fifty times a day, then you’ll certainly prefer the first guard to the others – but should you be grateful to him? Or should you jump at the chance to switch to a guard who beats you only ten times a day? All the examples of things for which Saverin “owes” the u.s. are respects in which u.s. laws are less oppressive than the laws of many other countries. Being less oppressed is like being beaten less often.

Gratitude is an appropriate response to receiving a favour or a privilege. Freedom is a right, not a privilege; demanding that people be “grateful” for not having their freedom violated so much is morally obscene. In any case, the freedom that Saverin enjoyed in this country was the result not of the government (which would happily expand to totalitarian dimensions if it could) or of the ruling class (ditto), but of many generations of citizens working to restrain both. So asking Saverin to feel grateful to the government, and surrender his money to it, is like asking a patient to be grateful to a virus because, thanks to inoculations, he doesn’t suffer too badly from it.

Jingoistic, hyper-nationalist rants like Manjoo’s are incompatible with the principles of the Declaration of Independence. Governments owe allegiance to their citizens, not vice versa.

Money Changes Everything

Roderick — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 04:12:54 +0000

I just saw Michael Sandel on The Colbert Report expressing outrage at the idea of allowing votes, citizenship, and improved prison cells to be marketable commodities.

I don’t have much of a dog on either side of this fight, since the three institutions he mentions (at least in anything like their present form) are all ones I think should be abolished. So Sandel’s question moves me about as much as the question “should the right to beat one’s slaves be a marketable commodity”?

Señales Mixtas

Roderick — Thu, 01 Mar 2012 04:42:12 +0000

I just saw an ad in which ethnic-cleansing governor Jan Brewer was inviting people to “come to Arizona.”

Muchas gracias por la bienvenida, Señora Brewer.

Border Solipsism

Roderick — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 07:01:27 +0000

A carjacking incident in Mexico near the u.s. border results in 50 rounds being fired; one of these rounds crosses the border and hits a woman in El Paso. So everyone on tv is talking about how terrible it is that an American was shot; and they’re quite right, it is terrible that an American was shot.

But given that 50 rounds were fired, I assume that someone else got hit too too. Isn’t it also terrible that Mexicans were shot? Why are only American victims worthy of comment?

I’m reminded of the time a few years back when some jerk on the Weather Channel said that in a “worst-case scenario” the edge of an approaching hurricane might graze Florida or Texas, but luckily the worst part of the storm was merely headed toward Mexico.

Some Must Watch

Roderick — Sun, 12 Feb 2012 22:49:45 +0000

The United States was nearly destroyed last month.

Thankfully, alert public servants intervened to avert America’s destruction; like Gandalf facing down the Balrog they cried “you … shall not … pass!” – and sent Boris and Natasha scurrying back to their sinister overseas nation.

Oh, and Marilyn Monroe’s remains are safe also.

Dum dum dum da dum dum, I feel free ….

Torremolinos, Torremolinos

Roderick — Fri, 26 Aug 2011 19:58:30 +0000

A successfully iconic satire destroys the viability of its target. After Tina Fey’s celebrated skit on SNL, for example, Russia’s visibility from Alaska could never again be invoked without derision as an argument for Sarah Palin’s expertise in international affairs. This is a lesson that Sean Gabb really should have taken to heart before offering this particular defense of race-baiting anti-immigrant politician Enoch Powell ….

We therefore say this with regard to Enoch Powell. He was a classical scholar of great brilliance and distinction. His Lexicon to Herodotus (1938) is one of the most valuable works ever produced on the ancient historian. As well as in Latin and Greek, he was fluent in every main European language, and in Welsh. He was also at least competent in several ancient and modern oriental languages.
— Sean Gabb, 2011

And then you get cornered by some drunken greengrocer from Luton with an Instamatic and Dr. Scholl sandals and last Tuesday’s Daily Express and he drones on and on and on about how Mr. Smith should be running this country and how many languages Enoch Powell can speak and then he throws up all over the Cuba Libres.
— Monty Python, 1972

Have a Coke and a Smile

Roderick — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 05:48:32 +0000

Okay, this is now my favourite Coke ad ever:

The Time I Commented On the Time He Committed … Oh, Just Go Read It

Roderick — Thu, 07 Jul 2011 03:52:59 +0000

I left a comment on James Leroy Wilson’s “The Time I Committed Election Fraud.”

Jim Crow Returns to Alabama, Part 2

Roderick — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 04:50:34 +0000

For a giggle, check out this critique (CHT Brandon) of my recent immigration post, by a “John J. Ray, M.A., Ph.D.” (Yes, he’s one of those.) The best bit is when the guy infers my deranged mental state from my picture. Yes, this picture. René Allendy, move over!

Jim Crow Returns to Alabama

Roderick — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 16:52:13 +0000

This past Thursday the Alabama legislature put on their white hoods and enacted the harshest anti-immigrant regime in the country, one even more tyrannical than Arizona’s ethnic-cleansing laws.

As in Arizona, the new edict “allows police to arrest anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant if the person is stopped for some other reason”; but it also “requir[es] schools to find out if students are in the country lawfully,” “requires all businesses to check the legal status of workers using a federal system called E-Verify,” “makes it a crime for landlords to knowingly rent to an illegal immigrant,” and in a flourish of pure petty malice, “mak[es] it a crime to knowingly give an illegal immigrant a ride.”

The old Jim Crow laws enforced discrimination based on the colour of a person’s skin; the new Jim Crow laws enforce discrimination on the basis of a person’s birth on the wrong side of an imaginary line. Though of course racist motivations are not exactly absent.

To make sure that racism and misogyny continue to march hand in hand, the legislature also passed an abortion ban on the same day. Well heck, if the state can treat immigrants as second-class persons, why can’t it do the same to women, and force them to use their bodies as incubators for unwanted fetuses?

If only we could get some Republicans in power! They’re for smaller government, you know.