Strike The Root Blog

In a nutshell.

These left-anarchists protesting police brutality in Spokane, WA sure didn’t.

How swell of the local police to prove their point for them.

Thanks to Brad Spangler for alerting us.

Here’s a chilling letter that state marshal Stephen R. Monier sent to Ed Brown.

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Brown:

Proceedings in the U.S. District Court have now concluded. You have been convicted of felony offenses against the United States, and have now been sentenced to a period of confinement in the United States Bureau of Prisons. This is now a matter for the U.S. Marshals Service and their law enforcement partners.

As you both know, there are outstanding warrants for your arrests. To date, you have made statements threatening law enforcement if attempts are made to serve those warrants. This creates a public safety concern for the community and subjects both you, and anyone who may be assisting you with this obstruction of justice, to further prosecution.

Until they are served, these warrants are not going away, and neither is law enforcement. The United States Marshals Service has maintained an open line of communication with both of you. We have, and will continue to take, all reasonable steps to resolve this peacefully. But, in order to remedy the situation you have placed yourselves in, without subjecting yourselves to further liability, here is what you need to do:

1. Contact us to make arrangements, and

2. Surrender peacefully to the United States Marshals Service.

You have my assurance that you will be treated professionally, with courtesy and respect. This is the right thing for you to do, and I encourage you to do it.

Sincerely,Stephen R. Monier United States Marshal

Brown is steadfastly promising not to give up the loot. This letter from the government is utterly predictable and so much the more sad for it. The only way I can see any conflict being prevented is if there’s enough public opposition to this move by the marshal and the federal government. Let’s hope that whatever happens, Ed and his wife are safe and sound, and no one else gets hurt.

Moving between states is an exercise in getting nickled-and-dimed to death. While most businesses give you a pro-rated refund when you pay for something up front that you can no longer completely use, that money is gone once the state gets hold of it. For example, you typically pay for an auto registration or a nursing license in advance of the year it’s good for. If you move away the next day, you’re not getting any of that money back. Too bad. I chalk it up to typical government greed.

Here’s a new wrinkle: my son Tim obtained his learner’s permit in Colorado. Unfortunately, he hadn’t kept it long enough, and thus was unable to get his driver’s license in Colorado. Upon moving down to Texas, we found out that (a) he had to start all over, i.e. get his permit and wait another 6 months. And worse, (b) he would have to attend a driving school (and pay a large chunk of money). We would not be able to teach Tim ourselves–apparently you have to be a resident of the state of Texas (and driving) for at least three years before you’re qualified enough to instruct your children in driving.

I have no clue what the point of this law is. Maybe driving is just that much more difficult here for some reason, and I’ll find out in the next three years.

Heard this one? I’ve heard it almost every time that I say I no longer vote. My answer so far has been, “Who would you vote for, Stalin or Hitler?” (Occasionally I’ll offer a softer comparison for a Republican, such as “Hillary or Tipper?” Or for a Democrat, “Bush or Cheney?”)

“That’s a ridiculous comparison” is their typical response. I explain that it’s how I view things, and insist that they have to vote for one. Otherwise, they can’t complain. Some people get the point.

Of course, most people then suggest that I should leave. “If you don’t like it go live elsewhere.”

I’m soliciting suggestions for a better response to the bogus notion of not being able to complain if you don’t vote.

A credit card scandal in Dallas public schools has been in the news recently, with reports of millions of dollars flagrantly charged up on credit cards issued to principals and others in the school district.

“I think for the most part they have to satisfy the public, and somebody big has got to go,” says one arrogant principal who managed to charge up close to a quarter million dollars, with purchases including several flat screen TVs. Another scam-artist principal managed to charge up even more, including purchases for wedding ribbons.

Even if all of these purchases were for legitimate in-school use (doubtful), it’s very questionable to give people a free rein to buy whatever they deem prudent. It’s idiotic, once you’ve put such a program in place, to not track what’s really going on. I think most sensible businesses establish some notion of a “budget” to control this sort of fraud and abuse.

At least in the private sector, these schmucks would likely be out of a job, and would probably be required to pay back the money. But one woman who admitted guilt was only placed on administrative leave–not even fired (yet)!

I’ve seen nothing in the various stories that suggest this money will ever be paid back (I might have missed it). My suspicion is that taxpayers, as usual, will be forced to foot the bill for the theft, waste, and fraud perpetrated by government employees.

Marines from Camp Lejeune are prowling local neighborhoods “as a part of the civil affairs battalion’s training for an upcoming deployment to Iraq in March.”

 ”It’s important to interact with the man on the street because it forces Marines out of their comfort zone and helps establish a rapport with the locals,” says Maj. Andrew L. Dietz.  Perhaps their purpose is twofold- preparing to be effective, brutal occupiers in Iraq as well as getting the local population used to the idea of armed federal thugs wandering the streets while asking questions and barking orders in the coming age of U.S. marshall law.

“A Republican state lawmaker from Baytown, Texas has filed a bill that would charge parents of public school students with a Class C misdemeanor and fine them for playing hooky from a scheduled parent-teacher conference.”

Bill O’Reilly is, of course, known for saying incredibly boneheaded things with astonishing regularity. Once in awhile, he even writes an excrementitious book or two. Trust me: I used to read them in my personal Dark Age as a “God’n'Country Republican.” Please forgive me.

The latest one is really rich. A caller said this:

[Immigrants] also bring corrupting influences, too, like a third-world value system, which may not place much value on education, that can corrupt the education system.

To which O’Reilly responded:

Absolutely. And that’s why the dropout rate is so high. But let me just make one point: If you say “F you,” to a teacher in Mexico, that teacher can go out and beat the hell out of you — and worse, if you do it in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and those places. So, those kids would never dare, because there’s no, like, rules down there. You disrespect a teacher down there, you’re gonna be bleeding.

So, first off, in the “No Spin Zone,” more people would stay in school if they were bloodied on occasion by teacher-taskmasters.

It goes without saying that that’s ridiculous. The drop-out rate is high because American public schools - and public schools in general - are alienating for many groups of people, especially the exceptionally bright and the not-so-bright who have no interest in school. Dropouts occur simply because people - especially the latter group - lose interest in what happens in government “schools.”

It’s already been ably argued that higher education is grossly oversold (.pdf) in the United States. The same is true of high school; think of all your friends from high school - or maybe yourself - who simply detested school.

It has nothing to do with whether or not one my freely curse at “teachers.”

But, for a moment, let’s take on face value the contention that immigrants are poisoning the American “educational ethic.”

It raises the question: how would that be different from the present situation?

You see, some of us who aren’t shills for the State realize that schools are not about “education” or “social justice” or anything of the like. They really never have been. The American public education system was modeled (even if its architects wouldn’t admit it) on the tyrannical Prussian model of compulsory education and other evil devices. The Prussian system in turn probably drew some of its inspiration from the state-worshiping “ethic” of ancient Sparta, where children were stolen from their mothers by the state at an early age, and then placed in barracks to be readied for fighting and dying for tyrants. John Taylor Gatto writes:

First, though, we must wake up to what our schools really are: laboratories of experimentation on young minds, drill centers for the habits and attitudes that corporate society demands. Mandatory education serves children only incidentally; its real purpose is to turn them into servants.

O’Reilly and his caller are concerned that immigrants are “importing” an anti-education attitude. But, in response they should ask themselves this: even if this “values import” is really taking place, what would it replace?

America’s very own anti-education ethic, of course.

I for one wish that pupils would say “F you” to their teachers more often.

Further reading: Inside American Education, Sowell; “Against School”, Gatto, “Enterprising Education”, Young and Block; and Education: Free and Compulsory, Rothbard.