Minimum wage laws, building requirements, taxes – store owners are frequent victims of governmental force and soon. Already forced to keep cigarettes behind the counter and sell only to individuals that have reached an (arbitrary) age, store owners in Britain may be saddled with yet another mandate - move cigarettes completely out of sight. Though Parliament was expected to take up this issue yesterday, it didn’t. Yet, a spokesperson for the Dept. of Health stated that they’ll push the issue “shortly.”

I don’t smoke, that’s my choice. But some others do, and that’s their choice. For bureaucrats to further force their policies on store owners under the auspices of “protecting smokers” negates the property rights of the former and the personal responsibility of the latter.

Because, if this type of legislation proliferates (which it may, as was recommended by a World Health Organization panel last year), how long will it be until these nanny state regulators attempt to pass legislation regulating other “unhealthy vices” such as candy and soda?

For more on this, check out our Smoking is Healthier than Fascism and Who Owns You? overviews on Bureaucrash Social and our t-shirt for the former.

Being true believers of free markets, Bureaucrash has responded to your demands. Due to the colder weather many of y’all have expressed interest in donning a Bureaucrash sweatshirt to help spread the word. Thanks to the creative mind and excellent work ethic of new Graphic Guru Dan Wilk, we’re happy to announce the release of eight, awesomely-designed sweatshirts.

Head over to the Hoodies section at our Contraband store pick a couple up for yourself. And what better way to show that you care than getting a few as gifts for your freedom-loving friends and fam for the upcoming holiday season?

That was the overarching message heard a couple of weekends ago at the University of Maryland where a few hundred college students gathered for the Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s 10^th Annual Conference. Fitting then, that it was Bureaucrash’s debut at the event where we released our “We’re #1” t-shirt – an idea submitted by Crasher Melty Rox that came out on top in our recent survey taken by crashers about a drug policy-related t-shirt .

Rachel covered Bureaucrash’s table on Saturday and I manned it on Sunday. One passerby named Holly told me she checks our site everyday. She said she heard of Bureaucrash from a friend who told her that “If the U.S. government could shut down one site I think it’d be that site.” Pretty good street cred.

In addition to selling some Contraband, handing out flyers, and generally just getting our name out there, we dropped in on a few sessions throughout the day.

One speaker expressed optimism at what he sees as a real opportunity to get marijuana reclassified. The speaker drew parallels between our present economic crisis and the Great Depression. During both, government coffers get hit hard due to falling levels of tax revenue. According to the speaker this was a major reason for the passage of the 21^st Amendment (repeal of Prohibition), as it allowed alcohol to be taxed. He called for the attendees to frame marijuana in much the same light today, by asking policy-makers what is more important to them: Keeping marijuana illegal and thus untaxed, which means they’ll have to lay off police officers and teachers, or legalizing and taxing marijuana to help cover those costs.

It’s a good tactic, and though I personally don’t want to be taxed to pay for teachers or police officers (as I think these professions should be subject to competition), it’s an argument that has potential to sway decision-makers. On a related note, this was much the same reason given by bureaucrats in Maryland this past November – that they supported the legalization (and taxation) of slot machines as a way to deal with a budget crunch.

Unfortunately, according to the Drug Policy Alliance, Obama’s team has hinted at appointing Jim Ramstad to be the new drug czar who doesn’t seem too keen on substantial reforms.

For more on this, check out our overview of “Who Owns You?” and our related Contraband offerings “We’re #1” as a t-shirt and as a sweatshirt. Also, check out and get active with our latest Crasher Challenge 4: Stop Wars.

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Special Double Feature Podcrash with Christy Rhoton, Program Director for the Institute for Humane Studies and Alexander McCobin, Execectuive Director of the Students For Liberty.  Both organizations have excellent seminars and conferences coming up that are perfect for crashers.  Your Host, Xaq Fixx, is an alumnus of an IHS seminar, and prior to becoming crasher-in-chief, Pete Eyre worked there. Pete was also a speaker at the SFL regional conference in Philadelphia this past fall.  To find out more, or to apply to attend one of their seminars, visit the IHS at http://www.TheIHS.org and the SFL at http://www.studentsforliberty.org/

 

 Podcrash 019: IHS & SFL Liberty Event Double Feature [22:57m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (203)

It seems like I can’t turn around today without seeing a Che/Communist-adorned shirt, poster, or sign. For example, a few weeks ago I was at the liquor store and spied a bottle of vodka with a sickle and hammer, earlier this week I was in New Orleans and saw a sign with Che’s image to sell cigars.

In case anyone forgot, China is still runs by commies. Commies that continue to use force to censor speech, art and music that they deem dangerous (which, in layman’s language, means content that openly questions their legitimacy). “Chinese Democracy,” the long-awaited album from Guns n’ Roses released last week was singled out as being a “venomous attack” on China.

For more on this, check out our current Crasher Challenge on the topic and the related overview on Bureaucrash Social and t-shirt over at our Contraband site.

Earlier this week it came to light that the Indonesian government had plans to force those with AIDS to be implanted with a microchip so that government bureaucrats could track their movements, and ultimately, their possible contact with those without AIDS. Individuals the government deems deliberately spread the condition would be subject to fines and imprisonment.

On Monday I had the opportunity to attend a book forum at the Cato Institute entitled “Gun Control on Trial” after Brian Doherty’s book on the subject. Doherty, senior editor of Reason Magazine, former Brookes Fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (Bureaucrash’s mothership), and author of the Radicals for Capitalism, is not only talented with the pen but is of a rare breed of excellent authors that can communicate just as well verbally.

Also on the panel moderated by Tim Lynch was Christoper Rhee, presently an attorney at a big DC law firm and (apologies for this missing info) former counsel to some bureaucrats on the federal level who have worked to uphold gun control. Rhee’s main criticism of the Heller decision, apart from his belief that the Second Amendment applies to militias and not individuals, was that it was a clear case of “judicial activism” — a pejorative term in many conversations. Yet, even if the SCOTUS ruling in Heller can be seen as activism, it was activism that was needed to rectify the perverse interpretations lower courts have had regarding this issue. Rhee even referred to the Second Amendment as an “archaic provision”, akin to the Third Amendment.

To touch on a post from earlier this week, Doherty noted Obama’s “history of disrespect for gun rights” and that Eric Holder, the person Obama nominated for U.S. Attorney General, supported the DC government (i.e. pro-gun prohibition) in the Heller case. Yet, with memories of 1994 and 2000 in mind, Doherty stated that Obama is politically savvy enough to not pressure Pelosi or Reed, the leaders of the Senate and House, to attempt to pass any draconian victim disarmament.

If you’re at all interested in the Second Amendment, the SCOTUS, or I strongly recommend picking up a copy of Gun Control on Trial — a book that, in just over 100 pages, provides a very informative interesting look at this case, the actions of the SCOTUS, and the historical roots of both. For more information on the Heller case, Lynch recommended lead attorney Alan Gura’s DCGunCase.com.

For more on this issue, check out our three-minute video with Heller and others involved with the case: “Heller Yeah!“, our Contraband offering Beats the Hell out of Pepper Spray, and the “Gun Owners for Freedom” group over at Bureaucrash Social.

One of the biggest fears — and justifiably so — about moving toward a more voluntary society centers on the protection of people and property, including the enforcement of contracts. How will this be accomplished in the absence of a central authority?

Fortunately we already have examples to point to that, without being planned by a bureaucrat or established by Congress, demonstrate the effectiveness of enforcement mechanisms that spontaneously emerge in the market. Things such as the rating/feedback system of shippers on Amazon, publications like Consumer Reports, and organizations like Underwriters Laboratories are well-known.

Another example is Troll Hunters. Just like in the real world, there are some less-than-honest folks on buying and selling wares online. In addition to providing advice for mitigating your chances of getting burned in an online transaction, Troll Hunters maintains a list of “Traders to Avoid” and its volunteers offer to help those with grievances — either by calling the other party or in some cases, visiting them in-person.

Awesome!

For more on this, check out our “Enjoy Capitalism” overview and t-shirt.

Thanks to Crasher Ben Parizek for bringing this example to my attention.

New to the scene of commodity-backed currency, of which Liberty Dollar is perhaps the most well-known, is the Free Lakota Bank. According to their “About Us” section:

Silver & gold are a store of value, an equivalent of wealth produced. Paper is a mortgage on wealth that does not exist, backed by a gun aimed at those who are expected to produce it. Since we deal only in real money, we do not participate in any central bank looting schemes.

Their us of the term “looting” (as well as a quote from the Ayn Rand novel Atlas Shrugged) demonstrates that those operating the bank differentiate, as did AJ Nock, between obtaining wealth through political means and economic means. The former means through rent-seeking and the use of governmental force whereas the latter means via voluntary transactions between consenting individuals.

You may remember that last year the Lokata nation, led by activist Russel Means, declared itself a sovereign nation and sought recognition from the governments of other countries.

For more on this, check out our Gold Bug t-shirt and the “Austrian Economics” group and our Stop Rentseeking overview at Bureaucrash Social. Also key to this issue is Murray Rothbard’s What Has Government Done To Our Money? now online thanks to the good folks at the Mises Institute.

Thanks to Crasher Eliabeth Imeson for putting this on my radar.