Since I’ve already semi-admitted to criminal behavior in my youth, it’s time for another confession.
I was recently watching football with a fraternity brother who mentioned that he found some old newspaper clippings about a certain…um…incident from way back in 1979.
Here’s the story from the local newspaper. Since I openly admitted my role in the “attack” and mentioned the danger of government intervention, I like to think that this is evidence that I was genetically libertarian and precociously self-aware.
I realize that there are alternative hypotheses, involving words like “jerk” and “troublemaker,” but surely that couldn’t be the correct explanation.
And here’s what the student newspaper wrote about the episode.
It’s been so long that I don’t remember suffering any repercussions. From reading the articles, I gather the leftists made a complaint to the Interfraternity Council. I’d like to say I prevailed in a knock-down, drag-out fight with the establishment, culminating in an inspirational speech akin to the Otter scene in Animal House.
But back in those days, the complaint was probably placed in the circular file.
Nowadays, I would probably get suspended or expelled – even though all I did was march with a sign for about 100 yards.
Though I didn’t get official permission to participate in the parade from the university bureaucracy. Fortunately, the statute of limitations on that reckless and dangerous offense presumably has expired.
P.S. On the specific issue of the Equal Rights Amendment, the actual language of the proposal wasn’t offensive, but I greatly feared what it would mean once leftist judges decided it gave them carte blanche to start imposing quotas, instituting comparable worth, and otherwise interfering with the right of private contract.
Insightful Debate Response
I showed the winner of the debate the other day.
Now it’s time to show the loser. Or, to be more precise, here’s a couple who would be among the losers if they were willing to be victimized.
Now time for a caveat. if the election somehow results in genuine entitlement reform, I will gladly advise this couple to return.
P.S. The cartoon is humorous, but there is a serious point to be made about the fight-or-flight response to bad government policy. I’m obviously committed to fighting for liberty, but I don’t blame people who move to other nations in search of more freedom.
But Americans have to do more than simply move since the United States has the worst worldwide tax system of all nations. To escape the greedy and grasping claws of the IRS, they have to disengage with the U.S. government, either by legally giving up citizenship or by dropping off the grid.
I’ve met probably more than 100 Americans in about a dozen nations who have felt compelled to exercise one of these options, sometimes known as “going Galt.” Usually they choose the latter, which generally requires them to first move all their assets out of America and to make sure those assets are managed by non-U.S. firms.
P.P.S. There are also statists who sometime seek to leave America when they disapprove of the government. At least that’s the implication of this humorous report about leftists trying to escape after the 2010 elections.
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