I read an article today by Mandy Locke in the News and Observer about Johnny Gaskins, a Raleigh defense attorney, who was convicted October 9th of the crime of depositing and paying taxes on legally earned income but doing it in quantities that were too small. Bullshit, you say?  In our retarded effort to keep people from doing things that they want to do the federal government has passed a whole series of laws that are designed to combat a problem that exists only if you’re a government bureaucrat or peddler of ‘legal drugs’.

This is the case here. The government makes, let’s say, pot illegal. People still want to smoke pot. Some enterprising capitalist will provide them with pot. Now, said capitalist has cash income for which he has no legal source. In order to catch this “criminal” who’s providing the exact same service as the convenience store on the corner (except that the pot industry doesn’t have enough high paid lobbyists lining the pockets of Congress), a law must be passed to catch people depositing the “illegal” income. Which they did. It’s illegal to deposit sums under $10,000 for the purposes of causing the bank to evade reporting you for depositing $10,000. Got that? Read it again.

So that’s what happened to Johnny Gaskins. At this point, a paranoid person would point out that he has built his career on defending persons engaged in drug trafficking (of the “illegal” sort). Therefore, this could be the government’s attempt to rid itself of somebody trying to stop them from eliminating RJ Reynolds/GlaxoSmithKline/Guiness UDV North America’s competition. I’m not that person because I generally think government employees are too stupid and lazy to engage in that kind of behavior. What it most likely is, is a bureaucrat blinding adhering to the letter of the law. Again, Johnny Gaskin’s “crime” is depositing money that he legally earned and paid taxes on but did it in insufficiently large quantities. Are you frightened yet?

There are times that I despair for the Republic because something like this can happen and the people aren’t in the streets asking why the government has any right to tell this man how he can deposit his money. The article seems to question why he would break the law or indicate that he might be mentally unstable from dealing with criminal defendants all these years. What if he just doesn’t think it’s any of the government’s fucking business how much he’s depositing.

Photo by Trevor DeVincenzi.

I just got back from a weekend of camping and rock climbing at Pilot Mountain, NC with some of the most fantastic people I’ve ever known. Here are the things I learned:

1. Everybody’s definition of what is art is different. And their definition doesn’t affect me any more than whether or not they like the same kind of music as I do. What I carrying away from that is that all forms of creation are as personal as religion or politics and, while not as emotional, should probably not be discussed in polite company.
2. Things that you learned well when you were young come back to you pretty quickly. I hadn’t been climbing in probably 10 years; seriously & regularly for a lot longer than that. The first attempt I made some classic beginner mistakes and tried to arm my way through which didn’t work. After that, the climbing was pretty good. Overall, I think I did pretty well… not nearly as bad as I was afraid I was going to be but obviously not at the level I used to climb. I will be going again as often as possible and think I can get back to close to the ability of my youth.
3. My last climbing experience was at an indoor climbing wall and this weekend verified what I thought about it then… Indoor is probably fine for practicing and so forth but it’s a dry and antiseptic experience compared to climbing on living rock. There’s probably an analogy for modern American life and Wal-Mart there someplace but I’m too lazy to figure it out right now. Maybe later. Or You can think about it yourself.
4. There can be no understating that having good people around you is one of the most important things you can do for the quality of your life. The group I went camping with is strangely diverse but respectful of the diversity. IMO, that provides you with maximum exposure to ideas that you can examine and adopt if you like.

In closing, I had a great time. We created great shared stories. We got out and wallowed in nature for a weekend instead of sitting in front of a TV being told when and where to buy things while we were waiting for a place to permanently lay down. I highly recommend you do the same if you get the chance.

As we approach Election Day here in the States, Id just like to remind you that voting for them only encourages their current behavior. Obama will not bring real change; the Democrats will not bring real change; the Republicans will not bring real change – because they are all the same. Their differences are all smoke and mirrors – which is why they spend so much of their time name-calling. What will bring real change is the  blood of those who have taken our government from us running in the streets.

I know, it’s not a very anarcho-capitalist thing to say but even Murray Rothbard admitted that the American Revolution was justifiable.

“Revolutionary war is a war against the state apparatus, a war from below by the armed public. It doesn’t have to injure innocent civilians, and it usually doesn’t. It often does not involve taxes or conscription– if it does, it does so on a very small scale.” Murray Rothbard

Our country is run by corporate statists  and their lackeys. It’s time to take it back. I hope you’ll remember that come Election Day.