More proof that cigarettes kill.
“The state is about violence. You can talk all day about how “government is just another word for those things we do together, but what makes government work is force”...
Can the law — which necessarily requires the use of force — rationally be used for anything except protecting the rights of everyone? I defy anyone to extend it beyond this purpose without perverting it and, consequently, turning might against right. This is the most fatal and most illogical social perversion that can possibly be imagined. It must be admitted that the true solution — so long searched for in the area of social relationships — is contained in these simple words: Law is organized justice.
Now this must be said: When justice is organized by law — that is, by force — this excludes the idea of using law (force) to organize any human activity whatever, whether it be labor, charity, agriculture, commerce, industry, education, art, or religion. The organizing by law of any one of these would inevitably destroy the essential organization — justice. For truly, how can we imagine force being used against the liberty of citizens without it also being used against justice, and thus acting against its proper purpose?
Law Is Force
Since the law organizes justice, the socialists ask why the law should not also organize labor, education, and religion.
Why should not law be used for these purposes? Because it could not organize labor, education, and religion without destroying justice. We must remember that law is force, and that, consequently, the proper functions of the law cannot lawfully extend beyond the proper functions of force.
When law and force keep a person within the bounds of justice, they impose nothing but a mere negation. They oblige him only to abstain from harming others. They violate neither his personality, his liberty, nor his property. They safeguard all of these. They are defensive; they defend equally the rights of all.
Law Is a Negative Concept
The harmlessness of the mission performed by law and lawful defense is self-evident; the usefulness is obvious; and the legitimacy cannot be disputed.
As a friend of mine once remarked, this negative concept of law is so true that the statement, the purpose of the law is to cause justice to reign, is not a rigorously accurate statement. It ought to be stated that the purpose of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is injustice, instead of justice, that has an existence of its own. Justice is achieved only when injustice is absent.
But when the law, by means of its necessary agent, force, imposes upon men a regulation of labor, a method or a subject of education, a religious faith or creed — then the law is no longer negative; it acts positively upon people. It substitutes the will of the legislator for their own wills; the initiative of the legislator for their own initiatives. When this happens, the people no longer need to discuss, to compare, to plan ahead; the law does all this for them. Intelligence becomes a useless prop for the people; they cease to be men; they lose their personality, their liberty, their property.
Try to imagine a regulation of labor imposed by force that is not a violation of liberty; a transfer of wealth imposed by force that is not a violation of property. If you cannot reconcile these contradictions, then you must conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice.
The Political Approach
When a politician views society from the seclusion of his office, he is struck by the spectacle of the inequality that he sees. He deplores the deprivations which are the lot of so many of our brothers, deprivations which appear to be even sadder when contrasted with luxury and wealth.
Perhaps the politician should ask himself whether this state of affairs has not been caused by old conquests and lootings, and by more recent legal plunder. Perhaps he should consider this proposition: Since all persons seek well-being and perfection, would not a condition of justice be sufficient to cause the greatest efforts toward progress, and the greatest possible equality that is compatible with individual responsibility? Would not this be in accord with the concept of individual responsibility which God has willed in order that mankind may have the choice between vice and virtue, and the resulting punishment and reward?
But the politician never gives this a thought. His mind turns to organizations, combinations, and arrangements — legal or apparently legal. He attempts to remedy the evil by increasing and perpetuating the very thing that caused the evil in the first place: legal plunder. We have seen that justice is a negative concept. Is there even one of these positive legal actions that does not contain the principle of plunder?
/Bastiat
Paul’s point is excellent (we are forcing our police to enforce bad laws), but is largely irrelevant.
Garner wasn’t able to secure legit employment. His imprisonment record indicates that he likely would have gravitated to violation of any law (good or bad). Perhaps as a hitman or theft.
Garner was in poor health and resisted arrest. The act of resisting arrest lead to his death. Period.
Many things came together which caused his death.
On both side of this coin…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHYIGy1dyd8
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fixx/onethingleadstoanother.html
Apparently the weasel is listening to Hannity and Rush.
Rand Paul is Right: Cig Taxes Factored into Garner’s Death
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Yeah. And walking in the middle of the street factored into Brown’s death.
(sheesh!)
I think a great civil protest would be if a crowd of 10 thousand protesters carried signs that read.... “We’re smoking untaxed cigarettes! or We will smoke! Don’t you choke!” and have them smoke or pretend to smoke cigarettes right in front of NY city hall!
We seem to be moving toward a political system where only the rich will be able to enjoy the pleasures of life... Soon only the rich will own homes...and only the rich will drive cars... Everything else will belong to the GOVERNMENT and the elitist who own it..!!!
Land of the free...home of the brave....I guess the joke is on us... :(
The early Dutch explorers recorded that the aboriginal tribes they encountered who occupied Manhattan at the time of their arrival had pipes for tobacco. Juet (a crew member on the Half Moon) stated that the natives had pipes for smoking tobacco and De Laet in 1625 reported the presence of stone tobacco pipes as well.
Loose Tobacco was smoked in the ceremonial peace pipe!!!
My point? Just highlighting the absurdity of all these tobacco taxes and the anti tobacco hysteria of the left.
Natural tobacco without chemicals added smoked by the native Americans and regularly used in their ceremonies cannot possibly be the pure poison and “evil” substance that the liberals overreact to.
Reading a Jonah Goldberg column always expands my vocabulary. Brobdingnagian?
This is claptrap. The left’s war on society continues.