Freespace

The left is a conspiracy theory

Liberals insidt Koch Bros. are evil capitalists creating anti-big government movement; hilarity (and hypocrisy) ensues.

No civility here, please, we're unionized

The great fact about labor unions that it's still considered improper to state openly is how profoundly they depend on violence and intimidation. For a century or so, organized labor has backed up its demands and disciplined its laborers through force or the threat of force. This is not a bug, but a feature, of unions. And so we have comments like this in response to the modest efforts in Wisconsin to reduce public employee union exploitation of the true working class:

"Every once and awhile [sic] you need to get out on the streets and get a little bloody when necessary," Rep. Mike Capuano (D-Ma.) told a crowd in Boston on Tuesday rallying in solidarity for Wisconsin union members.

Unions are cartels, designed to raise the price of labor (and thus of goods and services consumers need). As is always the case with cartels, it is in the short-term interest of each cartel member to break out and sell separately at a price that's higher than the market rate but lower than the cartel is demanding. The cartel therefore needs a way to discipline its members, and it uses propaganda and violence for thus purpose. Hence the "buy union" nonsense, and the beating up of "scabs" and those who cross picket lines. Violence and intimidation are not accidents, in which a few folks get carried away; they are demanded by the system of unions--and, worse, they are legitimized by a culture of organized violence and threats that is a deep part of the tradition of organized labor. It's simply considered okay, or a péché mignon, in the service of a higher good--and not only by union leaders themselves, but by the intellectual and leadership classes.

It's hard to think of another aspect of American life in which the same can be said. Violence is not considered acceptable in any other industry. For a business to take even minor steps to prevent unionization can constitute a federal crime. No respectable American leaders laugh off violence at abortion clinics, or at schools or churches, and rightly so. The left bristles at the glib acceptance of "collateral damage" in wartime. Jokes about beating up racial minorities or women are not considered acceptable. No member of Congress could expect to avoid a CNN investigative reporter if he said people should commit violence to resist racial integration. The only other example I can think of where it is considered socially acceptable to laugh at systematic violence is prison rape, and even that is beginning to be taken as a serious issue; when Bill Lockyer made a prison rape joke some years ago, he had to apologize.

Rep. Capuano has given us the equivalent of a "Segregation now; segregation forever" speech--and it will probably be allowed to slip by with a wink by both the left and the right, because we as a nation are simply willing to indulge criminal violence when committed by labor unions.

Update: Capuano says he got carried away.

Toyota vindicated (again)

Unsurprisingly to some of us, it turns out that there's no evidence of mysterious accelerations in Toyotas. But it hardly matters. The myth will live forever as damning evidence of the evils of capitalism--like the alleged "deregulation" of the housing or banking industries.

A find in St. Louis

A collection of books in St. Louis turns out to have belonged to Thomas Jefferson.

Another convert

"'I've been on the fence for years about the legalization of drugs ... and now I'm a victim of this crazy war on drugs,' says [UC Hastings law professor Clark] Freshman, who pledged to sue until 'I see [the agents'] houses sold at auction and their kids' college tuitions taken away from them. There will not be a better litigated case this century.'"

More here.

Friday poem

Sonnet XII: I did but Prompt the Age to Quit their Clogs
by John Milton

I did but prompt the age to quit their clogs
By the known rules of ancient liberty,
When straight a barbarous noise environs me
Of owls and cuckoos, asses, apes and dogs:
As when those hinds that were transform'd to frogs
Rail'd at Latona's twin-born progeny
Which after held the sun and moon in fee.
But this is got by casting pearl to hogs,
That bawl for freedom in their senseless mood,
And still revolt when truth would set them free.
Licence they mean when they cry liberty;
For who loves that, must first be wise and good.
But from that mark how far they rove we see,
For all this waste of wealth and loss of blood.

How the War on Drugs is destroying black America

John McWhorter on the racial consequences of the Drug War. Readers will remember when former US Attorney McGregor Scott, who began by ridiculing those who complain of the Drug War's evils, tried to shout me down at a panel discussion when I said that the Drug War has disproportionate racial effects.

My boycott brings Borders to its knees

Borders, of course, announced its bankruptcy earlier this week. Here is a list of store closings. I'm not surprised to see the Glendale or Orange stores go; I was there just this month and both were poorly maintained and boring, like Borders has been for the longest time.

This bankruptcy, of course, is due entirely to my boycotting Borders ever since they refused to carry the Mohammed cartoons. They later went ahead and started carrying the cartoons (when they were published in a magazine that people actually buy) but by that time I'd cancelled my Borders Rewards membership and since then I've rarely bought anything from them, and always gone with Amazon or B&N if I conveniently could.

So there's proof that my boycotts get results. You're going down, Costco. You're going down.

View from my desk

The new Wonder Woman

Well, I must say, I approve. And in addition to the hypnotically beautiful Adrianne Palicki, the series will also be the work of David E. Kelley, possibly the best writer television has ever had.

Of course, Palicki can only succeed Lynda Carter, not replace her.