One of the Pennsylvania judges indicted for sending gets to juvenile detention facilities in exchange for kickbacks “sentenced one former juvenile defendant to six months at a detention facility based solely on the number of birds perched on the ledge outside his courtroom.” It’s almost enough to make me rethink my opposition to the death penalty.
Great story about the flourishing of a tax-free city in a rebel stronghold in the Ivory Coast.
Muslims gather to denounce terror attacks.
Speaking of terrorism, as fun as this looks, it also looks like a headline about overly hysterical authorities imposing terrorism charges on pranksters just waiting to happen.
Great idea. Fund for freelancers and small-publication journalists having difficulty getting authorities to comply with open records requests.
Here’s a lengthy look at Cook County, Illinois State’s Attorney Anita Alvarez’s jihad against the journalism students at the Medill Innocence Project.
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TheAgitator.com
150, huh? that’s all they could get. Detroit has a population of about 300,000 Arabs, which half of them are Muslim (in you can believe that). so they have of population of 150,000.
that’s ridiculous. that’s not even close to our demonstrations against the torture perpetuated by our government. why, we had no one demonstrating that. all over the country.
i guess the Arabs were watching American Idol just like the rest of us.
I hear there is going to be a gathering of winos to protest public inebriation.
Those PA judges deserve killing. I wonder how many of those kids they sent away for profit were abused while incarcerated. I certainly won’t shed a tear if they find themselves on the business end of a deer rifle.
Sounds like a libertarian paradise, Bouake, “living without government taxes, customs charges, and even water and electricity bills.” Yep, I bet RonPaul is warming up his passport right now!
From the article on the juvenile court judge: Ciavarella is immune, the federal judge said, from liability for any decisions he made while on the bench.
Rule Number 1 of government: Officials will do what they can get away with.
Whenever you see the word “immunity”, start looking for abuse of power. You won’t be disappointed.
Paint ball landmine = high tech, pressure-activated, anti-personnel explosive device.
Isn’t that what they were looking for when they invaded Iraq?
The prosecutor v journalism professor has some LOL moments when you hear the prosecutor’s POV.
“In this case, [prosecutor] Alvarez turned the tables on Protess, challenging the motives and ethics of him and his students. In a court filing, her office has given voice to deeply unflattering, sometimes personal accusations: that some students may have paid a witness to recant; that other students “flirted” with witnesses, in effect, to persuade them to make incriminating statements; and that students may have been so driven to get an A that they twisted or suppressed evidence to suit their cause of freeing McKinney.”
Wow, that’s so terrible. Prosecutors never have personal motivations or twist evidence, of course!
I rethought my opposition to the death penalty when I learned about Jim Bell. As the father of a 14 year old, I can’t imagine her being taken from me for any amount of time. I cannot fathom finding out my kid was taken from me for 6 fucking months based on some fucktard counting birds on a window sill. Immunity to lawsuits, maybe, but not immune from a baseball bat.
Wouldn’t it be great to live in a country where people have to volunteer to be teachers in order to keep the children from becoming child soldiers!
Another libertarian paradise, like somalia. I have an idea: all you “free state” nutjobs move to ivory coast for 5 years and then tell me what you think.
No utility bills huh? How were those utilities produced and paid for?
Just wanted to confess and apologize. I’m such a nice guy that when I went to “thumbs-down” bobzbob’s comment, I accidentally gave him a thumbs-up.
Everyone knows that volunteers are bad, because the only way to really do something right is to be government-certified, and paid a union wage.
Speaking of terrorism, as fun as this looks, it also looks like a headline about overly hysterical authorities imposing terrorism charges on pranksters just waiting to happen.
I would try to get the instigator fired. If that didn’t happen, I’d kick his juvenile ass and I’d be fired.
I’d guess about 12%.
*sigh*
“No utility bills huh? How were those utilities produced and paid for?”
They’re not. There just aren’t any. That section of Bouake has been out of power, water, and telephone service for years.
Ugh…insert “/” where appropriate.
As someone said elsewhere on here, “rule of law” and “immunity” are antithetical. I understand the can of worms in allowing judges to be sued, but I don’t like this alternative, either.
Question: why hasn’t the libertarian paradise of the Ivory Coast developed a private free market education system so that teachers can earn a living? Why is it that without these volunteers the children end up as child soldiers (where the abuse rates are a bit higher than 12%). Do you really think that volunteers are the best way to run a school system?
Because it’s not a story about a “libertarian paradise”. It’s a story about real life. A place where there are good and bad realities. But it’s a story about how in a place with minimal governance, many things DO thrive, and (even better) many people voluntarily opt to dedicate much time and effort into bettering those around them through teaching and more.
The volunteer teachers make a great case that, given a lack of coercion, many people STILL have good hearts and do good for others, so perhaps the best way to let people do that is to not force them to (via taxes, conscription, whatever.)
BUT, it also makes a case that, lacking much government, simple things like power, water, and telephone service are not readily forthcoming.
Because the reality of real humans doesn’t always fit with our perfect models. That’s why these make great cases, to observe, learn, and then correct the assumptions that underlie our models.
Nathan,
Your response is excellent, but I really don’t think there are many teachers who have been “forced” to teach. It remains a voluntary profession.
This judge needs to be taken to the nearest beach and be asked: “How many grains of sand do you count? That’s how many years you get in prison.
You’re being obtuse, Ed.
The argument isn’t that this is a libertarian paradise, it’s that this particular city, without much government, is doing much better than the rest of the country–or for that matter the region.
And Somalia isn’t libertarian, it’s a failed state. There’s a difference. That said, Somalia is still doing better than most of its neighbors. But holding up Somalia as an example of libertarianism in action is like holding up North Korea as an example of leftism in action.
Sam,
It’s not the teachers whom are coerced, but those paying the teachers’ salaries.
“Great story about the flourishing of a tax-free city in a rebel stronghold in the Ivory Coast.”
Well, it’s refreshing to see positive opinions of the closest thing to anarchy on a large scale. If only they had the courage to go all the way.
FWIW, Somalia was relatively anarchic in the 1990s and early 2000s until the US used Ethiopia as a proxy army to destroy the Islamic Courts Union and turn Somalia into a failed state. The destruction of Somali society was engineered by the US, not a result of any internal weakness of the Somalis. For the best historical treatment of this criminal action I recommend Chris Floyd.
bobzbob is a great example of intellectual dishonesty. Taking this scenario where there is no governance, and then calling it libertarian is a gross mischaracterization of our philosophy. Anarchy doesn’t equal Libertarianism.
But as Somolia and “Soroland” have shown, anarchy is a temporary state most of the time. People learn to function harmoneously with each other on their own. So what if teachers are volunteers? There are teachers. And how do we know that people aren’t funding these schools in one way or another. Maybe when the market demands it, wages will be met. But right now, volunteers seem to be working out.
Also, to say that kids will become child soldiers unless there are schools to go to is a bogus claim. Go to the inner cities of America where there are schools to go to. A lot of those kids still opt out to become child soldiers in gangs.
Cynical,
Interesting that Somalia was both anarchic and governed by the Islamic Courts Union. Neat trick.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_Courts_Union
My words were “relatively anarchic,” Sam. And you may or may not have discovered the existence of the Islamic Courts Union from my original comment. The ICU was a governing body which existed arguably very far to the side of anarchism on the anarchy/statism continuum.
I’ll admit the possibility that anarchy/statism is Boolean, either on or off, and that “relatively anarchic” could be meaningless in that context.
My point was that the situation in Ivory Coast very closely resembles the situation in Somalia pre-US intervention. This does not bode well for this little social experiment in economic freedom. When the US gets wind of it, that’ll be the end of it. And that’s the tragedy — left alone, these societies do alright for themselves and are freer than Western societies.
Anarchy, far from being the absence of government, is simply a voluntary system with political power vested in the individual, whereas statism is a coercive system with political power evolved to the state.
As for the viability of such a system, that is another argument entirely, and one I am none too optimistic about its present broad applicability.
regarding the judges/juveniles story, could this only be happening in PA?
Cynical,
Some quibbles:
1. The United States had already been to Somalia to try to restart the food shipments being held hostage by warlords. This was in 1994.
2. According to its profile, the Islamic Courts Union provided numerous services which we associate with governments. If we’re going to describe it as a closer-to-anarchy style of government, I guess, but I think that will require re-evaluating other states and their governments.
3. You’re not seriously suggesting that the Islamic Courts Union represented a “voluntary system with political power vested in the individual” though, are you?
4. Finally, do you really think the United States is head to Buoake to end their “experiment” as you inexplicably put it? (It’s not an experiment. It’s the current result of an ongoing civil war between two groups who sought control of the Ivory Coast governing structures. A rereading of the articles reveals the idea, perhaps true, that the Ivory Coast was in good shape before this civil unrest came to be.)
From the Anita Alvarez article:
The “vendetta” accusation has mainly grown out of Alvarez’s demand to see the grades of the students who worked on the McKinney case. Her office says it has pursued the matter in part because of a statement given to them by Michael Lane, who told investigators that the students were being nice to him so he would “give them an interview . . . so they could get a good grade.” That statement, says Alvarez, “begs the question, Would a student do this and why?”
Seeing as prosecuters are being graded by their conviction rate, logically it follows that any evidence put forth by the prosecution is suspect, does it not?
Scooby
Thanks for adding the clarifying remarks I would have. That lack of clear writing is what I get for posting in a rush and running off to get work done.
No worries Sam. Just trying to piece together things I’ve read about Somalia over the years from a variety of sources. Please read Chris Floyd for some first-hand reportage.
1. Conceded.
2. I do, and fair enough.
3. Again, as I understand it, a less-statist system than Western-style democracies and other forms of statism, but certainly not individual-level anarchy.
4. Maybe, maybe not, but less than half-a-dozen CIA-types could monitor it and tip the balance toward US interests if they felt it worth their time.
Bottom line is that where there is money to be made, and where freedom interferes with profit, there you will find the US and its henchmen.
Cynical,
What will end up tipping the balance in Buoake is the coming reunification election, at least according to that article. Hopefully it goes off without further violence.
Amen to that, Sam.