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I don’t know much about manhole covers, but they do look pretty nice.

So much libertarian goodness in this story.

On a cold, dark night on the mean streets of the UK, an undercover police officer was radioed and informed that a potential suspect was close by. Keen to do the right thing, he set off in hot pursuit. Twenty fraught minutes later, he learned he’d been chasing… himself.

The CCTV operator reported to police that someone was ‘acting suspiciously’, according to The Telegraph. Unfortunately, the officer who decided to follow up on the report was actually the shadowy figure in question.

From the Telegraph:

“The CCTV operator soon had the suspect on camera and everywhere he saw the male the keen PC was on his heels – radioing in to say he was in the same street.”

He added: “Every time the man darted in to another side alleyway, the PC was turning immediately into the same alleyway, but every time the CCTV operator asked what he could see there was no trace.”

It was at this point that the sergeant entered the control room where he recognised the junior officer.

• In Minnesota, a classic case of cartel protectionism as the owner of a funeral home owner fights the needless regulations that help others in his business gouge grieving families. My favorite part of this story is when the head of the rent-seeking trade organization uses the phrase “entrepreneurial dynamo” . . . as an insult! He’s hard working! He’s winning customers by charging them less money! He must be stopped!
• Fox News looks at the infuriating regulatory barriers innovative tech start-ups are facing. The “Uber” ap, for example, lets you summon a black cab from your phone, track how far it is away, and pay through your phone. Great, right? Not according to the historically corrupt (allegedly!), terrified-of-transparency D.C. Cab Commission: “They’re operating illegally, and we plan to take steps against them,” says D.C. Taxi Commissioner Ron Linton. “What they’re trying to do is be both a taxi and a limousine,” Linton has said. “Under the way the law is written, it just can’t be done.” The cab/limo distinction is nonsense. It’s only important to cab and limo companies who have a financial interest in keeping them separate. There are more examples at the link.
• A federal judge has ruled against a motion to dismiss the lawsuit some independent Nashville driver services have filed against the city’s new livery regulations. My intern Jessica Greene wrote about these blatantly protectionist regulations a couple months ago. The regulations require all driver services to charge a minimum of $45 per ride, which could be double what some independent driver services were charging. And proponents of the regulations—mostly bigger driver services already charging that much—of course say the regulations are vital to “protect consumers from ‘rogue taxis.’”

And of course it’s not just consumers who get hurt. The Nashville regulations will likely put several immigrant and minority-owned private car service companies out of business. (“Companies” probably gives the wrong impression. Most of them are one guy, one car.)

Sometimes, all you can do is shake your head, die a little inside, and console yourself with behind-the-scenes photos from the Puppy Bowl.

I’ll be speaking (details here). It’s a great event and a great organization. And a good chance to meet and network with other young libertarians.

They’re expecting nearly 1,000 students this year, up from just 100 at the first conference five years ago.

To kick off the business, he asked if I wanted to do a free five-page comic. Sounds like fun. But I feel like the opportunity would be wasted on my limited comic book experience. So I’m going to let you, Agitator readers, write the script. Here’s how it will work:

I’ll put up a post asking for ideas for the first page. You’ll post your manuscripts in the comments section. I’ll pick four or five (assuming there are at least that many), and we’ll then vote on which one wins. The next week, I’ll take ideas for the second page, which of course would need to begin where the first page plot left off. We’ll do this until we have a five-page comic book written and approved by Agitator readers. It will be posted to the web when it’s done. If there’s interest, maybe we’ll figure out a way to make printed copies available.

No real rules about plot or content. Just don’t be an asshole. And you don’t need to make me a character. In fact, from what I know of some of your twisted minds, I’d rather you didn’t! But whatever we end up with, well, that’s what we’ll end up with. This could be pretty great. Or it could go horribly off the rails. Which I guess is part of the fun.

Check here for manuscript guidelines, and here for suggestions on how to write a better one.

I’ll put up a post calling for scripts for the first page later this week. But first, we need to vote on an artist. You can check out samples of each artist’s work here.

• February 13th, Vanderbilt University, 6:30 pm.  Topic: Police Militarization. Open to the public.
• February 19th, International Students for Liberty Conference, Washington, D.C., 10 You can register for the conference here.
• April 23rd, Vanderbilt University, 6:30pm. Topic: The Drug War. Open to the public.

I’ve also tentatively agreed to give a talk about police militarization at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in October. That should be interesting.

When did you first talk about saving civilization?

But hey, we’re almost out of Iraq! Kind of. And just in time for the war with Iran.

Sunshinism is a destructive ideology. Forcing people to financially undress in public is just one of those incursions that repels decent people from running for office… It also destroys people’s faith in government. Have you noticed that as democracy has become more open, cynicism has skyrocketed and the effectiveness of government has gone down the toilet?

It’s telling that (1) Brooks recognizes that the more people learn about government and politicians, the more contemptible they find both, and that (2) his solution to this is not to recognize the inherent corruption of government, and therefore to reduce its influence (Brooks is a big government conservative), it’s to keep growing government, but to also keep people from knowing how awful government really is.

John Stossel called Florida Dept. of Revenue and was told, “A vending machine operator that does not place the notice on the machine presumably is not in compliance with the other requirements such as registration and payment of the tax.”

So why not just make it a notice of tax paid? Or registration . . . er . . . registered?

Even if we accept that incredibly stupid justification at face value, think about enforcement, here. This isn’t a requirement that you post some bar or serial code for some state inspector to verify from time to time. It’s directed at the casual consumer. But if a vending machine is in violation of the notice requirement, there’s no notice to notify the consumer that the machine is in violation. And there’s no number posted for the consumer to call. The only way this serves any purpose whatsoever is if you have a consumer who sees the notice on a compliant machine, then goes to the effort of writing it down and keeping it on his person at all times, in case he happens upon a non-compliant machine. But then to report it, the consumer would have to find some way of identifying the non-compliant machine. Location, I guess. A serial number. Then what? Does the state then send out an inspector to verify?

And assuming all that happens, you then have a vending machine owner fined for nothing more than not complying with a law requiring the owner to post a notice about the requirement to post a notice. And “teacher, you forgot to collect the homework” guy gets a cash reward.

All to protect consumers! Or something! Who cares!

Hello from ant1mat3rie on Vimeo.

The music selections are a bit odd.