New Poll Shows Hillary way ahead.

[Matt2525]

This was a little disappointing to see, but it's definitely a signal to roll up our sleeves and get to work - we've got it cut out for us.

 

[specsaregood]

That looks legit.

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Lol, what the hell kind of poll is that?

 

[Matt2525]

Is Obama going to be allowed to run again? That was my question.

 

[Matt2525]

Oh, let me translate that Mises quote: "Birds must be destroyed, but the existence of bears must be ensured."

 

[specsaregood]

Is Obama going to be allowed to run again? That was my question.

The image is hosted on http://illumicaust.com/
Is that your site Matt?

 

[r3volution 3.0]

Is Obama going to be allowed to run again? That was my question.

Of course not.

Oh, let me translate that Mises quote: "Birds must be destroyed, but the existence of bears must be ensured."

Close.

It's "the beekeeper must be destroyed, but the hungry bear must be restrained." And it's not Mises, I made it up.

It's an allusion to a metaphor that Franz Oppenheimer used in "The State: Its History and Development Viewed Sociologically."

The first stage [in the genesis of the state] comprises robbery and killing in border fights, endless combats broken neither by peace nor by armistice. It is marked by killing of men, carrying away of children and women, looting of herds, and burning of dwellings....[but eventually] it begins to dawn on the consciousness of the wild herdsman that a murdered peasant can no longer plow, and that a fruit tree hacked down will no longer bear. In his own interest, then, wherever it is possible, he lets the peasant live and the tree stand. The expedition of the herdsmen comes just as before, every member [65]bristling with arms, but no longer intending nor expecting war and violent appropriation. The raiders burn and kill only so far as is necessary to enforce a wholesome respect, or to break an isolated resistance. But in general, principally in accordance with a developing customary right—the first germ of the development of all public law—the herdsman now appropriates only the surplus of the peasant. That is to say, he leaves the peasant his house, his gear and his provisions up to the next crop.∗ The herdsman in the first stage is like the bear, who for the purpose of robbing the beehive, destroys it. In the second stage he is like the bee-keeper, who leaves the bees enough honey to carry them through the winter.

The beehive is society. The bear is the raider. And the beekeeper is the ruler who protects society from the raider (but only so that he can exploit it himself). So, my motto means that we need an institution capable of defending us from the criminals, but we cannot let that institution itself become our oppressor.

Mises expressed the same view:

It is a double-edged makeshift to entrust an individual or a group of individuals with the authority to resort to violence. The enticement implied is too tempting for a human being. The men who are to protect the community against violent aggression easily turn into the most dangerous aggressors. They transgress their mandate. They misuse their power for the oppression of those whom they were expected to defend against oppression. The main political problem is how to prevent the police power from becoming tyrannical. This is the meaning of all the struggles for liberty (Ludwig von Mises, The Ultimate Foundation of Economic Science, p. 99).

 

[Matt2525]

Sort of… I helped create it for a friend of mine. I think it's meant as satire, but I'll have to ask him. The Hillary video there's pretty good though, if you saw that.