In light of the massive disruption caused by Emperor 00 every time His Majesty *gag* invades his subjects’ cities, perhaps it’s time to reconsider the privileges we allow our ruling aristocracy, eh? As Jerry Pournelle puts it,
One would think that if the President is so afraid of the people that he will not allow ordinary citizens to drive on the streets while he is traveling from his hotel to a commandeered golf course helipad, perhaps he ought to stay in the White House guarded by mercenaries?
…Is it time to rethink just what privileges our ruling aristocracy automatically have?
And it’s not, of course, just the ruling aristocracy but their thugs who need to have their wings clipped as well. Consider the recent Blagojevitch “conviction” for “lying to federal agents”–the same thing the feds got Martha Stewart for when they had no case against her for so-called “insider trading”.
“Anyone who cooperates with federal officials in any way including exchange of pleasantries is betting five years that they are not out to get him. The proper way to treat these agents is with silence. Saying anything to them including the time of day or comments on the weather is a needless danger.”
Note that I’m not defending Blagojevitch. He’s a politician *spit* so of course he’s guilty of far, far worse than lying to federal thugs. It’s just that federal thugs are a far, far worse scourge upon society than petty scum like Blagojevitch.
One does have to wonder how much this sort of thing (the “Martha Rule”) played into many folks’ reluctance to participate in the Census this year,when the questions were, for the most part, no more intrusive than the 1790 Census where 5 of the 6 or 7 questions were penned by the Father of the Constitution and the census was administered by no other than Thomas Jefferson.
Oh, and yes, I do know that “kakistocracy” is more applicable than “aristocracy”.