It's hard to express...

...how much I want to see Mike Vanderboegh return, healthy and free, and having made his point.

Sure, I've got my own points of disagreement with MBV, but I can't help but admire many of the things he does and the reasons he does them.  His "in your face" crusade of the last several years is simply inspiring, even when it seems to be pissing up a rope or involving (what seem to me) pointlessly risky actions.

I've said before that I'm torn on the idea of appealing to Leviathan's institutions, in the hope that Leviathan might restrain the excesses of Leviathan.  And a part of me sees this February 7th event as just that.  But it's not just that, either, and it's somewhere in the "not just that" that Mike works his unique form of magic.  He seems to have figured out how to push people's limits right up to the point of crossing over into actual stupidity, without ever going over the line on anything important. He also seems very effective at reaching invested minarchists on something crucially important, that I would think makes the point against minarchism in and of itself.  And my word, but he's good at this.  He's the firebrand that at once holds back the truly excessive and stupid, and yet scares the polypragmatoi in a way they cannot ignore or marginalize.  Both ways!*  And I cannot help but perceive that this is effectively galvanizing exactly the demographic that it needs to--bit by bit, day by day, headline by headline, mind by mind.  I'm not sure the value of this is really calculable. 

Which, of course, makes me anxious for his safe return.  (Equally-impressive-in-his-own-role David Codrea probably said it best.)  I don't think I doubt the intent of the Washington folks that Mike is going to assist;  from what (little) I have seen they seem to be more principled than reckless, and December's "I Will Not Comply" rally seemed to come across as at least a qualified success.

Still.  These are not nice people that are getting poked with a stick on Saturday, and even worse, they are people that are widely legitimized to have power over people's lives.  (That Leviathan problem again.)  So I truly don't know what I think will happen.

But I know what I want to happen.  I want Mike around for as long as possible.  It's not for me--what he did for me, he did long ago--but because I see his continuing effect on new people, and I think we need as much of that as we can get.



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*  And how bitter an irony is this?  In my book, with my definitions, this makes Mike the ne plus ultra of actual compromise, of actual pragmatism;  to the extent that there is any honor left available in either of these words, Mike has been living it.  (I'd like to think that he might forgive me by understanding how much of a compliment I actually mean that as.)

Thanks, Wendy McElroy...

...for noticing.

This woman has a following?

Look, I admit, I'm pretty cynical about some things, but I have to admit that I am actually amazed at what I just saw.

I hadn't ever actually seen Rachel Maddow--ah--perform before;  hell, we don't even get television at home (I'm away on business as I write this).  Surfing for a bit after watching the swimming events at the Olympic trials, I stumbled on Maddow's show, saw a Fast and Furious image in the background, and figured I'd take a look.  You know, put the real deal up against what others have said and how I've seen her quoted.

Hotel Foxtrot Sierra.  This woman has a following?

It was breathtaking in multiple dimensions.  She appeared to be hyperventilating the entire time, for starters, and rushing both to fit everything in, and then repeating it all as frequently as possible.  The transparency of her content, as parroted eleventh-hour talking points from the "don't be nosy" phone tree, was jaw-droppingly laughable, even by modern urinealism* standards.  It was clear that the expectation was that if she said it enough, it would simply become true from sheer force of will and repetition.

It was embarrassing to watch.  I felt like I should look away--not so much out of disgust (which would be perfectly understandable on its own merits) but out of simple, sheer pity for the complete, on-camera abdication of her own dignity.  I'd use the "oh, bless 'er hawrt" locution, but this is way beyond just being full of shit.  What she was doing here wasn't personal bluster, it was a sortie.  (It's perfectly clear that when Master talks, she musters.)

Someone must be landing blows that hurt, or at least scare.  (Thank you again Mike and David.)

Well, I guess now I have first-hand experience to go on.  I'd figured I'd be disgusted, I admit, but this was just in a completely different category than I was prepared for.  In the end, I can't decide whether to kick myself for not being cynical enough, or to be happy that my continuing disbelief at what impersonators of human beings are capable of, might be prima facie evidence that I've still got some humanity left intact in there.

Well, let's just hope that she represents "the best and brightest" of tyranny's footsoldiers.  (Ha.  I wish.  Still.)

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* Damn, I do miss straightarrow.

Holder's legacy, summarized.

Oh, this is good.  From Minimalist Political Posters at The People's Cube*.

No no.  Look at it sideways.

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*I don't know anything about this site, other than that I chased a link there.

Outwitting your betters, vol. 291

Via JD Tuccille, the following interesting segment from one Jonathan Corbett:

Now he certainly seems to have a huge blind spot of apparent faith that the system was ever actually about protecting us, but if he keeps on target and is honest about what he finds, he'll figure that out eventually anyway.  In the meantime, it cannot hurt to get this in front of as many people as possible.

I especially liked the out-of-the-blue Gunwalker reference / comparison.  Again:  his thinking is ultimately flawed because he intimates that we actually do need thugs with guns to protect us...from thugs with guns, but if he can call out the system's cynical exploitation for what it is, then a useful purpose is yet served.  And again:  if he's paying attention, he'll catch up.  (And if not:  we certainly haven't lost anything.)

Mike, David:  your work does matter, see?   :-)