You Know How Novels of Libertarian Revolution All Have Shady Wealthy Guys With Grudges as the Purse?

Arthur Silber on bullies and Afghanistan.

Occasionally, I think of the United States government as Gary. They're both remarkably stupid, and they both derive enormous pleasure from telling others what they may and may not do. And they both deliver threats of destruction to be incurred by their victims if the victims dare to disobey them. To make the comparison more accurate, I imagine Gary holding a machine gun which he points at me. By his side is a large pile containing many more guns, together with a huge number of knives and other weapons. I also have to imagine that Gary has already murdered 10 or 15 neighborhood kids (or more), and no one has done anything to stop him. Gary murders whomever he wants, whenever he chooses. It's just the way things are in our town. Nobody questions it; it sometimes seems that no one even notices.

This is the background on the riots in Afghanistan.

Very rarely I click on random links in other people's blogs; I've seen Fact-esque on a couple of blogrolls including Avedon's, but only looked at it once or twice.  Well.  The last post there is dated May 17, 2011.  Prior to that, there were two posts I should have seen.  Drat.  "The Rich Win. Always" and "Socialism - It's Not Just For Crackpots Any More."  Yeah, they're almost a year old.  Yeah, they're before Occupy.  Yeah, they were probably linked last year.  They're good reminders.  (Somebody yesterday pubbed an excerpt from Steve Gilliard's "I'm a Fighting Liberal" because that never gets old.)  Also a good reminder:  Mr. Santorum kisses up (ugh) to social conservatives (ugh) by telling them what they want to hear.  Excuse me while I embrace the porcelain goddess...

[Opens windows, sprays air freshener.]  Back.  When a conservative columnist calls the remaining GOP candidates "old news," it's the kiss of irrelevance:

When Romney, Santorum and Gingrich talk about their records, they talk about - or run from - what they did in the last decade - or two decades ago. As for Paul, he boasts about what he didn't do over the years.

That rant you hear bubbling up will probably strangle me first.