Every society is ruled by its high-status beliefs; if you don’t like them, your only recourse is to lower their status.
Nov 032022
Ruling
In ’37 Stalin made a hash
Of party loyalists and army brass.
Decimation: One in ten are shot.
What’s the word when one in ten are not?
Oct 252022
Every regime, in every era, has installed incompetents in positions of high responsibility and authority; it is our unique distinction to do so on high principle.
Sep 232022
Crime is like most problems: you don’t need to know the cause to fix it.
Sep 072022
Government does not issue recommendations or suggestions — only threats.
Sep 062022
Law keeps order: justice keeps score.
Aug 112022
Bad laws make worse cops.
Jul 042022
Power is the difference between the number of people I am obliged to consult and the number who are obliged to consult me.
Jun 292022
Nearly every new law is bad, and nearly every old custom is good.
Jun 282022
A time-honored tactic of the schoolyard bully, after he has ground your face into the dirt, is to release you on the condition that you mouth some humiliating absurdity. He does not want to convince you of its truth; he wants to see what you will swallow.
Jun 172022
Rules are made to be selectively enforced.