Bravissimo, Mr. Shaffer!

This (link in post title) is why I’ve chosen to be an Outlaw. When grasping hypocrites such as these are calling the shots and making the laws, I damned well want to be part of the opposition.

We do not pay sufficient attention to the fact that statists are less interested in either the substance of their specific “problems,” or the merits of their proposed solutions, than in retaining and aggrandizing control over the lives of others. We spend far too much of our time giving credence to statists’ issues by making reasoned or empirical responses to their proposals, and too little time addressing the underlying power ambitions. Though some of their fellow travelers doubtless care about the merits of the policies, the statists’ principal concern is to advance a tenable case for extended state control. I am not suggesting that their proposals go unchallenged, but that we understand them as fungible expressions of a deeper need for power.

(emphasis mine)

Butler Shaffer is a writer of amazing ability and perception. I take my Cavalier hat off to him once again.