By Nathan Barton

Regulatory control – a key requirement for government to thrive: everything in life must be controlled by regulations – preferably MULTIPLE regulations, by MULTIPLE agencies and bodies of local government. Let’s look at a few.

Do we need car control?  So asks Mama Liberty as she notes, for the first of November: Three stories in the news this Sunday morning. The car was used to kill only one less than than those killed with a gun.

Fox News story #1 comes from New York City, where cops say a 52-year-old man may have had a seizure and lost control, plowing into Halloween trick-or-treaters. Bad things happen and all the police can often do is clean up after it.

Fox News story #2 fom North Carolina describes the typical campus panic (“lockdown”) when there are reports of a “gunman” shooting some place. It turns out that there WAS a shooting with one dead and one wounded, and a suspect still on the loose. What is interesting is that this seems to be a historically black university and the killing was black-on-black. Again, the police could only clean up after it.

And from the military city of Colorado Springs, Fox News story #3 tells of an apparent murder and suicide-by-cop leaving four dead, and several wounded, right in downtown C-Springs.  Of interest, the man was using a rifle: also of interest is that reports conflict about whether or not he shot at police, but agree that the police shot at least twenty times at the man to kill him.  Even in downtown C-Springs, that is a lot of lead to be slinging around.

Few modes of transportation – or daily life – are controlled by government more than air travel, especially commercial air travel. Yet, we have a steady stream of crashes, fatalities, and attacks. More claims and counterclaims are filling the airwaves on the crash and death of 224 people aboard a Russian Airbus, leaving Egypt to return home with a bunch of vacationers.  The Caliphate claims responsibility, claims a video of it is fake, while both Russian and Egyptian authorities claim it was NOT “terrorism.”  Business Insider reports on the various claims.  It is, I fear, typical Middle-Eastern Islamic-related fussing: no doubt many more will die as a result.

Mama’s Note: And the latest in the news: Egypt, Russia: Regimes admit bomb may have downed doomed Russian airliner, it would seem most likely that a bomb actually was present on the aircraft after all. I don’t know who, besides the ISIS, would want to bomb it and kill all those innocent people, so the argument over whether or not it was done by “terrorists” is stupid. What I can’t figure out is why in the world anyone would want to vacation in a war zone. Why did those people go to Egypt?

Of course, since “defense” is an “essential government service,” it must be controlled carefully, and demands (theoretically) a lot of attention from politicians and bureaucrats (almost as much as Fantasy Football!). But there are still glitches. For instance, consider the Warthog. Some aircraft just never go away, and the A-10 Thunderbolt II (The “Warthog” or “SLUF” (Short Little Ugly Feller) may be one.  Wired reports that the plane the Pentagon is trying to get rid of (or at least the USAF is), is being deployed yet again. This time an Air National Guard unit, the 163rd, is flying the “flying tank” into combat yet again, in this stupid Syrian adventure that seems intended to get the FedGov into a shooting war directly with Russia and Syria’s regime. This is, of course, another example of why defense is too important and complex to be left to the government. A weapon that DoD claims is “worthless” is the best weapon to use to (at least theoretically) defend friendly forces against invading insurgents? If DoD were really concerned about defending the Constitution, and therefore, defending the homeland against invasion and attack, weapons like the A-10 would be the priority, not “obsolete.” But instead, Congress (and the White House, with Congress’ tacit approval) tries to run the entire planet.

New internal combustion engine technology is ready for “commercialization” according to GizMag, writing about the Duke five-cylinder axial engine. Don’t hold your breath because the EPA, and especially the California Air Resources Board (CARB), will keep it off the market almost as long as some drugs, with testing and retesting and bureaucratic nonsense galore. Part of this is certainly in the “best interest” of established big businesses, who have invested billions in the current “standard” reciprocating internal combustion engine (EPA-speak: RICE). But it is MORE in the interest of big government, always seeking more control, more power. An engine which is inherently more efficient and therefore producing less waste doesn’t need regulatory control nearly as much (even in the eyes of minarchists and statists. In the opinion of anarchists, NO engine needs regulatory control).

Mama’s Note: Nothing “needs” involuntary government control. Everything needs the personal and voluntary control of rational and non aggressive individuals. Great big difference. Self control and agreement over rules of conduct are the only way people can live and work together in peace.