One of my first articles on economics and ethics to be published appeared in the Foundation for Economic Education’s magazine, “The Freeman," was about the heroism of Mike Fisher, a liberty-minded guy who defied the state “licensing” mandate after he learned how to do manicures and offered his services to a paying customer – on the lawn of the state licensing board.
Nice move.
Of course, for exposing the absurdity and economic backwardness of licensing mandates that block people from engaging in freedom of voluntary contract, he was handcuffed and taken away in a police cruiser ( the latter funded involuntarily, via taxation). But he made his excellent point, and made national news.
Sadly, not only have some agents of government not learned, but they’ve made the situation worse. Now, that's being displayed in Laredo, Texas, famous for being the home of the “world’s largest middle finger” statue.
Okay, that last part was made-up, but the government sure is raising a big middle finger to residents of Laredo and their inherent rights, as the Laredo Morning Times reports that police went to the trouble to create an intricate, undercover “sting” operation to arrest two local ladies for offering manicure and salon services inside their homes – in violation of the Laredo fiefdom’s “Stay-At-Home” order.
Says the Morning Times:
Two women allegedly violated the emergency management plan when they offered their beauty, cosmetic services from home… Their arrests were initiated for violations imposed by the COVID-19 Emergency Management Plan on Wednesday.
The key word?
"Offering."
Indeed, just as it was in the USSR, in the new, soviet-style USSA, the government can decide what businesses may operate and what businesses are “non-essential.” You’re not allowed to do that. The basic, fundamental right of deciding for oneself how one values his or her time and resources is absconded in “COVID-1984” America, and, as a result, the government will decide your valuations and dictate where your resources can go.
Forget the fact that such a collectivist system has been proven disastrous and led to the most deaths, worldwide, of any invention of mankind. Forget the Bill of Rights requirement of due process, prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment (businesses are being shuttered by the government without trial) and prohibition of property takings without just compensation (forcing a business closed is a form of taking). And forget the more fundamental philosophical point that at no time in these market exchanges was anyone coerced, which makes sense, because market transactions are voluntary, by definition.
Forget all of that!
And God forbid anyone make note of the practical point that multiple studies have determined the federal fatality stats of COVID-19 are way, wayyyy overblown.
Not to mention the fact that, thanks to the insane “CARES” act passed by Congress and signed by President Trump, the CDC is now financially incentivizing medical personnel to over-count COVID-19 cases.
Pay no attention to any of that.
Just be sure cops act on rat-tips as if they were the NKVD in the Early USSR, engage in stings, and go after people who weren’t harming anyone. People on their OWN property, who were merely inviting others in.
That’s right. The ladies were ratted out.
Laredo police said they launched investigations on the cases after receiving anonymous tips via the LPD app.
How neighborly.
‘Both of the violators independently solicited customers via social media. On both cases, an undercover officer working on the COVID-19 Task Force enforcement detail made contact with each solicitor to set up an appointment for a cosmetic, beauty service that is prohibited under the emergency ordinance,’ police said in a statement.
You read that correctly, the “COVID-19 Task Force’ enforcement detail.
Because stopping non-crimes is important. So important, the cops had to engage in aggression and invade these places of private property -- to stop a virus with a fatality rate no one really knows, but which is being pumped-up by the feds..
In one case, Ana Isabel Castro-Garcia, 31, was arrested in the 1200 block of Harding Street after she agreed to and met with an undercover officer who posed as a customer needing a nail service.
If this doesn’t sound absurd and preposterous, nothing can.
And the more this happens, the more people will rise-up against it.
Americans are learning again that liberty is innate, peaceful, and God-given. The state is not.
And Americans are seeing more and more, day by day, which side they are on.