I like this idea. Unfortunately, I rarely use cash.
[Afternoon update]
Glenn Reynolds has thoughts on the culture of impunity. I don’t think it’s new, though. It just seems to coincide with Democrats in power.
12 thoughts on “Civil Disobedience”
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I was going to comment there, but there are too many hoops.
One wonders if there won’t be a push made to declare this to be defacement of currency, which I vaguely remember is a crime?
Remember, when rubber stamps are outlawed, only outlaws will have rubber stamps…
seems like a good reason to start using cash.
One wonders if there won’t be a push made to declare this to be defacement of currency, which I vaguely remember is a crime?
From time to time, the tree of liberty must be watered with the ink of patriots.
As I commented over on that page – it’s not civil disobedience, because it’s not illegal to do that, and civil disobedience is definitionally committing an illegal act with the intent of being arrested/punished to draw attention to the injustice of the law.
Glenn’s correct in that there is a statute against defacing currency … but it only applies to rendering bills unfit to reissue, which that stamp would not do.
(And it doesn’t apply to coins at all, which is why those machines that turn pennies into oval medallions are perfectly legal.)
I hit Wikipedia, and crawled around a bit. It appears that commentary like this is in fact legal.
Advertising is illegal, however, so adding a link to the blog that explains what it means would get you into trouble.
There doesn’t seem to be any intent of getting arrested here.
Spellcheck for you, Rand- it’s disobedience, not disobediance. Just FYI.
“Hey guys, I just wanted you to know that, the reactors won’t take it; the ship is breaking apart and all that… Just FYI.”
Doug,
At this point the only course of action that makes sense to me is looking for a pub. My beryllium-sphere-of-trust-in-government is just shot to hell. I didn’t think I could be any more cynical about government, but Obama has shown me that new lows existed.
FWIW, I’ve been almost exclusively cash since I had my identity stolen. The thinking being that hackers can’t steal my credit/debit card information if there’s no information to steal because they aren’t used. (or so infrequently randomly that the info is just noise)
Having someone steal $50,000 of stuff in my name really makes one re-think a lot of things. And, the anonymity of cash purchases appeals to the tinfoil hattery side of my libertarian streak. It’s also a good way to not have to pay fees to banks, and the bank statements are easier to reconcile.
Still, I’m a banker, and while the civic disobedience of it appeals to my anarchic streak, defacing our currency isn’t really in me. I’m just trying to remember back to my teller days and what our instructions were. IIRC we were supposed to pull it from circulation (if we saw it ;-).
One benefit of not using credit cards is that when you are going to use them, you can make the banks compete for your business. I decided to put my road trip to FL for the Moon Conference last October on my credit cards. I started calling around and got the best rate, deal and customer service from Discover, so I threw them my business, and still have one payment to go. I may have to use them again for the LPSC.
“Trust” in government? The absolute best anyone can possibly hope for from the government is benign indifference. The thought of the government actually caring about me, as so many people these days seem to want, gives me night terrors.
When the government sets out to screw up your life, it proves moderately competent at screwing up your life.
When it sets out to fix your life, it proves indescribably ingenious at … screwing up your life.
Still, I’m a banker, and while the civic disobedience of it appeals to my anarchic streak, defacing our currency isn’t really in me. I’m just trying to remember back to my teller days and what our instructions were. IIRC we were supposed to pull it from circulation (if we saw it ;-).
If this is considered “defacing currency”, and tellers are supposed to remove stamped bills from circulation, then wherefor are the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of “wheresgeorge.com”-stamped bills still in circulation?