Blog

The Last Bite

Posted by Amphictyon | May 21, 2010 at 7:44AM CST

Extortion is a very old profession. Before the invention of automobiles, enroute extortion was known as highway robbery. Travelers were accosted at some spot along the road; could not proceed until they paid the robbers. “Your money or your life” is where the term highway robbery originated.

I grew up on the Mexico border, and everyone knows about mordidas there. The word literally means “the bite” in Spanish. This is the mode in all lawless societies, not only in Mexico. Esoteric and random laws are cited, which can be ‘obeyed’ by simply paying The Bite. Pay up, and the ‘law’ goes away. Until next time.

We see this extortion all around us in America today. In this sense, our governments at every level are no better than in Mexico. The only difference is that the school district, city, county, state and federal highwaymen are much more refined in their packaging and presentation than in Mexico.

For instance, one of my brothers recently complained about the mountain of bureaucracy he faces in attempting to have a used motor scooter registered and insured, to legally ride the roads of Texas. Scooters are such an inexpensive, simple conveyance; one can see Vespa scooters by the thousands in most large cities of the world, because they operate for pennies per day. Except here in America, where The Bite exceeds the cost of operating the vehicle.

This brings to mind a similar lament from a young friend recently, who has received two traffic tickets, both resulting in arrest warrant warnings. His crime? “Failure to provide financial responsibility.” In other words, failure to have money to pay his bills plus ‘the bite’ on top of that. My young friend, like many Americans today, is usually broke. His $8/hr job (plus school) usually doesn’t meet his groceries, rent, college costs, gasoline, cell phone, etc.; thus he often lacks the money for a car insurance premium.

That’s just too bad; the insurance industry and its allies in ‘law enforcement’ don’t care about economic reality for citizens. Because the insurance industry has incredible clout in state legislatures, you will buy their product if you want to avoid expensive tickets, fines, and even jail.

Either you pay The Bite to the insurance companies or to the ticket-writer – or you will be hauled into jail whenever you can be caught, and then you will pay The Bite plus additional court cost, and an extra bite for vehicle impoundment – and of course wrecker companies often subsist exclusively on such sweet deals with city governments.

Even as state legislatures have learned many criminal tricks from Congress, the latter criminals have now learned from the state legislatures’ insurance scam and, using the same insipid logic and pitch at supposed morality, has mandated that every American will, beginning in 2013, pay a really huge Bite: you will buy health insurance, or Congress will send its IRS Gestapo to break down your door.

The Bite doesn’t end there, however. At least not in Texas, where county assessors, collectors, and remora lawers assure that Smith will either pay for Jones’ children’s government education at Podunk Consolidated School District, or Smith will lose his home.

In Mussolini’s Italy, classical fascism was defined as the alliance of the police state with the corporations, to control the citizenry for the needs of the state and the corporations. This insurance industry and government bureaucrats’ system for The Bite at every level of life in America is thus classic fascism, as defined.

The extortion and inconvenience will worsen as the economy slows. For some, it will mean not being able to get to work in a timely fashion, possibly losing a job as a result.

Reality has been pushed aside for generations in America. Bankers, insurance companies, and taxing entities at every level have ridden the backs of the productive citizen until the prey is at the breaking point. As society’s tipping point approaches, tax revenues will decrease, requiring that the parasites and predators take increasingly harsh measures at unalloyed extortion – highway robbery – to keep their budgets and lifestyles at the present, opulent levels.

Fascism is a very nice arrangement if you’re a bureaucrat, an ‘officer of the law’ who issues invoices/tickets, or if you own stock in one of the industries allied in the fascist arrangement. For instance, if you’re a collections attorney for a county or an architect for a school district. But the rest of us suffer needlessly under this widespread corruption that is coming to define life in America, as it has defined life in Mexico for many generations.

Notice the most opulent buildings in your town: banks, public schools and other public structures for city, county, state, and federal bureaucrats to work in, as royalty – while we make do with what we can afford!

AmericaAgain! will sooner or later turn the tables on fascism at the federal level; not long after that, We The People will learn to shake off the local, county, and state parasites and highway robbers as well. Once citizens are empowered and educated about the illegality and immorality of The Bite at all levels of life, we will begin to display righteous indignation to bureaucrats and other predators in America.

We must stop allowing our public ‘servants’ to operate as though they are our masters. We The People do not need revolution; just the opposite. We need a restoration of the rule of law, and the end to predatory bureaucracy that always has an answer for every Bite it inflicts on our lives.

The Bite is not good governance. It's no way to keep the peace. Highway robbery and fascism are un-American; public crime as a way of life will only end when We The People put our foot down on the biggest kingpins: the criminals in the U.S. Congress. Yes, it's time to get angry but use wisdom. It's time to be AmericaAgain!

David M. Zuniga is a registered professional engineer and classical Christian schools planter, founder and CEO of AmericaAgain! -- a membership organization ushering in the end of politics and the beginning of informed self-government. His book This Bloodless Liberty from Xulon Press will be available in June 2010 through Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and at most Christian bookstores. He may be contacted at d.m.zuniga@myamericaagain.org.