Hello from the world's fourth most dangerous, beautiful tropical paradise!
A recent compilation denoted Acapulco as the fourth most dangerous city on Earth. Boy, I wish I could say that with pride. Many are imagining that I must live in a warzone. That every time I leave the house I have to fight off gangs with rocket launchers and just barely make it back to my villa on the hill, dodging bullets, covered in sweat and dirt, kiss my kids and pray we make it through another day.
With some shame, I have to admit that is pretty much the exact opposite of life here. I wake up to the second most beautiful bay on Earth (Rio being the first, imo), jog down the costera to the gym, work most of the day on my laptop before heading to the center of action to my designated seat at a bar called Mangos on the beach. Along the way I have to stop repeatedly to shake hands with almost everyone… and kiss countless girls on the cheek, as is customary. I continue working on my laptop until mid evening and by then most of the TDV crew, which is swelling in size, has usually taken seats all around me… and numerous TDV subscribers and people who have moved down here thanks to my recommendation. On some evenings I then head out with my wife to one of the hundreds of world class restaurants in a city full of interesting and diverse restaurants including my favorite restaurant on Earth, Becco al Mare.
The evening usually finishes off with some 18-year-old Glen Fiddich and a Cuban cigar, yet another thing you are not allowed to have in the USSA under threat of kidnapping or death. Of course, this is necessary, because Cuba is communist… that's very different than the US which is fasco-communist and has a President who is hailed as the best US President by some of the Castro family!
So, again, I am ashamed to admit that my life is not full of danger all day long, despite the rumors you may hear. It's too bad, I'd have way more "street cred" if it was. The actual case is that, yet again, the state is a self-licking ice cream cone causing the problems it then says it is here to protect you from. A few years ago the Government kidnapped a man called "The Barbie" who had the area under control and was peacefully transporting plants to voluntary, paying customers. The government always announces these things as though the problem is now solved. The exact opposite is always the case, however. With a power vacuum, countless others flood in to try to get their piece of a billion dollar business. Because the trade is forced underground by violent, armed men (the people in government costumes) the winners are usually those who are the most violent… and it did set off a two year battle for control of the port. What you don't know is that these people mostly stick to themselves. They have no reason to kill anybody but their competitors… and they usually do it tens or hundreds of miles away from any part of Acapulco that you'd likely ever visit. I've met numerous big drug entrepreneur bosses and they all tell me that they'd be insane to kill any foreign tourists. For one thing, there'd be no point. And, for another, it would just focus the government and the people of the city against them for doing anything to hurt tourism.
So, what has actually been going on is not much different than a spate between the Hatfield and McCoys. Except down here it is more like the Valdez and the Morenos. Is it a dangerous place, for them? Yes. Is it a dangerous place for you and me? Not even close. I wish I could sound cooler and say that I live in a very dangerous place, but for me this has been one of the most peaceful and enjoyable places I've ever been.
And, anyway, it's all mostly over now. Those lists are backward looking, counting murders in the prior year. The area has been mostly at peace for a year now… and with the new government set to take the ring of power in a few weeks it will get even better. That's because they run on a platform of being partners with the plant transporters. A much better policy than just going out and killing anyone involved.
Yet those who have never been to Mexico will often talk of it as a place of civil war… or a "failed state". We could only be so lucky if the state actually had failed. Without a state, the markets would be truly freed and there'd be peace and prosperity for nearly all as the Colombian coca farmers take their companies public on the New York Stock Exchange, tens or hundreds of voluntary, peaceful companies start up and billboards and TV ads promote, "Bob's Marijuana – the King of Marijuanas" or "El Jefe's Cocaine – The Best Snow on Earth" or "Sleepy's Heroine – Pass Out In Extreme Comfort with the Best Afghanistan Has to Offer" and job positions open up for marketers, accountants, drivers, packers and a multitude of other occupations.
Or people can go and bomb people worldwide and kidnap people and put them in cages by the millions for not hurting anyone. Which one seems like the better option?
The day the War on Drugs ends is the day people begin to realize the absurdity of not only it but of the state itself, which says it is here to protect us from drug traffickers! Thanks for the offer, state, but we don't need that kind of help.
AN ISSUE TO UNITE US ALL!
Well, after years of writing and crusading against the massive murder, kidnapping and theft of the state I have finally stumbled upon an issue which has ignited an absolute uproar. Finally, people are rising up and are angry! They are commenting and sending emails in record numbers. The issue? Smoking. Sigh.
I would never have known what a massive issue it is with so many people if I'd never tried it… that's one of the reasons I like to try everything at least once.
Murray Rothbard wrote decades ago about "America's Most Persecuted Minority".
In it, he states:
"The crusade against smoking is only the currently most virulent example of one of the most malignant forces in American life: left neo-Puritanism. Puritanism was famously defined by my favorite writer, H.L. Mencken, as "the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy." The major problem with the Puritans is not so much that they were a dour lot, but that they were believers in the dangerous Christian heresy of "post-millennialism" that is, that it is man's responsibility to establish a thousand-year (give or take a few centuries) Kingdom of God on Earth as a precondition of the Second Advent of Jesus Christ. Since the Kingdom is by definition a perfect society free of sin, this means that it is the theological duty of believers to establish a sin-free society. But establishing a sin-free society, of course, means taking stern measures to get rid of sinners, which is where the rub comes in."
He goes on to state:
"And remember, if today they come for the smoker, tomorrow they will come for you. If today they grab your cigarette, tomorrow they will seize your junk food, your carbohydrates, your yummy but "empty" calories. And don't think that your liquor is safe either; neo-Prohibitionism has been long on the march, what with "sin taxes" (revealing term, isn't it?), outlawing of advertising, higher drinking ages, and the neo-Puritan harpies of MADD. Are you ready for the Left Nutritional Kingdom, with everyone forced to confine his food to yogurt and tofu and bean sprouts? Are you ready to be confined in a cage, to make sure that your diet is perfect, and that you get the prescribed Compulsory Exercise? All to be governed by a Hillary Clinton National Health Board?"
Oh how nothing has changed… and how worse things have gotten. The only difference today is that Killary is busy raping and murdering people around the planet while, in her stead, Michelle O'Bomber focuses on making sure she tells everyone exactly what to eat and when.
Funny thing, her own husband is a smoker. No one really talks much about that… nor would the system ever allow a recent photo of him smoking to get into the mainstream press.
Just the fact that he smokes gives me pause to smoke. I don't want to do anything a guy like Barack O'Bomber does.
But then I look around at my peer group of anarcho-capitalists. Murray Rothbard didn't smoke, but he was almost apologetic about it. And, as his above article shows, a good anarcho-capitalist will stick up for all manner of things that are voluntary even if they have no interest in those things themselves.
Doug Casey smokes. Gary Gibson smokes. Jeffrey Tucker smokes. In fact, he was at FreedomFest with his 14-year-old son, sharing a smoke.
I think there is something about being an anarcho-capitalist that can almost drive you to smoke! We awaken every day to a world that looks incredibly devoid of morality and full of violence and theft. And yet, we are the ones who are always attacked as being the bad guys!
Many people in the West are so completely brainwashed and just parrot what they've been taught practically since birth in the government school systems. Jimmy Kimmel showed this very well when they asked people what they thought about a debate that had yet to happen. Look how none of them even pause as they go on to talk about imaginary events and lie through their teeth.
Where are my cigarettes?
Meanwhile, I have callouses on both my thumbs from trying to light government mandated lighters that are child-proof. The more accurate way to describe it is as being "human-proof".
I went and bought a zippo lighter after rubbing my thumbs raw. Then I went to the airport, and the government took it away from me.
See why I smoke yet?
LIVING IN AN INSANE WORLD
Yet, despite it all, many people in the USSA are wrapped up in wondering who will win the next election. Here is my prediction (thanks to Jacob Spinney for the comment). This is a 100% certainty and you can take it to the bank. The person who will win the upcoming election will be for indefinite detention, torture, summary execution, bailing out banks, endless war, and kidnapping and imprisoning people who are in possession of a particular kind of plant or chemical.
I'm off to Becco. Wish me luck so I don't get beheaded, it's so dangerous here. Until next week, I hope you surround yourself by peaceful and voluntary relationships and transactions and avoid being extorted or kidnapped in what I consider to be one of the truly most dangerous places on Earth, the USSA. Or whever you live.
Peace, love and anarchy.
