There’s always something to howl about.

Alex, I’ll Take “Terrifying” for $1000

Even with all the financial failure that surrounds us, I still find myself loathe to accept any type of government intervention.  We throw around comments like “too big to fail” but rarely examine the end game.  Greg Swann recently reposted a very intelligent treatise on something he likes to call Rotarian Socialism and how each “fix” only begets a greater problem down the road.  As a matter of fact, Mr. Swann and I share a healthy fear of government and the implied force of violence that backstops all regulations and laws.

Earlier this week I followed a story out of Spokane, WA.  It centers around a Mr. Kevin Coe, convicted rapist and suspected serial rapist.  For the relevant details and background on this story click here.  Mr. Coe, however, is not the scary part of this story:

Coe has completed his sentence of 25 years in prison, but he is not getting out of jail yet.  Starting tomorrow, Coe faces a civil trial as the state tries to keep him locked up indefinitely as a violent sexual predator.

“We think he’s mentally ill and dangerous,” said Todd Bowers of the state Attorney General’s Office.

In 1990, Washington became the first state to create a program to keep behind bars people determined to be at risk of committing more sex crimes even after they have completed their sentences. A special facility near Tacoma holds about 300 of them, including Coe, whose sentence was completed in 2006.

A person is convicted of a crime and sentenced.  He never allocutes; he maintains his innocence throughout (despite the government’s repeated attempts at blackmail offered in the form of early parole) and he serves his FULL TERM.  At which time the government continues to keep him locked up; found guilty by a jury of legislators, of having the potential to commit another crime.

The state reserves the power to take away your property, your liberty and your very life.  They enforce this power at the tip of a gun.  All laws, all regulations (and, apparently now, all judgment on potential) is maintained by the government, ultimately, on penalty of death.  The abrogation of your liberty is a trifle by comparison.  Just ask Kevin Coe.

This is why the most terrifying thing in the world is not a murderer, not a rapist, not even the wholesale failure of our financial markets.  No, at all times the thing to be most terrified of is the government and its benign attempts to help.

Alex, I don’t think I want to play Double Jeopardy…