Author Archives: Nicholas Shankin

Copblocking with Kelly Voluntaryist

  By Nicholas Shankin | February 13, 2012 - 9:35 am | , ,
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When Kelly Voluntaryist and I (after having found myself suddenly working as her newly-employed assistant and videographer) decided to embark on a semi-spontaneous road trip to tour our new home “state” of New Hampshire in a truck with a missing headlight and a tail light that was out of commission, we were (of course) expecting some sort of encounter with at least one officer of law enforcement. Being from the veritable police state of New Jersey myself (and Kelly from the equally third reich-esque Arizona), there is inevitably, unfortunate though it may be, some degree of reasonable paranoia invoked by the practice of traveling in a vehicle that serves as such a bulls-eyed target for agents of oppressive bureaucracies. So naturally, the two of us expected to receive some degree of harassment and initiated aggression by men in badges who were surely to be armed to the teeth with an arsenal of various instruments for the implementation of state-sanctioned violence. In the seemingly mundane reality of the oppressive nanny colony known as the twenty-first century U.S.A., these men are more commonly referred by the average citizens as “police officers”. We, however, prefer to call them what they really are: members of an oppressive gang of a monopolizing and uniformed circuit of organized crime.

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My Valentine’s Date with the State

  By Nicholas Shankin | February 13, 2012 - 9:32 am | ,
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As the date of my trial continues to approach (somewhat more rapidly than I might prefer), it’s difficult to ignore the pressing and unpleasant matter of the federal government and its ever-ongoing war against drugs. My own upcoming summons to the court aside, I can easily think of roughly half a dozen friends who either have pending drug-related legal cases or are the victims of some type of probationary sentence as a result of the state’s apparent distaste for controlled substances. Many of them (peaceful people, all) are presently being threatened with extended jail sentences–in fact, one of them is facing a potential sentence of up to one hundred years behind bars, locked away in one of the state’s many cages. I myself am presently being threatened with potential incarceration (my maximum sentence has a ceiling of one year’s time) for peacefully possessing a plant–cannibus–that was forcefully removed from my bedroom drawer while I was at work. If it’s true that the constitution of a crime demands both a victim and an agressor, then my alleged “crime” must surely be insufficiently complete in such regard–there was neither a victim nor an act of aggression created or exhibited by my personal decision to possess and consume marijuana. However, in an age where prohibited substances are as plentiful in number as they are apparently punishable, it is easy to imagine why so many of the nation’s inmates are presently serving time for similarly non-violent, drug-related, so-called “offenses”.

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How and Why Crime Levels and Gold Prices are Increasing Due to Further Greek Austerity

  By Nicholas Shankin | February 13, 2012 - 8:51 am | , ,
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Following the Greek Parliament’s emergency decision to approve a second round of austerity measures in the country, gold prices, the Australian dollar, Asian shares, the value of the euro, and instances of rioting and violent crimes have increased dramatically.

The Parliament’s move was made in response to European Union and International Monetary Fund (IMF) demands that the Greek government display a “clear commitment” to enforcing the repayment of its debts. Should any doubts of such motivations linger in the minds of these international lenders, they have threatened to withhold the bailout money from Greece altogether. Without receiving the massive loans being proposed, which amount to a grand total of roughly $170 billion, Greece will inevitably cross the threshold of debt into default status and be rendered unable to make good on repayments of the money it has borrowed.

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