Malone, Weinberg and Government
Inside Liberty Watch Today - Jul. 26, 2005

Fred Weinberg can finally get a good night's sleep. Evidently he has been living in fear all these months while that dangerous man Lance Malone has been at large. What a relief Fred must feel. 

Mr. Malone was found guilty on one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud, 33 counts of wire fraud, and three counts of extortion. He was acquitted of two counts of interstate travel in aid of racketeering.

Weinberg believes that Malone should live out his days in the pokey for these offenses, using former Worldcom CEO Bernie Ebbers' who was just sentenced to 25 years-as an example. According to Weinberg, Ebbers' did massive financial damage to America's investors and his former employees.

However, as Lew Rockwell wrote back in 2002:
"None of this has to do with a conviction that WorldCom and Enron and the rest really committed fraud in the usual sense. The problem with these companies (and they are not typical) is that they took part in a more general fraud called the New Economy: the idea that the Federal Reserve can create limitless prosperity through money creation and lower interest rates.

"Had these companies" forecasts of infinite product demand, and thus infinitely increasing stock prices panned out, nobody would be complaining. But the Fed's boom turned to bust, as it must, and the political parasites had to find someway to deflect the blame."

The idea that Bernie Ebbers should get what amounts to be a life sentence being "eminently fair," according to Weinberg, is patent nonsense. The same goes for his view that Malone should serve life for handing politicians money and expecting the greedy pols to do what they were being paid to do. That sounds like campaign season to me.

Sure, Mr. Malone broke some hokey made-up laws, but did he hurt anyone? Did he aggress against someone? Did he break any natural laws? Did he break the golden rule? Did he defy any of the Ten Commandments?

The whole crux of this case is a crock. San Diego had some dopey ordinance prohibiting adult entertainers from touching patrons. Club owner Mike Galardi recognized that his employees "the entertainers" would make more money if they could make contact with customers, so he sought to change the ordinance.

How does one do that?

Appeal to a politician's sense of right and wrong? Sway them with logic? Of course not, give them the lifeblood of politics' money.

Galardi hires an expert in the field "Mr. Malone, a former Clark County Commissioner" to do what needs to be done. It's called division of labor.

This is how Democracy works folks. To borrow from H.L. Mencken, first, jackasses elect jackals. The jackals then make laws that control the economic lives of people engaging in voluntary transactions. To the extent that these jackals allow the transactions to occur at all, they extract tribute from entrepreneurs who are in business to supply what is being demanded. To change an arbitrary law, more tribute is required.

The San Diego Commissioners' like those in Las Vegas' are at least smart enough to charge for their votes. Because they can, their votes
actually have value, as opposed to the public's votes, which are worthless.

Yet, Weinberg feels Malone "is a cheap little thief who needs the full weight of the law thrown at him." Weinberg has even enlisted the services of ex-Cheetah's bouncer, now holier-than-thou, tell-all writer, Brent Kenton Jordan to weigh in on Malone, et al each and every week in the Penny Press.

Jordan's a guy who admits to kicking the living crap out of patrons at Cheetah's for minor transgressions yet now he's trying to make a living writing about how "disgusted" he is with his ex-boss and Mr. Malone.

Mr. Malone didn't do anything wrong. He was doing his job. Maybe he was clumsy and arrogant, but certainly no lives were in danger.

With all the government transgressions to whine about, Weinberg and his new bouncer buddy Jordan are going goofy over something that has had no effect on our lives, other than something to read about in the papers.

Now is the time to start the "Free Lance" movement.

Doug French, Libety Watch Columnist