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Generally speaking, people tend to break down into two broad categories when it comes to “the rules.”

There are the people who view “the rules” as something made as a well-intentioned, good faith effort, by “society” or “all of us,” so that “we can all get along together”; it follows that “we all” have an obligation either to follow the rules “we all” live under, or to change them.

And then there are people like me.

I just don’t understand the rules-trusters.  It’s not that they’re necessarily bad people.

Some of them are probably just Type-A authoritarians like Archie Bunker, people who think society will degenerate into “anarchy” if we don’t all unite under the alpha-males and defend the in-group’s mores against out-groups and internal rebels.

But most of them probably just come from positive family backgrounds that have predisposed them toward trust and generosity.  It’s people like this who read “Why Mommy is a Democrat,” and think society is just like a big family where the rules are there to keep us all happy and safe and make sure the same person doesn’t always grab the last drumstick off the plate.

Dear Supporters of the Center for a Stateless Society,

Thank you! You pulled through! Our first quarter 2010 fundraising goal was exceeded before the March 10th deadline and everybody has been paid for their hard work for the Center. Our operations are funded through the end of the month of March. It’s your support that enables what we do, and we aim to do some amazing things.

Starting in April, we’ll be changing to a monthly budget and fundraising drive instead of the quarterly approach we’ve been using. Part of this transition plan is to start using our own donation management software instead of ChipIn.com, although we may use ChipIn for a bit longer if our own software isn’t ready by early April. We’re also seeking a dedicated volunteer fundraising specialist that we hope will be able to become a paid staff member over the course of our growth over the next two years.

Recently an article of mine on healthcare, “Healthcare and Radical Monopoly,” was published in The Freeman:  Ideas on Liberty.  Since I wrote the article several months ago, I chose healthcare as the topic for my forthcoming C4SS research paper.

One thing I barely touched on in the article for The Freeman, that I’ve been digging into heavily since, is the absolutely astonishing levels of overhead in hospitals, and the pathological organizational culture that contributes to it.

Of course Obama’s healthcare “reform” is focused almost entirely on the insurance industry, rather than on the costs of healthcare itself.  But while insurance company price-gouging and profit margins contribute to skyrocketing premiums, it’s very much a secondary effect–mostly icing on the cake.  The main factor behind rising insurance premiums is the rising prices hospitals charge for delivery of actual services.

In Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, the character of Mark Antony is a clever sort. In the guise of “burying Caesar, not praising him,” he unleashes popular nostalgia for the tyrant and rage against his assassins. All this for his own purposes, of course, in the ongoing struggle for power.

Antony’s speech springs to mind every year as the Ides of March approach, especially when a wave of “smaller government” sentiment is sweeping the political world — sometimes directly sponsored by, sometimes simply co-opted by, one branch of the existing political establishment.

The Tea Party movement and the Republican Party are in the process of merging pursuant to the current “smaller government” fad.

Some in both groups oppose the merger — the Tea Party types because they know they’re being co-opted, “serious” Republican types because they fear that “smaller government” promises might actually have to be kept in some small measure — but it’s probably a done deal. The GOP requires a horse to ride back to power; the Tea Party’s energy is beginning to wane and its members are casting about for a rider to apply the spurs.