QotD: Government Lies

The fourth thing is to pass a law — yes, this libertarian is actually saying "there ought to be a law (as long as it applies only to the government)" — making it an offense punishable by public hanging for any government employee, at any level, to lie to any individual for any reason. Government lies kill, far more reliably, far more universally and cruelly, than any so-called "weapon of mass destruction".

There are other solutions: a foreign policy that doesn't make the world want to kill us; a military — organized at the state or county level — that can't be called up by a president in absence of a formal declaration of war; immediate transfer to the front for any senator or congressman who votes to declare war and any president who asks them to.

But the point right now is to ask yourself — and everybody you know — what hard evidence you have for believing a single word they say.

The answer? Not a shred.

L. Neil Smith, "The Boys Who Cried "Terrorist"", Libertarian Enterprise, 2006-08-14