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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> >How about law enforcement?

A fair but tricksty question.  On the most local level, we have a fairly 
decent police force (sheriff) but they are located at the county seat nearly 
40 
miles away.  And the road between here and there is crooked and winding.  In 
any 
sort of immediate emergency, we are entirely on our own.  The gendarmes are 
well equipped to come afterwards to clean up the mess, but are of no use in 
actually 'enforcing' the law.  Officers Taurus and Winchester are much better 
prepared for that task.  And the thing is, everyone well knows it, or assumes 
it 
(little odds) with the result that there is nearly no crime of an consequence 
here about.

Now, petty vandilism, illegal dumping, poaching, and the like ... I am very, 
very happy to have the various 'law enforcement' (as it were) persona take 
care of that.  It is not only money well spent, but it is the only logical 
and 
only civilized way of dealing with it.  When some loose cannons from the 
local 
job corps were tearing down some of my fences, I went looking for them with a 
camera, not a gun.

More on this below.



> 
> But can you live without it? Btw, get the greater Bristol area to use  
> its own, legal, currency and you can ignore dollars except when you  
> buy something out of the area or pay taxes.

It's been proposed, in fact it was part of the Mountain Empire economic 
proposals of some years ago which would have taken in an area from Abingdon, 
Va, 
down to Greene Co. TN.  Can we live without it?  If you mean creaturely 
survive, 
yes.  Wouldn't want that though.  I like living on very little money, but I 
am not at all opposed to rendering unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's.  
Money is not bad, same as oil is not bad, but an utter dependence on it is 
bad.




> 
> Even higher education? I would want a trained and certified physician  
> removing my child's appendix or worse.

Higher education need not involve the government in any way and neither does 
certification of physicians.  Of course, I am a unrepentant libertarian.  I 
believe there should be any sort of education and certification anyone wants 
to 
devise and it should be the responsibility of the consumer as to whether they 
put confidence in it or no.  But it need not involve the government.


> > I like it when I can get a clear radio station, not jumbled  
> with a gazillion others fighting for the same waves. I like it that  
> drivers on the road stay within a speed range calculated to allow me  
> time for evasive action if necessary.

All the things you list here, as well as the issue of currency and local 
police mentioned above ... all that costs very little and is very little 
invasive 
into our lives. Again my caution about absolutism, that the sentiment against 
government solutions for things is disingenuous unless it is carried to the 
lunatic fringe.   You could eliminate 98% of government and still have all 
those 
things.



 >And I like going to sleep  

> knowing it is highly unlikely that roving bands of criminals will  
> burst into my house at two in the morning. Much more that we take for  
> granted.
> >


I do too. But I know that here at least the police are powerless to prevent 
it. It is not hte police that keep the criminals at bay.
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