Coming up for Air...

Anne's blog from a few days ago struck a chord in me. She writes about the crack violence in Baltimore, which is but an hour up I-95 from me. Most of all she mentions the impotence of the city government, even when citizens want to remove the baddies from their neighborhoods. None of which surprises me in the least, but it certainly begs a question or two.





First off, is municipal governement really a viable thing? Can a city hall ever do anything but burden its residents with regulations? Can there ever be enough cops? Can there ever be enough money to pay for all the things a city is required to pay for? How many of those things can safely be privatized?





Secondly, to whom does a society owe its moral obligations? To its productive citizens or its parasites? John Derbyshire wrote yesterday in NRO about the lunacy of British gun laws, and the lengths to which the British government goes to punish citizens who would defend themselves. It's maddening enough, but Derb closes with a reminder of the legal hoops waiting even in our gun-happy USA if a citizen shoots back without all the proper mother-may-I's. Let's see here, scumbags vs. hardworking senior citizen. Can the law really see these two as equal? Deserving of the same rights and priveleges? Do we truly think that creating more and more restrictions on the freedoms of all of us is going to change the behaviors of those who have opted out of our social contract? Why?