How typical to watch MSCNOX glorifying government employees in government wars on Thanksgovernment Day. Here is just one group of heroes, among the vast numbers in the civilizing and prosperity-creating division of labor I prefer to thank today: owners and workers in convenience stores in dangerous areas. Every day they risk their lives to provide a real service to voluntary customers who need them. They shoot no one who is not directly threatening them on their own property. They improve, rather than retard, society. All hail!

UPDATE from Joe Adams:

Very timely blogpost for those of us in the Cleveland area as a clerk in a convenience store (probably a member of the owner's family) was shot and killed here yesterday.  The clerk was from an upper-middle-class suburb, the store in among the more dangerous areas in Cleveland.

UPDATE from a friend:

I forwarded your blog post to a friend who owns and operates such a convenience store, and who has been robbed at gunpoint more than once. When I'm in his area I always stop by and pick something up, and always thank him for being there, and he always thanks me, too. It's a clear-cut example of human action in action.