Our Rulers’ Idea of ‘Punishing’ Each Other

Foreign blowhards are notorious as scofflaws: “diplomatic immunity” protects them from the consequences of illegal parking and other offenses against Leviathan. New York City and That District of Criminals on the Potomac, both swarming with ambassadors and allied leeches, claim these official but temporary immigrants have refused to fork over millions in fines.

Which is fine, so to speak: I hate smug and smarmy “statesmen” as much as the next guy does, but hey, that’s millions Our Rulers can’t spend on more cops, more surveillance, more abuse of taxpayers.

Anyway, the clowns at the State Department hit on a scheme to collect about ten years ago: they “withhold” the fines from each country’s foreign aid. Yep, that’s right: they won’t transfer all the money from our pockets to their associates overseas that they promised to, just most of it. But, gosh, here’s a shock: it seems no one’s gotten around to actually enforcing this draconian policy yet.

Too bad. A fractionally reduced windfall oughta teach ’em.

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3:17 pm on September 23, 2011