Normally, I would be delighted to be called a year younger than I am. But Social Security designating me as 63 (I am 64) was a problem. I am forced into the awful Medicare at age 65, and can be penalized if I ignore that mandate. And besides, Blue Cross will cut me off at 65, by law, which dread event occurs in July. So I went to the local Social Security office, with my original birth certificate, to prove that I am 64. Now, being Alabama, everyone was sweet and polite, including the armed guard and the bureaucrats. And there was the interracial respect that characterizes the South, despite the MSM morality tale. But what a room! There was that armed guard at the front, waiting citizens, surveillance cameras, and five thick lucite windows with chairs in front of them, like a prison visiting room. When your number was called, you talked to the clerk through a grid, and passed your documents through a slit. I thought: the state is terrified of the people. It’s another reason for hope. Yes we can.

UPDATE from Butler Shaffer:

Indeed the state is terrified of us (why else the urge to take away guns?).

Do you remember, a number of years ago, when farmers decided to “march on Washington” to meet with government officials about their plights? (Farmers always have plights.) In fear of their arrival, the Dept. of Agriculture closed its offices and Marines were called out to protect the building!

On the other hand, if you were involved in stealing, harassing, and coercing people, might you not have a fear that your victims might some day respond in ways you wouldn’t like?

UPDATE from Consuelo:

So, they’re all alike. My spouse and I had to enter one of those in Ohio last month. It was shocking to experience it. Armed cop at the entrance who looked us over and authoritatively told us to get our ticket from the computer in the room and go sit down with all the rest of the proles. I refused to acknowledge the cop, never got eye-contact with him and so I could feel his eyes boring through me for some time after I sat down. Name called over a loud speaker as we were summoned to a window (one of many) down a long narrow hallway and behind each window a government parasite. There were cameras everywhere. The parasite we dealt with read from the script on his computer screen. Several times as he read his script telling us what we had to do he used the phrase “right away”. I guess the only way out of this nightmare is to croak.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.