Wednesday, November 05, 2003

There was a story on yesterday's All Things Considered about the Pakistan government's attempts to deal with Pakistanis in the Northwest Frontier Province who make and sell Kalashnikov-style rifles, openly smoke drugs, and consort across the border with the Taliban in Afghanistan (scroll down to "Pakistan Sends Troops to Afghan Border" to hear the story).

As I was listening to the story, I couldn't help noting some of the similarities between these guys and libertarians such as the folks at the Free State Project, who want to take over New Hampshire and make it a laissez-faire paradise. After all, as this article about the Free Staters notes, they don't like being deprived of guns, just as the Northwest Frontier Province Pakistanis don't like being told not to make and sell guns; the Pakistanis smoke hashish while the Free Staters seek drug legalization; and, most strikingly, the Free Staters say,

once we have control of the county sheriffs' offices, we can order federal law enforcement agents out, or exercise strict supervision of their activities

-- in other words, they seek pretty much the arrangement the Northwest Frontier Province Pakistanis have long had with the Pakistani federal government (an arrangement the central government is now trying to alter).

Just thought I'd point this out.

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