Driving Down the Road to Tyranny

Gary May introduced himself as a special agent. The other man, John Egan, was introduced as his colleague. May gave the Wetzels his card, stating that he is the senior agent in the bureau of criminal investigations...

Wetzel uses recycled vegetable oil, which he picks up weekly from an organization that uses it for frying food at its dining facility.

"They told me I am required to have a license and am obligated to pay a motor fuel tax," David Wetzel recalled. "Mr. May also told me the tax would be retroactive."

Just great, isn't it? Nice old people try to do "the right thing" and do their part for their local environment, as well as innovatively find a way to live within their means, bothering no one and simply taking care of themselves. So naturally the state sends two badge-heavy goons to their door to threaten them, and continues to extort them under the threat of strong arm tactics that will ultimately result in their kidnapping (under felony charges!) if they don't obey, and worse if they actively defy and resist.

And the thing is, as long as enforcers May and Egan are using "the law" to justify their sick bullying, here's what it says about being a "special fuel supplier":

Any person other than a licensed distributor who transports special fuel into this state or receives special fuel transported to him from outside the state, and a person engaged in Illinois in the distribution of special fuel primarily by tank car or tank truck, or both, and who operates an Illinois bulk plant where he has active bulk storage capacity of not less than 30,000 gallons for special fuel.

Yeah, that sure sounds like the Wetzels and their '86 Volkswagen Golf, doesn't it?

This is a level of control over people's lives that Caesar could not have imagined in his wildest dreams. History rightfully remembers him as a dictator and tyrant.

What is wrong with us as a people, that we accept this subjugation in all things great and small as our lot in life? How can we accept this as the natural state of things, and deserve to survive?

[Via The Claire Files]