Should you or your kids register for the draft or dodge the draft? Find out what the implications are. News with stories on kids needing licenses to mow, 900 kids being illegally searched, Ross Ulbricht, and jury nullification, and an Ancap Apps segment on Swarm City. This episode is brought to you by Praxis, where you can get a full-time job in nine months making $50,000 a year with no college degree. Also brought to you by Swarm City, a decentralized commerce meta-platform that allows people to participate in commerce without interference from a third party.

WHAT’S RUSTLING MY JIMMIES

In my formerly conservative days, I was proud to sign up for the draft through the selective service program. At the time, I didn't understand fully the implications of that decision. Looking back on it now, I wish I had more information on it. From a government that tells me I am not smart enough to use alcohol until I'm 21 years old, or that I'm never smart enough to use many other drugs, it is the height of hypocrisy for them to force an even more difficult decision like this on 18-year-old boys.

And this is not just an intellectual exercise for me. I have two boys, 11 and 9, who, much sooner than I want, will be facing this exact decision. I want to prepare them for this decision much better than my parents prepared me, which was exactly zero preparation. 

I have to start out with the caveat that I am not a lawyer and nothing you'll ever hear me say is legal advice. 

The Draft is Slavery

I'm a Free Man Resisting Slavery 

The Center on Conscience and War

WHAT'S IN THE NEWS

In barriers to work news, Gardendale, Alabama is now requiring kids in the town to pay $110 to buy a business license if they want to make a few extra bucks over the summer mowing lawns. Teenagers have actually been threatened by officials and other lawn services to show their city-issued license before cutting a person’s lawn for extra summer cash.

In other state vs. kids news, in Worth County, Georgia, violated children and furious parents have just filed a massive lawsuit after the Worth County Sheriff’s office conducted an illegal search of 900 students — in the name of the war on drugs.

In big brother is always watching news, the FBI has illegally shared raw intelligence about Americans with unauthorized third parties and violated other constitutional privacy protections, according to newly declassified government documents.

In Ross Ulbricht news, the Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld the conviction and sentencing of Ross Ulbricht for life without parole based on crimes associated with launching and operating the Silk Road website, a site where people could buy and sell items anonymously, including illegal drugs.

In low information jurors news, jurors in Mecosta County, Michigan, have convicted a man for telling potential jurors that they don't have to convict people.

ANCAP APPS

Do I have an interesting treat for you guys today! If you've been listening to me for a while, you know that I've talked about Arcade City quite a lot in the past, and not in a good way. I liked the original concept behind Arcade City, but I had massive issues with the implementation by Christopher David. My first Ancap Apps segment on Arcade City was way back in March of last year where I was talking about the very beginnings of the great idea and how excited I was for it. You can listen to that episode at thelavaflow.com/33. Then, in September of last year, when things started looking bad for the implementation of Arcade City, I did a Jimmies called The Gamification of Arcade City. You can get to that one by going to thelavaflow.com/45. I followed that one up in November with Arcade City 2.0 where I talked about the huge changes in Arcade City when Christopher David stepped down and left the operations of Arcade City to the development team that became involved in the project. You can get that one at thelavaflow.com/50. Finally, I did a spurt episode called Arcade City vs. Swarm City Hard Fork, where the dev team went even further to distance themselves from Chris by changing the brand completely to Swarm City. That one is at thelavaflow.com/tls28. 

I haven't talked much about them since, but I've been watching closely, and I've been very pleased with what I've seen. So pleased, even, that I spend some money and purchased some Swarm City tokens, the same tokens that were once called Arcade City tokens that I told everyone to stay the hell away from. And, the newest advertiser for this show is Swarm City! This is how much things have changed. And, today, I have an interview with Matt Carano, a musician, voluntaryist, entrepreneur, marketer, and organizer who is currently running a communications hive in Swarm City. Matt is also a personal friend of mine and a co-host with me on the Freecoast Freecast podcast. You can follow Matt on Twitter @matthewcarano. I want to thank Matt for coming on and I want to thank Swarm City for being a sponsor of The LAVA Flow! You can follow Swarm City on Twitter @SwarmCityDApp. To get involved please find Swarm City on Slack at https://swarm-slack-invite.herokuapp.com. Yes, that address is a pain in the ass, so you can also get to it by going to thelavaflow.com/swarmcity.