Good job, Tom Corbett: now we know you're the corrupt one

Hat tip to a friend who pointed me to Slashdot, which linked to this story:

Harrisburg, Pa. - The state attorney general's office has issued a subpoena threatening officials of the social networking service Twitter with arrest unless they reveal the names of two bloggers who have been critical of Attorney General Tom Corbett and his public corruption investigation.

The subpoena orders Twitter's custodian of records to provide "any and all subscriber information" pertaining to the accounts "bfbarbie" and "CasablancaPA," including name, address, contact information, creation date, and Internet protocol address.

The accounts have criticized Corbett's use of grand juries, suggesting he used the investigations for political gain and to go after political opponents.

The behavior of miserable bastards like Corbett shouldn't surprise us. Though they cloak themselves in the noble goals of "fighting corruption" and "defending the people," it's no different than one mob crew trying to muscle out another.

What few people understand is that a true monopoly comes only with the blessing of government, which uses force to protect the monopoly from competition. What even fewer understand is that government itself pursues a monopoly -- on violence. Even libertarians talk about "the state" as having "a monopoly on the legitimate use of force," and part of my leaving the libertarian camp was realizing the dangerous implications of that reasoning. So it's only natural that within government, various factions will compete with each other over the ability to wield that force.