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Anti Federalist
07-03-2016, 10:53 AM
I would add that most of the tyranny we suffer under was never voted on.

It was "regulation" written with the force of law.



Fourth Note

http://ericpetersautos.com/2016/07/02/fourth-note/

by eric • July 2, 2016

The Fourth of July has become like Christmas – a kind of ersatz celebration with forms but not much significance.

What is it we’re celebrating, exactly?

A historical event – the successful separation of the colonies from the British empire.

The secession of the colonies. Their rejection of the arbitrary authority of the British king and parliament.

Good for the colonists.

What about us?

Do we not also live under the authority of arbitrary government? A president and Congress?

An endless conga line of bureaucrats and apparatchiks?

Sometimes, we get to vote for some of them. Our vote made effectively meaningless by the thousands – the hundreds of thousands and tens of millions of other votes.

The king or parliament would issue an edict and the colonists were legally required to obey it. Are we not legally required to obey whatever edicts the Congress pass and president decrees?

Can anyone explain the difference?

Moral law no longer governs. Only the law. And that can be anything. There are no limits whatsoever on what may be done to us; only that a law be enacted (and not even that).

We are bound to obey, regardless.

The king’s men could simply take our things, search our persons on whim. The colonists objected to such treatment and cited such treatment among the reasons for their decision to secede.

Is it not a fact that the government’s men (and women) can simply take our things? Search us on whim? Have you traveled recently?

Can anyone explain the difference?

The colonists under the king and parliament could own property. Meaning really own it. They were not required to send annual/regular payments in to the king in order to be permitted to remain in homes for which they’d paid or carriages they’d purchased.

We are.

The colonists – under the king and parliament – had an unquestioned right to own and bear (carry on their persons) firearms. Without permission.

Are we allowed such freedom?

The king and parliament did not concern themselves with the colonists’ “safety.” If a colonists wished, he could ride his horse as fast as he liked, eat what he liked, smoke what he liked. No authority pestered him about his choices. He was not told with whom he must do business, or forced to build his house a certain way or forbidden from planting a vegetable garden on his property. He was not compelled to purchase insurance of any kind whatsoever.

How about today?

In most parts of the Land of the Free, you and I are not even free to purchase fireworks to celebrate our supposed freedom. We’re allowed “safe” sparklers and such. But nothing that flies or explodes. To possess or use such constitutes a crime in most states.

The irony of this is lost on most people.

So, celebrating our freedoms strikes me as hollow and pathetic. Like holiday greetings instead of merry Christmas!

I plan to stay home and read a book.

TNforPaul45
07-03-2016, 12:20 PM
Washington Post believes that the people are too stupid to be allowed important decisions about the laws and structures that govern them, and that they should only be allowed to vote for the smart people who know better:

ht tps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/27/brexit-is-a-reminder-some-things-just-shouldnt-be-decided-by-the-people/?tid=sm_fb

So all is well AF! They have given us a freedom from freedom. It's blissful over here!

Anti Federalist
07-03-2016, 12:31 PM
Washington Post believes that the people are too stupid to be allowed important decisions about the laws and structures that govern them, and that they should only be allowed to vote for the smart people who know better:

ht tps://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/06/27/brexit-is-a-reminder-some-things-just-shouldnt-be-decided-by-the-people/?tid=sm_fb

So all is well AF! They have given us a freedom from freedom. It's blissful over here!

Gotta love the closet authoritarians, they love "democracy" except when they don't.

240 years ago we rose up and shot the people who claimed the same thing, over a level of tyranny one tenth of what we suffer under now.

And here we sit, about to engage in a national orgasm of patriotism, while under a level of surveillance and police presence greater than East Germany.

And nobody will do a fucking thing about it.

Because we are one tenth of the men they were.

TNforPaul45
07-03-2016, 12:51 PM
Gotta love the closet authoritarians, they love "democracy" except when they don't.
240 years ago we rose up and shot the people who claimed the same thing, over a level of tyranny one tenth of what we suffer under now.
And here we sit, about to engage in a national orgasm of patriotism, while under a level of surveillance and police presence greater than East Germany.
And nobody will do a $#@!ing thing about it.
Because we are one tenth of the men they were.

AF it is a problem that I am sure we have all given great thought to: "Why are things the way they are?" There's no easy, central answer that explains it all:
- The conduction and results of the U.S. Civil War have something to do with it.
- The money interests in Europe have something to do with it.
- The Theocratic fever (usage of the state to enforce moral tenets) in the 1920's - 30's have something to do with it.
- The paradox of increasing information and decreasing IQ's have something to do with it.
- The War on Terror has something to do with it.
- The financial dollar leveraging and debt-insanity since the 70's have something to do with it.
- A coterie of progressive statists who strive for an ideal, unattainable socialist utopia, who disregard the consequences as long as the ends are met, and who take advantage of all the above negatives to achieve their ends, have something to do with it.

I could go on an on. I could write books about each bullet point, and indeed some books have been written. I still hold hope like Jefferson in the ability of the American people to right themselves, even suddenly. The Election of 1800 was shocking to everyone because the Federalists were spreading out like a plague, with court appointees, winning elections, Hamilton was increasing financial powers of mercantilist groups. Then things righted themselves and the Federalist Ilk didnt win another election until John Quincy Adams.

This recent Trump-wave only feels like that sort of correction. It is not a step in the right direction, but it is a demonstration of how, suddenly, an idea of frustration can spread through people. Unfortunately its a very partisan correction, and not one in a desired direction. On the left, people are leaving comments on NYT's articles where they say "Our dear Obama. . . "

We still have a lot of work to do.

But you know all this :)

Danke
07-03-2016, 01:10 PM
Government “Authorized” Ways to Celebrate Your Freedoms this 4th of July


http://targetfreedom.com/cfr/government-authorized-ways-to-celebrate-your-freedoms-this-4th-of-july-3/

Ronin Truth
07-03-2016, 01:50 PM
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude (pdf) (https://mises.org/system/tdf/Politics%20of%20Obedience.pdf?file=1&type=document)

DamianTV
07-03-2016, 04:33 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhCOPh48ew

heavenlyboy34
07-03-2016, 04:44 PM
Actually, Engllish Common Law was a far better deterrent against arbitrary tyranny. That's why the CONstitutionalists scrapped it. (and still try to squelsh what remains of it) :P

A Son of Liberty
07-03-2016, 05:17 PM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyhCOPh48ew

Anecdotal, obviously. But there's no doubt it's generally representative of the population.

I personally don't care that these folks can't recite names and dates of the US state lineage. It's really just an indictment of it's "public" education system, more than anything.