The Priests Have Spoken!

"Logic demands that there be a link between the stated purpose and the command. We start therefore with a strong presumption that the Second Amendment right is exercised individually and belongs to all Americans." Chief Justice Antonin Scalia

Amendment II

A well regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed.

It's heartening to see that more than half of the Supreme Court justices believe that the Second Amendment means what it says (that Americans have the right to bear arms, and bear them as individuals). But as usual I have a few alternative angles.

1) The decision came down to 5-4. FOUR justices do NOT believe we have the right to bear arms?! What the @%&*?

2) Whether the Supreme Court "believes" this or not, we Americans have the right to bear arms! I cannot believe that we have degraded our Constitution so much. Judging by today's decision (and others like it for the past 100 years), it's not really what the Constitution says, it what the Supreme Court says. How thou art fallen, O noble nation! (can you say "oligarchy," boys and girls?)

3) What if the court had ruled otherwise? And how can those four justices explain away history and original intent by not agreeing with the Constitution?

4) Why does this come up every several decades, as if the issue has not been settled once and for all? Who would benefit from the slashing of the Second Amendment?

5) Most importantly, and something everyone overlooks-- is that the Second Amendment does not deem us the right to hunt squirrels and fight burglars. It is a RIGHT to protect us from GOVERNMENT usurpation and tyranny! Why is this ignored and scorned? Even those priests (justices) who bestowed on us that luxurious right to have guns, qualified it by saying we "may" have guns for "hunting and self-defense"? Au contraire.

"Americans have the right and advantage of being armed - unlike the citizens of other countries whose governments are afraid to trust the people with arms." James Madison, The Federalist Papers

"The best we can hope for concerning the people at large is that they be properly armed." Alexander Hamilton, The Federalist Papers

"One of the ordinary modes, by which tyrants accomplish their purposes without resistance, is, by disarming the people, and making it an offense to keep arms." Constitutional scholar and Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story

"The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers; and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them." Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

"To disarm the people... was the best and most effectual way to enslave them." George Mason

"The great object is, that every man be armed. [...] Every one who is able may have a gun." Patrick Henry

"And that the said Constitution be never construed to authorize Congress to infringe the just liberty of the press, or the rights of conscience; or to prevent the people of the United States, who are peaceable citizens, from keeping their own arms; or to raise standing armies, unless necessary for the defense of the United States, or of some one or more of them; or to prevent the people from petitioning, in a peaceable and orderly manner, the federal legislature, for a redress of grievances; or to subject the people to unreasonable searches and seizures of their persons, papers or possessions." Samuel Adams

"And, lastly, to vindicate these rights, when actually violated and attacked, the subjects of England are entitled, in the first place, to the regular administration and free course of justice in the courts of law; next to the right of petitioning the king and parliament for redress of grievances; and, lastly, to the right of having and using arms for self preservation and defense." William Blackstone

Shall I go on and on?

Consensual Slavery is Cowardice

I read an excellent and very thought-provoking post at RejectSociety.com. It is so good that I had to repeat it for my readers here.

Is it okay to own another person? Can I buy you?

No. Slavery is wrong.

What if the slave is treated really well, given a life better than they could have on their own?

No. Slavery is wrong. The conditions are inconsequential.

Okay, okay, what if the slave is treated really well, PLUS given half of their time to do whatever they want?

NO! How do you not get this? Slavery is a bad idea!

I willing to go to 60% of their time, that’s over half, AND the slaves will have a better quality of life. Isn’t quality of life important? Wouldn’t you trade a little freedom for security?

NO! NO! “Give me Liberty or Give me Death”

Alright. We’ll make it consensual. You can choose to be enslaved 40% of the time in exchange for a better life.

That wouldn’t be slavery . . .

But if a potential slave doesn’t consent we’ll put them in jail at gunpoint, you’ve got to give me that, it’s a fair compromise.

No, it’s slavery and it is still wrong, if you don’t get this soon than I’m giving up.

Fine, fine, fine. We’ll only take 40% of the slave’s labor, ensure a better life for most of them, AND let the slaves elect representatives to decide how their confiscated labor is spent. Is that okay?

If you can opt out, sure, that’s a voluntary democratic socialism.

Opt out! Are you kidding! You still get thrown in jail if you don’t consent. It is only fair since you still benefit from the labor of the other slaves.

When exactly did I ask to benefit from the labor of slaves?

Oh, we don’t need your consent for that part.

By all means, read the rest of the post.

Perception

"A man is none the less a slave because he is allowed to choose a new master once in a term of years."
-- Lysander Spooner
(1808-1887) Political theorist, activist, abolitionist
Source: The Constitution of No Authority (Boston: 1870)
http://quotes.liberty-tree.ca/quote_blog/Lysander.Spooner.Quote.653F


"We will all be better citizens when voting records of our Congressmen are followed as carefully as scores of pro-football games."
-- Lou Erickson

The Perfect Storm

Ah yes. The government messes up the food supply, the energy industry, the home-mortgage problems, and encourages the speculation bubble for oil. What do they want to do? Control all the refineries in the country!

OUTRAGEOUS!

Cultivation

"Academies that are founded at public expense are instituted not so much to cultivate men's natural abilities as to restrain them." -- Baruch Spinoza

"To be nobody but yourself -- in a world which is doing it's best, night and day, to make you like everybody else -- means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting." -- E. E. Cummings

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit." -- Aristotle

Tolerance

"The peak of tolerance is most readily achieved by those who are not burdened by convictions." -Alexander Chase

Doing It American Style

money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money money

Is this what you want, New York (and other states and cities)? Do you like foreigners owning our buildings, highways, properties, parks? And for what? Because the U.S. government is so defunct and such a slave to the Federal Reserve "bank" (moneylenders) that it's selling out OUR own country under us.

Spain owns the "superhighway" that cuts through the heart of our country; Canada wants to own parts of New York for its power lines; Chinese bankers own a good portion of our national debt; Japanese land speculators own our parks; the list goes on...

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issuance of their currencies, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all their prosperity until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." Thomas Jefferson

I'm no big Jefferson fan, but what he said was correct.

Why Slam Airplanes Into Buildings...

... when you can just buy them cheap?

The Middle East covets American land and buildings. And the Americans are only too willing to sell them off. This time it's the Chrysler Building, that beautiful edifice in Manhattan. Sold for $800 million. Mere pocket change for oil execs.

I'm amazed that Big Business is so readily selling out our manufacturing industry to China and India, selling out our land, roads, and buildings to Canada, Spain, and the Middle Eastern countries, and happily forking over our parks and forests to the United Nations. What the heck is going on in this country?!

Just a Little Information For You Obama Supporters

Now that the Obama orgy has begun, you Obama supporters had better watch what you wish for. This messiah wants to tag you like a cow or a donkey.

Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mel Martinez (R-Fla.) authored a bill (with 11 co-sponsors, including Sen. Barack Obama) that was incorporated into a housing bill passed by the Senate Banking Committee 19-2 before the Memorial Day recess — a bill that creates a national fingerprint registry.

According to a Martinez press release, the language merely “create[s] national licensing and oversight standards for residential mortgage originators.”

One of the standards, John Berlau of the Competitive Enterprise Institute says, may “require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds.”

I'm sure McCain would do the same thing, given enough pressure by his bosses.

Hillaryitis

OK, people, enough with the Hillary posts! Man, am I sick of seeing her ugly mug plastered all over Drudge and every political pundit's blog... so she lost the nomination. Believe me, like the flu, she'll be back.

I only wish she'd retire from my state's senate...

An Excellent Liberty Blogger

I am very impressed with The Foundation Forum blog, by Hercules Mulligan. The blog has not been updated very frequently of late, but the archived posts are food for the hungry soul. I especially enjoyed the very thorough essay, Thoughts on Theocracy and America.

Our government was founded upon the laws of God. Now, this does not mean that our Constitution is a direct enforcement of the Ten Commandments, but rather that in order for the form of government established by the Constitution to be preserved, the Ten Commandments must be respected and observed by the American populous.

...Our Founding Fathers acknowledged their dependence upon this concept in their writings and in their speeches. First of all, they acknowledged the supremacy of God's law over any laws of man, and they recognized the importance of electing genuine Christians to office.

It's a very appropriate post in light of the presidential elections this year. Mulligan supports Ron Paul, as I do, as the only acceptable bearer of virtue, liberty, and an understanding of the purpose and intent of the Constitution.

There are a growing smattering of liberty blogs rising up. I think The Foundation Forum is one to keep your eye on. I only hope the blogger updates more frequently than he has.

I Know What You're Doing This Summer

I heard about this yesterday when I was listening to Kathryn Albrecht discuss it an interview. I don't know why I remain astonished that the government does it; I know they do it- they do this and worse all the time. Perhaps my astonishment stems from their arrogance and shamelessness.

Researchers secretly tracked the locations of 100,000 people outside the United States through their cell phone use and concluded that most people rarely stray more than a few miles from home.

The first-of-its-kind study by Northeastern University raises privacy and ethical questions for its monitoring methods, which would be illegal in the United States.

Well, well. This is all the journalist devotes to those sticky "ethics" issues. Come on, man, give us the dirty details! What's in the data??

It also yielded somewhat surprising results that reveal how little people move around in their daily lives. Nearly three-quarters of those studied mainly stayed within a 20-mile-wide circle for half a year.

The scientists would not disclose where the study was done, only describing the location as an industrialized nation.

..."This is a new step for science," said study co-author Albert-Lazlo Barabasi, director of Northeastern's Center for Complex Network Research. "For the first time we have a chance to really objectively follow certain aspects of human behavior."

When I listened to Albrecht yesterday, she explained that your cell phone can track you while it is on. Turning the phone off will remove the tracking capabilities. Except one: that of the FBI. The FBI has the ability (and we should mention, the will) to remotely turn on your phone to track you even when your phone is off. They can also use your phone as a mini-microphone, listening to your conversations in your surroundings.

Albrecht said to turn your phone off if you don't want the average snooper to track you. But if you want to keep the FBI out of your personal affairs, take out the phone battery. I, however, have an alternative solution to removing your battery (which can be a nuisance): wrap the phone in aluminum foil and place it in a Ziploc bag. Or, if you are like me, you can tuck your phone under your tin-foil hat and hope for the best...

The Juciest News

I've had some time away from my work to peruse the news this weekend. What juicy news!

Let's Boycott Olympics in the U.S. For Human Rights Transgressions
Slimy maneuvers by the U.S. government-- unbelievable.

The United States is operating "floating prisons" to house those arrested in its war on terror, according to human rights lawyers, who claim there has been an attempt to conceal the numbers and whereabouts of detainees.

Parents of Schoolboy Send Secret Tape Recorder to School, Are Shocked
I think every parents should do this! What a marvelous idea! If only you parents knew what was going on inside those classrooms...

What they heard over four hours of tape shocked them. Woodward can be heard telling Gabriel that he had "tortured and tormented" her and other teachers all year.

"I've been more than nice to you all year long and you've been ignorant, selfish, self-absorbed, the whole thing! I'm done!" Woodward says to Gabriel on the tape.

Probably the kid was even a little tyrant who did torment the teachers. But it shows you what great power these schools wield over your children, including, obviously, the power to destroy. In our modern society, the school system has become the surrogate parent for children. I can understand why teachers would go beserk, especially if the parents are abrogating their duty to discipline their child and take responsibility for their education. It's a double-edged sword.


And perhaps you've heard about New York State's "enhanced" drivers' licenses.

Everyone keeps throwing around that word "enhanced," but no one is saying what the blasted things are enhanced with. Rumor has it that it's an RFID chip, fully-loaded and ready to track a New Yorker's whereabouts at the touch of a button. Will New York start taxing us per word we speak, per breath we take, or per mile we walk? I had better be silent, I may be giving them ideas.

Paying Tribute to the Uniquely Aggressive State

For the tremendous honor of New York State citizenry, we must pay tribute to the state. All hail the immortal State of New York! (We who are about to die salute you!)

ALBANY -- Starting Sunday, New Yorkers who make purchases over the Internet from Amazon.com and some other retailers will see an addition to their bills: a charge for state and local sales taxes.

Until now, Amazon and other firms that had no stores or other physical assets in New York weren't required to collect the tax, around 8 percent in most parts of the state.

But as part of this year's budget, the Legislature and Gov. David Paterson changed the requirements so that firms that get business funneled through New York-based Web sites have to pay the tax. The state Tax Department is estimating $50 million will be raised through the change this year.

Another $50 million or so will go to counties and some cities that levy local sales taxes.

The total increase in state and local tax collections is expected to jump to $146 million next year.

"The average person probably won't notice the change,'' said state Tax Department spokesman Tom Bergin. "But some retailers will have to register with us as sales-tax vendors and begin to collect the tax.''

Ah yes, REGISTER with the State. In any other place, this would be called "controlled by the State." Only in New York...

Already, the State demands that it's citizens voluntarily-- out of the goodness of our hearts to such a beneficent and loving State-- "estimate," on our tax returns, how much we have paid for purchases from other states; and we willingly (with much honor and glee) offer our sacrificial tax tribute to the great respectable gods of Albany for bestowing on us the honor of living in New York. What showers of radiant blessings fall upon us for this incrimination of our rights, this transgression of the Interstate Commerce clause of the Constitution. We must truly love and honor our State to do this.

Well, somebody has some backbone. Amazon.com is suing, as is Overstock.com.

"We believe that the law is unconstitutional and a uniquely aggressive approach to tax collection,'' Amazon spokesman Craig Berman said Friday.

I love that phrase, "uniquely aggressive." Sadly, it's a perfect fit for the Imperial State.

I LOVE NY- the Uniquely Aggressive State!

In all seriousness, Amazon.com does not have any NY-based warehouses or commercial centers. The individuals who sell their wares on Amazon.com can be compared to garage-sale vendors. (By the way, NYS wants "estimates" of garage sale earnings, and that's taxed, too).

It made me think about how many stages of taxation a "good" goes through. Think about it. Let's say I buy a CD player. That CD player sits in the shelves in WalMart. I buy it with income that has been taxed (what's left of my income), and I also pay sales tax on the item. I take the CD player home and use it. In order to operate the player, I use batteries (sales tax which is paid for by my taxed income) and a CD (tax + tax). Then I decide to sell it. I sell it at Amazon.com. The person who buys the item pays sales tax on it, with their income which has been taxed. I then take my profit and must pay income tax on what I've made from the sale. Talk about a government Ponzi scheme!

THIS is America? What was that Tea Party about?