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We are at war in America. The Second Revolution is under way. Fortunately our Founders provided us a way to have a bloodless war in America, a political war. The latest Washington fiasco called the Debt Ceiling Crisis is the first major skirmish in this war. The Obama health care debate leading to the rise of the T.E.A party (taxed enough already) was the shot heard round the world for this revolution. Now the two sides have shored up the troops, picked their hills to defend and are prepared for an all-out assault on the enemy. For liberals the enemy is the working American who actually pays taxes, the entrepreneur who actually creates jobs and the U.S. Constitution. For conservatives the enemy is Marxist politicians who want centralized socialist government to replace our constitutional republic and all of the useful idiots who support them. In the first revolution the beginning major battles were lost by the Patriots, but with General George Washington’s patient leadership they were able to fight a war of skirmishes, retreats and attacks until the British were worn, over-extended and defeated. We will not have the luxury of a drawn out conflict, nor do we have leaders such as those we had at our founding. This war may very well turn on this battle and the next; the 2012 elections. Even victory now and in the next election will not end the war, however. In many cases the bigger threat is from complacency upon victory allowing Republicans to return to their duplicitous nature of preaching conservatism while propping up unconstitutional programs, colluding with lobbyist, increasing spending infinitely and compromising principles for political purposes. Congress must return to Constitutional principles. They will probably have to be forced to by the several states and the People. The courts must return to the original intent of the Constitution and stop manipulating the actual words to fit a contemporary template of perceived repression. The power of Congress to impeach wayward Justices must be dutifully engaged. The People must understand they have the right to pursue happiness, not a federal government guarantee of such. Unconstitutional programs such as Social Security and Medicare must be taken off of the federal budget and stand on their own. If the People want these programs they must pay for them totally. Any increase in benefits must immediately result in increased deductions from paychecks. Incompetent, immoral and unethical government employees must be summarily fired. All government employee unions must be dissolved. If you don’t like it go to work in the private sector. Entire departments of government such as the Department of Education and the Department of Energy and the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Labor must be abolished. Congress must embark on a twenty year plan to repeal laws rather than write new ones. Current laws that are constitutional and necessary must be enforced vigorously. No new laws are needed at this point. A twenty year moratorium on new laws coupled with a twenty year process of repealing over-reaching, complicated, unconstitutional and unnecessary laws is required. Tax code must be abolished and replaced with a flat tax with zero deductions for any citizen in the entire nation. If you make a dollar you pay the same rate as if you make 10 billion dollars. The rich will still pay more because they make more, duh! I have already shown how the budget can be balanced in one year with a 7% flat tax in a previous blogpost. The Department of Justice must be overhauled and a Constitutional amendment must be passed to change how the Attorney General of the United States is selected. Currently this position is nothing more than a political hack who will protect the President at all costs. Both parties approve the nominations of the other no matter how unqualified they are. Witness AG Ashcroft and AG Holder of recent administrations. These positions must be filled through some type of electoral process. I suggest an election by the 50 governors but even that would be politicized at some point. Whatever the process the President and the party leadership must be completely outside of it. Strict rules must be in place to vigorously prosecute and imprison any AG who skirts his/her duty for political purposes, i.e. Holders refusal to prosecute the Black Panther poll intimidators. America must stop spending the People’s taxes on foreign governments who are not true friends of the American people. Wars must be fought viciously for maximum effect or not fought at all. No American life is worth a temporary political gain. When America’s national interest are at stake we must fight and we must win. Otherwise, we isolate, marginalize and refuse commerce with anyone who works against the interest of international peace and prosperity. Anyone. Including ‘well-meaning’ goodie two shoes without a clue.
These are but a few of the enormous challenges ahead for this nation. We are at war now and the outcome of that war will determine whether this Grand Experiment founded on the idea that Man can govern themselves, that our rights come from our Creator and that no government has the authority to abridge those rights will succeed and continue to bring peace and prosperity to millions of people worldwide; or whether it will fail and the world will be destined for tyranny, oppression, chaos and bloodshed such as has never been witnessed on this earth heretofore. Choose your side wisely my fellow countrymen. May God Bless the United States of America in this, the mother of all battles for Liberty.
nex ut tyrannus!
by: Keith D. Rodebush
July 29, 2011
July 19, 2011
Nix the Fix; Resolve to Solve
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For years now I have, with a timorous mixture of humor and disappointment, watched those on ‘my side’ of the political aisle do Constitutional aerobics on issue after issue. We let problems, easily solved with constitutional diligence, fester for years and years until they run their natural course of destruction on our republic and then with exasperation and complete absence of insight, we invent a ‘fix’. We have in fact become addicted it seems to the elixir of the ‘fix’. What is the fix? It is simply a device to ignore our laziness and ignorance. We take this beautiful machine of a constitutional republic and we add device after device to succor our selfish desires for it to do more than it was intended. What results is a Rube Goldberg government that is inefficient, incompetent, oppressive and disastrously expansive. Why is it so hard for American citizens to simply read the U.S. Constitution and determine whether their representative is respecting the limitations placed on government by that document, and vote accordingly? To go beyond selfishness, ignorance or laziness is impossible for me to infer.
The latest boondoggle fix is the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. This is supposed to cure our politicians’ inept attempts to control themselves when it comes to doling out government largesse in return for votes. Never mind that the government has no business doling out largesse in the first place. Where in the Constitution is the clause that invests the federal government with the power to send checks to citizens? Citizens who have not prepared for ill health, old age or acts of God are an unfortunate drag on society and have to be dealt with in some manner. However, this is not the purview of the federal government. Fellow citizens may of their own good will decide to assist such citizens. People close to the individual cases of the individual citizens are best equipped to determine the worthiness of said effort. By abrogating our duty as citizens to a federal bureaucracy we invite corruption, fraud and waste. It is no wonder that the outcome is eventual bankruptcy both monetarily and morally. So as we find ourselves at the eve of destruction of the greatest nation conceived by Man, we conflate fixing something with solving it, and propose an amendment to make the corrupt, power-hungry and dishonorable politician, prudent, honorable and decent again. Does anyone in the real world of common sense believe that politicians who have taken this nation to brink of civil war for their own personal power and accommodation are not going to find ways around a ‘balanced budget’ in order to appease the voters appetite for other people’s money? The problem is not the politicians. The problem is the people who would trade dignity for dollars and are perfectly willing to re-elect corrupt politicians who disregard the U.S. Constitution they swear to uphold. Our politicians are a reflection in the mirror. The problem: unconstitutional government redistributing prosperity. The fix: a Balanced Budget Amendment. The solution: government within the confines of the Constitution, personal responsibility, education, virtue, principled voting. Can you not see the futility of amending the Constitution to fix our disregard for the Constitution?
Another perennial fix is the term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In order to save us from our inability to stop voting for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans willing to sacrifice this nation’s solvency for their own power and financial gain, let us amend the Constitution to say we cannot vote for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans more than three times. There. That should do it, No?!? Here’s an idea; don’t vote for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans. Jus’ sayin’. The Founding Fathers warned us in very lucid terms that all Men are corruptible, that government by its very nature will devolve into despotism, that therefore we must be vigilant, educated and virtuous in order to be self-governed. If we cannot be so we deserve not the Liberty given us by our Creator, but the chains of slavery.
A contemporary fix is the amendment to the Constitution to describe what marriage means. How impossibly idiotic is this notion? The Constitution, the most revered document known to Man to espouse the relationship between the government and the People who loan it the power to protect our Lives, Liberty and Property, is relegated to a dictionary for the purpose of reminding a wayward generation of their millennial religious history! Marriage is a bond mutually agreed upon, blessed by God for the purpose of tranquil societal relationships in order to raise safe and well adjusted children. Five thousand years ago when the Jewish people were roaming the desert, we had marriage. Long before any government bureaucrat inserted themselves into the equation. The government has no business whatsoever involving itself in this traditional religious custom. Churches have religious freedom in America. If a church decides it wants to reject God’s admonition against homosexuality, then it should be allowed to marry whomever they want. It is then for the community and the congregation to decide if they want to support or protest that church. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech will prevail. The government’s only role is in providing security for the rights of its citizens to engage in these freedoms. In the end, it will be God who decides the sinners and saints. As for equality, what right does a hospital have to tell a patient that someone he/she cares for cannot visit them? That is the patients right to determine, not some hospital administrator. What right does an insurance company have in telling someone who the recipient of their insurance policy should be? What possible difference should it make to a company whether they pay patient A or patient B? Again, if the government would get out of the way with the exception of protecting our rights this problem would solve itself through societal negotiation. We propose an amendment to the Constitution to alleviate the problems associated with the governments unconstitutional intrusion into the People’s lives and communities.
My friends I challenge you to think beyond the empirical characteristics of any problem. Think in terms of the role of the People as opposed to the role of government. Think not of how to change the Constitution but think instead of how to honor the Constitution. Nix the fixes; resolve to solve our problems with a finality that protects the Liberty of future generations. I respectfully submit to you here that in every case; The Solution is the Constitution.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
For years now I have, with a timorous mixture of humor and disappointment, watched those on ‘my side’ of the political aisle do Constitutional aerobics on issue after issue. We let problems, easily solved with constitutional diligence, fester for years and years until they run their natural course of destruction on our republic and then with exasperation and complete absence of insight, we invent a ‘fix’. We have in fact become addicted it seems to the elixir of the ‘fix’. What is the fix? It is simply a device to ignore our laziness and ignorance. We take this beautiful machine of a constitutional republic and we add device after device to succor our selfish desires for it to do more than it was intended. What results is a Rube Goldberg government that is inefficient, incompetent, oppressive and disastrously expansive. Why is it so hard for American citizens to simply read the U.S. Constitution and determine whether their representative is respecting the limitations placed on government by that document, and vote accordingly? To go beyond selfishness, ignorance or laziness is impossible for me to infer.
The latest boondoggle fix is the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution. This is supposed to cure our politicians’ inept attempts to control themselves when it comes to doling out government largesse in return for votes. Never mind that the government has no business doling out largesse in the first place. Where in the Constitution is the clause that invests the federal government with the power to send checks to citizens? Citizens who have not prepared for ill health, old age or acts of God are an unfortunate drag on society and have to be dealt with in some manner. However, this is not the purview of the federal government. Fellow citizens may of their own good will decide to assist such citizens. People close to the individual cases of the individual citizens are best equipped to determine the worthiness of said effort. By abrogating our duty as citizens to a federal bureaucracy we invite corruption, fraud and waste. It is no wonder that the outcome is eventual bankruptcy both monetarily and morally. So as we find ourselves at the eve of destruction of the greatest nation conceived by Man, we conflate fixing something with solving it, and propose an amendment to make the corrupt, power-hungry and dishonorable politician, prudent, honorable and decent again. Does anyone in the real world of common sense believe that politicians who have taken this nation to brink of civil war for their own personal power and accommodation are not going to find ways around a ‘balanced budget’ in order to appease the voters appetite for other people’s money? The problem is not the politicians. The problem is the people who would trade dignity for dollars and are perfectly willing to re-elect corrupt politicians who disregard the U.S. Constitution they swear to uphold. Our politicians are a reflection in the mirror. The problem: unconstitutional government redistributing prosperity. The fix: a Balanced Budget Amendment. The solution: government within the confines of the Constitution, personal responsibility, education, virtue, principled voting. Can you not see the futility of amending the Constitution to fix our disregard for the Constitution?
Another perennial fix is the term limits amendment to the U.S. Constitution. In order to save us from our inability to stop voting for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans willing to sacrifice this nation’s solvency for their own power and financial gain, let us amend the Constitution to say we cannot vote for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans more than three times. There. That should do it, No?!? Here’s an idea; don’t vote for corrupt, inept and unpatriotic Americans. Jus’ sayin’. The Founding Fathers warned us in very lucid terms that all Men are corruptible, that government by its very nature will devolve into despotism, that therefore we must be vigilant, educated and virtuous in order to be self-governed. If we cannot be so we deserve not the Liberty given us by our Creator, but the chains of slavery.
A contemporary fix is the amendment to the Constitution to describe what marriage means. How impossibly idiotic is this notion? The Constitution, the most revered document known to Man to espouse the relationship between the government and the People who loan it the power to protect our Lives, Liberty and Property, is relegated to a dictionary for the purpose of reminding a wayward generation of their millennial religious history! Marriage is a bond mutually agreed upon, blessed by God for the purpose of tranquil societal relationships in order to raise safe and well adjusted children. Five thousand years ago when the Jewish people were roaming the desert, we had marriage. Long before any government bureaucrat inserted themselves into the equation. The government has no business whatsoever involving itself in this traditional religious custom. Churches have religious freedom in America. If a church decides it wants to reject God’s admonition against homosexuality, then it should be allowed to marry whomever they want. It is then for the community and the congregation to decide if they want to support or protest that church. Freedom of religion and freedom of speech will prevail. The government’s only role is in providing security for the rights of its citizens to engage in these freedoms. In the end, it will be God who decides the sinners and saints. As for equality, what right does a hospital have to tell a patient that someone he/she cares for cannot visit them? That is the patients right to determine, not some hospital administrator. What right does an insurance company have in telling someone who the recipient of their insurance policy should be? What possible difference should it make to a company whether they pay patient A or patient B? Again, if the government would get out of the way with the exception of protecting our rights this problem would solve itself through societal negotiation. We propose an amendment to the Constitution to alleviate the problems associated with the governments unconstitutional intrusion into the People’s lives and communities.
My friends I challenge you to think beyond the empirical characteristics of any problem. Think in terms of the role of the People as opposed to the role of government. Think not of how to change the Constitution but think instead of how to honor the Constitution. Nix the fixes; resolve to solve our problems with a finality that protects the Liberty of future generations. I respectfully submit to you here that in every case; The Solution is the Constitution.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
July 13, 2011
What Have I Lost?
***********************************
I have been meaning to write this article for some time so let’s get this thing rolling. A while back I was reading an article and the comments section. Someone asked the question, “Oh, C’mon! What liberty have you lost? Tell me one freedom that you have lost?” Most of us were taken aback. How could someone be so blind as to not see the restrictive nature of our government? At first we ignored it as just another ‘useful idiot’ who was marching into the ovens. After some reflection, however, I determined that it may be useful to point out specifically how tyrannical this government has become. Americans after all are very busy making a living, raising their children and have a tendency towards naiveté when it comes to our government. Therefore I will attempt here to highlight some of the more egregious ways in which we are subjugated by our unconstitutional government.
Education: Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution is the word education mentioned. Certainly, there is no enumerated power to allow the federal government to fund, regulate or otherwise involve itself in education. Of course that never stops them does it? Think about that for a moment. That in and of itself should give you pause. The onus for government intervention is and always has been racial equality. Certainly, in the past people were discriminated against in education. This despicable truth notwithstanding, the federal government in the part of the Executive and Legislative branches has no immediate role. The Judicial branch indeed does have a role and a very important one. The Constitution assures equality to all citizens. If a portion of our population is not allowed unfettered access to the educational system they can sue for relief. If the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) refuses to provide that relief then the Justices who vote for inequality can be impeached. You may wonder why this has never happened. The answer as usual is simple though troubling; politics. Politicians are loathe to reprimand their enemies for unconstitutional performance because it would tie them to constitutional performance. In other words, they all want to govern unconstitutionally, only in different circumstances. The facts are indisputable. Minority Americans suffer much more greatly from government interference into education. Once again the stated beneficiary of government interference is indeed it's worst victim.
Here is how our government is supposed to work. Each branch keeps the other in check with the Constitution being what they rely on to do so. Now we don’t have time to go into all of the freedoms lost from federal intervention into education. If you have a pulse, you are aware of the abysmal failure of the Department of Education. However, for our purposes here consider; you cannot send your child to the school of your choice, even though you pay for it. If you want a religious component to your childs education you cannot do so in public education. If you send your child to a private school you pay for it, but the government will not refund your public school money. The impact on your child’s life can be catastrophic depending on your location and financial status. Your child may be taught sex, abortion, homosexuality and socialism whether you like it or not. This is indoctrination. This is soft tyranny. It is morally, ethically and philosophically wrong, and yet it is the norm in today’s America.
Freedom of Speech and Religion: Now surely we are secure in our right of free speech. I mean after all it is specifically protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. To be fair for the most part we indeed have this right. But is it completely protected? If you want to know if we are secure in this right just ask a conservative commentator who wants to give a speech at Columbia University. Try protesting when a president comes to visit in your town, particularly a liberal president. Political speech was specifically what the Founders had in mind and yet it is extremely controlled at large political events. Look up all the regulations on protesting in front of an abortion clinic. Do those restrictions apply when crazy Christian pretenders protest at a soldier’s funeral? Why no there seems to be a double standard. This of course will always be the problem when you start putting restrictions on a fundamental right.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…” This clause of the First Amendment guarantees the free expression of religion. So go try to exercise this freedom in school. We live in an era where a religion, Islam has as one of its main tenants the killing of infidels and forced conversion and yet in America today it’s easier by far to criticize Christians than to criticize Islam. Cartoonists are forced to abstain from ridiculing Mohammed while complete desecration of Jesus Christ is rampant and protected. Football players are forbidden in some cases from praying for the safety of their participants. While these examples may seem mild to you understand; once the government is allowed to stifle religious expression it will only get worse, never better.
Guns: Regardless of the fact that the SCOTUS recently upheld a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms individually for self-defense, there are places all over this country where you are not allowed to bear arms. Rules and regulations regarding this fundamental American right are becoming ever more restrictive and oppressive. The federal government is developing databases on who owns arms and where they are located. A recent backlash against this tyranny in several states is a welcome change to our recent history but much needs to be done especially on the federal level. The federal government has no enumerated power in the Constitution to abridge your right to keep and bear arms. They have no right to make you register that firearm. Now many of you will say that registering and restricting weapons is a reasonable response to crime. Never forget that security is almost always the pretext to steal your Liberty. Also, once you allow one restriction soon they can tell you what type of weapon, what size, what ammunition, what model, what accessories and on and on and on. Government oppression always grows. The end result can be nothing other than the eventual rescinding of the right altogether; it’s only a matter of time.
Property Rights: The Founders wrote extensively on the importance of property rights to the America system of government. Allowing citizens to own and prosper from the use of property was a keystone to the economic future of America. It would take an entire book to go into detail on the plethora of ways the government has infringed on this basic foundational principle. In modern America, the government can tell you what to do with your property, what you can build, how it can look, what color it will be, what type of roof it will have, how many trees you can cut, which trees you are forbidden to cut etc. The taxes on property in many places are so oppressive that you never really own it at all. Death taxes applied to property allow the government to tax again what has already been taxed. The governments appetite for money is voracious and nowhere more obvious than on property. Everything you own has been taxed several times over, from the material purchase to build it to the labor to assemble it. The SCOTUS has now even allowed the confiscation of private property for private development by others in the name of financial gain in the public interest namely redevelopment and taxes (Kelo decision). As a side note the developer in the Kelo controversy was never able to gain the financing needed. The development never took place. The final cost to the city to confiscate and bulldoze the previously privately owned property was $78 million. As of this writing the property is an empty lot generating zero taxes while the taxpayers foot the $78 million dollar bill. This is the result of government interference into free market enterprise.
We are also supposed to be protected in our person and our possessions but a brief look at the Patriot Act shows that to be lost as well. The government can sneak into your house, snoop around and plant bugs, all without probable cause or a warrant. The government can listen to your phone conversation and read your email without probable cause or a warrant. The government can grope the private parts of your 8 year old daughter or your 80 year old grandmother without probable cause or a warrant. Again all in the name of security yet a Muslim man paying for a plane ticket with cash, no luggage and known to recently have visited Pakistan and Yemen is ignored so as not to offend Muslims. It's okay to offend God-fearing law abiding Americans, but we can't offend potential terrorists.
Commerce: The right to engage in free commerce is another cornerstone of American Liberty. Allowing citizens to interact in a business environment free of the chains of government corruption is the driving force behind the prosperity that this nation has enjoyed. In the last 100 years there has unfortunately been an unholy alliance between business and government. This has resulted in the government becoming an all powerful entity which by manipulation of regulation and tax code can determine winners and losers in the market. Corporations become larger and richer while small businesses are saddled with endless regulation and tax making business almost impossible. The result is seen plainly in the crash of the economy in the Fall of 2008. All economies have bubbles but government intervention makes them deeper, more frequent and harder to climb out of. At each incident the government writes more regulations seizing an ever tightening grip on business. The result is large corporations developing intimate relationships with politicians and assisting in the writing of these regulations which ultimately helps those in the loop and stifles competition. Again present circumstances show clearly how this corruption destroys a free market. Government does not create wealth, it destroys it. They've done quite a job on us lately. Talk to anyone who has attempted to open a new business in the last twenty years and you'll get an earful about how government impedes business instead of assisting it. Even the right to work is abridged by government and unions colluding to control business. Witness the latest NLRB decision to deny Boeing the right to open a business in South Carolina. Who the hell do they think they are? Your KING, that's who.
Life: Of the unalienable rights delineated in the Declaration of Independence the very first one is the right to life. Do you have the right to life in America today? Ask the millions and millions of aborted babies. It’s a little hard to exercise your other rights when you don’t even get the first and foremost right, the right to live. There is no other example more appropriate for what happens when government becomes too powerful than this. Government kills its’ own citizens under the pretext of protecting privacy. Privacy is more important to government than life itself. This is the very epitome of tyranny. The damage to society for this egregious assault on God’s creations will never be fully known. It’s no wonder a young mother in Florida kills her 2 year old child so she can go party at the bars all night…and gets away with it. Welcome to America void of constitutional restrictions.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
I have been meaning to write this article for some time so let’s get this thing rolling. A while back I was reading an article and the comments section. Someone asked the question, “Oh, C’mon! What liberty have you lost? Tell me one freedom that you have lost?” Most of us were taken aback. How could someone be so blind as to not see the restrictive nature of our government? At first we ignored it as just another ‘useful idiot’ who was marching into the ovens. After some reflection, however, I determined that it may be useful to point out specifically how tyrannical this government has become. Americans after all are very busy making a living, raising their children and have a tendency towards naiveté when it comes to our government. Therefore I will attempt here to highlight some of the more egregious ways in which we are subjugated by our unconstitutional government.
Education: Nowhere in the U.S. Constitution is the word education mentioned. Certainly, there is no enumerated power to allow the federal government to fund, regulate or otherwise involve itself in education. Of course that never stops them does it? Think about that for a moment. That in and of itself should give you pause. The onus for government intervention is and always has been racial equality. Certainly, in the past people were discriminated against in education. This despicable truth notwithstanding, the federal government in the part of the Executive and Legislative branches has no immediate role. The Judicial branch indeed does have a role and a very important one. The Constitution assures equality to all citizens. If a portion of our population is not allowed unfettered access to the educational system they can sue for relief. If the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) refuses to provide that relief then the Justices who vote for inequality can be impeached. You may wonder why this has never happened. The answer as usual is simple though troubling; politics. Politicians are loathe to reprimand their enemies for unconstitutional performance because it would tie them to constitutional performance. In other words, they all want to govern unconstitutionally, only in different circumstances. The facts are indisputable. Minority Americans suffer much more greatly from government interference into education. Once again the stated beneficiary of government interference is indeed it's worst victim.
Here is how our government is supposed to work. Each branch keeps the other in check with the Constitution being what they rely on to do so. Now we don’t have time to go into all of the freedoms lost from federal intervention into education. If you have a pulse, you are aware of the abysmal failure of the Department of Education. However, for our purposes here consider; you cannot send your child to the school of your choice, even though you pay for it. If you want a religious component to your childs education you cannot do so in public education. If you send your child to a private school you pay for it, but the government will not refund your public school money. The impact on your child’s life can be catastrophic depending on your location and financial status. Your child may be taught sex, abortion, homosexuality and socialism whether you like it or not. This is indoctrination. This is soft tyranny. It is morally, ethically and philosophically wrong, and yet it is the norm in today’s America.
Freedom of Speech and Religion: Now surely we are secure in our right of free speech. I mean after all it is specifically protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. To be fair for the most part we indeed have this right. But is it completely protected? If you want to know if we are secure in this right just ask a conservative commentator who wants to give a speech at Columbia University. Try protesting when a president comes to visit in your town, particularly a liberal president. Political speech was specifically what the Founders had in mind and yet it is extremely controlled at large political events. Look up all the regulations on protesting in front of an abortion clinic. Do those restrictions apply when crazy Christian pretenders protest at a soldier’s funeral? Why no there seems to be a double standard. This of course will always be the problem when you start putting restrictions on a fundamental right.
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;…” This clause of the First Amendment guarantees the free expression of religion. So go try to exercise this freedom in school. We live in an era where a religion, Islam has as one of its main tenants the killing of infidels and forced conversion and yet in America today it’s easier by far to criticize Christians than to criticize Islam. Cartoonists are forced to abstain from ridiculing Mohammed while complete desecration of Jesus Christ is rampant and protected. Football players are forbidden in some cases from praying for the safety of their participants. While these examples may seem mild to you understand; once the government is allowed to stifle religious expression it will only get worse, never better.
Guns: Regardless of the fact that the SCOTUS recently upheld a citizen’s right to keep and bear arms individually for self-defense, there are places all over this country where you are not allowed to bear arms. Rules and regulations regarding this fundamental American right are becoming ever more restrictive and oppressive. The federal government is developing databases on who owns arms and where they are located. A recent backlash against this tyranny in several states is a welcome change to our recent history but much needs to be done especially on the federal level. The federal government has no enumerated power in the Constitution to abridge your right to keep and bear arms. They have no right to make you register that firearm. Now many of you will say that registering and restricting weapons is a reasonable response to crime. Never forget that security is almost always the pretext to steal your Liberty. Also, once you allow one restriction soon they can tell you what type of weapon, what size, what ammunition, what model, what accessories and on and on and on. Government oppression always grows. The end result can be nothing other than the eventual rescinding of the right altogether; it’s only a matter of time.
Property Rights: The Founders wrote extensively on the importance of property rights to the America system of government. Allowing citizens to own and prosper from the use of property was a keystone to the economic future of America. It would take an entire book to go into detail on the plethora of ways the government has infringed on this basic foundational principle. In modern America, the government can tell you what to do with your property, what you can build, how it can look, what color it will be, what type of roof it will have, how many trees you can cut, which trees you are forbidden to cut etc. The taxes on property in many places are so oppressive that you never really own it at all. Death taxes applied to property allow the government to tax again what has already been taxed. The governments appetite for money is voracious and nowhere more obvious than on property. Everything you own has been taxed several times over, from the material purchase to build it to the labor to assemble it. The SCOTUS has now even allowed the confiscation of private property for private development by others in the name of financial gain in the public interest namely redevelopment and taxes (Kelo decision). As a side note the developer in the Kelo controversy was never able to gain the financing needed. The development never took place. The final cost to the city to confiscate and bulldoze the previously privately owned property was $78 million. As of this writing the property is an empty lot generating zero taxes while the taxpayers foot the $78 million dollar bill. This is the result of government interference into free market enterprise.
We are also supposed to be protected in our person and our possessions but a brief look at the Patriot Act shows that to be lost as well. The government can sneak into your house, snoop around and plant bugs, all without probable cause or a warrant. The government can listen to your phone conversation and read your email without probable cause or a warrant. The government can grope the private parts of your 8 year old daughter or your 80 year old grandmother without probable cause or a warrant. Again all in the name of security yet a Muslim man paying for a plane ticket with cash, no luggage and known to recently have visited Pakistan and Yemen is ignored so as not to offend Muslims. It's okay to offend God-fearing law abiding Americans, but we can't offend potential terrorists.
Commerce: The right to engage in free commerce is another cornerstone of American Liberty. Allowing citizens to interact in a business environment free of the chains of government corruption is the driving force behind the prosperity that this nation has enjoyed. In the last 100 years there has unfortunately been an unholy alliance between business and government. This has resulted in the government becoming an all powerful entity which by manipulation of regulation and tax code can determine winners and losers in the market. Corporations become larger and richer while small businesses are saddled with endless regulation and tax making business almost impossible. The result is seen plainly in the crash of the economy in the Fall of 2008. All economies have bubbles but government intervention makes them deeper, more frequent and harder to climb out of. At each incident the government writes more regulations seizing an ever tightening grip on business. The result is large corporations developing intimate relationships with politicians and assisting in the writing of these regulations which ultimately helps those in the loop and stifles competition. Again present circumstances show clearly how this corruption destroys a free market. Government does not create wealth, it destroys it. They've done quite a job on us lately. Talk to anyone who has attempted to open a new business in the last twenty years and you'll get an earful about how government impedes business instead of assisting it. Even the right to work is abridged by government and unions colluding to control business. Witness the latest NLRB decision to deny Boeing the right to open a business in South Carolina. Who the hell do they think they are? Your KING, that's who.
Life: Of the unalienable rights delineated in the Declaration of Independence the very first one is the right to life. Do you have the right to life in America today? Ask the millions and millions of aborted babies. It’s a little hard to exercise your other rights when you don’t even get the first and foremost right, the right to live. There is no other example more appropriate for what happens when government becomes too powerful than this. Government kills its’ own citizens under the pretext of protecting privacy. Privacy is more important to government than life itself. This is the very epitome of tyranny. The damage to society for this egregious assault on God’s creations will never be fully known. It’s no wonder a young mother in Florida kills her 2 year old child so she can go party at the bars all night…and gets away with it. Welcome to America void of constitutional restrictions.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
July 2, 2011
Liberty or Comfort?
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This Independence Day weekend is just the time for us all to reflect on what type of future we want for our children. We are at the end of a hundred years of toying with socialism in America and the results are in and they are disastrous. This is not just an indictment of the Democrat party though they have embraced Marxist ideology wholly at this point. The minor intrusions into our republican form of government by all politicians erode our freedoms as well, even more insidiously. When a Republican agrees to an unconstitutional bill to tell business how it must pay it's employees, it undermines any argument against another bill to tell businesses anything else; smoking, vacation days, forced maternity leave, dress, calorie count, saturated fat content, union membership...and on and on and on. Any politician who ever voted for a minimum wage is just as guilty as Barrack Hussein Obama, avowed Marxist, when it comes to undermining the Constitution. All of these intrusions make doing business harder. The economy suffers, unemployment rises, and the people lose prosperity and Liberty. Recently, in Michigan the citizens voted that all people must be treated equally in hiring and college admissions and the Michigan appeals court shot it down because; it's unconstitutional! This is the insanity that ensues when our founding principles are undermined by government. Why shouldn't the court rule that way? Government has interjected itself into every nook and cranny of our lives. The Supreme Court has upheld this expansion of centralized government. How can anyone argue against it? This is what happens when you compromise the Constitution for your purposes. You cannot then tell someone else that they cannot compromise it for their purposes. This is the result of collectivist thinking. Call them liberals, progressives, left, RINO, communist, fascist, Marxist or whatever nom de plume you please and the result is the same; a steady erosion of Liberty and property rights ending in destruction of prosperity and eventually chaos and tyranny in the guise of security. It has happened everywhere it's tried. It has happened throughout history even before Marx articulated the collectivist ideal. Every time that personal freedom and right to property is subverted the masses suffer and eventually turn on the bourgeoisie. This is what is occurring in Europe and beginning to happen here. The only reason class warfare works is that we indeed do have a bourgeoisie in this country. It is the result of the unholy alliance between business and government epitomized by the T.A.R.P. bailout of banks that colluded with government to make home loans that could never be paid back; a stupid financial policy that could not exist in a free market separate from government. Regulation is just a buzz word used by government to interject itself into business. It thereby gains power and expectantly results in rife corruption in the form of Lobbyist and campaign contributions. Lobbyist wouldn't exist if government didn't have extensive regulatory power; unconstitutional power. All of which perpetuates more regulation, more corruption, more debt, more poverty and eventual collapse of the economy. It is as clear as a pane of pure glass. Every media person or politician who argues otherwise is your enemy. They are liars, thieves and tyrants or idiots and deserve nothing but contempt. They destroy that which is good and perpetuate that which is evil. They hurt not just themselves but people the world over who lose faith in America and turn to dictators for security. America's unique place in the world gives it much power and much responsibility. When we work for good, the world is more prosperous and peaceful. When we do not, the world suffers even more greatly than we, as we are already prosperous and they are struggling to be so. Struggling because they have yet to fully embrace freedom and individual responsibility. If you ever again cast a vote for a liberal R or D, you condemn the whole world to suffer more. You condemn your own family to suffer more. You condemn generations yet born to suffer even more.
This nation was founded on the belief that all Men have rights given by God, not Man. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Any intrusion into these rights by Man is evil and immoral. Any citizenry that allows such, abrogates their responsibility to pass this freedom on to their progeny. It is one thing to give up your freedom. It is quite another to give away your child's freedom. It is a crime worse than murder for it steals not just the life of your child, but their children grandchildren great-grandchildren etc. So as you celebrate this Holiday with your family, look them in the eyes and promise them with all your heart that you will work tirelessly to preserve our republican form of government to secure their Liberty. If you can't do that, then at least have the guts to tell them the truth; that you are sacrificing their freedom for your own personal comfort.
Enjoy the freedom you have left this weekend. Revel in the founding of the greatest nation known to Man. Celebrate with luminations and cannon shot the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Then ruminate about these things and what they truly mean. Buttress your spirit and prepare for battle for the forces of evil are indeed here to steal your country. Ignore it at your peril. May God Bless the United States of America.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
This Independence Day weekend is just the time for us all to reflect on what type of future we want for our children. We are at the end of a hundred years of toying with socialism in America and the results are in and they are disastrous. This is not just an indictment of the Democrat party though they have embraced Marxist ideology wholly at this point. The minor intrusions into our republican form of government by all politicians erode our freedoms as well, even more insidiously. When a Republican agrees to an unconstitutional bill to tell business how it must pay it's employees, it undermines any argument against another bill to tell businesses anything else; smoking, vacation days, forced maternity leave, dress, calorie count, saturated fat content, union membership...and on and on and on. Any politician who ever voted for a minimum wage is just as guilty as Barrack Hussein Obama, avowed Marxist, when it comes to undermining the Constitution. All of these intrusions make doing business harder. The economy suffers, unemployment rises, and the people lose prosperity and Liberty. Recently, in Michigan the citizens voted that all people must be treated equally in hiring and college admissions and the Michigan appeals court shot it down because; it's unconstitutional! This is the insanity that ensues when our founding principles are undermined by government. Why shouldn't the court rule that way? Government has interjected itself into every nook and cranny of our lives. The Supreme Court has upheld this expansion of centralized government. How can anyone argue against it? This is what happens when you compromise the Constitution for your purposes. You cannot then tell someone else that they cannot compromise it for their purposes. This is the result of collectivist thinking. Call them liberals, progressives, left, RINO, communist, fascist, Marxist or whatever nom de plume you please and the result is the same; a steady erosion of Liberty and property rights ending in destruction of prosperity and eventually chaos and tyranny in the guise of security. It has happened everywhere it's tried. It has happened throughout history even before Marx articulated the collectivist ideal. Every time that personal freedom and right to property is subverted the masses suffer and eventually turn on the bourgeoisie. This is what is occurring in Europe and beginning to happen here. The only reason class warfare works is that we indeed do have a bourgeoisie in this country. It is the result of the unholy alliance between business and government epitomized by the T.A.R.P. bailout of banks that colluded with government to make home loans that could never be paid back; a stupid financial policy that could not exist in a free market separate from government. Regulation is just a buzz word used by government to interject itself into business. It thereby gains power and expectantly results in rife corruption in the form of Lobbyist and campaign contributions. Lobbyist wouldn't exist if government didn't have extensive regulatory power; unconstitutional power. All of which perpetuates more regulation, more corruption, more debt, more poverty and eventual collapse of the economy. It is as clear as a pane of pure glass. Every media person or politician who argues otherwise is your enemy. They are liars, thieves and tyrants or idiots and deserve nothing but contempt. They destroy that which is good and perpetuate that which is evil. They hurt not just themselves but people the world over who lose faith in America and turn to dictators for security. America's unique place in the world gives it much power and much responsibility. When we work for good, the world is more prosperous and peaceful. When we do not, the world suffers even more greatly than we, as we are already prosperous and they are struggling to be so. Struggling because they have yet to fully embrace freedom and individual responsibility. If you ever again cast a vote for a liberal R or D, you condemn the whole world to suffer more. You condemn your own family to suffer more. You condemn generations yet born to suffer even more.
This nation was founded on the belief that all Men have rights given by God, not Man. Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. Any intrusion into these rights by Man is evil and immoral. Any citizenry that allows such, abrogates their responsibility to pass this freedom on to their progeny. It is one thing to give up your freedom. It is quite another to give away your child's freedom. It is a crime worse than murder for it steals not just the life of your child, but their children grandchildren great-grandchildren etc. So as you celebrate this Holiday with your family, look them in the eyes and promise them with all your heart that you will work tirelessly to preserve our republican form of government to secure their Liberty. If you can't do that, then at least have the guts to tell them the truth; that you are sacrificing their freedom for your own personal comfort.
Enjoy the freedom you have left this weekend. Revel in the founding of the greatest nation known to Man. Celebrate with luminations and cannon shot the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Then ruminate about these things and what they truly mean. Buttress your spirit and prepare for battle for the forces of evil are indeed here to steal your country. Ignore it at your peril. May God Bless the United States of America.
by: Keith D. Rodebush
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