Articles tagged as

Freedom

” ‘Is this still America?’ he asked him. ” But that is not the proper question

Grokster Scott had that quote from Congressman Kevin Brady at the IRS hearings:

“Texas Republican congressman Kevin Brady had the harshest criticism for Miller.

‘Is this still America?’ he asked him.

I put up the video of Congressman Mike Kelly voicing a similar tone, albeit different words:

…I am more concerned today than I was before and the fact that you all can do just about anything you want to anybody, you know you can put anybody out of business that you want anytime you want.

You talk about that you are a horribly run organization?  If you’re on the other side of the fence, you are not given that excuse.  When the IRS comes in, you are not allowed to be shoddy, you aren’t allowed to be run horribly, you’re not allowed to make mistakes, you’re not allowed to do one damn thing that doesn’t come in compliance and if you do, you are held responsible right then.”

The proper thought, the proper question is leading from  “Is this still America?” is that we all should be contemplating “is this the America of which we speak of in glowing terms the present, or the one of our past”?  Many on the Left are dumbfounded that the question is actually being asked – their answer is “Look at all the freedoms we have left!” and in comparison to many other countries, we do many more.  But that is not the proper response – the proper response is a more proper question:

“What freedoms have we lost?”

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The answer, obviously if you had been paying attention, is “Yes!” (shades of SB11)

WMURHe keeps asking, so we keep answering.  This week, Pindell finally gives an UP to the TEA Party movement, along with a question:

Tea Party: The decentralized movement got a new reason for being this week with the news the IRS was targeting them. Since they were proven right on this does it mean everyone needs to take Agenda 21 more seriously?

After all, there is a difference between being paranoid (which many have place the TEA Party because of our warning of an incipient Tyrannical Government) and being what our Founders instructed us to do: be vigilant.  The problem is that while many Americans are familiar with Hard Tyranny in other countries (e.g., Soviet Union, Iran, third world countries with Strong Man despots masquerading as Democracies) they’re blinkered when it comes to Tyranny in other forms (i.e., the soft despostism of De Tocqueville moving onward to the medium Tyranny exemplified by Atlas Shrugged; good intentions that morph in to “you WILL do it because we know it is good for you”).

Much has happened with this IRS scandal – and it is becoming clear that the IRS has institutionalized an attitude that “we are above the law”.  Combine that with a Big Bureaucracy, a Public Sector Union mentality, and almost unlimited Power, you have seen an extremely

Sidenote:  YES, finally we see a real use for the word EXTREMISTS!

biased hierarchy willing to stomp on those that are perceived as a threat – not merely as a political one, but as an existential one.  One that has to be stomp on and stomped out.

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TreeHugger has decided to ban me – I guess I ask embarrasing questions

Good thing I have the ‘Grok’ to report on – I’d feel so bad over being banned.  Or, at least I think I’ve been banned – dunno why as I never use four letter words or sexual innuendos when leaving comments there (see, I’m consistent: I follow Rule#1 there just like I enforce it here).  Such a down morning when I went to leave what I thought was a rather innocuous comment on Lloyd Alter’s post named “Just what we needed Dept: The 3D printed gun” and immediately got an alert that my comment would be moderated.  I then left a reply to someone else’s comment and that got moderated.  That was early this morning before work – and neither has appeared.  Now Lloyd actually works there full time (Managing Editor is his full title), so it seems.  It also seems that his post’s title sends the message that, unlike Grokster Tim (here and most of us Groksters would agree it is “wicked pissah good”), he is not all that enamoured with the idea that making the printing of a gun possible is a goodness in democratizing the value of self-defense.

Sigh, my little feelings got hurt (ok, perhaps just “lightly bumped” like a couple of the NASCAR cars yesterday). Hey wait a dang minute, isn’t it part of the the Liberal mantra, their Political Correctness way of life, that someone’s feelings are never to be hurt or even scratched?  I guess I just don’t count; I suppose that the TreeHugger tolerance for conservatives takes on a different slant than for other Progressively blessed identity groups. Remember, Progressivism means you never have to say you’re Consistent. Anyways, back to the post:

Compared to many 3D printed objects, this thing is pretty crude. There is also a reason guns are made out of metal and not ABS plastic; It isn’t very safe, and eventually exploded, although not in Wilson’s hands. But hey, freedom is more important than safety; according to Forbes,

Really, Lloyd?  At least his snideness is Consistent in the wording of the title to this line.  So, I decided to ask him a question about freedom vs safety.

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And you think that the MSM is fair and balanced about gun control? Bah! Cokie Roberts shoots that down.

On This Week with George Stephanopolous, the round table turned to gun control and politics.  Mary Matilan, a long term Republican political operative and strategists, said that she had just done something because of how the Progressives have poisoned the debate on guns.  While she is explaining, listen for the word “Good!”.  Yeah, listen to the nervous laughter over the attempt to cover up this “national TV gaffe”.

Cat out of the bag.

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Notable Quote – Common Core

Common Core is just the secular-humanist-educational equivalent of Shari’a Law, implemented by controlling, secular-humanist, anti-religious socialist, personal-choice-bigots who insist we spend billions more every year because every child learns differently but then can’t seem to see the hypocrisy of wanting every state, county, and School district across the fruited plain to follow a one-size-fits-all nation-wide curriculum, implemented by statist fatwa, advanced through an organized campaign based on guilt and intimidation, … Read more

Government: wanna a dog? Criminal background check and dog class for YOU!

Best comment over at the News Observer:

When are we going to close the dog show loophole? 

Yeah, that pretty much sums it up as yet another politician has decided that “he’s gotta do something” and ends up with a law that says “Subject Citizen, you must again ask for permission to do that”!

Rodney Moore, a Democrat from Mecklenburg County…introduced a bill [House Bill 956] Tuesday that would require anyone taking ownership of the much-maligned dogs [pit bulls] to submit to a criminal background check. The proposal also targets Rottweilers, mastiffs, chows, Perro de Presa Canarios and any “wolf hybrids.”

“I did this for a constituent,” Moore said Thursday. “It was not to vilify a breed. The reason I put background checks in was I didn’t want irresponsible people to use these types of animals illegally.”

So, what was he (and the Republican who was the co-sponsor) ?

  • submit to a criminal background check
  • mandatory enrollment in a four-hour course provided by the Humane Society or another rescue organization approved by the state Department of Insurance to learn “responsible” dog management of these breeds and be “good” owners
  • tell your insurance company “Hey, I have a new Fido” (and accept the rate increase (I assume that word “quietly” is in there somewhere in “signing the check”)
  • your Police Chief “may” issue you a permit to own “Fido”
  • pay for a special state permit

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Tyranny – you WILL save for retirement and yet again, continue the incremental transformation of employers into being part of Government

Once again, a mandate that will cost you whether you like it or not, but Obama has pre-determined “how much you need”.  “From Obama’s 2014 indentured servitude and Budget (here, page 24, emphasis mine) we see the “benevolent hand” of Tyranny Our Betters Our Rulers our Government  with the socialist glove forcing paternalistic nudging yet another behavior simply because they do not approve of current sovereign citizen behavior:

Encourage Retirement Savings with Automatic Individual Retirement Accounts and Support for Small Employers Who Offer Retirement Plans.

About half of American workers have no workplace retirement plan. Yet fewer than 1 out of 10 workers who are eligible to make tax-favored contributions to an Individual Retirement Account (IRA) actually do so, while nearly 9 out of 10 workers automatically enrolled in a 401(k) plan continue to make contributions. The Budget would automatically enroll workers without employer-based retirement plans in IRAs through payroll deposit contributions at their workplace. The contributions would be voluntary—employees would be free to opt out—and matched by the Saver’s Tax Credit for eligible families. Small employers would be eligible for tax credits to defray the administrative costs of setting up these savings plans. The Budget would also double the existing tax credit for small employers that start up new qualifying employer plans.

So, not only must the working contribute to Social Security, we all will be forced contribute even more to our own retirement.

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Have you sworn an Oath to uphold the Constitution? Join us at the “HONOR YOUR OATH RALLY” TODAY!

GSPLPAC Honor Your Oath Rally

HONOR YOUR OATH RALLY

Saturday, April 13, 2013
1:00 to 3:00
At the State House in Concord, NH

Great line-up of speakers: Jack Kimball Chair of the GSPLPAC, conservative talk show host Jeff Chidester; Chief Jon Worrall of the Wounded Warriors; Skip Murphy of GraniteGrok; Laurie Pettingill, former state legislator; Andrew Hemingway, political activist and former Chair of the RLCNH; NH State Reps. Dan Itse, Dan Dumaine, Jane Cormier and Al Baldasaro; and Oathkeeper James Hazard.

Livestream (as possible):


Live broadcast by Ustream

Can’t join us in Concord?  We’ll be livestreaming if possible, recording for later anyways.   Join us to help secure your liberties.  Sponsored by the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC – for additional info click HERE.  RAIN or SHINE! No cancellation or rain date!

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Yo, Mr. VP? How about spitting in their eye? Really, who CARES what they think?

We aren’t them!  Or is this just the normal “I’m a politician and I feel vulnerable if not everyone likes me”?   I read stuff like this:

Vice President Joe Biden gave a heated speech on reducing gun violence this afternoon, lashing out at Republican senators who have vowed to filibuster the gun-control legislation. “It’s almost mind-boggling,” Biden said to law-enforcement officials in Washington, D.C.

He asked the senators to consider how their actions are being viewed by the international community: “In sophisticated capitals and in less-sophisticated capitals, they all reported on Sandy Hook, they all reported on Aurora.” “What do you think is being said today in those capitals about us?” the vice president asked. “Imagine what they’re saying, gentlemen and ladies, in other capitals around the world today.”

and I don’t know whether to scream or cry.  Who cares what they say?  Why is it that our leading politicians give the indication they are ashamed of their country (Obama’s Apology tour and now this)? Filibustering is part of the way that the Senate decided, according to the Constitution, to run itself.  Biden, after decades in the Senate, should know that.  Or staying with the Progressive meme, just another crass attempt at poking holes in the Constitution (I’d say like Swiss Cheese, but the Swiss are all armed)?  Why is it that our leaders wish to lower us (and yes, that is the proper word) to their level in not trusting their citizens (versus the Founders that trusted we Citizens – but not future (current?)  leaders not so much – by enshrining our previously existing Right to defend ourselves and our Free State).

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Still think the Second Amendment DOESN’T exist to protect us from Tyrannical Government?

On a Firefox tab somewhere, I have a couple of posts I wish to comment on this very topic (just can’t seem to find them today) – that America can turn into a Tyrannical Government (especially if Progressives succeed in doing away with the Constitution – the ONLY bulwark we citizens have against an overreaching government.  And within that Constitution is the last resort of Citizens: the Second Amendment.

Think I’m crazy?  Ask someone whose “Democratic government” was overtaken by those that promoted a “safer, more secure” future than the government at the time about  the need for its Citizens to protect themselves – and a Free State:

 Progressives often wish that we forget our history.  They also want to us to be ignorant of the history of other countries where their philosophy has been tried before – and failed.  Yes,

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Guest Post: former Speaker of the NH House, Bill O’Brien on the passing of Margaret Thatcher

Rep. William O’Brien’s Comments on the Passing of Margaret Thatcher

Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minster of Great Britain and the indispensable philosophical, political and international ally of Ronald Reagan, died this morning.

Lady Thatcher was a giant of conservative values and action.  Along with President Reagan, Margaret Thatcher inspired us with her thoughtful and unflinching advocacy of a dynamic, forward-looking conservatism.

In reaction to her death, Rep. William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) was quoted as saying, “Prime Minster Thatcher will be missed.  She was one of the foremost conservative leaders who have come forward in recent years and led change both in Britain and the United States.  Just as the liberal progressives of the Reagan/Thatcher era tried to diminish both of them with arguments that they had to soften their rhetoric and abandon important goals to get elected, so we hear the same claims today.  Thankfully, the Iron Lady and Ronald Reagan knew better that the importance of achieving critical public policy goals outweighed the politics of the moment and we remember both so fondly for their willingness to stand against the tide, let the personal invective wash over them, and make the world a better and freer place.”

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First New Yorkers, and now those in Connecticut

Well, it looks like the Esteemed Leaders in Connecticut have decided that they can no longer trust law-abiding citizens with what are standard capacity magazines for modern sporting rifles (AR-15s):

Connecticut lawmakers announced a deal Monday on what they called some of the toughest gun laws in the country that were proposed after the December mass shooting in the state, including a ban on new high-capacity ammunition magazines like the ones used in the massacre that left 20 children and six educators dead.

The proposal also called for background checks for private gun sales and a new registry for existing magazines that carry 10 or more bullets, something of a compromise for parents of Newtown victims who had wanted an outright ban on them, while legislators had proposed grandfathering them into the law.

The package also creates what lawmakers said is the nation’s first statewide dangerous weapon offender registry, immediate universal background checks for all firearms sales and expansion of Connecticut’s assault weapons ban.

PMagReally, and how many gun owners are going to come in to register their magazines? How is law enforcement supposed to know how many mags someone really has? Are you, Connecticut politicians,  going to be like that Politician in Washington State that would have a Sheriff come and inspect gun owners’ homes unannounced and without warrants to ensure compliance with this infringement (“er, just here to see if you are storing your guns safely – because we don’t trust you to do it right”)?

How far this country has fallen when those that govern us:

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Freedom depends on who gets to choose and make the decisions

How Liberals Define Choice

The abridged definition of “Freedom” is how many choices one can make, unforced and unfettered.  I get to make the choice – not you and not Government.  When you and Government starting making those decisions for me, that by definition, is less Freedom.

The Bill of Rights, the first 10 Amendments to the Constitution, was written solely because it was felt at the beginning of our Constitutional Republic, that the innate Liberties and Freedoms that were assumed to part and parcel of the Constitution of a limited Government needed to be specifically enumerated to PREVENT an attempt down the line for Government to override them.

And now we see this happening, as the Obama Administration is working overtime to rewrite the the meaning of the First Amendment containing our first and most important Right – that of the free expression of religion (vs Obama’s “freedom to worship within a set of 4 walls”).  Rooted deeply with that free expression is the Right not to be forced to violate that – and in this case, the Right to not be involved in the killing of the unborn.  But Obama believes that there is an unwritten and unemumerated Right to Government to tell people “this is the way you will think – and it will be what we tell you to think and to behave”.

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Facebook Doodlings – in which I may have called out Lloyd over at TreeHugger

Well, I do go over to TH from time to time, and even leave comments.  Well, there was a post by Lloyd (“90 by 50 plan could reduce New York City’s emissions by 90% by 2050“), someone that doesn’t always take kindly to Conservative or Libertarians assaulting what seems to be an Environmental Communitarian mantra.  The Urban Green Council wants to make it mandatory that buildings meet their standard of reducing their carbon footprint by 90% by 2050.  This will absolutely require massive expenditures by private owners – probably enough to bankrupt more than a small percentage.  And knowing how this works, they will use Government to make it happen.

Private Property?

So, I could not help myself – I left a comment for the author, Lloyd:

” there is no need for floor-to-ceiling glass” – Ah yes, THE phrase that marks a Liberal. We so declare that in our eyes, you should not want to “need” it, so we’ll pull a Bloomberg and just regulate it out of existence.

If you are looking for a firm foundation, when you see such a phrase, ask yourself: Since when did someone’s Freedom become limited by someone else’s selfish sense of “it has to be needed first”?

Freedom should always. just. be.  “Need” need not apply when talking about Freedom.  Thus, I was surprised, he actually responded – but the nuance did not surprise:

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Notable Quote: Lord Acton on Rights of Man and America

Europe seemed incapable of becoming the home of free States. It was from America that the plain ideas that men ought to mind their own business, and that the nation is responsible to Heaven for the acts of State–ideas long locked in the breast of solitary thinkers, and hidden from Latin folios–burst forth like a … Read more

Biden:”If it only saves one life!” — Oh wait!

When Government is going to do something, and that something has a drastic impact on a lot of citizens lives and freedoms, isn’t there a moral obligation on the part of those making the decisions to ensure that those actions would actually accomplish a purpose (rather than being just for show – substance over surface)? … Read more

Internet Doodlings – Tree Hugger commenter Bussdriver87 wants a Peoples Government or something…

Well, I have been absent from Tree Hugger (the Greenie Communitarian with Fascist leanings site) for a while so I figured it was time to pay a visit.

SideNote: due to the Great Diaspora / Banning by TH of those willing to challenge their “Green Come First” religion, it has been OUR great benefit that “C.dog e. doG” and “Cris P. Bacon” have become tremendous commenters here – again, thanks guys!

At “Should We All Be Working a Four Day Week“, an architect decided to put her firm on a “5 days work in 4 days” schedule.  Great!  If she’s the owner and wants to do that, she should have the Right to do so (as long as no laws are abrogated).  They also had a poll asking what folks thought  about a 4 day work week (e.g., yes, no, other).  I left the following for the original downer premise (emphasis mine):

We are working’ 5 days in 4’ week because how we live as individuals has consequences for everyone else. The way we live now has created many problems: scarcity of resources, scarcity of jobs, climate change, wealth discrepancies and many wasted lives. These are all escalating problems which are not being addressed by the institutions of power: Governments, Banks, the Multinationals have too many vested interests in the current system to be the agents of change.

for the architect:

Why should it be up to OTHER entities (“Governments, Banks, the Multinationals have too many vested interests in the current system to be the agents of change”) to make such a decision for YOUR company?

You made it for your’s – good for you. If employees like it they will stay; the converse if they do not. Push the decision making down to the lowest granular level – if you can make and win the argument, congratulations! To have those “Power Entities” make the decisions for others is summed up in one word: “tyranny”.

Blaming it on others or other entities is a cop out – especially when one has made the right decisions and done the hard work to be in a place where they are able to make such a decision.  I figure that some might not like the longer days but some might really like always having 3 day weekend but one didn’t (emphasis mine):

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