Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 10, 2010

Without congressional action of any kind, American taxpayers have been forced to surrender hundreds of billions of dollars to backstop European banks and prop up the EU?s fiat currency, the euro.

On May 9 ? a Sunday ? the Federal Reserve announced ?a program to ship U.S. dollars to Europe in a move to head off a broader financial crisis on the continent.? The so-called ?dollar swap,? which will continue at least until January of next year, will involve undisclosed amounts of money created by the Fed, its value siphoned away from what each of us has earned and saved.

At the same time, U.S. taxpayers are being plundered for at least 17 percent of the roughly $1 trillion being spent by the International Monetary Fund to prop up the euro. he debt contagion that has claimed GreeceT is threatening Spain, Portugal, and other EU members, thereby imperiling the superstate?s fiat currency.

None of this would be happening to us if we were, in any sense, an independent constitutional republic.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 7, 2010

Veteran law enforcement officers are among the most impassioned critics of Arizona?s new immigration law.

The new law authorizes police to demand proof of legal residency during any ?lawful contact? with a member of the public. Phoenix Police Chief Jack Harris believes it will ?divert our officers from investigating property crimes and violent crimes?.? That criticism is echoed by Clarence Dupnik, Sheriff of Arizona?s Pima County.

Defenders of the new law insist that illegal immigration has turned Arizona into an Hobbesian nightmare of violent crime. Phoenix, we are told, is the kidnapping capital of the country. As it happens, immigration ? both legal and illegal ? is declining in Arizona. Violent crime of all kinds is down. This includes kidnapping , which is confined to those involved in narcotics smuggling; in other words, it?s blowback from the ?War on Drugs.?

Several states are preparing to enact Arizona-style identification laws. They would be wise to wait and see if the concerns of Chief Harris and Sheriff Dupnik are vindicated.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 6, 2010

As we?ve recently observed, an unprecedented number of Americans living abroad are being driven to repudiate their U.S. citizenship because of double taxation.

Connecticut Senator Joseph Lieberman has proposed a new measure that would strip U.S. citizenship from any American suspected of association with an organization designated a terrorist group by the State Department.

Involuntary expatriation would be done through an administrative process. It wouldn?t require a criminal conviction, indictment, or even a formal charge. According to Lieberman, it would be necessary only to show an ?association? between a citizen and a designated terrorist group. The State Department could employ secret evidence against the subject, and suppress exculpatory evidence on ?national security? grounds.

The objective is to make it possible to deprive U.S. citizens of due process guarantees and make them subject to trial by military tribunals. Arbitrary, extra-judicial revocation of citizenship is a critical element of a Soviet-style system of institutionalized injustice.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 5, 2010

Which is the greater danger to a seven-year-old child: A father possessing a minuscule amount of marijuana, or a home invasion carried out by marauders packing military-grade firearms?

On February 11, a SWAT team staged a nighttime drug raid on the home of Columbia, Missouri resident Jonathan Whitworth. Their first act was to shoot and kill one family dog; then they killed another in front of Whitworth?s seven-year-old son.

After terrorizing Whitworth?s wife and child, the Stormtroopers found barely enough marijuana to justify a misdemeanor charge against the 25-year-old father. Whitworth was also charged with child endangerment, owing to the fact that the military-style raid mounted by the police to deal with a misdemeanor narcotics charge jeopardized his son.

A video recording captured the Soviet-style raid in all its malignant glory. Hundreds of similar raids take place every day in the United States. Many choose to believe this kind of thing only happens in one of ?those? countries. We are one of ?those? countries.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 4, 2010

During the White House Correspondents Dinner a few years ago, former President Bush narrated a series of photos in which he seemed to be searching for something. The punchline was that he was looking in and around his desk in the Oval Office for the missing Iraqi weapons of mass destruction ? thereby making light of the lies that led to a stupid, useless war that has slaughtered tens of thousands.

Barack Obama actually topped that feat of tastelessness during this year?s dinner by telling a joke about assassinating the singing Jonas Brothers if they displayed improper attention toward his daughters: ?Two words: Predator drones. You?ll never see it coming.?

Hundreds of innocent people have died from drone strikes ordered by Obama, who maintains an actual hit list of U.S. citizens subject to summary execution from above.

Bullies and rulers alike enjoy the privilege of making cruel jokes at their victims? expense. They do so in the serene confidence that underlings and flatterers will laugh heartily, or at least pretend to.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

May 3, 2010

At first glance, the TV ad seems like an Orwellian satire.
Under the narration of a vaguely mechanical female voice, the earth is shown from the perspective of a distantly orbiting surveillance satellite.

?Your name is Tom. You live just off Fifth Street,? recites the voice. ?Nice house, Tom. Nice car. What?s not so nice is that you owe Pennsylvania $4212 in back taxes. ?

As the camera pulls closer to the ground, the narrator urges ?Tom? to pay the assessment by June 18.

?Tom, we know who you are,? concludes the clip as what appears to be a targeting scope focuses on a specific house. The closing title card warns: ?Find us before we find you.?

This isn?t a satire. It is a public service spot produced by the Pennsylvania Department of Revenue, paid for with tax dollars extorted from ?Tom? and millions like him. It is a potent illustration of the tax-consuming class?s unremitting war against the productive ? and the totalitarian means at their disposal.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 30 2010

The Oklahoma House of Representatives has passed a measure criminalizing ?membership in an unauthorized militia or the Ku Klux Klan,? reports The Oklahoman newspaper.

?In Oklahoma, we have seen the damage done by militia fanatics,? declares Democratic state Rep. Mike Shelton, referring to the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing.

Shelton neglected to mention that Timothy McVeigh, the disgruntled former federal employee executed for that crime, was never a member of a private militia. He was, however, a military veteran who learned his lethal skills during the orgy of state terrorism called the first Iraq War.

McVeigh?s un-indicted co-conspirators included several informant/provocateurs on the payroll of various federal agencies. Many of them were attached to a federally protected neo-Nazi gang called the Aryan Republican Army.

If Shelton seriously considers Timothy McVeigh the embodiment of the ?gang? threat, he would have to ban military recruiters from the Sooner State. A better idea would be to stop trying to use legislation to exploit ill-informed fears and score cheap political points.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 29, 2010

Despite all of the difficulties afflicting us, American citizenship remains a cherished blessing. Yet an increasing number of U.S. citizens living abroad are being driven to repudiate their citizenship.

In the last quarter of 2009, 509 Americans renounced their citizenship ? more than double the total number of expatriations that took place in 2008. Time magazine reports that hundreds of additional applications for expatriation have been filed with U.S. embassies around the world.

As Time points out, ?the U.S. is the only industrialized nation that taxes its overseas citizens, subjecting them to taxation in both their country of citizenship and country of residence.?
The Regime?s implacable appetite for revenue has led to imposition of draconian and invasive financial reporting requirements regarding assets deposited by U.S. citizens in foreign banks. Washington also demands that foreign banks enforce its rules when handling the assets of Americans living abroad.

The fact that so many are willing to surrender U.S. citizenship is a potent indictment of the federal government?s utter depravity.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 28, 2010

Supporters of the new Arizona immigration law, which permits police to demand identity documents from anyone suspected of being an illegal immigrant, insist such measures are necessary in order to deal with an unprecedented crisis.

An estimated 460,000 illegal immigrants reside in Arizona, many of them arriving during the past decade. During that same period, the rate of violent crime has fallen 19 percent, and property crime has dropped by 20 percent. Since the real estate bubble burst in 2007, immigration ? both legal and illegal ? has declined sharply both in Arizona and nation-wide.

We should capitalize on this trend by abolishing welfare subsidies for illegal immigrants (and for everyone else, while we?re at it). We should also call off the so-called War on Drugs, which is a price support program for Mexican narcotics cartels.

This wouldn?t solve the problem outright, but it would help reduce it to manageable size.

If the "solution" is a police state, the "problem" is one we can probably live with.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

April 27, 2010

Law-abiding residents of Chicago are forbidden to own handguns. This hasn?t prevented criminals from acquiring firearms of every size and description.

Since the beginning of the year, 113 Chicago residents have been murdered by criminals wielding firearms. That body count matches the number of U.S. troops killed so far this year in Iraq and Afghanistan. Two members of the Illinois state legislature, invoking that grim statistic, have called for the deployment of National Guard troops on the streets of Chicago in order to suppress violent crime.

"We are not talking about rolling tanks down the streets or having armed guards on each corner,? insists Rep. John Fritchley. Instead, he suggests that troops supplement some 100 special urban police units deployed to notoriously crime-prone areas.

For decades, Chicago residents have been disarmed by law, and trapped between violent criminals and corrupt police. Overt martial law may be the final act in the Second City?s unfolding tragedy ? and an ominous portent for the rest of the country.

Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.