Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 17, 2008

When the Philadelphia Constitutional Convention ended its work on this date in 1787, the document it produced was unique in human history.

The Convention?s purpose was to revise and modify the Articles of Confederation. What emerged was a framework for a new system -- one with a stronger central government, but with explicit protection for the powers of the states.

The US Constitution was the first charter of government to acknowledge that government is the servant of the people, rather than the reverse. The men who drafted it imposed limits on the powers they could exercise. This reflects a Biblical understanding of the dangers inherent in trusting fallen men with power of any kind.

Unfortunately, over the intervening centuries the central government has slipped its constitutional leash. The states are now merely administrative units of Washington, which supervises and regiments each of us in myriad ways.

Restoring the original understanding of our miraculous Constitution is imperative if we are to recover the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 16, 2008

Last Friday, there were five major investment banks on Wall Street.
Today there are three. Lehman Brothers, a 158-year-old investment colossus that helped fund the transcontinental railroad, has filed for bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch was bought out by Bank of America.

The American International Group (or AIG), one of the world?s largest insurance firms, requested a $40 billion short-term loan from the Federal Reserve. AIG, which insures many of the mortgage-related bonds that are going bad, is desperately trying to stave off bankruptcy. The same is true of Washington Mutual. Investment broker Wilbur Ross predicts that up to 1,000 banks will fail over the next few months.

Alan Greenspan calls the ongoing panic the worst economic catastrophe in a century. As Fed Chairman, Greenspan cultivated this crisis by abetting the growth of the now-collapsing global debt bubble.

We must abolish the Federal Reserve, and return to a sound, constitutional currency, in order to restore economic sanity and
recover the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 12, 2008

From Kanawha County, West Virginia comes a small but encouraging story of resistance to the Nanny State.

Two months ago, the County enacted a ban on smoking in public areas, including bars. In August, health inspectors had planned to conduct an operation called ?The Blitz? to check bars and clubs for smoking violations. But it was cancelled after somebody tipped off bar owners about the planned sweep.

Some bar owners have torn up warning citations in front of health inspectors. One bar owner posted a sign ordering health department employees to show ID before entering the premises, under threat of a civil complaint against those who don?t comply. Bar owners are organizing a court challenge to the smoking ban.

Smoking is a filthy and unhealthy habit, but those who indulge in it should be free to socialize with each other. The suffocating embrace of the Nanny State is much unhealthier than any personal vice.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 11, 2008

Everything changed when our nation was attacked on this date seven years ago ? or at least, that?s what we?re told. In fact, nothing of substance changed except for the audacity of our rulers, and the submissiveness of the ruled.

Our nation is now involved in major wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and war with Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan are quite possible.

The terrorist mastermind described as the chief culprit in the 9-11 attacks has never been captured, and the al-Qaeda terrorist network remains a viable and resilient threat. And by intervening in Georgia, Washington has alienated post-Soviet Russia.

Our government?s foreign policy appears designed to cultivate enemies. And in domestic affairs, our government has declared war on due process and the Bill of Rights.

On this grim and unwelcome anniversary, we should remember that foreign enemies come and go, but the government that rules us remains the most fearsome threat to our lives and liberty.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 10, 2008

Mexican President Felipe Calderon is seeking nearly a 40% increase in funding for that nation?s war against narcotics syndicates.

Washington has supported the Mexican government?s campaign with arms and money. Mexico?s drug war has done nothing to reduce the power or profits of the cartels. It has killed thousands of innocent Mexicans, exacerbated the problem of illegal immigration to the U.S., and created a wave of violence that threatens American border communities.

Rather than encouraging an escalation in Mexico?s military conflict, we should attack the cartels where they are most vulnerable ? the inflated, artificial profits they enjoy as a result of drug prohibition.

In practice, the war on drugs has been a price support program for drug syndicates and a public works project for corrupt public officials. Treating narcotics use the same way we treat alcohol consumption would eliminate both the artificial profits in drug commerce, along with much of the incentive for criminal violence.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 9, 2008

Amid the unfolding economic crisis, every weekend has brought at least one bank failure. News of the latest major taxpayer bailout usually occurs during the weekend, as well. So it was that on September 7 Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the federal rescue of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Paulson said that the government will spend up to $200 billion to keep Fannie and Freddie in business. But the actual size of their combined liabilities is more than $5 trillion, which is now the responsibility of the U.S. Treasury.

The bailout of Fannie and Freddie, notes leading economic analyst Mark Zandi, amounts to the nationalization of the entire mortgage market, with the Federal Housing Administration and the newly nationalized Fannie and Freddie now either backing or issuing three-quarters of all mortgages.

Is it any surprise that legendary investor Jim Rogers now describes the US economy as ?more Communist than China??

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 3, 2008

As Hurricane Gustav approached the Gulf Coast, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin issued a mandatory evacuation order and curfew enforced by police and National Guard troops. Those caught outside their property during curfew hours would be subject to summary imprisonment.

Some might defend such draconian measures during a natural disaster. But municipal authorities seem indecently eager to impose martial law. Police recently used checkpoints to shut down entire sections of Washington, D.C. In Chicago, SWAT teams on the streets and helicopter patrols in the air have become familiar sights as part of a crime prevention effort.

In early August, the Mayor of Helena-West Helena Arkansas imposed martial law over a 10-block neighborhood, deploying police armed with automatic weapons to arrest anyone seen outside his home ? and even summarily to evict those living where crimes had taken place.

Autocratic rule is highly contagious to politicians, and lethal to individual liberties.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

September 2, 2008

This September 11, if the City of Milwaukee has its way, Peter Tubic will lose his home to foreclosure. Mr. Tubic has not defaulted on his mortgage, or been convicted of a crime. Instead, he had a tax lien slapped on his home because he neglected to pay a $50 fine for parking an automobile without tags in his own driveway.

Milwaukee has attempted to collect on the fine since 2003, which, with added interest and penalties, eventually totaled $2,600.

Tubic is regarded as an invalid by the Social Security Administration, which has certified that he has a personality disorder that limits his cognitive functions. This explains why the ticket went unpaid for so long.

Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett has promised to intervene on behalf of Tubic. But the City Council remains perversely determined to render a handicapped man homeless for the supposed crime of using his own property in a way they didn?t approve.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 29, 2008

During the Democratic Convention in Denver, a protestor from Los Angeles named Alicia Forrest expressed concern about a demonstrator who had been thrown to the ground and arrested by police.

An officer in riot gear replied to the question by violently striking Forrest in the upper body with his baton. He then hurled a vulgar epithet at her as she hit the ground.

A few minutes later, as Forrest described to reporters what had happened to her, a police officer seized her and dragged her away.

Elsewhere in Denver, ABC News producer Asa Eslocker was on collecting video footage when a police officer shoved him into the street. A few minutes later about a half-dozen police materialized and arrested Eslocker. One of them advised the reporter to consider himself lucky the officers didn?t beat him half to death.

These incidents, captured on video, are the sort of thing one would expect to see in Communist China, not the Land of the Free.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

August 28, 2008

As the Bush administration trickles away into regrettable history, it is quietly taking steps to make permanent its assault on the Bill of Rights.

Through a series of executive orders and other enactments, the administration is expanding the federal government?s ability to compile dossiers on private citizens and keep them under official surveillance.

One measure expands the practice of intelligence-sharing between local police and federal agencies.

Another directive permits the FBI target individual citizens for surveillance and official investigation ?without any basis for suspicion,? in the words of two senators briefed on that classified measure. It would authorize the use of wiretaps, scrutiny of confidential financial records, and other invasions of privacy against people not suspected of any actual crime.

The Homeland Security Department has advised Americans traveling abroad that it will inspect and confiscate laptop computers and cellphones at its discretion.

Unless defeated now, these garrison state measures will continue into the indefinite future.

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