Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

December 4, 2007

President Bush and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki recently signed a Joint Security Declaration providing for a continued US military presence in Iraq. US forces would remain as long as necessary ?to combat all terrorist groups ... and all other outlaw groups regardless of affiliation.?

At the same time, the US occupation forces are arming Sunni Muslim militiamen and tribal leaders and organizing them into Concerned Local Citizens Groups. Prime Minister al-Maliki, who heads a government dominated by Shi'ite Muslims, objects that these Sunni militias are in fact terrorist groups that have attacked government officials and driven Shi'ite residents from their homes.

At the same time, Washington has been providing arms, training, and political support to Iraqi Kurdish groups in the northern part of the country.

Our Government has no competence or constitutional authority to fine-tune the balance of power among the three antagonists in a potential Iraqi civil war. And it has no right to leave our troops in the middle of the mess it's created.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

December 3, 2007

In a totalitarian state, every individual ? regardless of his occupation ? is required to be an informant at all times. The very possibility that a friend, co-worker, or helpful bureaucrat might be acting as the eyes and ears of the State is used to compel subjects to submit.

Acting on this principle, the Department of Homeland Security has been training firefighters for what the Associated Press calls ?a new role as lookouts for terrorism.? Unlike police, firefighters and other emergency personnel can occupy private property without warrants, both for the purpose of fighting fires and for conducting safety inspections.

Guidelines published by the Department of Homeland Security instruct firefighters to be alert for anyone ?who is hostile, uncooperative, or expressing hate or discontent with the United States.? This information is then shared with the feds.

This program is eerily similar to the futuristic totalitarian world described by Ray Bradbury's novel Fahrenheit 451, in which firemen suppressed dissent by burning books.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 30, 2007

From Fredericksburg, Texas comes a story that usefully illuminates the hopeless insanity of the so-called war on drugs.

In 2004, Deputy Sheriff Clinton Stewart stopped Roxanne Lavender for a traffic violation. During a search of Lavender's car, Deputy Stewart seized a small amount of marijuana. He then returned some of it to Lavender ? an act which constitutes tampering with evidence.

Stewart's defense was that he wasn't trying to impair the case against Lavender; instead, he insisted, ?I was trying to create a snitch.? Which is to say, someone permitted to use and perhaps even to deal narcotics as long as she could help corral other suspects and keep the federally subsidized racket in business.

The case against Lavender was thrown out, and Deputy Stewart was convicted of evidence tampering.
In early November, a Court of Criminal Appeals in San Antonio overturned the conviction by a 5-4 vote. With the felony conviction removed, Stewart can resume his law enforcement career. And the fraudulent drug war goes merrily on.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 29, 2007

Taser International, the company that manufactures the supposedly non-lethal stun guns used by police, has a tax-exempt foundation to support the families of officers killed in the line of duty. Admirable as this is, the company really ought to consider establishing a similar fund to care for the victims of unjustifiable Taser use by trigger-happy police.

Although categorized as non-lethal, the Taser is more properly described as an occasionally lethal implement of torture. Most police agencies have policies authorizing Taser use in situations involving potentially deadly peril to officers, suspects, or bystanders. But police are increasingly employing the Taser as a ?pain compliance? tactic to punish uncooperative suspects, including motorists who object to traffic stops.

Police in Alabama recently used Tasers on a driver who was suffering a diabetic seizure. The driver's inability to obey police instructions supposedly constituted ?combative? behavior. This incident is typical of the promiscuous police use of Tasers, and the growing case file of needless death and injury to harmless people.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 28, 2007

About a year ago, Oregon pro-life activist David Brownlow and his family were were accosted by Oregon State Trooper Ken Moore and threatened with arrest for the supposed offense of holding up an anti-war protest sign on a sidewalk near a Portland shopping mall.

Brownlow, whose son Jared is serving in Iraq, was holding a sign reading ?Support the Troops ? Bring Them Home!? Trooper Moore stomped over to the family, accused them of ?breaking the law,? and ordered them to ?leave the area immediately.?

When Brownlow asked politely what law he and his family had broken, Moore bellowed: ?When a trooper tells you that you are breaking the law, that's all you need to know.? The officer stole their banner and forced the family to move to a nearby parking lot.

The Brownlows filed suit against Officer Moore, which was settled last July for $25,000. What Brownlow had sought ? an explicit affirmation of the right to assemble for free speech ? the state government wasn't willing to provide.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 27, 2007

?Thieves for their robbery have authority when judges steal themselves.?

This mordant observation by Shakespeare is brought to mind by the case of Richard McLean, a retired judge and former mayor of Boulder, Colorado, who used an obscure legal principle called ?adverse possession? to steal a tract of property from his neighbors.

The neighbors, Don and Susie Kirlin, bought the land in 1984 and planned to use it to build a retirement home. But McLean and his wife, attorney Edith Stevens, persuaded a friendly district judge that they had taken ?adverse possession? of the property through decades of trespassing.

Adverse possession is a thoroughly dubious doctrine intended to encourage settlement of thinly populated areas. It also helps clear up disputes involving ambiguous property lines, easements, and similar matters. But as the Denver Post discovered, invoking that doctrine has become a useful tactic for judges to seize coveted properties from their neighbors.

As one of McLean's critics points out, this is ?stealing with a law license instead of a gun.?

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 26, 2007

Article I, section 3 of the New Jersey State Constitution promises: ?No person shall be deprived of the inestimable privilege of worshiping Almighty God in a manner agreeable to the dictates of his own conscience....?

That promise has been nullified for a group of Orthodox Jews residing in the Township of Freehold, New Jersey. For years [ck], Rabbi Avraham Bernstein has conducted Sabbath services in his home each Friday night, as well as on traditional Jewish holidays.

Last February, the municipal government informed Rabbi Avraham that holding such services in his home violated local zoning ordinances. He was issued a legal summons accusing him of illegally operating a house of worship. The Rabbi and his family also learned that the Township government had kept their home and visitors under video surveillance.

It's doubtful that Jews living in Tehran have been treated this inhospitably. No government anywhere in the United States has the authority to criminalize worship.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 23, 2007

The United States Constitution specifies that Congress has the authority to coin money; it also explicitly forbids the use of ?any Thing but gold and silver Coin [as] a Tender in Payment of Debts....?

At present, the currency defined as legal tender by the government is devoid of innate value. The dollar is considered valuable only because the government compels us to accept it.

About a decade ago, a citizen's group created the Liberty Dollar, a privately circulated alternative currency made of gold and silver coins, as well as negotiable notes backed by precious metal. This currency was used in mutually beneficial transactions between willing and fully informed buyers and sellers.

On November 15, federal agents seized all of the gold, silver, and platinum owned by the company that created the Liberty Dollar. The Feds justified this act of vulgar armed robbery by claiming that using gold and silver to conduct economic transactions is a species of fraud. From this perspective, using constitutional currency is a crime.

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

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 22, 2007

Even more than Independence Day, Thanksgiving embodies the ideals of our nation. We acknowledge our insurmountable indebtedness to our Creator for everything we cherish.

It wasn't just the English pilgrims at Jamestown who established the custom of paying the tribute of thanks to God. In April 1598 ? decades before the first celebration at Jamestown ? Spanish explorer Don Juan de Onate led his 600 followers in a day of prayer and thanksgiving in what is now El Paso, Texas.

Don Juan's group included Spaniards of every social rank, as well as Africans and Indians native to Mexico. Grateful for the protection they had enjoyed during a long and dangerous trek, Don Juan's group invited the local Indians to join in the celebration as well.

Similar celebrations were held by others grateful for their arrival in this uniquely blessed land. In whatever way we deem appropriate, it is our duty and blessing to offer thanks to the God who created each of us to be free.

Will Grigg's Liberty Minute

November 21, 2007

We are frequently told that our conflict with radical Islam will continue for the foreseeable future. But few understand that our own government has been the single biggest promoter of radical Islam.

In 1953, the CIA organized a coup to bring down Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. As Steven Kinzer documents in his book Overthrow, the CIA spent huge sums to recruit radical Imams to mobilize support for the coup. Many of the same radical Imams later supported the revolutionary overthrow of the Shah by the Ayatollah Khomeni.

Also in 1953, the CIA began a relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood, the Egyptian-born terrorist network from which al-Qaeda sprang.

In his book Devil's Game, Robert Dreyfuss documents that Washington funded al-Qaeda's Jihadist operations in Afghanistan well into the 1990s. Washington also intervened militarily on the side of Iranian-backed Muslim insurgents in Bosnia, and allies of al-Qaeda in Kosovo.

Now we're to believe that Washington will protect us from the same threat it nurtured for decades.

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