Ed and Elaine Brown of Plainfield, New Hampshire, are involved in a potentially fatal stand-off. Having refused to pay income taxes, the Browns have been ordered to report to prison.

The couple lives in a large and self-sufficient home. They insist that they will die rather than being hauled away to prison. They are currently surrounded by a large paramilitary force that includes Special Ops teams from the Marshals Service, SWAT teams from three states, and the local police tactical team.

The Browns are eccentric and they may be misled about the nature of the income tax code. Like everyone else, they are required by what the government is pleased to call the law to surrender a portion of their honestly earned wealth to the State. Despite committing no crime against persons or property, they face the prospect of prison or death at the hands of government agents. In that fact we see the genuine perversity of the system that rules us.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

When Napoleon was made emperor of France he crowned himself, rather than having the Pope perform that ritual. In Bonaparte's eyes none was great enough to confer such power upon him.

Evidence has recently emerged that both President Bush and Vice President Cheney have succumbed to similar Napoleonic delusions of near-omnipotence.

In March 2003, Bush issued an order requiring all executive branch agencies dealing with classified national security information to submit to oversight by an independent agency called the National Archives and Records Administration. Yet Vice President Cheney's office refused to comply.

Pressed by congressional leaders to account for this refusal, Cheney made the astonishing claim that the Vice President's office is not part of the executive branch. Bush then asserted that his office ? which directs the executive branch -- enjoys the same immunity.

Under the Bush doctrine, the president is accountable to no one but himself, which means that he doesn't even have to obey his own rules.

Somewhere in hell, the despot Napoleon is nodding in approval.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Former Utah Congressman Merrill Cook observes that the debate over immigration reform is divided between globalists and nationalists.

One side, dominated by the political and corporate elite, seeks mobility of cheap labor across borders. The other side, which draws from the embattled middle class, wants to preserve America's national identity as a means of protecting our economic vitality.

This analysis is largely sound, but inadequate. The system we inherited from our Founders was not nationalist; it was a federated constitutional republic with a very limited role for the central government. It was the redistribution of power from the States to Washington that created our current system, in which elitists undermine our independence and prosperity.

Too many of those concerned about illegal immigration are willing to give even more power to the same central government that has betrayed us. Instead we should abolish the incentives that drive illegal immigration ? such as birthright citizenship, bilingual education, and welfare subsidies for illegal immigrants and the corporations that bring them here.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

During the debate over ratifying the US Constitution, James Madison ? known as the ?Father of the Constitution? -- explained: ?The powers delegated by the ... Constitution to the federal government, are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite.?

The reserved powers of the States, Madison continued, would ?extend to all the objects which ... concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people, and the internal order ... of the State.? Under this assignment of powers, criminal justice and law enforcement were almost entirely the responsibility of the states, not the federal government.

At the time of the founding, there was a total of 17 offenses considered federal crimes. Today, there are thousands. Criminologist Ted Gest of the University of Pennsylvania points out that nearly half of those federal statutes were enacted since 1970. As Delaware Senator Joseph Biden cheerfully observes: ?We federalize everything that walks, talks, and moves.?

Where laws needlessly proliferate, liberty is doomed.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Although it sounds like the stuff of science fiction, a British government panel has approved the creation of interspecies clones -- human-animal hybrids for use in medical experiments.

The British panel insisted that these genetically engineered embryos would never be implanted in human or animal wombs. However, that line will be almost certainly be crossed as soon as perceived scientific necessity demands it.

Experiments of this sort are representative of the so-called ?Transhumanist? movement. As Wesley J. Smith of the Discovery Institute explains, Transhumanists believe that ?human beings, as we exist now, aren't good enough, and that under the supervision and guidance of god-like scientists we can seize control of our evolution and achieve perfection.?

This demented dream resonates with the Great Lie hissed by the Serpent in Eden: ?Then ye shall be as gods.? It is also in harmony with the depraved Nazi objective of creating a ?Master Race? through controlled genetics ? and the liquidation of those deemed ?life unworthy of life.?

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, a national civil liberties organization, has begun a campaign to abolish the Department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms. This is an eminently worthy undertaking.

Even among the myriad unconstitutional federal programs, the ATF stands out for its arrogance and corruption. Not a single ATF agent or official was ever punished for the needless and illegal February 1993 attack on Waco's Branch Davidian church, which led to the annihilation of 80 innocent people.

A more recent example of ATF's work can be seen in its persecution of Ryan Horsley, owner of Red's Trading Post in Twin Falls, Idaho. US District Judge Edward Lodge has found the ATF ?exaggerated and omitted? key findings in its attempt to shut down Red's Trading Post, Idaho's oldest gun shop.

The ATF has no constitutional legitimacy, and serves no purpose other than providing employment for otherwise unemployable thugs. It shouldn't exist, and its abolition would be a tremendous blessing.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

The US Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia has ruled against the open-ended detention of Ali Sale Kahlah Al-Marri in military custody. Al-Marri must now either be charged in the criminal justice system or released.

Al-Marri, a native of Qatar, who came to the United States legally, was arrested in December 2001. In June 2003, President Bush designated al-Marri an ?unlawful enemy combatant? and had him transferred to military detention.

?[I]n the United States, the military cannot seize and imprison civilians ? let alone imprison them indefinitely,? ruled the Appeals Court. However, ?This does not mean that al-Marri must be set free....? Like others accused of terrorism he can be tried by the court system and punished severely if he is guilty.

Unfortunately, this ruling doesn't address constitutional issues raised by the recently enacted Military Commissions Act. And it will be appealed by the Bush administration. But the judgment does recognize limits on presidential power to seize and detain civilians at whim.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

America is a uniquely blessed nation in many ways, prominent among which is this: Our government was created by wise and God-fearing men who hated government.

How else can we explain the fact that the Declaration of Independence defines the conditions under which the sovereign people can ?alter or abolish? any government that abuses their God-given rights?

Our national independence, and the Constitution that created our republic, were born as a result of a healthy epidemic of anti-government radicalism.

Our country is badly in need of a similar outbreak today, when the government that rules us seems bent on perpetual war abroad and unlimited power at home. The ironic good news is that our government is likely to go bankrupt before those demented plans can come to fruition.

Everything government is permitted to do is accompanied with the implied threat of deadly force. Were enough Americans to grasp that simple principle, a long-overdue ? and hopefully peaceful ? rebellion would occur before our society descends into abject ruin.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

In assessing abuses of power by government, I offer the following formula: Once may be an anomaly, twice a coincidence,but three or more examples of the same abuse constitute a pattern.

Earlier this year, Police in Rochester, New Hampshire charged 48-year-old Christopher Power
with ?wiretapping? -- a class B felony ? after they discovered that Power had used a mini-cassette recorder to document a traffic stop.

In 2006, New Hampshire resident Michael Gannon, who complained of police misbehavior, was similarly charged after taping interviews with police in his own home. His complaint was upheld, but Gannon briefly faced wiretapping charges that could have resulted in a prison term of 21 years.

Now we learn that 18-year-old Brian Kelly of Carlisle, Pennsylvania faces seven years in prison for taping a May 24 traffic stop.

Clearly, these episodes reflect an intent to intimidate the public. Police have no reasonable expectation of privacy, and citizens have the right and duty to hold them accountable.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.

In the middle of the fourth century of the Christian era, the rulers of the Roman empire opened their borders to the Germanic tribes, and began to rely on German mercenaries to fill the ranks of the Roman Legion. Within fifty years, Rome was overrun.

This should be remembered in light of the Pentagon's growing reliance on illegal immigrants as recruits. One section of the Bush administration's embattled immigration amnesty bill offers illegal immigrants a fast track to citizenship if they enlist in the military. At present, according to the Armed Forces Press Service, about 35,000 non-citizens are serving in the US military.

Before crossing the Delaware River on Christmas, 1776, George Washington instructed his subordinates: ?Put none but Americans on guard tonight.? He then attacked a large and well-supplied force of German mercenaries in Trenton, New Jersey, resulting in a victory that saved the cause of American independence.

Empires rely on foreign mercenaries ? or illegal aliens ? as military recruits. Independent republics do not.

Let us stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.