Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 19 2013

Laura Benson of Union County, Illinoiswas alarmed when a party of heavily armed police officers swarmed the family?s rural farm property early on February 13. Her alarm turned to puzzlement when the officers told her that they had received a report of a meth lab on the premises ? and then pointed to several buckets used for making maple syrup. Once the confusion was cleared up, Mrs. Benson invited the officers to have pancakes.

Police in Tennesseestopped 65-year-old Ohio State Football fan Bonnie Jonas-Boggioni because she displayed a Buckeye Football Sticker on her car ? a decal that was mistaken for a marijuana leaf. Two officers, wearing body armor and carrying guns, approached the car and demanded to know why she had a marijuana sticker on her bumper. Boggioni patiently explained that the symbol was a Buckeye leaf identical to those worn on helmets byOhioState football players as commendations for exceptional plays. The traffic stop took place in a region nearMemphis heavily patrolled by a Narcotics Task Force that is notorious for confiscating cash and automobiles in the name of ?civil asset forfeiture.? 

These are just two snapshots of the enduring exercise in unalloyed insanity called the ?War on Drugs.?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 18 2013

Speaking in support of a ban on private ownership of so-called assault weapons, Emeryville, California Police Chief Ken James condemned what he called the ?myth? that a gun can be used as a defensive weapon.

 According to Chief James: "A gun is not a defensive weapon. That is a myth. A gun is an offensive weapon used to intimidate and used to show power. Police officers do not carry a gun as a defensive weapon to defend themselves or their other officers. They carry a gun in order to do their job in a safe and effective manner, and face any [opposition] that we may come upon. If it was a defensive measure, why did we lose 55 officers nation-wide last year to gun violence?? We deal with gun violence on a daily basis."

If the police acted as peace officers, they would use force only in defense of persons and property, just as private citizens everywhere do on a daily basis. Chief James?s admission that police see their weapons as implements of aggression amounts to a powerful case for disarming the police, rather than peaceable, law-abiding citizens.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 15, 2013

Classrooms in Meridian, Idaho went into full ?prison mode? after a student brought a folding shovel to Heritage Middle School, prompting the school?s ?resource officer? to call for a full lockdown.

Deputy Chief Tracy Basterrechea told KTVB news that the youngster had been seen ?jogging out of the school, then back into the school with what [staff members thought] was an axe.? After the ?resource officer? called for a lockdown, police arrived ?seconds? later, set up a perimeter, and deployed ?search teams? to confront the ?suspect? ? an innocent teen who had brought the shovel to serve as a prop in a classroom presentation. Meanwhile, students at four nearby schools were put into ?shelter in place? mode ? that is, they were confined to their classrooms until police at Heritage Middle School gave the all-clear.

All of this occurred, once again, because a junior high school student brought a shovel to school, and none of the purported adults on campus was blessed with the presence of mind to approach the kid and find out what he was doing.

This incident did teach students a useful lesson ? namely, that for operatives of the Homeland Security State, the default setting is overkill.  

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 14, 2013

They work out of air-conditioned offices in the United States. They do not face enemy fire, and usually go home to their families every night. They operate joysticks, rather than pulling triggers. Yet drone operators insist on being called ?combat pilots? ? and the Pentagon is devising a combat ribbon to commemorate their service.

The new medal will be the first combat-related award to be created since the Bronze Star was introduced in 1944. It will also be the first commendation of its kind presented to people who were never exposed to personal risk on the battlefield. Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta claims that the award reflects the ?changed ways that wars are fought,? and it recognizes the efforts of drone operators who ?remove the enemy from the field of battle, even if those actions are physically removed from the fight.?

Because drone warfare is indiscriminate, it actually creates more enemies than it destroys. Witness the fact that drone attacks on Pakistan have turned nearly the entire population of that country against the United States.

Although the new award is called the Distinguished Warfare Medal, a better name would be the Blowback Ribbon, or the Al-Qaeda Recruitment Medal.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 12, 2013

For nearly half a century, even before the Supreme Court?s Roe vs. Wade decision, the abortion lobby has propagated the myth that legalized abortion is necessary in order to prevent women from dying at the hands of so-called ?Back-Alley Abortionists.? This myth was the creation of Larwence Lader, chairman of the National Association to Repeal Abortion Laws.

Lader knew that by the 1960s illegal abortion ? although reliably fatal to the unborn child ? was not especially dangerous to the mother. Yet he cynically created an image of women being mangled by inept illegal abortionists, or mutilating themselves with implements such as coat hangers, in order to end an inconvenient pregnancy by killing the developing child. That myth was exposed as a deliberate lie by former NARAL activist Bernard Nathanson, who became a pro-life activist.

This isn?t to say that abortion is risk-free for the mother; rather, it is to highlight the fact that legalizing child murder didn?t make the procedure any safer. Witness the recent death of 29-year-old Jennifer MecKenna Morbelli of New Rochelle, New York, four days after undergoing a late-term abortion at a Maryland abortion mill run by LeRoy Carhart. Jennifer and her fully-formed unborn daughter, who was named Madison, will be buried together on February 13.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 11, 2013

Two years ago, the Obama administration was denying the existence of a ?kill list? containingU.S.citizens. Since then, it has executed at least three Americans ? one of them a 16-year-old boy. Now supporters of the drone program are seeking to institutionalize the practice and make it permanent.

Freshman Senator Angus King, an Independent from Maine, has proposed the creation of a special federal court to oversee drone strikes againstUS citizens suspected of terrorism. That proposal grew out of confirmation hearings for CIA Director nominee John Brennan, who supervised a secretive White House panel that maintained the ?kill list.?

The so-called ?assassination court? would be modeled after an existing special-purpose federal tribunal created under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA. Under FISA , federal officials can conduct surveillance of suspected foreign agents and then obtain a warrant from the FISA court after the fact. In similar fashion, a secret drone court could approve of presidentially-ordered assassinations after they occur. Authorizing a strike, Senator Young claims is ?a commander-in-chief job.?

The Framers of the US Constitution wouldn?t recognize what our government has become. However, Josef Stalin certainly would.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 7, 2013

John Brennan, the official nominated to become the next director of the Central Intelligence Agency, presided over the secretive White House panel that selected individuals for targeted killings. Hundreds of people, including at least three U.S. citizens, have been killed in drone attacks on presidential orders.

According to a legal memo released this week, the Obama administration takes the position that the president has the innate authority to order the summary execution of any individual he considers a potential threat.

In a letter to Democratic Senator Diane Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, Ralph Nader and former Reagan administration official Bruce Fein urged that Brennan?s confirmation hearings include legal scholars who have criticized the drone-killing program. They point out that the drone-killings ?combine prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner in a single person ? the high water mark of tyranny in the view of the Constitution?s makers.?

Rather than allowing critics of this program to testify in Brennan?s confirmation hearings, Senator Feinstein has limited testimony to the nominee himself.

The same Senator Feinstein, of course, is promoting severe restrictions on private firearms ownership. She sees nothing at all wrong with disarming the population while giving the president an unrestricted license to kill American citizens.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 6, 2013

During recess at Mary Blair Elementary School in Loveland, Colorado, second-grader Alex Evans was suspended for playing a game in which he pretended to throw an imaginary grenade into a box containing what he called ?evil forces.? This was interpreted as a violation of the school?s code of conduct, which forbids imaginary fighting and recess play involving imaginary weapons.

In Alexandria, Virginia, a fifth-grade student was arrested and detained after showing a classmate a toy gun. The plastic replica was obviously a toy, not a weapon. Yet the child was charged with ?brandishing a weapon.? The superintendent insisted that the arrest was justified and praised the police for their ?quick response.?

Daniel McClaine, Jr., a freshman at Poston Butte High School in Florence, Arizona, was suspended for saving a photograph of an AK-47 on a school-issued laptop computer. A teacher noticed his screensaver and turned him in for violating a school policy prohibiting ?sending or displaying offensive messages or pictures.?

The purpose behind ?zero-tolerance? policies that result in such absurd abuses isn?t to promote student safety, but to cultivate an aversion to weapons in the hands of anybody other than officially licensed purveyors of state-sanctioned violence.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 5, 2013

Reacting to the untimely death of retired Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, former Republican Congressman Ron Paul posted a Twitter message lamenting that ?He who lives by the sword dies by the sword.? Dr. Paul also pointed out that it was an odd and tragic decision for Kyle to take a fellowIraq veteran suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder to a shooting range. That veteran is accused of killing Kyle and another man named Chad Littlefield.

After his tweet stirred up widespread controversy, Dr. Paul  expressed condolences to Kyle?s wife and two young children, while condemning ?unconstitutional and unnecessary wars? like theIraq invasion. Wrote Paul on his Facebook page, quote, ?A policy of non-violence, as Christ preached, would have prevented this and similar tragedies.?

This isn?t the first time Dr. Paul has provoked the ire of Christian conservatives by invoking the words of Jesus. In a debate held in South Carolina during the last presidential campaign, Dr. Paul was rewarded with a chorus of boos for urging theUnited States to recognize and apply the Golden Rule in its dealings with other nations.

Few things will get people in trouble more quickly than quoting the words of Jesus about war, peace, and justice.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

February 4, 2013

Barack Obama paid a brief visit to Minneapolis today to rally support for his administration?s proposals to restrict private firearms ownership. Significantly, he didn?t address the public; instead, he met with police officials at theMinneapolisPoliceDepartmentSpecialOperationsCenter.

The White House praisedMinneapolisas ?a city that has taken important steps to reduce gun violence and foster a conversation in the community about what further action is needed.? One of those steps was the overt militarization of law enforcement through the promiscuous use of SWAT teams.

Minneapolistaxpayers were recently forced to underwrite a $1 million settlement with Rickia Russell, a young woman who suffered third- and fourth-degree burns to her legs during a SWAT raid on her home. The raid began with the use of an incendiary device called a flash-bang grenade, which is supposedly used as a distraction. Russell had to undergo a skin graft from her scalp to repair her damaged leg. She is still undergoing therapy.

The raid, which was staged to search for suspected firearms, was carried out at the wrong address.

TheMinneapolisapproach praised by Obama didn?t reduce gun violence; instead, it expanded the use of gun violence as an instrument of public policy.

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