Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 17, 2013

Responding to critics of the Obama administration?s gun control proposals, MSNBC Anchor Andrea Mitchell argued that it is permissible for the federal government to infringe rights described as ?unalienable? ? such as freedom of speech and the right to bear arms.

According to Mitchell: ?They can be infringed ? I have to obey all sorts of regulations from the FCC, [and] there are things we can?t say in a crowded theater?.?

Mitchell ignores the fact that the Federal Communications Commission is an unconstitutional agency. She also doesn?t understand that the cliché about shouting fire in a crowded theater was coined to justify a horrible Supreme Court ruling that upheld the prosecution of an individual who used his rights under the First Amendment to protest the draft during World War I. Rather than building on such bad precedents we should be correcting the abuses they produced.

Leaving those matters aside, however, Mitchell apparently doesn?t understand that even in those cases, the government did not infringe rights through prior restraint ? that is, pre-emptively punishing people for crimes they haven?t committed. That?s one of the myriad evils embodied in so-called gun control measures.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 16, 2013

Vernal, Utah resident Ben Mahaffey had barely said goodbye to his wife of 58 years before the local police barged into the couple?s bedroom without invitation or permission.

Just minutes after Mahaffey?s wife Barbara died of cancer, the police strode into the house claiming that they had a right to examine the couple?s medicine cabinet. The grieving 80-year-old man was treated as if he were a criminal suspect who intended to sell his wife?s prescription painkillers. One officer claimed that the Utah Controlled Substances Act gave them authority to search the home, even without a warrant or probable cause.

Another case suggests that someone in the Vernal Police Department was acting on ulterior motives. On at least thirty occasions in 2011, Vernal Police Detective Ben Marland Murray visited the home of Russell Wayne Smithey and Candy Jean Holmes to conduct ?pill checks? after they had refilled prescription pain medication. The couple suspected that the officer was secretly stealing their medications, and eventually caught him doing so by way of a hidden camera.

Detective Murray, who has been charged with burglary, illustrates anew the fact that prohibition makes offenders out of innocent people ? and emboldens police to behave like criminals.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 15, 2013

When 70-year-old pilot Robin Fleming went for an afternoon glider flight last July inSouth Carolina?sDarlingtonCounty, his colleagues at the glider club became concerned when he didn?t return as planned. After hours of imagining the worst, Fleming?s friends were relieved the following morning when the pilot contacted them ? and horrified anew when they learned what had happened.

While flying near the HB Robinson Nuclear Generating Station nearLakeRobinson, Fleming was ordered to land his glider, which he did as soon as prevailing wind currents permitted. Once he was down on the ground, Fleming was swarmed by law enforcement.

Fleming was informed that he had violated a secret no-fly zone. He was held and interrogated by FBI and Homeland Security officials. Charges were dismissed after he showed the investigators that the zone wasn?t marked in aviation charts ? but he was required to sign a document promising that he wouldn?t file a lawsuit against the officials who had illegally detained him.  He later learned that preparations had been made to shoot down his glider.

Fleming did nothing illegal ? yet he was brutalized by people who had been prepared to kill him, and could have done so without consequences. Such is life in ourHomelandSecurityState.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 14, 2013

Dominic Ray Aguilar, a 37-year-old cab driver from Roseville, California, has been charged with making ?terroristic threats? against Police Officer John Moody, who shot 35-year-old Ernesto Duenez 11 times in the driveway of his home in June 2011. Duenez, who was suspected of violating his parole, was unarmed and exiting his pickup truck when Moody shot him. He tried to comply with Moody?s order to get down on the ground, but his foot was caught in a seat belt.

 On the Facebook page memorializing Duenez, Aguilar wrote: ?50 rounds to your dome Moody.? His attorney points out that the comment, while shocking, is not an ?immediate, credible threat? and therefore falls within established guidelines as protected free speech.

Toledo, Ohio resident Jason Philips took a picture of a police department employee in the hallway of the Municipal Courthouse and posted it to his Facebook page. The individual was a public employee in a public venue where he had no reasonable expectation of privacy. Nevertheless, Philips was threatened with criminal charges because the individual was said to be an undercover police operative.

Any government that seeks to punish criticism of the police as a form of ?terrorism? is totalitarian ? at least in principle.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 11, 2013

Last September, Deputy IRS Commissioner Steven Miller promised a Republican-controlled congressional subcommittee that the agency would not enforce the Obamacare mandate. He lied, of course.

Despite the fact that the agency is not a legislative body, last December it created 159 pages of Obamacare-related regulations. That dense and confusing welter of words contains countless ways that the IRS can intimidate, harass, persecute, impoverish, and imprison perfectly innocent people.

Since the rules are invasive and deliberately confusing, it?s not surprising that many business owners are looking for ways to minimize their exposure to the IRS?s scrutiny. This has prompted the agency to warn that it will soon issue ?anti-abuse rules? intended to punish business owners who use existing regulatory loopholes found in the law ? such as using temp agencies to avoid Obamacare insurance mandates. Despite the fact that this is perfectly legal, the IRS warns it will treat such action as a failure to provide health insurance and fine any company that does so.

Like other members of the parasitical class they serve, IRS personnel enjoy lavish health care benefits. If they try to enforce their agency?s criminal edicts, some of them are going to wind up in the hospital.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 10, 2013

Auburn, Washington resident Dustin Theoharis was asleep in his bed on February 11, 2012 when two armed strangers entered his room and started to give him orders. Understandably startled, Theoharis reached for a flashlight. This prompted the two intruders to open fire. Theoharis ? who was still in bed -- was shot sixteen times, but survived.

The assailants who shot Theoharis were Detective Aaron Thompson of the King County Sheriff?s Office and Corrections Officer Kris Rongen. They had arrested Theoharis?s roommate, Nicholas Harrison, an ex-convict who had failed to report for community supervision. The officers were searching his bedroom to find if Theoharis had a gun, which would have allowed them to charge Harrison with a parole violation. They had no warrant or probable cause, and no gun was found. Since Harrison was already in custody at the time of the incident, there was no need to conduct a ?safety sweep? of the residence.

By any reasonable definition, Detective Thompson and Officer Rongen committed the crime of attempted homicide. The King County Prosecutor decline to file criminal charges, insisting that the shooting was justified because of a ?perceived risk? to officer safety.

All police are taught to perceive all citizens as potential risks. Does this mean they can shoot any of us at any time?

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 9, 2013

Firearms were stolen from six police vehicles in Kansas City, Missouri in the early morning hours of January 7. A few days earlier, Cayce, South Carolina, Police Chief Charles McNair discovered that someone broke into his car and stole a .40-caliber Glock handgun, a Remington 12-gauge shotgun, and a bulletproof vest.

The perpetrator of a drug robbery inAyden,North Carolina last December used a handgun that had been stolen from a local police detective. The gun originally belonged to Detective Johnnie Craft, whose son Jason is suspected of stealing it, along with a police assault rifle.

Police in Tempe, Arizona are asking residents to help locate an AR-15 rifle that was stolen from a police vehicle last December 31. The LAPD has a much larger version of the same problem: Last October, burglars stole a cache of weapons, including 21 submachine guns, from a locker at a facility used to train the department?s SWAT team. Although the guns had been altered to fire blanks, they could easily be re-modified to fire live ammunition.

According to advocates of civilian disarmament, public safety requires that the police have a monopoly on firearms. That notion shatters like brittle glass when it collides with reality.

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

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 8, 2013

Joe Sirochman is owner of American Spirit Arms, which ? like most firearms companies ? has seen business dramatically increase as a result of the Obama administration?s ramped-up campaign for civilian disarmament.

Over the past two months, the company has seen web-based orders jump by 500 percent, which led to a higher volume of electronic deposits to its account at Bank of America. Sirochman was puzzled when the bank informed him that the account would be frozen for further review. When he contacted the bank, a manager informed him: ?We believe you should not be selling guns and parts on the internet.?

Bank of America is one of the most extravagantly corrupt institutions in an industry that has distinguished itself for un-tempered greed and insouciant lawlessness. It was a leader in the criminal practice called ?robo-signing,? in which it hired outside consultants of dubious expertise and even more dubious ethics to process foreclosures. This involved the production of fraudulent legal documents that were used to throw people out of their homes. BOA is also notorious for enlisting aggressive collection agencies to pursue long-settled or entirely bogus debts.

Bank of America has no moral standing to criticize honest businessmen, and no legal right to interfere with their transactions.

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

Willl Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 7, 2013

According to liberal pundit Andrew O?Hehir of Salon magazine, the 19^th Century Civil War never ended ? and it may erupt again in the 21^st Century. Referring to deep and apparently insoluble social conflict over matters like abortion, gay rights, and gun ownership, O?Hehir insists the political conflict between ?Blue? and ?Red? states may eventually take on a darker and more violent character.

Conservative historian and author Arthur Herman agrees thatAmerica is headed toward a civil war over economic matters. After describing riots in debt-plaguedArgentina, in which thousands of people have raided and looted stores, Dr. Herman suggests that violence of this kind may well descend uponAmerica as the struggle between what he calls the ?makers? and the ?takers? becomes more acute.

TheUnited States of Americawas conceived as a decentralized union of constitutional republics. It was never intended to be a unitary state dominated by a strong central government that dictates social policy and redistributes wealth. The creation of that unitary state was the chief accomplishment of the first Civil War ? and it will be the chief cause of the second.

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

Willl Grigg?s Liberty Minute

January 7, 2013

According to liberal pundit Andrew O?Hehir of Salon magazine, the 19^th Century Civil War never ended ? and it may erupt again in the 21^st Century. Referring to deep and apparently insoluble social conflict over matters like abortion, gay rights, and gun ownership, O?Hehir insists the political conflict between ?Blue? and ?Red? states may eventually take on a darker and more violent character.

Conservative historian and author Arthur Herman agrees thatAmerica is headed toward a civil war over economic matters. After describing riots in debt-plaguedArgentina, in which thousands of people have raided and looted stores, Dr. Herman suggests that violence of this kind may well descend uponAmerica as the struggle between what he calls the ?makers? and the ?takers? becomes more acute.

TheUnited States of Americawas conceived as a decentralized union of constitutional republics. It was never intended to be a unitary state dominated by a strong central government that dictates social policy and redistributes wealth. The creation of that unitary state was the chief accomplishment of the first Civil War ? and it will be the chief cause of the second.

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