Registration is ALWAYS A Prelude to Confiscation

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

July 2, 2012

Whenever bureaucrats ?register? something, they have eventual confiscation in mind. This is true of gun registration. An even more acute example is provided by Selective Service registration, a process that envisions the ultimate confiscation of the entire person in the service of the State.

Bearing this principle in mind, it?s worth asking: Why does the State of Utah want to register privately owned gardens?

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food is sponsoring an initiative it calls the ?Utah Garden Challenge,? through which the agency is trying to entice 10,000 gardeners in the state to ?come forward and document their gardens.?

According to the UDAF, ?The 10,000 Garden Challenge is an example of the local movement for sustainable agritourism and living.? ?Sustainable? is a term of art that grows out of the UN-centered Agenda 21 initiative, which if implemented would require regimentation, by administrative bodies populated with wise and far-seeing bureaucrats, of all human interactions with the natural world.

The initiative refers to independently grown food as ?an important resource to the state? ? a phrase through which the state agency implicitly asserts collective ownership over private property.

 Right now, the state is inviting participation, and offering small incentives; at some point, will it insist ? and impose ?penalties? for non-compliance?

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

The Obamacare Mandate and the New "Dred Scott" Ruling

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 29, 2012

Defenders of the Obamacare individual mandate insist that health insurance is like mandatory car insurance: Since drivers are compelled to purchase liability insurance, why shouldn?t government force us to buy officially approved health insurance as well?

This talking point is a bit like saying that because a rose smells better than a cabbage it will also make better soup. Leaving aside the fact that no government has the legitimate authority to compel us to buy anything for any reason, it must be acknowledged that millions of people don?t buy insurance because they don't own cars.

Each of us owns him or herself, but the Regime, in presuming to compel us to participate in Obamacare, is exercising a proprietary claim over each of us. In upholding the mandate, Chief Justice John Roberts is essentially playing the same role played by Roger Taney, the Chief Justice who wrote the notorious Dred Scott ruling.  Those who insist that the Obamacare ruling is the "law of the land" are the direct intellectual descendants of those who said that Dred Scott settled the question of whether it was "constitutional" for one human being to own another.

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

The Constitution Dies so "Obamacare" May Live

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 28, 2012

Any constitution merely prolongs the pretense that political government can be limited by laws that IT will interpret. Eventually every government will embrace Lenin's ruling formula: "Power without limit, resting directly on force." How exquisitely appropriate that in the case of the socialist monstrosity called Obamacare this was done by a Bush-appointed Republican conservative.

In a 5-4 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that although the Obamacare individual health mandate is not compatible with the Constitution?s Commerce Clause, it can be authorized as part of the federal government?s apparently limitless taxing authority.

?Because the Constitution permits such a tax, it is not our role to forbid it, or to pass upon its wisdom or fairness,? wrote Roberts, deploying the feigned humility judges display whenever they ratify a federal power grab. The measure Roberts describes is a direct un-apportioned tax, which is explicitly forbidden by the Constitution ? as if such details mattered anymore.

Ironically, Obama himself rejected the idea that the mandate was a tax increase in a 2009 interview with ABC?s George Stephanopolos. Like any other proper Leninist, Obama is interested only in power, and isn?t particularly fussy about the rationale used to grab it.

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

 

Trash-Talk About Police Results in Wrong-Door SWAT Raid

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 27, 2012

Stephane Milan, an 18-year-old fromEvansville,Indiana, was watching the Food Network on the afternoon of June 21. Without warning, two flash-bang grenades were thrown into the house and a squadron of armored goons broke down the door.

Stephane and her grandmother Louise were hauled out of the home for questioning; computers and cell phones were confiscated. Neither of them had done anything wrong, and no arrests were made. The SWAT team had been deployed to arrest an unidentified individual who had posted what were described as ?specific threats? against the police in an online forum.

As Ira Milan commented, ?The front door was open. It?s not like anyone was in there hiding. To bring a SWAT team seems a little excessive.? This is especially true in light of the fact that the raid was conducted in response to an exercise in free speech by someone who apparently piggybacked the family?s Wi-Fi signal.

Yes, the department described the comments as ?threats? ? but the evidence, if any, to support that claim has been sealed. By targeting an address, rather than a suspect, the police committed an act of armed violence, rather than preventing one.

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

The Disaster of Government Employee Unions

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 26, 2012

The City ofNorth Las Vegashas declared itself an economic ?disaster area.?

?We are in a fiscal emergency,? City Council Member Wade Wagner told the Washington Post. ?North Las Vegas is ground zero ? for foreclosures in the nation?. So because our property taxes have declined so much, we really had to invoke this [emergency statute].?

Like many other municipalities, North Las Vegasspends most of its tax funding (66 percent) on ?public safety? ? meaning the police and fire department.  Absent the emergency declaration, mandatory police and fire union pay increases would mean gutting other services.  The city suspended its union contracts with the police and fire department on June 15. The police union has filed suit against the city government to prevent layoffs.

Thanks to the intervention of Sen. Harry Reid, the Justice Department?s Community Oriented Policing Services program (COPS) has announced a $1.75 million grant to the North Las Vegas Police Department.  This money will go to pay the partial salaries of 14 officers ? if the city government can wrangle $3.2 million in matching funds.

What this means is that residents will pay more for a "local" police force that is effectively controlled byWashington, and entirely unaccountable to them.

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

Yes, SWAT Teams Are Death Squads

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute 

June 25, 2012 

Mob hit man Kevin Weeks was given an order to assassinate a troublesome newspaper columnist. Weeks had the target set up for the kill, but didn't pull the trigger because his seven-year-old daughter was in danger. 

"I couldn't take a chance of the bullet fragmenting and ricocheting or hitting her or just killing her father in front of her," recalled Weeks. 

Years earlier, mob hit man Joe Barboza developed an elaborate plan to kill a fellow hoodlum targeted by a mob contract. Barboza would place incendiary bombs in the basement of the man?s home. He and three other shooters would cut the telephone lines to the house, then phone in false alarms to tie up the fire department elsewhere. Mob boss Raymond Patriarca vetoed the plan because it would have put the targeted man?s mother at risk. 

Contrast those examples with the mindset described by Gabe Suarez, who spent 12 years as a police officer in Santa Monica: ?When I was on [the] SWAT [team] our view [was] that `We will always win....even if we have to burn down your entire house by bombing it....we will win?.? 

Which variety of armed gang is the greater danger to the innocent?

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

The Law is for the Jury to Decide -- Not the Prosecutor

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 22, 2012

Police found Houston resident Israel Rangel in possession of less than a gram of cocaine ? an amount equivalent to roughly half a sugar packet. He was arrested and charged with felony narcotics possession. When prosecutors vetted potential jurors, they found that 50 of the 130 candidates said they would not vote to convict someone accused of possessing such a tiny amount of cocaine.

The jury eventually acquitted Rangel of the charge. Lou Ellen Wheeler, who served on the jury, later said that the evidence against him was weak. But as defense attorney Todd Dupont pointed out, other jurors made it clear ?they weren?t going to make somebody a felon and ruin their lives over a gram of cocaine.?

Prosecutor Julian Ramirez insisted that even though the amount involved was minuscule, possession of cocaine is a crime because ?It?s the law.? However, the jury has plenary authority to rule on both the facts and the law.

This is at least the second time a conscientious jury has nullified a foolish drug prosecution. Two years ago a Montana jury refused to convict a man for marijuana possession. Hopefully this kind of principled rebellion will become a nationwide epidemic.

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

If Only She'd Worn Her TSA Uniform....

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 20, 2012

Until recently, Carol Price was an employee of the Transportation Security Administration. She was on the receiving end of an invasive TSA groping when she went through airport security on April 20.

To protest what she considered an act of public molestation, Price performed the same procedure on a TSA supervisor. Price was arrested and charged with battery and resisting an officer. She is not the first to face prosecution for doing to a TSA screener as that agency?s employees routinely do to us.

In 2004, 62-year-old Appleton, Wisconsin resident Phyllis Dintenfass was charged with ?assaulting? a federal official after a TSA screener named Anita Gostisha felt her up.

According to Dintenfass, her reaction was to mimic the unwanted and uninvited physical contact while exclaiming, "How would you like it if I did that to you?"

She was found guilty of that purported crime and sentenced to a year of probation and 100 hours of "community service."

Victorious federal prosecutor Tim Funnell insisted that Mrs. Dintenfass "punished Anita Gostisha for doing her job." U.S. Attorney Steven Bispukic insisted that TSA screeners are "entitled to protection from assault" -- that is, they're entitled to "protection" from the same treatment they inflict on the rest of us.

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

Romney: Impeachable Even Before Being Elected

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 19, 2012

Mitt Romney may be the first presidential candidate to commit an impeachable offense before even being elected to the office he seeks.

In an interview on the CBS program Face the Nation, Romney addressed the prospect of Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

?I can assure you if I?m president, the Iranians will have no question ? that I will be willing to take military action, if necessary, to prevent them from becoming a nuclear threat to the world,? Romney told interviewer Bob Schieffer. ?I don?t believe ? if I?m president, we will need a war powers approval or special authorization for military force. The president has that capacity now.?

Given that Iran has not committed or threatened aggression against the United States, the action Romney describes would be aggressive war ? which is a crime under any applicable standard. Furthermore, by promising to order that strike without a declaration of war, Romney has pledged to commit an impeachable offense. 

Granted, Barack Obama committed the same crime when he ordered a military attack on Libya without congressional involvement of any kind. Romney, however, expressed contempt for the president?s constitutional duties even before taking the oath of office.

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

Calling Out a Killer Cop

by Will

Will Grigg?s Liberty Minute

June 18 2012

Former Marine Stanley Gibson was shot to death by police in a Las Vegas parking lot last December 12. At the time, Gibson ? who suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder ? was apparently experiencing a panic attack. Although police had been told that two men had attempted to break into a nearby condo earlier that evening, Gibson was not a criminal suspect.

Gibson?s car was pinned in by two police vehicles. When he refused to exit, the officers devised a plan to force him out: One would shoot out a windshield with a beanbag round, and another would incapacitate him with pepper spray. After the windshield was shattered, Officer Jesus Arevalo modified the plan by shooting him seven times in the back of head with his AR-15 rifle.

Arevalo was placed on administrative leave ? that is, paid vacation. Gibson?s widow, Rhonda, has been left destitute. To relieve the financial burden of the widow of a fellow Marine, Steve Sanson, president of Veterans in Politics International, has challenged Arevalo ? who is a competitive amateur fighter -- to a refereed mixed martial arts match.

This is at least the second time a challenge of this kind has been made to an abusive cop. Hopefully this will become a trend.

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

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