By Nathan Barton
Good morning. My first subject today is one I seem to go back to a lot: Criminals in uniform: America is occupied and terrorized more and more by cops.
The latest example of the perfidity and greed of America’s police forces comes from a location where a cop dressed as Donald Duck was part of a trap for drivers to get them to drive through a marked crosswalk, resulting in tickets with more than $30,000 in fines in one day. This is not the first time such a stunt has been pulled, and it goes along with a lot of other actions that have little to do with serving the public (except figuratively with an apple in their mouth).
More and more information is coming out IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA about the vicious evil of “civil asset forfeiture” and how it lets cops conduct highway robbery, steal homes and money and vehicles, and even create shopping lists for corrupt and evil prosecutors and judges to help them fill. One more police power which seems to me to be starkly unconstitutional as well as immoral, which has become a “minor nuisance” (except to those who are the victims of police) to a national epidemic of lawlessness by those who supposedly are upholding the law.
The WaPo actually challenges police in Columbus, Ohio, who shot and wounded two people by blindling shooting through a door after the cop got his hand caught in the closing door, and another case where the Nazgul decided that the cops did NOT have a “right” (power) to enter a fenced yard to follow up a tip on “guns” being seen in a vehicle that wasn’t even at the house – and then killed the family’s dog.
But just because the WaPo is coming out now and then in favor of liberty and against cops, doesn’t mean that the mainstream press does not support the tyranny of the 21st Century police state.
On to other news:
Last year, a bunch of firefighters died in West, Texas, when a large stockpile of ammonium nitrate (primarily a fertilizer) caught fire and exploded (normally, ammonium nitrate must be mixed with fuel oil to form ANFO, a very common explosive). For some reason, NIOSH and NOT the Chemical Safety Board, has issued a report including recommendations for local agencies and facilities who have ammonium nitrate. It is, in my professional opinion, a joke: I have so far red only the summary, but the list of findings and recommendations could have been written by someone with no more experience that a 40-hour HAZWOPER class or a rookie firefighter. Why do we need a PhD (actually a whole herd of them) to teach us the basics? The circumstances and errors that killed those men was clear at the time it happened. This report was a waste of stolen money. (NIOSH: National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, HAZWOPER: Hazardous waste operations and emergency response.)
In a surprising move, a federal appeals court has UPHELD the Florida law that tells doctors they may NOT ask whether or not people have guns in their homes and may not lecture their patients on the evils of owning and having a gun. I find myself with mixed thoughts on this. If my own doctor tried to do this to me or my family, I’d tell him or her it is NONE of his business and might think seriously of finding another doctor if he or she persisted. BUT the government has no business telling me what my doctor and I can talk about. I understand the anger that led to this law, but they are wrongheaded to pass it. The root of the problem is poor education and training of doctors, and too many people pushing their own agendas on the rest of us. This is a bandaid hiding a deeper infection.
Mama’s Note: I’ll have to differ with you on the “root” cause here. The real problem is that people are no longer in charge of the doctor/patient relationship, mostly because they have never taken personal responsibility for their lives or safety to begin with. They are conditioned to defer to “authority” and to expect government to protect them, even from itself. The doctors have been well educated in THAT for a very long time. Nobody can push an agenda on someone who thinks for themselves.
Well, they’ve gone and done it now. First a wrong diagnosis, and then bringing the man to the states. The African doctor with US ties that was flown to Nebraska has died: the disease was too far gone. Several hundred thousands of dollars spent in the effort, and many more people exposed. Was he brought here (allowed to be brought) only because someone was willing to shell out the money? Or for other reasons? It seems that with the elections over, no one seems to care much. Was this an attempt to revitalize our fears?
The National Center for Policy Analysis examines the ACA’s (ObummerCare’s) broken promises this week. They ask, have insurance premiums fallen by up to $2,500 for the typical family, as the president promised would happen under Obamacare? Nope. In reality, family premiums for employer-offered plans have increased by an average of nearly $3,500 since 2009. And next year, the ante goes up still more.
In Texas, a legislator has introduced a bill to make all FedGov gun laws invalid and unenforceable. Now, this is not too bad, but it is a LONG WAYS from L. Neil Smith’s “Bill of Rights Enforcement (BORE)Act.” It is needlessly complicated, really DOES NOT have the teeth the writer in Freedom Outpost claims for it, and of course addresses only ONE of the Ten Articles in the Bill of Rights. For one thing, teeth means TEETH: Something on the order of “any action by one or more individuals, whether acting individually or as agents of the Federal Government, or in any military capacity, which is an attempt to enforce any federal law pertaining to keeping or bearing arms, shall be guilty of a first-degree felony, subject to 5 to 99 years in a state prison and/or a fine of not more than $10,000.” Together with something to the effect of “Any citizen or lawful resident of Texas who uses deadly force in defending himself or a family member from any attempt to enforce any federal law pertaining to keeping or bearing arms, shall be considered to be acting in self-defense, barring any aggravating circumstances.” The part about “law-abiding citizen” also bugs me: just because someone was driving 65 in a 55 mph zone, or failed to file an income tax return on time does NOT justify stealing his or her weapons.
Mama’s Note: When people start talking about the “law abiding,” I always ask them which “laws?” These are the only laws that qualify:
1. No human being has the right (authority) to initiate force against another human being under any circumstances, nor to delegate such initiation of force.
2. Every human being has the absolute right (authority) to defend his/her (and others) life by whatever means necessary.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.
The Price of Liberty 
Libertarian Commentary on the News #14-47B: Criminals in uniform and other home front problems
By Nathan Barton
Good morning. My first subject today is one I seem to go back to a lot: Criminals in uniform: America is occupied and terrorized more and more by cops.
The latest example of the perfidity and greed of America’s police forces comes from a location where a cop dressed as Donald Duck was part of a trap for drivers to get them to drive through a marked crosswalk, resulting in tickets with more than $30,000 in fines in one day. This is not the first time such a stunt has been pulled, and it goes along with a lot of other actions that have little to do with serving the public (except figuratively with an apple in their mouth).
More and more information is coming out IN THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA about the vicious evil of “civil asset forfeiture” and how it lets cops conduct highway robbery, steal homes and money and vehicles, and even create shopping lists for corrupt and evil prosecutors and judges to help them fill. One more police power which seems to me to be starkly unconstitutional as well as immoral, which has become a “minor nuisance” (except to those who are the victims of police) to a national epidemic of lawlessness by those who supposedly are upholding the law.
The WaPo actually challenges police in Columbus, Ohio, who shot and wounded two people by blindling shooting through a door after the cop got his hand caught in the closing door, and another case where the Nazgul decided that the cops did NOT have a “right” (power) to enter a fenced yard to follow up a tip on “guns” being seen in a vehicle that wasn’t even at the house – and then killed the family’s dog.
But just because the WaPo is coming out now and then in favor of liberty and against cops, doesn’t mean that the mainstream press does not support the tyranny of the 21st Century police state.
On to other news:
Last year, a bunch of firefighters died in West, Texas, when a large stockpile of ammonium nitrate (primarily a fertilizer) caught fire and exploded (normally, ammonium nitrate must be mixed with fuel oil to form ANFO, a very common explosive). For some reason, NIOSH and NOT the Chemical Safety Board, has issued a report including recommendations for local agencies and facilities who have ammonium nitrate. It is, in my professional opinion, a joke: I have so far red only the summary, but the list of findings and recommendations could have been written by someone with no more experience that a 40-hour HAZWOPER class or a rookie firefighter. Why do we need a PhD (actually a whole herd of them) to teach us the basics? The circumstances and errors that killed those men was clear at the time it happened. This report was a waste of stolen money. (NIOSH: National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health, HAZWOPER: Hazardous waste operations and emergency response.)
In a surprising move, a federal appeals court has UPHELD the Florida law that tells doctors they may NOT ask whether or not people have guns in their homes and may not lecture their patients on the evils of owning and having a gun. I find myself with mixed thoughts on this. If my own doctor tried to do this to me or my family, I’d tell him or her it is NONE of his business and might think seriously of finding another doctor if he or she persisted. BUT the government has no business telling me what my doctor and I can talk about. I understand the anger that led to this law, but they are wrongheaded to pass it. The root of the problem is poor education and training of doctors, and too many people pushing their own agendas on the rest of us. This is a bandaid hiding a deeper infection.
Mama’s Note: I’ll have to differ with you on the “root” cause here. The real problem is that people are no longer in charge of the doctor/patient relationship, mostly because they have never taken personal responsibility for their lives or safety to begin with. They are conditioned to defer to “authority” and to expect government to protect them, even from itself. The doctors have been well educated in THAT for a very long time. Nobody can push an agenda on someone who thinks for themselves.
Well, they’ve gone and done it now. First a wrong diagnosis, and then bringing the man to the states. The African doctor with US ties that was flown to Nebraska has died: the disease was too far gone. Several hundred thousands of dollars spent in the effort, and many more people exposed. Was he brought here (allowed to be brought) only because someone was willing to shell out the money? Or for other reasons? It seems that with the elections over, no one seems to care much. Was this an attempt to revitalize our fears?
The National Center for Policy Analysis examines the ACA’s (ObummerCare’s) broken promises this week. They ask, have insurance premiums fallen by up to $2,500 for the typical family, as the president promised would happen under Obamacare? Nope. In reality, family premiums for employer-offered plans have increased by an average of nearly $3,500 since 2009. And next year, the ante goes up still more.
In Texas, a legislator has introduced a bill to make all FedGov gun laws invalid and unenforceable. Now, this is not too bad, but it is a LONG WAYS from L. Neil Smith’s “Bill of Rights Enforcement (BORE)Act.” It is needlessly complicated, really DOES NOT have the teeth the writer in Freedom Outpost claims for it, and of course addresses only ONE of the Ten Articles in the Bill of Rights. For one thing, teeth means TEETH: Something on the order of “any action by one or more individuals, whether acting individually or as agents of the Federal Government, or in any military capacity, which is an attempt to enforce any federal law pertaining to keeping or bearing arms, shall be guilty of a first-degree felony, subject to 5 to 99 years in a state prison and/or a fine of not more than $10,000.” Together with something to the effect of “Any citizen or lawful resident of Texas who uses deadly force in defending himself or a family member from any attempt to enforce any federal law pertaining to keeping or bearing arms, shall be considered to be acting in self-defense, barring any aggravating circumstances.” The part about “law-abiding citizen” also bugs me: just because someone was driving 65 in a 55 mph zone, or failed to file an income tax return on time does NOT justify stealing his or her weapons.
Mama’s Note: When people start talking about the “law abiding,” I always ask them which “laws?” These are the only laws that qualify:
1. No human being has the right (authority) to initiate force against another human being under any circumstances, nor to delegate such initiation of force.
2. Every human being has the absolute right (authority) to defend his/her (and others) life by whatever means necessary.
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About TPOL Nathan
Follower of Christ Jesus (a christian), Pahasapan (resident of the Black Hills), Westerner, Lover of Liberty, Free-Market Anarchist, Engineer, Army Officer, Husband, Father, Historian, Writer, Evangelist. Successor to Lady Susan (Mama Liberty) at TPOL.