Outrage: Another disgusting example of Federal tyranny

"There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in the country. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel." 
 --Franklin P. Adams, 1881-1960

The leader of a group that marketed a fake currency called Liberty Dollars in the Asheville area and elsewhere has been found guilty by a federal jury of conspiracy against the government in a case of “domestic terrorism.”


Bernard von NotHaus was convicted Friday at the conclusion of an eight-day trial in U.S. District Court in Statesville. The jury deliberated less than two hours, according to the Department of Justice.


Charges remain pending against William Kevin Innes, an Asheville man who authorities said recruited merchants in Western North Carolina willing to accept the “barter” currency, according to court records. Innes was indicted along with von NotHaus in 2009.


“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,” U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said. “While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.”

Rest of the article at the Asheville Citizen-Times


Most of the comments after the article are heartening.  


Here are some observations:


1. I find it difficult to believe that a jury would convict a man of this "crime" without a lot of information about law and their ability to nullify an unjust law being purposefully blocked from them by the U.S. attorney and federal judge.  The information fed to the jury is so selective that they feel they have no choice to convict.


2.  Look at the coins in question:  they have the appearance of many currently manufactured gold and silver rounds, used to trade in bullion at near-melt value prices.  These coins purported to be nothing more than gold and silver rounds of a certain value.


3. Consumers and business owners are free to choose what they consider "money".  
Money is nothing but a promise of future value.  It represents something that a merchant is willing to exchange with a buyer for his goods, if he believes that he, at some future time, can exchange that "money" for something he wants to buy.  That can be seashells, bushels of wheat, pounds of salt, quantities of copper, silver, or gold, or just pieces of paper.  All such matter for exchange is based on faith.  Because of the portability and usefulness of both gold and silver, humans have returned again and again to it's use as "money".  The purity of the metals determine their estimated value in paper money.


4. The most outrageous statement that I have heard uttered by an officer of the federal government recently:


“Attempts to undermine the legitimate currency of this country are simply a unique form of domestic terrorism,” U.S. Attorney Anne Tompkins said.  “While these forms of anti-government activities do not involve violence, they are every bit as insidious and represent a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country.”


Talk about a stretch, this is an outrage!


If a farmer takes feed in exchange for milk, is he also a clear and present danger to the economic stability of this country?


If a Niagra Falls, NY vendor accepts Canadian currency to buy goods in his store, is he participating in a unique form of domestic terrorism?


Using gold and silver at current melt weight to exchange for goods and services is part of our Natural Right to Property.  Do we or do we not own the fruit of our labor?  Are we to be arbitrarily dictated to by the Federal Reserve, that by its own admission, purposefully devalues the dollar it is supposed to suppport?  As each dollar is devalued by the Federal digital printing press, it undermines our ability to save their so-called "money" that they demand a monopoly to counterfeit.  If you have $1000 in the bank, and the price of gas goes from $3/gallon up to $4/gallon, and the price of bread goes up 30% in a year because of several factors, your savings will buy less and less when you want to use it.  Meanwhile silver and gold will go up in dollar value when each dollar is devalued by the government, and is therefore a better means of "savings".


The Federal government's own actions in this matter are creating an environment of hostility and outrage of the citizenry, and are their own worst enemy.  They have a monopoly of their own "unique" non violent "domestic terrorism";  their actions in devaluing the dollar is its own "clear and present danger" to the existing Federal system of government.

79 year old Jury nullification activist cant be brought to heel...

A true activist, a man with real cojones, Julian Heicklen:

Feisty jury nullification activist Julian Heicklen, a 79-year-old former chemistry professor, is facing federal charges of jury tampering up in New York for the act of handing out pamphlets advocating the power and responsibility of juries to judge the law as well as the facts (that is, to acquit if they think a law is unjust even if they think a defendent violated that law).

But his attempts to get arrested again for violating Judge Belvin Perry's ban on nullification pamphleteering near his courthouse in Orlando have so far failed. He's violated the order, but no one's arrested him.

read more here 

Fully Informed Jury Association FIJA:

"The primary function of the independent juror is not, as many think, to dispense punishment to fellow citizens accused of breaking various laws, but rather to protect fellow citizens from tyrannical abuses of power by the government.  The Constitution guarantees you the right to trial by jury.  This means that government must bring its case before a jury of The People if government wants to deprive any person of life, liberty, or property.  Jurors can say no to government tyranny by refusing to convict."

Quote of the Day 3/17

THEOPHILUS PARSONS (2 Elliot's Debates, 94; 2 Bancroft's History of the Constitution, p. 267): "The people themselves have it in their power effectually to resist usurpation, without being driven to an appeal to arms. An act of usurpation is not obligatory; it is not law; and any man may be justified in his resistance. Let him be considered as a criminal by the general government, yet only his fellow citizens can convict him; they are his jury, and if they pronounce him innocent, not all the powers of Congress can hurt him; and innocent they certainly will pronounce him, if the supposed law he resisted was an act of usurpation." 

(Parsons was a leading supporter of the Constitution in the convention of 1788. He declined President Adams' nomination to be Attorney General and became Chief Justice of Massachusetts).

League of the South on Jessie Jackson

Jesse Jackson and the Confederate Agenda

14 March 2011

Jesse Jackson accused Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker of having a "Confederate agenda" in his recent dealings with labor unions and the State budget crisis.

The League of the South calls upon Mr. Jackson to define what he means by a "Confederate agenda," beyond general accusations of anti-labor, anti-civil rights, anti-voting rights, and pro-States Rights sentiments.

"It is clear," said League President Michael Hill, "that Jesse Jackson loves centralized power as long as it benefits him and his liberal constituency. We see that as a "Union agenda" in more ways than one. If by a Confederate agenda, he means a belief in local self-government, the rule of a fundamental law, State right-to-work laws, free markets, and the consent of the governed, then we proudly claim such a position. And we hope that a northern Governor like Scott Walker will continue to see the wisdom of doing the same."

League of the South post here

Quote of the Day 3/16

'''Rise like Lions after slumber
In unvanquishable number,
Shake your chains to earth like dew
Which in sleep had fallen on you—
Ye are many—they are few.'' 

Percy Bysshe Shelley 1792-1822

Broken window fallacy in Japan

It takes a crisis, such as the financial meltdown in 2008, to rally support for a Keynesian style fiscal stimulus.

It takes another kind of crisis, specifically the earthquake and tsunami that devastated the northeastern coast of Japan last week, to expose the Keynesian fallacy that the government can spend its way to prosperity.

For that reason, Acts of God provide a teaching moment. They make the distinction between spending and wealth so blatantly obvious that even the most dyed-in-the-wool believer in the value of digging holes and filling them up will be hard pressed to deny it.

Bloomberg article here

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Frederic Bastiat in 1850 France:

Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son happened to break a pane of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation—"It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?"

Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.

Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier's trade—that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs—I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.

But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, "Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen."

It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.

Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas (1850)

 

Quote(s) of the Day 3/15

"For somehow this is tyranny's disease, to trust no friends."

"Death is better, a milder fate than tyranny."

Aeschylus 525-456 BC 

Quote of the Day 3/14

U.S. v. DOUGHERTY, 473 F.2d. 1113, 1139 (1972): "The pages of history shine on instances of the jury's exercise of its prerogative to disregard instructions of the judge...."

Update: kidney stone was more fun.

Ok, so I got T-boned by a guy going 50 mph. He went through the red light. Airbags went off. When I came to in the car, heard animal like grunting noises. After a few seconds, I realized the sounds were coming from me. That's when I realized I was in a world of sh*t.

Then I smelled and saw smoke coming up at me from my dash. I thought, "no way I'm catching on fire" so I tried my caved in door-- jammed. I pulled my legs out from the steering wheel and shakily over the middle column, and out the other door. Some good Samaritans stopped and helped me to the ground. It was pouring rain, and I soaked to the skin in cold water. The people around me, all strangers, covered me with coats, blankets, called my wife, and called the ambulance.

In the hospital, they found bruises up my left side, lung contusion, torn left kidney, bleeding adrenal, internal bleeding, and concern was raised for an injury to the wall of the aorta.

My wife and transferred to the university hospital. The angiogram was negative, thank G-d. My internal bleeding stopped. They decided I could eat (43 hours without), and get out of bed.

I was later sent home. Stiff, bruised, sore to cough, but feeling lucky and thankful to G-d.

Then, last evening, I sneezed suddenly and was introduced to a whole new world of pain; I think I broke a couple of weakened ribs with the sneeze. Passing my kidney stone a few weeks ago was piece of cake compared to the new rib pain.

Anyone got suggestions for dealing with rib fractures?

Thank you for your kind comments and suggestions.