24 February 2012
23 February 2012
The Feds know better than you what you should put in your body: e.g. Milk
My great uncle, my maternal grandfather's brother, died at 18 months old, so the family legend goes, from drinking tainted milk. I have stood above the little gravestone with a carved lamb on top, thinking about the 1920's, and felt grateful for widespread use of Pasteurization.
My political philosophy has since evolved. While it is obvious to me that pasteurized milk is a good thing, it is also obvious to me that government has no business telling me or anyone else what they can and cannot put in our bodies. (Qualification: While someone is entirely reliant on the .gov for income, living expenses, and the like, the .gov should have some say--but this is likely an incompetent individual. If reliance on the .gov is temporary, as soon as the person is self sufficient, the gov holds no sway over what that person ingests.)
I choose to drink pasteurized milk. I would appreciate the ability to drink fresh milk, if I trusted the source.
Washington Times:
The federal government said Tuesday that fresh milk is 150 times more dangerous than pasteurized milk — a finding that bolsters the government’s argument as it goes after farmers who sell unpasteurized milk across state lines.
After a 13-year review, the taxpayer-funded Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said states where so-called “raw milk” is available had twice the rate of dairy-related disease outbreaks as states where those sales are banned.
And disease outbreaks from fresh milk are more serious in nature, according to the study, which found 200 out of 239 hospitalizations during the study stemmed from cases of fresh milk.
(Note well: 239 hospitalizations over 13 years in a country of 350 million. Aren't you glad your tax money went to support such important work? Why the heck doesn't anyone focus on this fact?)
“Restricting the sale of raw milk products is likely to reduce the number of outbreaks and can help keep people healthier,” said Dr. Robert Tauxe, director of CDC’s division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases. “The states that allow sale of raw milk will probably continue to see outbreaks in the future.”
Fresh milk devotees say pasteurization — the process of heating food to kill off bacteria — removes some of the health benefits of milk (Probiotics--healthy bacteria for your gut), and argue that when consumers know their suppliers, diseases from raw milk are not an issue.
Link
Health Impact News Daily:
The Power of Numbers in the War Over Raw Dairy–How the CDC Came to Admit a Death Wasn’t Categorized Correctly
In this age of the Internet, it’s amazing how quickly certain statistics can catch on.
Take the statistic I came up with in my Feb. 11 post, after having assessed data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control–that there have been on average 39 illnesses from raw milk cheese between 2000 and 2008. It’s the first time I’m aware of that anyone has presented the data that way.
Within days, National Public Radio had a story about the controversy over raw milk cheese, and included this statement, “On average, about 40 people report getting sick from raw milk cheese a year nationwide, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.” The idea was to suggest that raw milk cheese doesn’t seem to present a huge public health problem.(40/350000000--a really small %, should be irrelevant even to a collectivist, no? And yet we are pushed...)
There’s another related number that has been around much longer, and it’s this: Between 1998 and 2008, there have been two deaths from raw milk. This number comes up repeatedly in media reporting about raw milk, courtesy of the CDC, even though I have reported that those illnesses appear to have come from queso fresco cheese, a soft fresh cheese that isn’t legal under FDA regulations requiring a minimum 60 day aging period.
The CDC hasn’t responded…till now. It all came about as a result of an inquiry made by Mark McAfee, the owner of Organic Pastures Dairy Co., in December, when he challenged claims on the Centers for Disease Control web site stating that raw milk is dangerous. The agency actually agreed to make some slight changes to its language on the site, but when he inquired about statistics concerning raw milk illnesses in California, an official with the agency’s Division of Foodborne, Waterborne and Parasitic Diseases, Janell Routh, stated in part. “From 1998-2008, more outbreaks associated with unpasteurized dairy in California than in any other state (13). There was 1 death reported in that time, from Salmonella Typhimurium.”
McAfee expressed surprise about the death. The state wasn’t reporting it, he said. His requests to Dr. Routh for more information went unanswered. Finally, he threatened to file a Freedom of Information Act request.
An answer came back last week from an unnamed official of the CDC’s information office (cdcinfo@cdc.gov): “The death mentioned in an earlier email was from an unpasteurized dairy product, queso fresco, made from raw milk.”
Link
Infowars.com:
The vaccine-pushing, disease scare-mongering agency known as the CDC has put out a stunning piece of propaganda attacking fresh milk (raw dairy), claiming it is “150 times more dangerous” than pasteurized milk. This is all part of their anti-American agenda to crush food freedom and criminalize fundamental farming practices upon which this very nation was founded. (Yes, George Washington and the founding fathers drank raw milk, grew hemp and even smoked a little weed as medicine.)
But what the CDC won’t dare reveal to the public is the far more horrifying truth: Pasteurized dairy is produced in the dirtiest milk factories imaginable, where blood, pus, e.coli and other truly dangerous pathogens are routinely bottled into milk containers and fed to consumers.
That’s the whole point of pasteurization, you see: To kill everything that might be alive in their ultra-dirty milk. The real purpose of pasteurization is not to simply “make milk safe” as is claimed by the CDC, but rather to allow the dairy industry to operate DIRTY. It’s so much easier to just cook the crap out of the milk (yes, there’s fecal matter in it) than to clean up their operations, get it?
Link
21 February 2012
![The Greatest Gun Salesman In America: President Barack Obama [INFOGRAPHIC]](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_ttkFXcU46kQFqGpO_FEk2qniX77jGfGkcJmIygxD5zJ1pD7t7r2WOIFj4n9_1_HMQv286BEMOZ9z4Jp2HehtUbk0uavPjiQokLZvGe8syrGv-sTt0m-Ffo0Sf8B5NxZAwCA1q-xFn4LQseqd-bB3TEN-DEmeUd26GgKH1VTLCdwdFWZWTo=s0-d)
15 February 2012
Joke of the day, 2/15
Forwarded in a mass email:
Funny'Guy goes into a bar in Louisiana where there's a robot bartender!
The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey." The robot brings back his drink and says to the man, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "168."The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space, exploration andmedical technology.The guy leaves, . . . but he is curious . . . So he goes back intothe bar.
The robot bartender says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey."Again, the robot brings the man his drink and says, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "100."The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser, the Saints and LSUTigersThe guy leaves, but finds this very interesting, so he thinks he will try itone more time.He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, "What will you have?"The guy says, "Whiskey," and the robot brings him his whiskey.The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "Uh, about 50."The robot leans in real close and says,"So, . . . you people still happy with Barack Obama?"
Funny'Guy goes into a bar in Louisiana where there's a robot bartender!
The robot says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey." The robot brings back his drink and says to the man, "What's your IQ?" The guy says, "168."The robot then proceeds to talk about physics, space, exploration andmedical technology.The guy leaves, . . . but he is curious . . . So he goes back intothe bar.
The robot bartender says, "What will you have?" The guy says, "Whiskey."Again, the robot brings the man his drink and says, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "100."The robot then starts to talk about Nascar, Budweiser, the Saints and LSUTigersThe guy leaves, but finds this very interesting, so he thinks he will try itone more time.He goes back into the bar.
The robot says, "What will you have?"The guy says, "Whiskey," and the robot brings him his whiskey.The robot then says, "What's your IQ?"The guy says, "Uh, about 50."The robot leans in real close and says,"So, . . . you people still happy with Barack Obama?"
14 February 2012
Judge Napolitano's last broadcast on Freedom Watch
I, for one, will really really miss this show.
Godspeed, Judge.
Currency debasement continues apace -- now pennies and nickels
The effects of decades of government policy:
Constitutionally mandated silver and gold gives way to worthless paper money. The founders knew the difference between sound money and "legal tender". One is always money. The other is an IOU based on the faith of the IOU holder--lose faith, the IOU is worthless.
Pocket change changes from silver to copper, steel, nickel, and now zinc.
Obama's new budget as of yesterday:
Obama wants to change the composition of nickels and pennies to save money. The president’s budget would give the Treasury Department the ability to “change the composition of coins to more cost-effective materials,” pointing out the current cost of making the penny is 2.4 cents and the nickel is 11.2 cents. Of course, the value of the U.S. dollar isn’t pegged to the materials that it’s composed of, but it’s still a compelling argument on its face. The composition of U.S. coins hasn’t changed since 1981, the Wall Street Journal notes, while major components like zinc have become more expensive. Industry lobbyists stalled the proposal when Obama brought it up in 2010, but it may have new appeal to the frugally-minded.
Link
I had previously posted on saving nickels for this reason.
Gresham's Law: Gresham's law is an economic principle "which states that when government compulsorily overvalues one money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation." It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good", but is more accurately stated: "Bad money drives out good if their exchange rate is set by law."
coinflation.com
Constitutionally mandated silver and gold gives way to worthless paper money. The founders knew the difference between sound money and "legal tender". One is always money. The other is an IOU based on the faith of the IOU holder--lose faith, the IOU is worthless.
Pocket change changes from silver to copper, steel, nickel, and now zinc.
Obama's new budget as of yesterday:
Obama wants to change the composition of nickels and pennies to save money. The president’s budget would give the Treasury Department the ability to “change the composition of coins to more cost-effective materials,” pointing out the current cost of making the penny is 2.4 cents and the nickel is 11.2 cents. Of course, the value of the U.S. dollar isn’t pegged to the materials that it’s composed of, but it’s still a compelling argument on its face. The composition of U.S. coins hasn’t changed since 1981, the Wall Street Journal notes, while major components like zinc have become more expensive. Industry lobbyists stalled the proposal when Obama brought it up in 2010, but it may have new appeal to the frugally-minded.
Link
I had previously posted on saving nickels for this reason.
Gresham's Law: Gresham's law is an economic principle "which states that when government compulsorily overvalues one money and undervalues another, the undervalued money will leave the country or disappear into hoards, while the overvalued money will flood into circulation." It is commonly stated as: "Bad money drives out good", but is more accurately stated: "Bad money drives out good if their exchange rate is set by law."
coinflation.com
13 February 2012
Revelation: Faith of the Fallen by Terry Goodkind
Background: Copied below is a chapter excerpt from a fantasy series of books. I decided to read it when I heard that the author, Terry Goodkind, integrated some of Ayn Rand's philosophy into his books. As I read this chapter recently, it reminded me of the current state of the patriot movement, and gave me pause.
Those of us in the patriot blogosphere have a passion for liberty and the US Constitution. We are very worried about the direction of the country, and feel that the time is coming for active resistance against those authorities who would infringe upon the Natural Rights of the citizens of this country.
We are becoming impoverished because of governmental policy. The government is a "gang of thieves writ large". The legislative and executive branches continue to shred the bill of rights. Both major parties are "different wings of the same bird of prey", preying on Liberty and Prosperity.
The Congress does not represent the people.
The Federal Reserve works in lockstep with global banking concerns, without regard to the impact of their policies on the American taxpayer (the productive part of our nation, in other words).
The Executive claws more and more power for that branch of government, the Congress is a lapdog. The President of the United States is many times more powerful than King George the IIIrd.
It is now legal to indefinitely detain American citizens, or kill them, anywhere in the world, without due process. No writ of habeas corpus. No right to legal representation, to face one's accuser, or present a defense. Just accusation, declaration of "enemy combatant", and disappear.
So what does a person who values his freedom do? Lots of choices: wring your hands, shrug and watch TV, protest with a sign, vote for a certain candidate, don't vote at all (in protest), passively attack the regime (go Galt, pay little or no taxes, and drop off the grid, or overtly attack the regime in words or deeds. These are among the many choices.
I have had a conundrum for a long time -- What kind of action? When? How? What should my tipping point be to switch from a blogger sneering at the TSA and homeschooling my kids in Austrian Economics to something else? My wife and kids depend on me in many ways.
The number of threepers (i.e. proactive patriots) is small, I think. A few hundred, a thousand or two. I'm sure there are sympathetic currently serving military who take the Constitutional Oath seriously as well.
But how many?
A few thousands (out of 350,000,000) inclined to become active to try to reverse the Tyranny now becoming very real in America. A few thousand is very few in the scheme of things. I don't know how many hits per day the most popular patriot sites get, but I wonder about it often-- how many of us appreciate the loss of Liberty and profoundly understand what opposes us, and what we must do.
Read the whole passage below. The boldface is what I thought was most relevant to our current situation.
------------------------
A portion of Chapter 2, Faith of the Fallen, Book 6 of the Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind
"Revelation." She wished she could manage more than a hoarse whisper.
"And what form did this vision revelation thing take?"
"Understanding."
Kahlan stared up at him. "Understanding of what?"
He started buttoning his shirt. "Through this realization I've come to understand the larger picture. I've come to understand what it is I must do."
"Yes," Cara muttered, "and wait until you hear it. Go ahead, tell her."
Richard glared at Cara and she answered him in kind. His attention finally returned to Kahlan.
"If I lead us into this war, we will lose. A great many people will die for nothing. The result will be a world enslaved by the Imperial Order. If I don't lead our side in battle, the world will still fall under the shadow of the Order but far fewer people will die. Only in that way will we ever stand a chance."
"By losing? You want to lose first, and then fight?. . How can we even consider abandoning the fight for freedom?"
"Anderith helped teach me a lesson," he said. His voice was restrained, as if he regretted what he was saying. "I can't press this war. Freedom requires effort if it is to be won and vigilance if it is to be maintained.
People just don't value freedom until it's taken away."
"But many do," Kahlan objected.
"There are always some, but most don't even understand it, nor do they care to-the same as with magic. People mindlessly shrink from it, too, without seeing the truth. The Order offers them a world without magic and ready-made answers to everything. Servitude is simple. I thought that I could convince people of the value of their own lives, and of liberty. In Anderith they showed me just how foolish I had been."
"Anderith is just one place-"
"Anderith was not remarkable. Look at all the trouble we've had elsewhere. We're having trouble even here, where I grew up." Richard began tucking in his shirt. "Forcing people to fight for freedom is the worst kind of contradiction.
"Nothing I can say will inspire people to care-I've tried. Those who value liberty will have to run, to hide, to try to survive and endure what is sure to come. I can't prevent it. I can't help them. I know that now."
"But Richard, how can you even think of-"
'I must do what is best for us. I must be selfish; life is far too precious to be casually squandered on useless causes. There can be no greater evil than that. People can only be saved from the coming dark age of subjugation and servitude if they, too, come to understand and care about the value of their own lives, their freedom, and are willing to act in their own interest. We must try to stay alive in the hope that such a day will come."
"But we can prevail in this war. We must."
"Do you think that I can just go off and lead men into war, and because I wish it, we will win? We won't. It takes more than my wishing it. It will take vast numbers of people fully committed to the cause. We don't have that. If we throw our forces against the Order, we will be destroyed and any chance for winning freedom in the future will be forever lost." He raked his fingers back through his hair. "We must not lead our forces against the army of the Order."
He turned to pulling his black, open-sided tunic on over his head.
Kahlan struggled to give force to her voice, to the magnitude of her concern.
"But what about all those who are prepared to fight-all the armies already in the field? There are good men, able men, ready to go against Jagang and stop his Imperial Order and drive them back to the Old World. Who will lead our men?"
"Lead them to what? Death? They can't win."
Kahlan was horrified. She reached up and snatched his shirtsleeve before he could lean down to retrieve his broad over-belt. "Richard, you're only saying this, walking away from the struggle, because of what happened to me."
"No. I had already decided it that same night, before you were attacked. When I went out alone for a walk, after the vote, I did a lot of thinking. I came to this realization and made up my mind. What happened to you made no difference except to prove the point that I'm right and should have figured it out sooner. If I had, you would never have been hurt."
"But if the Mother Confessor had not been hurt, you would have felt better by morning and changed your mind."
Light coming through the doorway behind him lit in a blaze of gold the ancient symbols coiled along the squared edges of his tunic. "Cara, what would happen if I'd been attacked with her, and we had both been killed?
What would you all do then?"
"I don't know."
"That is why I withdraw. You are all following me, not participating in a struggle for your own future. Your answer should have been that you would all fight on for yourselves, for your freedom. I have come to understand the mistake I've made in this, and to see that we cannot win in this way. The Order is too large an opponent."
Kahlan's father, King Wyborn, had taught her about fighting against such odds, and she had practical experience at it. "Their army may outnumber ours, but that doesn't make it impossible. We just have to outthink them. I will be there to help you, Richard. We have seasoned officers. We can do it.
We must."
"Look how the Order's cause spreads on words that sound good"-Richard swept out an arm-"even to distant places like this. We know beyond doubt the evil of the Order, yet people everywhere passionately side with them despite the ghastly truth of everything the Imperial Order stands for."
"Richard," Kahlan whispered, trying not to lose what was left of her voice, "I led those young Galean recruits against an army of experienced Order soldiers who greatly outnumbered us, and we prevailed."
"Exactly. They had just seen their home city after the Order had been there. Everyone they loved had been murdered, everything they knew had been destroyed. Those men fought with an understanding of what they were doing and why. They were going to throw themselves at the enemy with or without you commanding them. But they were the only ones, and even though they succeeded, most of them were killed in the struggle."
Kahlan was incredulous. "So you are going to let the Order do the same elsewhere so as to give people a reason to fight? You are going to stand aside and let the Order slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people?
"You want to quit because I was hurt. Dear spirits, I love you Richard, but don't do this to me. I'm the Mother Confessor; I'm responsible for the lives of the people of the Midlands. Don't do this because of what happened to me."
Richard snapped on his leather-padded silver wristbands. "I'm not doing this because of what happened to you. I'm helping save those lives in the only way that has a chance. I'm doing the only thing I can do."
"You are doing the easy thing," Cara said.
Richard met her challenge with quiet sincerity. "Cara, I'm doing the hardest thing I have ever had to do."
Kahlan was sure now that their rejection by the Anderith people had hit him harder than she had realized. She caught two of his fingers and squeezed sympathetically. He had put his heart into sparing those people from enslavement by the Order. He had tried to show them the value of freedom by allowing them the freedom to choose their own destiny. He had put his faith in their hands.
In a crushing defeat, an enormous majority had spurned all he had offered, and in so doing devastated that faith.
Kahlan thought that perhaps with some time to heal, the same as with her, the pain would fade for him, too. "You can't hold yourself to blame for the fall of Anderith, Richard. You did your best. It wasn't your fault."
He picked up his big leather over-belt with its gold-worked pouches and cinched it over the magnificent tunic.
"When you're the leader, everything is your fault."
Kahlan knew the truth of that. She thought to dissuade him by taking a different tack.
"What form did this vision assume?"
Richard's piercing gray eyes locked on her, almost in warning.
"Vision, revelation, realization, postulation, prophecy. . understanding-call it what you will, for in this they are all in one the same, and unequivocal. I can't describe it but to say it seems as if I must have always known it. Maybe I have. It wasn't so much words as it was a complete concept, a conclusion, a truth that became absolutely clear to me."
She knew he expected her to leave it at that. "If it became so clear and is unambiguous," she pressed, "you must be able to express it in words."
Richard slipped the baldric over his head, laying it over his right shoulder. As he adjusted the sword against his left hip, light sparkled off the raised gold wire woven through the silver wire of the hilt to spell out the word TRUTH.
His brow was smooth and his face calm. She knew she had at last brought him to the heart of the matter. His certainty would afford him no reason to keep it from her if she chose to hear it, and she did. His words rolled forth with quiet power, like prophecy come to life.
"I have been a leader too soon. It is not I who must prove myself to the people, but the people who must now prove themselves to me. Until then, I must not lead them, or all hope is lost."
Standing there, erect, masculine, masterful in his black war wizard outfit, he looked as if he could be posing for a statue of who he was: the Seeker of Truth, rightfully named by Zeddicus Zu'1 Zorander, the First Wizard himself-and Richard's grandfather. It had nearly broken Zedd's heart to do so, because Seekers so often died young and violently.
While he lived, a Seeker was a law unto himself. Backed by the awesome power of his sword, a Seeker could bring down kingdoms. That was one reason it was so important to name the right person-a moral person-to the post.
Zedd claimed that the Seeker, in a way, named himself by the nature of his own mind and by his actions, and that the First Wizard's function was simply to act on his observations by officially naming him and giving him the weapon that was to be his lifelong companion.
So many different qualities and responsibilities had converged in this man she loved that she sometimes wondered how he could reconcile them all.
"Richard, are you so sure?"
Because of the importance of the post, Kahlan and then Zedd had sworn their lives in defense of Richard as the newly named Seeker of Truth. That had been shortly after Kahlan had met him. It was as Seeker that Richard had first come to accept all that had been thrust upon him, and to live up to the extraordinary trust put in him.
His gray eyes fairly blazed with clarity of purpose as he answered her.
"The only sovereign I can allow to rule me is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists; what is, is. From this irreducible, bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. This is the foundation from which life is embraced.
"Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality-it's our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see.
"If I fail to use reason in this struggle, if I close my eyes to the reality of what is, in favor of what I would wish, then we will both die in this, and for nothing. We will be but two more among uncounted millions of nameless corpses beneath the gray, gloomy decay of mankind. In the darkness that will follow, our bones will be meaningless dust.
"Eventually, perhaps a thousand years from now, perhaps more, the light of liberty will again be raised up to shine over a free people, but between now and then, millions upon millions of people will be born into hopeless misery and have no choice but to bear the weight of the Order's yoke. We, by ignoring reason, will have purchased those mountains of broken bodies, the wreckage of lives endured but never lived."
(Please note: No copyright infringement was intended here. These passages were copied from another internet site for illustrative purposes only.)
Maybe it is time for the American People to prove to us that they are worth fighting for. I am underwhelmed by the will to Liberty of the vast majority of Americans.
I will go to TL's Liberty Summit in April to meet like minded folks. Others will go to regional PATCOMs to meet fellow patriots. I am meeting people in Oathkeepers once a month. I am still trying to guage other people's moods and willingness to act.
The thing is: I don't want to fail because I acted when only a small number of people were willing to act. None of my experiences tell me that we are "there" yet. I am trying to be realistic, not throw cold water on anyone's passion.
Opinions invited.
Those of us in the patriot blogosphere have a passion for liberty and the US Constitution. We are very worried about the direction of the country, and feel that the time is coming for active resistance against those authorities who would infringe upon the Natural Rights of the citizens of this country.
We are becoming impoverished because of governmental policy. The government is a "gang of thieves writ large". The legislative and executive branches continue to shred the bill of rights. Both major parties are "different wings of the same bird of prey", preying on Liberty and Prosperity.
The Congress does not represent the people.
The Federal Reserve works in lockstep with global banking concerns, without regard to the impact of their policies on the American taxpayer (the productive part of our nation, in other words).
The Executive claws more and more power for that branch of government, the Congress is a lapdog. The President of the United States is many times more powerful than King George the IIIrd.
It is now legal to indefinitely detain American citizens, or kill them, anywhere in the world, without due process. No writ of habeas corpus. No right to legal representation, to face one's accuser, or present a defense. Just accusation, declaration of "enemy combatant", and disappear.
So what does a person who values his freedom do? Lots of choices: wring your hands, shrug and watch TV, protest with a sign, vote for a certain candidate, don't vote at all (in protest), passively attack the regime (go Galt, pay little or no taxes, and drop off the grid, or overtly attack the regime in words or deeds. These are among the many choices.
I have had a conundrum for a long time -- What kind of action? When? How? What should my tipping point be to switch from a blogger sneering at the TSA and homeschooling my kids in Austrian Economics to something else? My wife and kids depend on me in many ways.
The number of threepers (i.e. proactive patriots) is small, I think. A few hundred, a thousand or two. I'm sure there are sympathetic currently serving military who take the Constitutional Oath seriously as well.
But how many?
A few thousands (out of 350,000,000) inclined to become active to try to reverse the Tyranny now becoming very real in America. A few thousand is very few in the scheme of things. I don't know how many hits per day the most popular patriot sites get, but I wonder about it often-- how many of us appreciate the loss of Liberty and profoundly understand what opposes us, and what we must do.
Read the whole passage below. The boldface is what I thought was most relevant to our current situation.
------------------------
A portion of Chapter 2, Faith of the Fallen, Book 6 of the Sword of Truth series, by Terry Goodkind
"Revelation." She wished she could manage more than a hoarse whisper.
"And what form did this vision revelation thing take?"
"Understanding."
Kahlan stared up at him. "Understanding of what?"
He started buttoning his shirt. "Through this realization I've come to understand the larger picture. I've come to understand what it is I must do."
"Yes," Cara muttered, "and wait until you hear it. Go ahead, tell her."
Richard glared at Cara and she answered him in kind. His attention finally returned to Kahlan.
"If I lead us into this war, we will lose. A great many people will die for nothing. The result will be a world enslaved by the Imperial Order. If I don't lead our side in battle, the world will still fall under the shadow of the Order but far fewer people will die. Only in that way will we ever stand a chance."
"By losing? You want to lose first, and then fight?. . How can we even consider abandoning the fight for freedom?"
"Anderith helped teach me a lesson," he said. His voice was restrained, as if he regretted what he was saying. "I can't press this war. Freedom requires effort if it is to be won and vigilance if it is to be maintained.
People just don't value freedom until it's taken away."
"But many do," Kahlan objected.
"There are always some, but most don't even understand it, nor do they care to-the same as with magic. People mindlessly shrink from it, too, without seeing the truth. The Order offers them a world without magic and ready-made answers to everything. Servitude is simple. I thought that I could convince people of the value of their own lives, and of liberty. In Anderith they showed me just how foolish I had been."
"Anderith is just one place-"
"Anderith was not remarkable. Look at all the trouble we've had elsewhere. We're having trouble even here, where I grew up." Richard began tucking in his shirt. "Forcing people to fight for freedom is the worst kind of contradiction.
"Nothing I can say will inspire people to care-I've tried. Those who value liberty will have to run, to hide, to try to survive and endure what is sure to come. I can't prevent it. I can't help them. I know that now."
"But Richard, how can you even think of-"
'I must do what is best for us. I must be selfish; life is far too precious to be casually squandered on useless causes. There can be no greater evil than that. People can only be saved from the coming dark age of subjugation and servitude if they, too, come to understand and care about the value of their own lives, their freedom, and are willing to act in their own interest. We must try to stay alive in the hope that such a day will come."
"But we can prevail in this war. We must."
"Do you think that I can just go off and lead men into war, and because I wish it, we will win? We won't. It takes more than my wishing it. It will take vast numbers of people fully committed to the cause. We don't have that. If we throw our forces against the Order, we will be destroyed and any chance for winning freedom in the future will be forever lost." He raked his fingers back through his hair. "We must not lead our forces against the army of the Order."
He turned to pulling his black, open-sided tunic on over his head.
Kahlan struggled to give force to her voice, to the magnitude of her concern.
"But what about all those who are prepared to fight-all the armies already in the field? There are good men, able men, ready to go against Jagang and stop his Imperial Order and drive them back to the Old World. Who will lead our men?"
"Lead them to what? Death? They can't win."
Kahlan was horrified. She reached up and snatched his shirtsleeve before he could lean down to retrieve his broad over-belt. "Richard, you're only saying this, walking away from the struggle, because of what happened to me."
"No. I had already decided it that same night, before you were attacked. When I went out alone for a walk, after the vote, I did a lot of thinking. I came to this realization and made up my mind. What happened to you made no difference except to prove the point that I'm right and should have figured it out sooner. If I had, you would never have been hurt."
"But if the Mother Confessor had not been hurt, you would have felt better by morning and changed your mind."
Light coming through the doorway behind him lit in a blaze of gold the ancient symbols coiled along the squared edges of his tunic. "Cara, what would happen if I'd been attacked with her, and we had both been killed?
What would you all do then?"
"I don't know."
"That is why I withdraw. You are all following me, not participating in a struggle for your own future. Your answer should have been that you would all fight on for yourselves, for your freedom. I have come to understand the mistake I've made in this, and to see that we cannot win in this way. The Order is too large an opponent."
Kahlan's father, King Wyborn, had taught her about fighting against such odds, and she had practical experience at it. "Their army may outnumber ours, but that doesn't make it impossible. We just have to outthink them. I will be there to help you, Richard. We have seasoned officers. We can do it.
We must."
"Look how the Order's cause spreads on words that sound good"-Richard swept out an arm-"even to distant places like this. We know beyond doubt the evil of the Order, yet people everywhere passionately side with them despite the ghastly truth of everything the Imperial Order stands for."
"Richard," Kahlan whispered, trying not to lose what was left of her voice, "I led those young Galean recruits against an army of experienced Order soldiers who greatly outnumbered us, and we prevailed."
"Exactly. They had just seen their home city after the Order had been there. Everyone they loved had been murdered, everything they knew had been destroyed. Those men fought with an understanding of what they were doing and why. They were going to throw themselves at the enemy with or without you commanding them. But they were the only ones, and even though they succeeded, most of them were killed in the struggle."
Kahlan was incredulous. "So you are going to let the Order do the same elsewhere so as to give people a reason to fight? You are going to stand aside and let the Order slaughter hundreds of thousands of innocent people?
"You want to quit because I was hurt. Dear spirits, I love you Richard, but don't do this to me. I'm the Mother Confessor; I'm responsible for the lives of the people of the Midlands. Don't do this because of what happened to me."
Richard snapped on his leather-padded silver wristbands. "I'm not doing this because of what happened to you. I'm helping save those lives in the only way that has a chance. I'm doing the only thing I can do."
"You are doing the easy thing," Cara said.
Richard met her challenge with quiet sincerity. "Cara, I'm doing the hardest thing I have ever had to do."
Kahlan was sure now that their rejection by the Anderith people had hit him harder than she had realized. She caught two of his fingers and squeezed sympathetically. He had put his heart into sparing those people from enslavement by the Order. He had tried to show them the value of freedom by allowing them the freedom to choose their own destiny. He had put his faith in their hands.
In a crushing defeat, an enormous majority had spurned all he had offered, and in so doing devastated that faith.
Kahlan thought that perhaps with some time to heal, the same as with her, the pain would fade for him, too. "You can't hold yourself to blame for the fall of Anderith, Richard. You did your best. It wasn't your fault."
He picked up his big leather over-belt with its gold-worked pouches and cinched it over the magnificent tunic.
"When you're the leader, everything is your fault."
Kahlan knew the truth of that. She thought to dissuade him by taking a different tack.
"What form did this vision assume?"
Richard's piercing gray eyes locked on her, almost in warning.
"Vision, revelation, realization, postulation, prophecy. . understanding-call it what you will, for in this they are all in one the same, and unequivocal. I can't describe it but to say it seems as if I must have always known it. Maybe I have. It wasn't so much words as it was a complete concept, a conclusion, a truth that became absolutely clear to me."
She knew he expected her to leave it at that. "If it became so clear and is unambiguous," she pressed, "you must be able to express it in words."
Richard slipped the baldric over his head, laying it over his right shoulder. As he adjusted the sword against his left hip, light sparkled off the raised gold wire woven through the silver wire of the hilt to spell out the word TRUTH.
His brow was smooth and his face calm. She knew she had at last brought him to the heart of the matter. His certainty would afford him no reason to keep it from her if she chose to hear it, and she did. His words rolled forth with quiet power, like prophecy come to life.
"I have been a leader too soon. It is not I who must prove myself to the people, but the people who must now prove themselves to me. Until then, I must not lead them, or all hope is lost."
Standing there, erect, masculine, masterful in his black war wizard outfit, he looked as if he could be posing for a statue of who he was: the Seeker of Truth, rightfully named by Zeddicus Zu'1 Zorander, the First Wizard himself-and Richard's grandfather. It had nearly broken Zedd's heart to do so, because Seekers so often died young and violently.
While he lived, a Seeker was a law unto himself. Backed by the awesome power of his sword, a Seeker could bring down kingdoms. That was one reason it was so important to name the right person-a moral person-to the post.
Zedd claimed that the Seeker, in a way, named himself by the nature of his own mind and by his actions, and that the First Wizard's function was simply to act on his observations by officially naming him and giving him the weapon that was to be his lifelong companion.
So many different qualities and responsibilities had converged in this man she loved that she sometimes wondered how he could reconcile them all.
"Richard, are you so sure?"
Because of the importance of the post, Kahlan and then Zedd had sworn their lives in defense of Richard as the newly named Seeker of Truth. That had been shortly after Kahlan had met him. It was as Seeker that Richard had first come to accept all that had been thrust upon him, and to live up to the extraordinary trust put in him.
His gray eyes fairly blazed with clarity of purpose as he answered her.
"The only sovereign I can allow to rule me is reason. The first law of reason is this: what exists, exists; what is, is. From this irreducible, bedrock principle, all knowledge is built. This is the foundation from which life is embraced.
"Reason is a choice. Wishes and whims are not facts, nor are they a means to discovering them. Reason is our only way of grasping reality-it's our basic tool of survival. We are free to evade the effort of thinking, to reject reason, but we are not free to avoid the penalty of the abyss we refuse to see.
"If I fail to use reason in this struggle, if I close my eyes to the reality of what is, in favor of what I would wish, then we will both die in this, and for nothing. We will be but two more among uncounted millions of nameless corpses beneath the gray, gloomy decay of mankind. In the darkness that will follow, our bones will be meaningless dust.
"Eventually, perhaps a thousand years from now, perhaps more, the light of liberty will again be raised up to shine over a free people, but between now and then, millions upon millions of people will be born into hopeless misery and have no choice but to bear the weight of the Order's yoke. We, by ignoring reason, will have purchased those mountains of broken bodies, the wreckage of lives endured but never lived."
(Please note: No copyright infringement was intended here. These passages were copied from another internet site for illustrative purposes only.)
Maybe it is time for the American People to prove to us that they are worth fighting for. I am underwhelmed by the will to Liberty of the vast majority of Americans.
I will go to TL's Liberty Summit in April to meet like minded folks. Others will go to regional PATCOMs to meet fellow patriots. I am meeting people in Oathkeepers once a month. I am still trying to guage other people's moods and willingness to act.
The thing is: I don't want to fail because I acted when only a small number of people were willing to act. None of my experiences tell me that we are "there" yet. I am trying to be realistic, not throw cold water on anyone's passion.
Opinions invited.
12 February 2012
Israel Military Industries Tavor 21 bullpup available in the US this fall
I wanted to go shooting when I was in Israel last October. At my hotel, they had a brochure for a range called Caliber 3. This is a facility in Efrat, just south of Jerusalem. It is run and staffed by current and former IDF special forces who specialized in counter terrorism. Instructors include Anglo-Israelis from places like North Carolina (!) and South Africa. Instructors are available to teach basics or shooting to counter terrorism techniques. My son and I went when I heard that we could shoot the Tavor, which was (and is, as yet) unavailable in the US.
The standard Israeli infantry units use the 18" barrel version, the Tavor-21, which has semi and full auto settings. The special forces uses the 14.5" Tavor X95 version, variously known at the MicroTavor, the MTAR-21, the X95, and the Tavor-2. For the Israeli military, Israel Weapons Industries makes the weapon with an integrated Mepro 21 red dot sight integrated directly (i.e. not rail-mounted).
The X95 has the ability to switch between 5.56 and 9 mm, depending on mission parameters. We had the fun and privilege to shoot the X95 in 5.56 mm.
As far as my experience with it's accuracy:
I am a civilian, and have had no military or other training. The instructor had me run 100 meters out, 100 meters back, pick up the weapon, and fire 10 rounds in a standing position at a distance of 30 meters. The result: I could cover the group with one hand, fingers together. The instructor was impressed. I told him it was my southern heritage ;-).
The Tavor uses the standard M16/M4 magazine. IMHO, it is much more ergonomic than the AR/M16/M4; more comfortable to hold, change magazines, pulling back the bolt, etc. It's bullpup design makes it feel more balanced and comfortable when held. The bolt release is behind the magazine well and you have to get used to reaching backward to use it, but that wasn't a big deal for me.
I am excited to see the Tavor coming to the American market. The news at the SHOT Show this year is that Charles Daly made a deal with Israel Weapons Industries to make it in a factory in the USA. I will be happy when I can get my hands on one as an owner. I highly recommend Caliber 3 range if anyone travels to Israel.
10 February 2012
Now I like Bill Murray even more than before
"I think we ought to be personally responsible," he said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Friday morning. "I think if you can take care of yourself, and then maybe try to take care of someone else, that's sort of how you're supposed to live.
"It's not a question of asking other people for help or being rescued or anything like that," he continued. "I think we've sort of gotten used to someone looking out for us, and I don't think any other person is necessarily going to be counted on to look out for us.
"I think there's only so many people that can take care of themselves, and can take care of other people. And the rest of the people … they're useful in terms of compost for the whole planet, you know."
--Bill Murray to CNBC
In homage, one of my favorite scenes from Stripes:
----------
Army recruiter: "Have either of you been convicted of a felony?"
Murray: "Convicted? No,...never convicted"
------------
Recruiter: "Now, if you'll just give Uncle Sam your autograph here..."
Murray: (Signing induction papers to the Army, as if signing an autograph): "Sammy, get well soon..."
"It's not a question of asking other people for help or being rescued or anything like that," he continued. "I think we've sort of gotten used to someone looking out for us, and I don't think any other person is necessarily going to be counted on to look out for us.
"I think there's only so many people that can take care of themselves, and can take care of other people. And the rest of the people … they're useful in terms of compost for the whole planet, you know."
--Bill Murray to CNBC
In homage, one of my favorite scenes from Stripes:
----------
Army recruiter: "Have either of you been convicted of a felony?"
Murray: "Convicted? No,...never convicted"
------------
Recruiter: "Now, if you'll just give Uncle Sam your autograph here..."
Murray: (Signing induction papers to the Army, as if signing an autograph): "Sammy, get well soon..."
09 February 2012
07 February 2012
Quote of the Day 2/7/2012
Wise men are instructed by reason;
Men of less understanding, by experience;
The most ignorant, by necessity;
The beasts by nature.
--Marcus Tullius Cicero
03 February 2012
Ron Paul resists.
112TH CONGRESS
2D SESSION
H. R. 3785
To repeal section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.
_________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY 18, 2012
Mr. PAUL introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs, and in addition to the Committee on Armed Services, for a period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned
_________________
A BILL
To repeal section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REPEAL OF SECTION 1021 OF THE NATIONAL DEFENSE AUTHORIZATION ACT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2012.
Section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (Public Law 112–81) is hereby repealed.
02 February 2012
Swarming Nano Quadrotors
Question: Are these useful for FreeFor?
Presented for coolness factor alone.
Presented for coolness factor alone.
01 February 2012
The progress of Ron Paul
Ron Paul gets a nod from Bill Gross, the head of PIMCO, a global wealth management firm with $1.3 trillion in assets. (about 6 minutes into the clip)
"I'm a little Ron Paulish, to take a political stand...both parties have basically done the same thing..."
Note well: The stuff he says in the minute before the economy doing well in the 4th quarter, and that the fed has to keep buying treasuries is totally wrong headed, and goes against principles of Austrian economics and the stand of Ron Paul. The 4th Q boost is related to the Fed's quantitative easing, and is a temporary reinflation of a burst bubble, and cannot last. The Fed buying treasuries is more hocus pocus QE.
h/t to zerohedge.com
Ron Paul making inroads with ordinary voters:
Vote totals - 2008 vs. 2012:
IA: 2008 - 11.817 ... 2012 - 26,036 that's 2.2x as many
NH: 2008 - 18,346 ... 2012 - 56,872 that's 3.1x
SC: 2008 - 16,155 ... 2012 - 77,993 that's 4.8x
FL: 2008 - 62,887 ... 2012 - 117,105 that's 1.9x
Now look at the first 4 contests coming up in February (ALL CAUCUS STATES)
NV: 2008 - 13.7% of the vote
ME: 2008 - 18.4%
CO: 2008 - 8.2%
MN: 2008 - 15.2%
I have every reason to believe that this trend of getting 2 to 5 times the number of votes will continue. February is shaping up to be great for Ron Paul!
h/t to dailypaul.com
In times of desperate economic conditions, should we withdraw from empire and consolidate the military, or should we launch a war with Iran?
Sun Tzu chimes in (h/t to dailypaul.com):
According to Sun Tzu's Art of War, Americans are losing:
There is no instance of a country ever having benefited from prolonged warfare.
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.
Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
"I'm a little Ron Paulish, to take a political stand...both parties have basically done the same thing..."
Note well: The stuff he says in the minute before the economy doing well in the 4th quarter, and that the fed has to keep buying treasuries is totally wrong headed, and goes against principles of Austrian economics and the stand of Ron Paul. The 4th Q boost is related to the Fed's quantitative easing, and is a temporary reinflation of a burst bubble, and cannot last. The Fed buying treasuries is more hocus pocus QE.
h/t to zerohedge.com
Ron Paul making inroads with ordinary voters:
Vote totals - 2008 vs. 2012:
IA: 2008 - 11.817 ... 2012 - 26,036 that's 2.2x as many
NH: 2008 - 18,346 ... 2012 - 56,872 that's 3.1x
SC: 2008 - 16,155 ... 2012 - 77,993 that's 4.8x
FL: 2008 - 62,887 ... 2012 - 117,105 that's 1.9x
Now look at the first 4 contests coming up in February (ALL CAUCUS STATES)
NV: 2008 - 13.7% of the vote
ME: 2008 - 18.4%
CO: 2008 - 8.2%
MN: 2008 - 15.2%
I have every reason to believe that this trend of getting 2 to 5 times the number of votes will continue. February is shaping up to be great for Ron Paul!
h/t to dailypaul.com
In times of desperate economic conditions, should we withdraw from empire and consolidate the military, or should we launch a war with Iran?
Sun Tzu chimes in (h/t to dailypaul.com):
According to Sun Tzu's Art of War, Americans are losing:
There is no instance of a country ever having benefited from prolonged warfare.
In war, then, let your great object be victory, not lengthy campaigns.
If the campaign is protracted, the resources of the State will not be equal to the strain.
Now, when your weapons are dulled, your ardor damped, your strength exhausted and your treasure spent, other chieftains will spring up to take advantage of your extremity. Then no man, however wise, will be able to avert the consequences that must ensue.
There is no instance of a country having benefited from prolonged warfare.
29 January 2012
28 January 2012
The magnitude of the "American Dream" is inversely proportional to the size of government
This is a very thought provoking essay. I came from a very lower class parentage; a father that dropped out of school at the age of 13. I not only went to college, but hold multiple advanced degrees. I was quite successful, and now am semi-retired. My kids are doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs.
One might ask "what is the American dream". It is to to aspire to be what you parents never thought possible, but dreamed for you. Government was NEVER the deciding factor in my fate. It was my own quest for what I dreamed. If we lose this - we lose what it is to be an American.
--Rick Williams, comment on Wall Street Journal article "The New American Divide"
Sorry man, but the size of government being what it is, the size of the debt, the extent of our empire--too late.
People who support big government: you support looters. Government cannot make anything.
1. It can take from others through taxes or confiscation.
2. It can print money--paper backed by a promise to support the paper--money based on faith alone, and the federal reserve has an explicit goal of inflation--devaluating that currency to pay off it's debt in cheaper $.
3. It can borrow money in the form of sovereign debt.
The bigger the government, the less the tax paying people get to keep. The bigger the government, the more aggressive it's nationalism and war machine, the less the people have, and the less their currency is worth--the money is printed or borrowed.
Now our government has obligated us to $16.4 trillion in debt, and $60 trillion in unfunded Medicare and Medicaid, public sector retirement funds (already raided and borrowed against, btw):
What American dream do I have to offer my three kids? Will they have lower taxes than I? Will my 401k be taxed at the same rate in 25 years as it would be if I withdrew it from the account and paid taxes today?
My hope and trust in the .gov to secure any "American Dream" is long dead.
I either make it for myself in spite of nearly 50% wealth confiscation, or I don't make it at all.
IF WE look beneath the surface of our public affairs, we can discern one fundamental fact, namely: a great redistribution of power between society and the State. This is the fact that interests the student of civilization. He has only a secondary or derived interest in matters like price-fixing, wage-fixing, inflation, political banking, "agricultural adjustment," and similar items of State policy that fill the pages of newspapers and the mouths of publicists and politicians. All these can be run up under one head. They have an immediate and temporary importance, and for this reason they monopolize public attention, but they all come to the same thing; which is, an increase of State power and a corresponding decrease of social power.
It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power. There is never, nor can there be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.--Alfred Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State, 1935
(emphasis added)
These are the reasons I support States' rights, very limited federal government as originally outlined in Article I Section 8, and am particularly interested in the re-assertion of the Tenth and Ninth Amendments.
One might ask "what is the American dream". It is to to aspire to be what you parents never thought possible, but dreamed for you. Government was NEVER the deciding factor in my fate. It was my own quest for what I dreamed. If we lose this - we lose what it is to be an American.
--Rick Williams, comment on Wall Street Journal article "The New American Divide"
Sorry man, but the size of government being what it is, the size of the debt, the extent of our empire--too late.
People who support big government: you support looters. Government cannot make anything.
1. It can take from others through taxes or confiscation.
2. It can print money--paper backed by a promise to support the paper--money based on faith alone, and the federal reserve has an explicit goal of inflation--devaluating that currency to pay off it's debt in cheaper $.
3. It can borrow money in the form of sovereign debt.
The bigger the government, the less the tax paying people get to keep. The bigger the government, the more aggressive it's nationalism and war machine, the less the people have, and the less their currency is worth--the money is printed or borrowed.
Now our government has obligated us to $16.4 trillion in debt, and $60 trillion in unfunded Medicare and Medicaid, public sector retirement funds (already raided and borrowed against, btw):
What American dream do I have to offer my three kids? Will they have lower taxes than I? Will my 401k be taxed at the same rate in 25 years as it would be if I withdrew it from the account and paid taxes today?
My hope and trust in the .gov to secure any "American Dream" is long dead.
I either make it for myself in spite of nearly 50% wealth confiscation, or I don't make it at all.
IF WE look beneath the surface of our public affairs, we can discern one fundamental fact, namely: a great redistribution of power between society and the State. This is the fact that interests the student of civilization. He has only a secondary or derived interest in matters like price-fixing, wage-fixing, inflation, political banking, "agricultural adjustment," and similar items of State policy that fill the pages of newspapers and the mouths of publicists and politicians. All these can be run up under one head. They have an immediate and temporary importance, and for this reason they monopolize public attention, but they all come to the same thing; which is, an increase of State power and a corresponding decrease of social power.
It is unfortunately none too well understood that, just as the State has no money of its own, so it has no power of its own. All the power it has is what society gives it, plus what it confiscates from time to time on one pretext or another; there is no other source from which State power can be drawn. Therefore every assumption of State power, whether by gift or seizure, leaves society with so much less power. There is never, nor can there be, any strengthening of State power without a corresponding and roughly equivalent depletion of social power.--Alfred Jay Nock, Our Enemy, the State, 1935
(emphasis added)
These are the reasons I support States' rights, very limited federal government as originally outlined in Article I Section 8, and am particularly interested in the re-assertion of the Tenth and Ninth Amendments.
26 January 2012
First Bill to Nullify NDAA put forward in Virginia House of Delegates
Let's hear it for the Old Dominion! Sic Semper Tyrannis!
via blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com
Introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates is House Bill 1660 (HB1660) which “Prevents any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency or the armed forces of the United States in the investigation, prosecution, or detainment of a United States citizen in violation of the Constitution of Virginia.”
The bill is sponsored by Delegate Bob Marshall and was introduced on 01-16-12. It has been assigned to the House Courts of Justice Sub-Committee: #2 Civil.
The bill reads as follows:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. Notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, no agency of the Commonwealth as defined in § 8.01-385 of the Code of Virginia, political subdivision of the Commonwealth as defined in § 8.01-385 of the Code of Virginia, employee of either acting in his official capacity, or any member of the Virginia National Guard or Virginia Defense Force, when such a member is serving in the Virginia National Guard or the Virginia Defense Force on official state duty, may engage in any activity that aids an agency of or the armed forces of the United States in the execution of 50 U.S.C. 1541 as provided by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (P.L. 112-18, § 1021) in the investigation, prosecution, or detainment of any citizen of the United States in violation of Article I, Section 8 or 11 of the Constitution of Virginia.
Virginia is now the first state in the nation to introduce and consider a version of the Liberty Preservation Act in response to unconstitutional kidnapping provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012. Sources close the to the Tenth Amendment Center tell us to expect up to ten states considering various laws or resolutions in response to the NDAA in the 2012 state legislative session.
From the Constitution of Virginia:
Section 8. Criminal prosecutions.
That in criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, and to call for evidence in his favor, and he shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty. He shall not be deprived of life or liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers, nor be compelled in any criminal proceeding to give evidence against himself, nor be put twice in jeopardy for the same offense.
Laws may be enacted providing for the trial of offenses not felonious by a court not of record without a jury, preserving the right of the accused to an appeal to and a trial by jury in some court of record having original criminal jurisdiction. Laws may also provide for juries consisting of less than twelve, but not less than five, for the trial of offenses not felonious, and may classify such cases, and prescribe the number of jurors for each class.
In criminal cases, the accused may plead guilty. If the accused plead not guilty, he may, with his consent and the concurrence of the Commonwealth's Attorney and of the court entered of record, be tried by a smaller number of jurors, or waive a jury. In case of such waiver or plea of guilty, the court shall try the case.
The provisions of this section shall be self-executing.
Section 11.
Due process of law; obligation of contracts; taking of private property; prohibited discrimination; jury trial in civil cases.
That no person shall be deprived of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law; that the General Assembly shall not pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts, nor any law whereby private property shall be taken or damaged for public uses, without just compensation, the term "public uses" to be defined by the General Assembly; and that the right to be free from any governmental discrimination upon the basis of religious conviction, race, color, sex, or national origin shall not be abridged, except that the mere separation of the sexes shall not be considered discrimination.
That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. The General Assembly may limit the number of jurors for civil cases in courts of record to not less than five.
via blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com
Introduced in the Virginia House of Delegates is House Bill 1660 (HB1660) which “Prevents any agency, political subdivision, employee, or member of the military of Virginia from assisting an agency or the armed forces of the United States in the investigation, prosecution, or detainment of a United States citizen in violation of the Constitution of Virginia.”
The bill is sponsored by Delegate Bob Marshall and was introduced on 01-16-12. It has been assigned to the House Courts of Justice Sub-Committee: #2 Civil.
The bill reads as follows:
Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:
1. § 1. Notwithstanding any contrary provision of law, no agency of the Commonwealth as defined in § 8.01-385 of the Code of Virginia, political subdivision of the Commonwealth as defined in § 8.01-385 of the Code of Virginia, employee of either acting in his official capacity, or any member of the Virginia National Guard or Virginia Defense Force, when such a member is serving in the Virginia National Guard or the Virginia Defense Force on official state duty, may engage in any activity that aids an agency of or the armed forces of the United States in the execution of 50 U.S.C. 1541 as provided by the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (P.L. 112-18, § 1021) in the investigation, prosecution, or detainment of any citizen of the United States in violation of Article I, Section 8 or 11 of the Constitution of Virginia.
Virginia is now the first state in the nation to introduce and consider a version of the Liberty Preservation Act in response to unconstitutional kidnapping provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) of 2012. Sources close the to the Tenth Amendment Center tell us to expect up to ten states considering various laws or resolutions in response to the NDAA in the 2012 state legislative session.
From the Constitution of Virginia:
Section 8. Criminal prosecutions.
That in criminal prosecutions a man hath a right to demand the cause and nature of his accusation, to be confronted with the accusers and witnesses, and to call for evidence in his favor, and he shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of his vicinage, without whose unanimous consent he cannot be found guilty. He shall not be deprived of life or liberty, except by the law of the land or the judgment of his peers, nor be compelled in any criminal proceeding to give evidence against himself, nor be put twice in jeopardy for the same offense.
Laws may be enacted providing for the trial of offenses not felonious by a court not of record without a jury, preserving the right of the accused to an appeal to and a trial by jury in some court of record having original criminal jurisdiction. Laws may also provide for juries consisting of less than twelve, but not less than five, for the trial of offenses not felonious, and may classify such cases, and prescribe the number of jurors for each class.
In criminal cases, the accused may plead guilty. If the accused plead not guilty, he may, with his consent and the concurrence of the Commonwealth's Attorney and of the court entered of record, be tried by a smaller number of jurors, or waive a jury. In case of such waiver or plea of guilty, the court shall try the case.
The provisions of this section shall be self-executing.
Section 11.
Due process of law; obligation of contracts; taking of private property; prohibited discrimination; jury trial in civil cases.
That no person shall be deprived of his life, liberty, or property without due process of law; that the General Assembly shall not pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts, nor any law whereby private property shall be taken or damaged for public uses, without just compensation, the term "public uses" to be defined by the General Assembly; and that the right to be free from any governmental discrimination upon the basis of religious conviction, race, color, sex, or national origin shall not be abridged, except that the mere separation of the sexes shall not be considered discrimination.
That in controversies respecting property, and in suits between man and man, trial by jury is preferable to any other, and ought to be held sacred. The General Assembly may limit the number of jurors for civil cases in courts of record to not less than five.
24 January 2012
Newt Gingrich deconstructed by Jon Stewart
h/t to zerohedge.com
The best line I've heard about Gingrich rising in the polls lately was: "The farther up the tree the monkey goes, the more you can see his butt."
The best line I've heard about Gingrich rising in the polls lately was: "The farther up the tree the monkey goes, the more you can see his butt."
23 January 2012
Ten Commandments, Texas style
Cowboy's Ten Commandments posted on the wall at Cross Trails Church in Fairlie, Texas.
via mass email making the rounds...
via mass email making the rounds...
Quote of the Day, 1/23/2012--Tench Coxe (repost)
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| "The Pennsylvanian", Tench Coxe |
Whereas civil rulers, not having their duty to the people duly before them, may attempt to tyrannize,
and as military forces, which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens,
the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.--Tench Coxe
and as military forces, which must be occasionally raised to defend our country, might pervert their power to the injury of their fellow citizens,
the people are confirmed by the article in their right to keep and bear their private arms.--Tench Coxe
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