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| Oppressors Not Protectors |
With
the release of the first episode of the Defending
Our America series titled “Know
Your Enemies and Know Yourself” the National
Rifle Association (NRA) puts itself at the forefront of the
shills for tyranny and empire. Please watch the first episode and the
season
preview. They advocate police power to fight the war on drugs,
police power to secure the borders, and military power to fight Islam
overseas. In other words, they advocate for the very things that are
destroying our liberties. Not once in either video do we hear the
words liberty or freedom.
The
war on drugs has lead to the destruction of the right to privacy and
property. It is driving the militarization
of the police enabling Commando style raids that now happen over
one-hundred times a day in the United States. Sometimes they are
based on nothing more than the word of an informant. Sometimes they
are to serve a warrant on a non-violent person. Asset forfeiture has
police forces becoming predators seeking out the maximum take with
little or no due process. Law
enforcement has become the standing army many Founders warned us
not to have. The war on drugs keeps the money flowing to the law
enforcement establishment.
“Securing”
the massive southern border of the US is a pointless and impossible
task. In the process of attempting it the government is building up a
police state characterized by checkpoints, warrantless searches, and
other intrusive controls. We need the governments permission just to
work now that they've made it illegal to hire undocumented workers
and implemented e-verify.
This is another form of tyranny that keeps money flowing to the law
enforcement establishment.
Follow
the money. It comes as no surprise that the series is sponsored by
Sig
Sauer a supplier of weapons to law enforcement and the military.
It is obviously important to Sig
Sauer that the people support the gravy train they're riding. Hey, who
cares about liberty when there's government money to be had?
If
my words aren't enough to convince you perhaps you'll listen to
Patrick Henry. He warned of the dangers lurking in the constitution,
the very document the videos advocate defending. Below are selected,
relevant excerpts from Henry's speech arguing against adoption of the
constitution titled “Shall
Liberty or Empire Be Sought?”:
A standing army we shall have,
also, to execute the execrable
commands of tyranny; and how are you to punish them? Will you order
them to be punished? Who shall obey these orders? Will your
mace-bearer be a match for a disciplined regiment?
When the American spirit was in
its youth, the language of America was different: liberty, sir, was
then the primary object...by that spirit we have triumphed over every
difficulty. But now, sir, the American spirit, assisted by the ropes
and chains of consolidation, is about to convert this country into a
powerful and mighty empire.
But, sir, we are not feared by
foreigners; we do not make nations tremble. Would this constitute
happiness, or secure liberty? I trust, sir, our political hemisphere
will ever direct their operations to the security of those objects.
It is on a supposition that your
American governors shall be honest, that all the good qualities of
this government are founded; but its defective and imperfect
construction puts it in their power to perpetrate the worst of
mischiefs, should they be bad men; and, sir, would not all the
world...blame our distracted folly in resting our rights upon the
contingency of our rulers being good or bad? Show me that age and
country where the rights and liberties of the people were placed on
the sole chance of their rulers being good men, without a consequent
loss of liberty! I say that the loss of that dearest privilege has
ever followed, with absolute certainty, every such mad attempt.
Now
that we clearly see that the NRA is wholly behind the powerful
government that we have to
just trust and hope will not oppress
us it is time to
turn our backs on that vile organization. Don't let the Siren song of
patriotism fool you. Stand for liberty, not the empire and its police
state!
Seed Newsvine
Posts
Bravo!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks! In some circles this article isn't going over well at all.
DeleteFool's day is April 1st,
ReplyDeleteNo day is a good day to be fooled by the neocons
DeleteNot sure if I'll call this "Paulbot" or full-on "Ronulan"
ReplyDeleteMust be a drug dealing Mexican Islamist.
ReplyDeleteLOL Pass the Halal refried beans, please.
DeleteThis is an outstanding article. The NRA has been coopted at many of the higher levels. For years, they have attempted to elect Republicans as their primary goal, rather than elect those who uphold gun ownership rights. I've witnessed this many, many times. Often, they supported Republicans with horrible track records on gun rights over vastly superior Libertarian and independent candidates.
ReplyDeleteFor any gun owners foolish enough to believe that drug prohibition and gun ownership can coexist, side by side, I direct you to the essay "How Drug Laws Hurt Gun Owners" by John Ross, the author of "Unintended Consequences," in the drug war anthology "The New Prohibition" edited by Bill Masters.
The NRA sometimes has good people at the local level, but even there, their association with the grotesque "GOP" is their undoing.
The author of this article is right, in large part, because one cannot narrow their focus too much, and that is what the NRA has done. One must always take a "cybernetics" view of disciplines and subjects being connected to one another, if, indeed, they are. In this case, drug rights and gun rights are united under the umbrella of "property rights," as any fool with a high-school grasp of philosophy, history, law, or economics understands.
But those subjects are the same ones that are not taught by property-tax-eaters who teach our kids. And why would they be? The economic incentive toward teaching children how to resist property taxes as strong adult citizens, doesn't exist. Instead, if the teachers teach those subjects, they will find themselves out of a job in 12 or so years. (This is an estimate that assumes children graduate and stay inside their local political districts, as well as discuss the issues with their parents in detail, shifting some of them to the cause of liberty.)
Prediction: America will die, smart Americans will die with it, dragged down by the bloated corpse of statist collectivism, failing to comprehend that if they had taken a few of the politically-intelligent libertarians seriously, they'd have been able to politically organize in defense of their liberty, and thereby, survive.
Instead, the abject level of human stupidity and satiation, satisfaction with conditions befitting a slave, is omnipresent.
If this remains true, America will die a certain death.
Too bad, because for the amount of money spent on one single major party congressional race, I could make America entirely free by focusing on the actual problems at hand, which no other libertarian even recognizes, or comprehends at the level some of the founding fathers did.
The quote from Thomas Jefferson that contains the word "anchor" is a good place to start. Think it through, then interface with 500 or so people per day, for years on end. ...You'll come to the same conclusion, but unless you have the capital to invest in the solution, we will be right where we are today:
...FUBAR.
Thanks Unknown for your insightful comment. Unfortunately, most NRA/conservatives that read my article react angrily to it. They're so lost they don't even understand it. All they can do is have an emotional reaction & go into denial. Se la vie on the internet.
DeleteThe permit holder was represented, pro bono, by NRA.VP Wayne Anthony Ross.
ReplyDeleteAlaska Court Rules on Concealed Gun
MARY PEMBERTON AP Writer
1/10/02
ANCHORAGE — Judge Natalie Finn took away Timothy Wagner’s gun permit after he claimed someone implanted a computer chip in his head and injected him with deadly chemicals.
A state appeals court ruled that Finn erred, saying Alaska’s concealed-carry law does not allow general concerns about mental illness to play a role in deciding whether someone should have a gun.
Gun control advocates say the episode illustrates a dangerous accommodation to the gun lobby by Alaska’s Legislature. Gun owners, however, argue Alaska’s law safeguards their Second Amendment rights and the public is adequately protected.
The Department of Public Safety has issued more than 18,000 permits since 1995, when Alaskans were allowed to carry concealed handguns under restrictions that include an age limit and a gun-safety course.
In 1998, the law was amended so applicants did not have to prove they actually needed to carry a concealed weapon. Also, whether someone was mentally ill or had been treated for mental illness in the preceding five years was taken off the list of questions applicants were asked — a change cited by the appeals court last year in Wagner’s case.
Alaska law requires applicants to disclose only whether they have ever been committed to a mental hospital or found mentally incompetent by a court. “Yes” answers are grounds for denying a permit.
“We wanted to remove the potential for arbitrary and capricious decision making on the part of the issuing agency,” said Brian Judy, Alaska liaison for the NRA.
Other gun-friendly states, including Texas, Montana and North Carolina, have much stricter standards when it comes to mental instability and concealed-carry permits, said Luis Tolley, the Brady Campaign’s state legislative director.
Even Texas has a long, broad list under mental health, Tolley said. The restrictions include anyone that has been diagnosed with “a psychiatric disorder or condition” likely to cause impairment in judgment, mood, perception or intellectual ability.
“Alaska seems more likely than many states to allow mentally ill people to carry guns in public,” Tolley said. “By establishing such a narrow definition, that is allowing an awful lot of people who are mentally ill to carry guns in public.”
Wagner’s case began in 1998, when he entered the Alaska Mining and Diving store, dripping wet, and told a clerk he was trying to soak away chemicals in his body before they killed him. He said a computer chip had been implanted in his head. Another employee overheard it and called police.
A background check revealed he had a permit to carry a concealed gun. When an officer asked Wagner if he had a gun with him, Wagner pointed to a briefcase next to him. In it was a loaded .357 and several bags of bullets.
Alaska law requires permit holders who come in contact with police to tell officers immediately if they are carrying a concealed gun. Wagner was convicted of failing to do so.
Finn sentenced Wagner to three years’ probation ordering him not to possess guns during that period and to forfeit his permit until his mental illness was “either cured or improved.”
The DPS later revoked Wagner’s permit based on Finn’s decision.
Wagner told the court he was an “inventor” and designed guns and ammunition. The public defender’s office said it had not recently heard from him.
Wagner had no prior convictions. After his arrest, police took him to a mental hospital. Wagner testified he was released after being interviewed.
The amended law was enacted over the veto of Gov. Tony Knowles, who warned the measure could allow dangerous people to carry concealed weapons.
The DPS has taken a wait-and-see attitude in Wagner’s case. He hasn't asked for his permit back. No court has ordered it returned, said Del Smith, deputy commissioner.
“I think Finn was concerned about his behavior, and rightly so,” Smith said. “He made some pretty bizarre claims.”
Frank, so do you like what the NRA did or not?
Deletetheir are movement for freedom everywhere. this will be a good series.
ReplyDelete