Social Contract? What Social Contract?
There is no monument dedicated to the memory of a committee -- Lester J. Pourciau
Kimberley A. Strassel at Opinion Journal - Rural Cleansing - Exposes the real agenda of many of America's so-called "environmental" groups. Get people off the land and pack them into cities. Now the Oregon Environmental Resources Council, the folks who are behind the parching of the Klamath Basin, wants government to offer farmers there $4,000/acre for their land.
The strategy of these environmental groups is nearly always the same: to sue or lobby the government into declaring rural areas off-limits to people who live and work there. The tools for doing this include the Endangered Species Act and local preservation laws, most of which are so loosely crafted as to allow a wide leeway in their implementation.
In some cases owners lose their property outright. More often, the environmentalists' goal is to have restrictions placed on the land that either render it unusable or persuade owners to leave of their own accord.
Pete Du Pont at Opinion Journal - A Lousy Investment - According to the interim report of President Bush's Social Security Commission, Social Security is a lousy investment. Unless you're already over 50, you would be better off by investing in U.S. Treasury bonds at 3.4%. The stock market would earn you massively more, if it continues to perform at its average 10% return. I've done this spreadsheet myself. It's true. If I could get out of paying social security for the rest of my life, I would gladly forfeit what I've paid in so far. [zero]
Lee Deems at the Albany Times Union - Challenge to 16th Amendment needs to be heard - Apparently, there is a $25,000 fine for challenging the validity of the 16th amendment (the one that established the income tax) in court. What do you suppose they're trying to hide?
If, as Mr. Schulz maintains, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America, giving power to Congress to collect income taxes, was not properly ratified; if, as Mr. Schulz proclaims, the states ratifying the amendment fell short of the required amount by seven states; if, as Mr. Schulz states, that among the several states voting for the amendment, some violated their state constitutions, then it is incumbent on the members of this Congress to allow him to prove his allegations.
Vin Suprynowicz - Disloyal to the United States? - Part of The Libertarian series. John Ashcroft talks the talk on the second amendment, but he walks backwards. Includes discussion of U.S. v. Miller, a case often cited by the Brady Bunch to support their position. Guess what, Mr. Miller was not present in court. The other side lied, and since noone was there to challenge their testimony, the supremes ruled on the lie. The actual meaning of the Miller case is that the constitution allows individual citizens to own any weapon with military usefulness for an individual soldier. This specifically includes sawed-off shotguns, machine guns, hand grenades, bazookas, and shoulder-mounted heat-seeking missiles.
This is a radical defender of the Second Amendment and the Bill of Rights? Paging Wimp Central.
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As to this "collective right" nonsense, let us merely imagine any elected official in these United States asserting with a straight face that the Freedom of the Press is a "collective right" which can be properly exercised only by each state governor naming and funding one "official newspaper" for his state -- operated under his personal command and control -- whereupon it will not infringe the so-called "Freedom of the Press" in the slightest way if private individuals attempting to own and operate their own, competing printing presses are arrested and thrown in jail.
After all, it's not written down that it's an "individual" right? So it must be a "collective" right ... right?
Tim Starr at No Treason - The Myth of the Social Contract - The so-called "social contract", which binds us to the edicts of the state, be it democratically elected or not, is a ruse. It's only purpose is to reduce the magnitude of our complaints when the state holds us under its thumb. The constitution binds officials who swear to uphold it, but it has no jurisdiction over the rest of us. We are free. Always were. Always will be.
Rob Robertson at No Treason - Requiem For A Mighty MoPar - Mr. Robertson likes to drive fast. This story is an account of a race with a Porsche 911 travelling south on I-95 from New Hampshire into Boston.
Mark Penman aka Laissez Firearm - Why I Will Never, Ever, Get Laid Again - A classic from June of 1999. Good stuff on sexuality, atheism, and politics. Billy Beck linked to it in his requiem to Mr. Penman, Another Lost Veteran of the Psychic Wars.
