We're All Democrats Now
Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 30 Jan 2003 13:00:00 GMT
Birdman Bryant -
MindReader - it's incredibly simple how this works, but if you
don't think about it, it looks neat.
I finished the basic network code for my JMaze game last night. Another night or two of hacking and I'll have a simple multi-player game working, in sha' allah.
Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com - Power Lust - comments on GW's Tuesday night speech. [lew]
I would rather eat my keyboard than watch the State of the Union speech, so consider this article an act of sacrificial public service.
The most irritating thing about the State of the Union is that we are a captive audience -- in every way. This guy taxes us, spends our money on stuff he likes, sends our kids to war on his decision, lies to us, dares to believe that his personal will is somehow more important than yours or mine or anyone else's solely because he managed to eke out a few more electoral votes than Gore two years ago, and to top it off, expects that we will watch for more than an hour as he prattles, while his minions interrupt him only to stand and applaud.
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Well, the speech tonight illustrates the problem. Whereas Clinton was merely a con man who seemed to revel in his ability to dupe people, Bush is something more alarming: he may actually believe what he is saying.
Sierra Times - Text of President Bush's Speech - I didn't read this, but am linking to it so I have the link should I need a few laughs at a later date. [sierra]
Ron Paul in The House of Representatives - Sorry, Mr. Franklin, "We're All Democrats Now" - a special order speech given yesterday. I couldn't find it in the Congressional Record for yesterday. Long. I haven't read the whole thing yet, but it looks worth the time.
At the close of the Constitutional Conventional in 1787, Benjamin Franklin told an inquisitive citizen that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention gave the people "a Republic, if you can keep it." We should apologize to Mr. Franklin. It is obvious that the Republic is gone, for we are wallowing in a pure democracy against which the Founders had strongly warned.
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But today, the American people accept drug prohibition, a policy as damaging to liberty as alcohol prohibition. A majority vote in Congress has been enough to impose this very expensive and failed program on the American people, without even bothering to amend the Constitution. It has been met with only minimal but, fortunately, growing dissent. For the first 150 years of our history, when we were much closer to being a true republic, there were no federal laws dealing with this serious medical problem of addiction.
The ideas of democracy, not the principles of liberty, were responsible for passage of the 16th Amendment. It imposed the income tax on the American people and helped to usher in the modern age of the welfare/warfare state. Unfortunately, the 16th Amendment has not been repealed, as was the 18th. As long as the 16th Amendment is in place, the odds are slim that we can restore a constitutional republic dedicated to liberty. The personal income tax is more than symbolic of a democracy; it is a predictable consequence.
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Today the concepts of rights and property ownership are completely arbitrary. Congress, the courts, presidents and bureaucrats arbitrarily "legislate" on a daily basis, seeking only the endorsement of the majority. Although the republic was designed to protect the minority against the dictates of the majority, today we find the reverse. The republic is no longer recognizable.
