Friday, September 7, 2007

I'll Take Liberty, Thanks

I heard recently that someone famous once said, "I believe that democracy is the best form for government to take, too bad it's never been tried." I don't know if I agree with that assessment. Truly democratic government would have the whole populace voting on every law and regulation, which would not only be very cumbersome, but would not guarantee good laws. Any individual's vote or opinion is heavily influenced by the news media, and "He who owns the media decides what is put in it."

So we have this "representative" form of government, and the rule of law. I really don't care if we have a democracy. I really don't care if the majority rules. My only desire is for freedom and liberty. I want the Bill of Rights to be effective, and enforced. The second amendment says that "Congress shall make no law abridging the right to keep and bear arms," yet we have over 200 Federal laws doing just that. That amendment was written so that we could protect ourselves from tyranny, in a day when any man with a rifle was just as effective as any soldier, but we lost parity with the military many, many years ago. The second amendment supports all the others.

The first amendment is supposed to guarantee free speech, but the so-called "fairness doctrine" passed a few years ago was a gag order for any American who wanted to speak out about elections, unless they were in a "camp" or in the "media". Many of our media protection laws don't apply to bloggers unless you follow a bunch of guidelines and act much like the traditional media.

The fourth amendment is supposed to protect us from "unlawful search and seizure", but now the government is spying on us all, and AT&T, who is breaking the law in collusion with this administration, may never be brought to justice, because of the political powers that be.

The Patriot Act is the worst trashing of the Bill of Rights ever enacted, yet was largely unopposed. The Department of Homeland Security is a dangerous amalgam of many smaller agencies, and cannot do what it was created for. The events of 9-11-2001, while tragic, were not as devastating to this country as they are made out to be, and 6 years later, we are not any safer. We are actually less secure, because our army is stretched to the breaking point. The *Government* cannot protect us all. As Ben Franklin once said, "Those who would give up liberty to purchase a little safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." See Neither Liberty Nor Safety, by Robert Higgs.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm no fan of the Patriot ACT, but it is not the "worst trashing of the Bill of Rights ever enacted." That dishonor has to go to the Alien and Sedition Acts, all of which were passed within a decade of the ratification of the Bill of Rights.

Let's put things into perspective, here.

Frank said...

Sorry, maybe I should have said "the worst trashing of the Bill of Rights passed in my lifetime" or "in the last century". Didn't mean to be so literal.