Bill of Rights

"SAN ANGELO, Texas — The mothers of children removed [kidnapped] from a West Texas polygamist sect's ranch after an abuse allegation are appealing to Gov. Rick Perry for help."

And this comment sums the situation up nicely:

Tubal wrote:

Wow. Baptist ministers* rape teen girls too. Let's go take all the Baptist kids and lock them up. Then when their mothers want to come see them, lets tell them no. Then when the mothers that they rounded up too want to call their loved ones to tell them what's happening, lets take away their cell phones.

Last month, the House amended the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to expand the government’s ability to monitor our private communications. This measure, if it becomes law, will result in more warrantless government surveillance of innocent American citizens.

Though some opponents claimed that the only controversial part of this legislation was its grant of immunity to telecommunications companies, there is much more to be wary of in the bill. In the House version, Title II, Section 801, extends immunity from prosecution of civil legal action to people and companies including any provider of an electronic communication service, any provider of a remote computing service, “any other communication service provider who has access to wire or electronic communications,” any “parent, subsidiary, affiliate, successor, or assignee” of such company, any “officer, employee, or agent” of any such company, and any “landlord, custodian, or other person who may be authorized or required to furnish assistance.” The Senate version goes even further by granting retroactive immunity to such entities that may have broken the law in the past.

"All passports issued by the US State Department after January 1 will have always-on radio frequency identification chips, making it easy for officials – and hackers – to grab your personal stats. Getting paranoid about strangers slurping up your identity? Here’s what you can do about it. But be careful ..."

"4) The best approach? Hammer time. Hitting the chip with a blunt, hard object should disable it. A nonworking RFID doesn’t invalidate the passport, so you can still use it."

Mr Speaker, I rise in opposition to this latest attempt to undermine our personal liberties and violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. This bill will allow the federal government to engage in the bulk collection of American citizens’ communications. In effect, it means that any American may have his electronic communications monitored without a search warrant.

As such, the bill clearly violates the Fourth Amendment

The folks at the US Citizenship and Immigration Services have devised a new citizenship test for those few illegal immigrants who, for some unknown reason, are actually trying to become lawful citizens. The new questions, the USCIS claims, are calculated to better measure how well newbies understand what it means to be an American rather than how well they can memorize answers. Of course, most libertarians are convinced that most natural born citizens don't know what it really means to be an American either. As a service to all, here are some actual USCIS test questions followed not by the politically correct answers but by the actual realpolitik answers that have been certified as being true based on real-life experience.

It has been said that “he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword.” And in the case of Eliot Spitzer this couldn’t be more true. In his case it’s the political sword, as his enemies rejoice in his downfall. Most people, it seems, believe he got exactly what he deserved.

The illegal tools of the state brought Spitzer down, but think of all the harm done by Spitzer in using the same tools against so many other innocent people. He practiced what could be termed “economic McCarthyism,” using illegitimate government power to build his political career on the ruined lives of others.

"That is the all-important context in which the Bill of Rights was created. The Anti-Federalists, men filled to varying degrees with fear, mistrust, and loathing of the new federal government, insisted on a bill of rights as additional shackles imposed on that new government. Knowing that alone, knowing that the famous Bill came into existence only to please those most apprehensive of the new government, definitively ends any confusion or debate surrounding the meaning of the Second Amendment.

As a United States Congressman, I take my oath to uphold all of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights very seriously. Unfortunately, too many in Washington DC believe they can pick-and-choose which provisions of the constitution they can uphold. For example, many politicians, judges, and bureaucrats believe they have the power to disregard our right to own guns, even though the second amendment explicitly guarantees the people's right to "keep and bear arms."

Like the Founding Fathers, I believe that the right to keep and bear arms is fundamental to a free society. Where law-abiding citizens are most freely allowed to defend themselves, communities are safer, while crime rises when law-abiding people's access to firearms is restricted. Gun laws only disarm those who respect the law. Those with criminal tendencies do not turn in their weapons and reform their ways because government bureaucrats enact statutes that tell them to. Gun control laws turn peaceful citizens into sitting ducks for criminals to prey upon.

Congressman Ron Paul has signed on to a letter to the President asking that an amicus curiae brief filed by U.S Solicitor General Paul D. Clement on DC v. Heller, otherwise known as the DC Gun Ban Case, be withdrawn on the basis that the reasoning within, were it to be accepted by the Supreme Court, leaves open the door for more encroachments on individuals’ Second Amendment rights to keep and bear arms.

The brief in question argues that categorical bans of virtually all self-defense firearms may be upheld as constitutional if a court determines that these prohibitions are “reasonable” restrictions of constitutional rights. The reasonability standard is the lowest standard of constitutional review our courts utilize, a much lesser hurdle than the “strict scrutiny” review that courts use in many cases in which regulations threaten individual rights.

On April 16, 2007, twenty-seven students and five faculty members at Virginia Tech lost their lives to a madman who possessed one distinct advantage over his victims—He wasn't concerned with following the rules. Undeterred by Virginia Tech's status as a "gun free zone," this mentally unstable individual carried two handguns onto the university campus and indiscriminately opened fire.

Over the last quarter-century, the vast majority of the mass shootings in America—from the recent shooting at the Westroads Mall in Omaha, Nebraska, to the 1984 San Ysidro McDonald's massacre—have occurred in "gun free zones." Though labeling an area "gun free" may make some people feel safer, feeling safe is clearly not the same as being safe.

In case you wondered why the shrill tone of the punditry is rising right now they are egging you on to continue the same freedom destroying patterns they set in motion a generation ago. "You go fight the LEFT - ENVIRONMENTALISTS - FEMINISTS - THOSE GUN NUTS - CRAZY CONSTITUTIONALISTS. That is so we don't notice they are picking our pockets. Time for Coalition.

Many of the old guard libertarians just don't get it. Ron Paul isn't an “Us vs. Them” internal libertarian / conservative republican fight, it's a:

Holy Crap! We're damn near Toast!

Is there ANY one we can support or even marginally get behind that will at least slow the United States slide into a drooling Hitler dreamscape of Big Brotherism?

Because I don't know about you, but I only see two options on the table. 1) Fight like hell, and 2) Get the fuck out.

If you are Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, or any affiliation in between, go read this article. Not because of the feud and division Tom is starting between long time people who desire liberty, but because L. Neil Smith so eloquently states why everyone, who minds being unjustly jailed or killed, should gather behind Dr. Ron Paul's bandwagaon and push just as hard as you can, right now.

If it is necessary to limit government, then perhaps we cannot have government. It is after all a "monopoly on the use of force in a given geographic area." Everyone has to deal with it. Therefore if what we need, as human beings, liberty and agencies to protect that liberty, government is the worst way of trying to provide them. We need a polycentric ordering of society, not a single power.

Class: Sociology 203
University Mandated Assignment
Due Date: 4/15/2029

Assignment: Discuss the sociological ramifications of the Presidential Lottery held on November 7, 2007.

Additional Class Notes: As you know, the Presidential Lottery was never held again, due to the public outcry. You may use as reference the still small minority who continue to try to re-introduce the Presidential lottery. If you do, be prepared to analyze in depth the claims that the actions of that day are the only thing that allowed our country to (using their language) “turn back from the slide into a Nazi type Fascism so prevalent among the ruling class at the time.” And unless you can provide incontrovertible proof that Mr. Bush, or anyone for that matter, survived the destruction at the old Verizon Center, please don't regale me with your fantasies they are living on a Tropical Island. The attached diary entry may be used to compare and contrast what officially happened, to what did happen, and to what was planned.

As per University rules, the best paper on campus will be printed in the University Times.