Airport Security
When I was 18 years old in CA I walked into a Western Auto and walked out with a 12ga shotgun.
Freedom of Association. If you run a cake business, you can’t even turn away customers for moral reasons.
Not today.
High School or College graduation speech? Better not mention God — it’s practically illegal in this country.
Few remain in force.
The rights we exercise are done so at the pleasure of Rome-on-the-Potomac.
Are you kidding? If I have two beers in less than an hour and am pulled over not necessarily for driving poorly I could spend four months in jail and lose my license for 6 months.
Its illegal for anyone under the age of 18 to ride in the back of a pickup truck in my state.
Smoking on school property at any time anywhere is a ticketable offense.
Bicycle and motorcycle helmets were optional. Actually, I never heard of a bicycle helmet until I was in college or later.
The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom.
A) You have to buy a health insurance policy as ordered by the government
B) The electricity and other forms of energy are not permitted to be generated from the cheapest, most efficient forms of energy as mandated by the government
C) You must pay for other people’s cell phones as mandated by a tax on your cell phone as ordered by the government
D) Your freedom of religion is trumped by the civil rights of a self-identified member of a non-race and you must provide services as ordered by the judicial system
E) The refrigerant in your air conditioner must be a far less efficient chemical than it used to be based on false science as ordered by the government to keep a molecule of O3 from disappearing even though this molecule is created by the sun and could never be destroyed
F) You cannot order a size of a beverage of your choosing as it is now illegal as mandated by the government
This could go on for a while, and I have clearly stuck to the premise that the limits on freedom are imposed by the government.
In all honesty, is this a rhetorical question anyway?
A few years ago, much was made of Tom Brokaw’s book, The Greatest Generation. We also had the Saving Private Ryan mini-series. Both reminded us of the tremendous character and strengths of the people who fought and won WW2.
In time, those GIs were cashiered and resumed civilian lives.
If you want some eye-opening responses, the next time you are at some public event where asking a crowd some questions would be possible, ask something like this:
“You recall that the generation that came home from WW2 was called the Greatest Generation because they defeated totalitarian governments of the Imperial Japanese and the German Nazis. Would you like to be as free as those soldiers were when they came back to civilian life?”
When I have done this and every time I most often get the most puzzled looks. People frequently hesitate and then say no. When asked why, they often say, “because someone might do something”, by which I speculate that “something” is something they might not approve of.
For greater effect, cast this question as: would you like to be as free as the generation of soldiers who came home from the Civil War.
The hidden issue here is that the further you go back in time to draw the line, the smaller the role of government in suppressing liberty. But a lot of people are not so familiar with the history of the Welfare State and this is an end run around their reflexive defense of that intrusion in private lives and in the expansion of government.
Well I was a teenager in NYC in the 1970s and we smoked everywhere and we pretty much smoked pot everywhere.
Say it was bad, but it was more freedom than we have today, living in a nanny state that’s right on the verge of being a nanny from hell state at best.
We even had jokes and stuff.
I miss those days, I’d go back in a heartbeat.
These laws are passed like this. First some do-gooder libs push for something like forcing people to use low flow appliances for supposedly altruistic reasons. Then the faucet makers lobby the lawmakers and give them campaign cash. The legislators can claim they are only looking out for the public good, while they sell their votes.
The use of our property. What are we allowed to do with our farm? Even if we got advance clearance from the EPA, they could change their mind later.
Then let's move on to zoning and HOAs, and what we can no longer do with our own homes and properties...
As a 6 year old, I could walk home from school
Many are now carrying 24/7, even inside their homes.
No personal privacy with cameras spying on us everywhere, even in store dressing rooms and public restroom. Also, creepy unisex dressing rooms and restrooms which is upside down lib thinking considering we're so scared of perverts grabbing our kids on the walk to school or online but it's fine to have them watching when privates are exposed.
Every transaction is monitored with excess personal info (phone, address, signature, driver's license or other photo ID).
We can't call grandma without the NSA snooping in on the conversation.
We can't send a birthday card through the mail without it being photographed and sniffed for untold substances.
Thinking of sharing pics of last weekend's fish fry on a social network? Ha, Big Brother will snag those for your file.
Can't apply for a job without giving up your social network pages so the potential employer can check out your personal comments, sexy pics to your significant other and determine if your friends and friends of friends pass some sort of standards test.
Your credit worthiness is also defendant upon the credit worthiness of your friends.
Can't pass through a traffic signal without having your pic and car tag being kept in some DPS file to be used against you at some future date.
Getting stopped by cops isn't a friendly warning anymore. Today, your phone will be grabbed, breath tests are mandatory and your blood will be taken.
You're finger printed for drivers license renewals.
No sleeping peacefully at night for fear knock warrants in the middle of the night at wrong address will get you, your kids and your dog killed by out of control cops. Even if you aren't home, cops will break into your house, chase your kids’ pet down the hall until it's cornered and empty their guns into it (happened in Round Rock, TX a couple days ago).
Can't walk down the street without drones following you.
Can't peak out your curtains without military-type police vehicles patrolling with SWAT all decked out in full combat pointing weapons at your kids’ windows and ordering you to stay in place. Then if you don't answer your door to them quick enough, they'll maul and handcuff you for no other reason than they can.
Can't file a non-profit status with the IRS without being harassed.
Freedom of religion in schools and other public places is being banned and you will be sued if you don't comply.
Freedom of speech can force you to make a public apology and your business sold out from under you.
We now have the thought police.
And the food police. And for goodness sake, don't even think about packing a sack lunch from home for little Johnny and never ever let him use his first finger for anything or he'll be handcuffed and arrested for brandishing weapons at school.
Do not let little Johnny smile at little Suzy or her parents will have him suspended from school and have “sexual predator” stamped on the front page of his permanent record.
We can't be Asians or Indians or Hispanics because anyone who does “identify” themselves as black is now Caucasian.
We can't deny service to extra special groups or we'll be sued and lose our businesses. These extra special groups demand extra special “rights” while taking away those which every American had under our now defunct Constitution.
The 2nd is quickly being struck down by our own fast becoming dictatorial government.
Can't sell at farmers markets without government permission.
Farmers can't sow seeds without signing contracts with Monsanto and the government.
Your 10 year old can't go to summer camp without a full physical and medical history along with giving their SS# which, as we have all been told, was never to be used for ID. There's so many permits and regulations on everything that no one can poop or breathe without getting permission to do so.
Whoever holds the reins in DC has federal agencies to gather info to blackmail any individual, judge, congressman or senator that they choose. They can do it in secret without a judge’s approval and a national security gag order in place to prevent anyone from acknowledging it.