Posted on 06/23/2005 8:06:55 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Everybody knows about the shot that was heard around the world as the birthing pains of this once great nation. Today, sadly, we may have heard it's death knell.
It did not come with violence or shots fired. It came with the virtual elimination of personal property rights.
Our founding fathers knew how important the ownership of property was and sought to protect the right to be secure in the ownership of property to the extent that they enshrined the guarantee that property would not be taken for public use without due process and just compensation.
For over 200 years it was understood that "public use" meant that the ownership would transfer from the private owner to the local, state, or federal government for things such as military bases, roads, schools, prisons, etc. Now, the meaning of "public use" has been altered by 5 people who were never elected to office and in all reality, are completely unaccountable to anyone, to mean privately owned condos, shopping centers, and business parks under the thin guise that those enterprises would contribute more tax money to the coffers, thus increasing the "public good"
Justice Stevens, writing for the majority said that judges should give city councils and state legislatures "broad latitude in determining what public needs justify the use of the takings power," he added. To make sure that he wasn't misunderstood he added, "The city has carefully formulated a development plan that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including, but not limited to, new jobs and increased tax revenue," and just destroyed any pretence that you have any recourse whatsoever if the government or county decides that they want your property for any reason at all.
Sandra Day O'Connor writing a scathing dissent correctly said that now rich and politically land developers and businesses could basically take your land away from you with the help from the local government. Yes, you could fight it in court, but it is now fruitless as you are guaranteed to lose in a fixed fight.
For years the people have for the most party sat quietly as the government stole more and more freedoms from us. Prior to 1914 and fool could take any drug he or she wanted and kill themselves, thus increasing the quality of the gene pool for the rest of us. Before 1918, the government had no claim to your wages and could not tax them. Prior to 1934, Sears sold machine guns from their catalog and nobody thought anything about it. Prior to the 1950's preachers could freely endorse or denigrate any political candidate they wanted, just as had been done since the very first town government was formed in this country almost 350 years prior. Since 1986 it has been illegal to manufacture and sell a machine gun to a civilian despite the fact that in the past several decades the number of people int he US murdered by a person with a machine gun has been exactly one, and the person doing the shooting was a police officer using a gun issued to the police department.
But hope is not lost however, ownership of real property does a funny thing to people. It is a spot that a person can say, "This land is MINE!" with a dedication and a fierceness that is somewhat scary. Religion and politics and abortion and the WOT all take a back seat when two neighbors are faced with having their property stolen by the government.
Maybe that bell sounding isn't the death knell but the alarm.
Maybe this will awake the sheeple to realize that the socialist have gone too far.
Maybe the bell is just signalling round two of the Revolutionary War.
Will this war be fought with bullets or ballots?
We shall see.
Yes, it is. As far as they can see, which is pretty far.
I hope you're not saying Lincoln's quote is melodramatic?
A Yugoslavian SKS can be bought for about $100 and 1000 rounds of ammo for about $80 more. It is semi automatic and can easily be retrofitted with $15 detachable, 30 round mags.
Maybe, but that is what a lot of people thought about our founding fathers, too.
You are anything but melodramatic in my book. When Mugabe took those farms, a lot of men died defending them. I expected outrage over this issue.
But I didn't realise how much angrier people are over the value of their land than the value of human life. People let Terri die without a fight. People let millions and millions of innocent unborn die without a fight. Something seems wrong, here.
Perhaps people love their stuff more than innocent life. I'd almost prefer we passively surrender than to have such tainted priorities.
Sad FRegards....
Unfortunately, that is not true. Most left before it came to that because Mugmby had already disarmed the people.
As for Terry and abortion, many people see that as something that is a person's right (right or wrong) and in individual decision. But EVERYBODY has to have a place to live and the government won't give a tinker's damn what your political affiliations are when they come to throw you off your property.
It has always been my understanding that you cannot own property in that State only lease.
I was hoping you would say your outrage is over both, combined. Land=money. As I see it, unless you fight for both, your intentions are not for the innocents of this land, but over money.
E-mail list.
the supporters of this decision today are going to use that spin to change whatever public opinion might form against what happened - they are going to say "those who oppose this ruling want all zoning laws repealed". Its a lie, but they will use that spin to their advantage, don't help them. this is about seizure and eminent domain.
THE PROBLEN IS OVERCROWDING FROM POPULATION GROWTH.
CAUSED BY MASSIVE IMMIGRATION.
If they didn't need to make room to house and supply all those immigrants, they wouldn't need to take your property for any reason.
There would be plenty of room and resources and roads and parking lots for Americans, OUR children, and for wildlife.
Population growth from immigration is what has been taking your freedoms away.
So long as we flood the country with people, so long will even I agree that our rights and freedoms must be renegotiated down.
The Supremes just screwed over every American in this country, regardless of political belief. This isn't a waste of time, imo. This decision needs to be overturned and fast.
Here's one: Term limits for judges.
Nope, this is just a new twist on the old gig of taking prime land (waterfront property in the SCOTUS case) and turning it over to the gubmint's cronies when it is decided that the new sewer plant would be better located on cousin Ed's property downwind of town after all(which was purchased from cousin Ed at a huge profit to cousin Ed, who, naturally, shares his largesse).
The taxpayers eat that cost, either through property taxes, bond issues, or more pressure on the local police to write people up for jaywalking and spitting on the sidewalk.
In the meantime, the cronies grease palms to purchase the siezed 'surplus' property for pennies on the dollar, and kick back a chunk of the profit to the folks who set the deal up. Then they develop it into ritzy megabuck makers or tenaments to be, and make their own private killing.
Now the SCOTUS has just eliminated cousin Ed and the new sewer plant from the equation, which means there won't be all those pork barrel construction jobs for the illegal immigrants to take. It is a win-win deal for the local gubmint gang and the deveolper, who both get a bigger slice of your pie.
The illegals, meanwhile can only get jobs as taxi drivers and in housekeeping.
You, on the other hand, as a property owner, get screwed.
Are you claiming that the majority of politicians are trustworthy people? I find it extremely hard to agree with that.
Not to be too nit picky, but all day I have been correcting this mistake.
This ruling is fascism, not socialism or communism.
"It begins and ends by ramming unequivocally conservative SC judges down the throat of Democrats to the betterment of the Republic.
Enough GOP appointed Souters, Kennedys and O'Connors.
Dubya Bush had better come up BIG."
Don't count on it. Any conservative nominee will result in an "extrordinary circumstance." I predict a vacant seat until Hillary Clinton nominates a liberal justice and the Republican controlled Senate votes the liberal in.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.