Posted on 07/07/2012 8:46:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
..................In recent years, speaking to audiences hither and yon, I’m wont to say something on the lines of “The lamps are going out on liberty all over the world.” It’s my update on a famous observation by Edward Grey, British foreign secretary on the eve of the Great War. In August 1914, Sir Edward stood at his window in the summer dusk, and said, “The lamps are going out all over Europe.” He was speaking metaphorically. After all, his remark was prompted by the sight of London’s lamplighters going about their evening routine lighting the lamps in Whitehall. Metaphorically speaking, the lights of liberty were certainly dimmed by Roberts’s hideously convoluted Supreme Court decision: I don’t see why I should be fined $695 for declining to participate in an overpriced and dysfunctional “insurance” “market.”
But that’s a philosophical argument, and most folks just want to get on with their lives. And in that sense last week’s power outages are more relevant to where the U.S. is headed than what passes for John Roberts’s thinking in his Obamacare opinion. It was a reminder, as if you needed one, that in the American twilight the lights will be going out literally. Last week, as the East Coast was fading to black, the West Coast was sinking deeper into the red: Stockton, Calif., became the largest U.S. city to date to file for bankruptcy. America is seizing up before our eyes, and the action necessary to reverse the sclerosis is stymied at every turn by rapacious unions, government micro-regulators, dependency-spreading social engineers, and crony capitalists who know how to weave their way through the bureaucracy...........
Or to use the famous New Hampshere saying, “live free or die”.
So what are you going to do about it - go out in the street and shoot into the sky? Some people are doing something...the “Impeach Obama” road sign in Alaska - the guy giving the Obama bus the 2 finger salute - but while fun these things in themselves do nothing.
I think we have to spread the facts to those we know, write our so called representatives, donate, vote, volunteer. However, I’ve tried all of this to no avail - it just keeps getting worse. Of course I live on the left coast but I can only pray that enough of my fellow people do this right thing this election - or we are truly done for and the only remedy will be a second civil war.
Yes they like stuff. They always have their noses in phones now. I doubt they give a thought to free enterprise because they sure don’t think socialism is bad.
Which is nothing more then a “passing phase”.
I'm going to sign up to be a Tea Party poll watcher, like in 2010, is what.
And keep my piece clean.
Can you get me info about becoming a tea party poll watcher, website info, please. Thanks!
Sure, but the fires of war are being lit.
I’d be interested in getting the into on this also.
bump
“However, I doin’t understand West’s needs to be a member of the openly racist CBC.”
Really? I do. Brava, Sicilia. Bravissima.
Cold blood is an acquired attitude and disposition.
Darth Vader: "I find your lack of faith disturbing."
“We have to vote for it to find out what’s in it” (from memory -Rc!) was one sign saying IT’S OVER!
I’m watching that movie now! Ah fantasy...
“America’s young don’t love America.”
They don’t know who she is.
Let’s not make hasty and negative generalizations against America’s young, who also make up the majority of those wearing “combat boots” these days.
When I used the word “legislated”, I meant through nonviolent means of democratic action. I suppose the barons persuasion of King John to sign the Magna Carta might qualify, but I think the ‘persuasion’ was accomplished at the point of a sword. The inquiry is at what point does the despot have the power to overcome democratic resistance, and at what point is popular insurrection precipitated? I’m not sure Obama is intelligent enough to know when to stop pushing the envelope, or even to understand the process at all.
I’m looking at Germany in the 1930’s specifically, but Rome as well. I don’t think any country ever supported or promoted political oppression and economic ruin per se, but the enabling of the engine of such catasrophies is evident in numerous histories.
Ping to my last.
I’ve been thinking about your very good question.
Just ran across a ten year old article by John Derbyshire that I find still highly relevant.
It makes three basic points, all quite accurate IMO:
1. Many (most) of the infringements on our liberty we decry today were made for reasons that at the time seemed quite reasonable, often to address quite serious social problems. They were often wildly popular among the less-than-elite members of society.
2. Most of these problems were probably not really affected much by the laws infringing liberty. IOW, the changes that led to solving or ameliorating these social problems started before and continued after the laws. The laws were a consequence of the changes in society, not their cause.
3. Once the laws were passed, they took credit for the positive changes while ignoring the loss of liberty and other unintended side effects. Any attempt to roll back the laws is impossible due to claims that doing so would bring back the old social problems.
This is the basic root cause of the ratchet effect in loss of liberty. No conspiratorial Marxists required.
Anywho, highly recommend the article.
http://www.johnderbyshire.com/Opinions/Culture/onliberty.html
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