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Pipe's Lament [SteynOnline]
styenonline.com ^ | August 7, 2014 | Mark Steyn

Posted on 08/10/2014 11:03:39 AM PDT by cornelis

...

a government that has the power to dictate whether or not your kids can sell or eat cupcakes as a result of late local bake sale is a tyranny. It is a government way, way out of power, out of sync. And it's gonna get worse. It's not gonna get better.

...

No matter how you slice it, this is tyranny. When I first came to my corner of New Hampshire, one of the small pleasures I took in my new state were the frequent bake sales – the Ladies' Aid, the nursery school, the church rummage sale. Most of the muffins and cookies were good; some were exceptional; a few went down to sit in the stomach like overloaded barges at the bottom of the Suez Canal. But even then you admired if not the cooking then certainly the civic engagement. In a small but tangible way, a person who submits to a state pie regime is a subject, not a citizen – because participation is the essence of citizenship, and thus barriers to participation crowd out citizenship. A couple of kids with a lemonade stand are learning the rudiments not just of economic self-reliance but of civic identity.

I mentioned one of these stories on Rush a year or two back and some guy responded, "Why are you talking about this? It's not important." That's why I'm talking about it. Because if you won't push back against the small-scale stuff, by the time they come for the big things you'll no longer know how to rouse yourself. In old, settled societies, tyranny starts at the edge and works its way inwards. And the essence of tyranny is its capriciousness. It's easy to say, "Well, I don't go to bake sales, so what do I care?"

(Excerpt) Read more at steynonline.com ...


TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: tyranny
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To: loveliberty2
Where to, America?

http://www.zeugmaweb.net/images/know_the_system.jpg

21 posted on 08/11/2014 11:03:59 AM PDT by zeugma (Islam: The Antidote for civilization)
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To: JLS
Thanks for *ping*...

Don't know about elsewhere, but the "pipes" are SO "traditional" among some of the ethnic groups here in NE Ohio...and the Cleveland Police & Firefighters' Pipers are practically legendary...

So, I guess they better not try to go across the lake to Canada, lol!

What I really can't believe is the duly acquired Fish & Wildlife permit (for ivory on the antique pipes) not being accepted at that one particular border crossing...

and of course, the main point...if the Feds are paying close attention, and enforcing regulations such as this one, which are so extremely paltry and insignificant in the big picture, it just begs the question: what ELSE are they monitoring?! ready to "pinch" you for? and why?!

22 posted on 08/11/2014 8:01:15 PM PDT by 88keys (fight the good fight: depose Harry Reid in 2014!!)
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To: 88keys
What I really can't believe is the duly acquired Fish & Wildlife permit (for ivory on the antique pipes) not being accepted at that one particular border crossing...

No that is not it at all. We are not using drones to hunt down elephant and rhino poachers with hellfire missiles. We are hunting bagpipes. F'in bagpipes. While poachers go blasting away at the few rhino left for dirty old rich Chinamen who can't get it up.

23 posted on 08/12/2014 7:31:41 PM PDT by AndyJackson
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