OK, the brassy bastards just won’t stop. We’ve advanced from an incremental erosion of our personal liberties to an all-out power grab. The historical march toward tyranny has a multitude of beginnings, but I believe that the most onerous one was the passage of the Federal Reserve Act on December 23rd, 1913. Merry Christmas, Suckers! Aside from the noxious fact that a gaggle of bankers control our monetary policy, the most egregious aspect of the Act was the Congress’ transfer of its Constitutional obligation to another party. This pattern has continued for the last century. The freedom-choking concept is “enabling legislation”--- a device whereby Congress drafts and passes broad policy measures and directs other entities to promulgate rules and regulations to enforce the provisions. Get the picture?
How many departments, agencies, bureaus, services, directorates, etc. are there circling in the federal universe? All of these pockets of power are engaged in rule-making that impacts our lives every day. Often they use bad science, incomplete data and falsely perceived threats as justification to implement their intervention into every facet of our lives. There are so many of these “alphabet” entities that we feel as if we’re being assaulted on hundreds, perhaps thousands, of fronts. The massive regulatory apparatus puts all Americans on the defensive, and thus, significantly weakens our chances for slaying the monster.
If you have a burning desire to suffer from glazy-eye syndrome, I urge you to read the Federal Register’s daily update for a full month. If you have the internal strength to NOT suck on an exhaust pipe after doing so, you will have one of two predictable responses. You will either sigh in resignation, or become so darn angry that it’ll be impossible for anyone to be with you. But wait, O’ gullible citizen, it gets worse. Perhaps you’ve wonder how these brain-dead career politicians with the sparkling smiles and the 12-month tans can generate so many abhorrent bills that enable the loss of our liberty.
The answer is staff. This semi-permanent group of lifetime bureaucrats works for the elected officials and for the various committees and sub-committees. They live inside the beltway. They have been radically infected with “Potomac Fever” with little prospect for a cure. They are the true enablers. They do the work and allow the legislator to appear competent. They author the enabling legislation that ultimately becomes law….and they do not have to go back to Minnesota or Texas and live under those toxic regulations. Besides, Congress typically exempts itself from much of the freedom-crushing legislation.
The Congress has legislated a multitude of unconstitutional acts that deny our unalienable rights. They have forfeited their Constitutional mandates by allowing other, unelected entities to implement, promulgate, regulate and enforce those unconstitutional provisions. Unalienable rights are natural rights. If you are a believer, unalienable rights are from God and cannot be taken or given away. If you’re a regular reader of my columns, you are aware that I’m a 10th Amendment nullifier. I believe the states have the duty to refuse to implement or allow any unconstitutional law to be enforced within their borders. I fear, however, that there are not very many legislators who have the cajones to stand up to Big Brother. Our unalienable rights are individual rights, therefore………
Comment: earl4sos@gmail.com or cnpearl@woh.rr.com
Showing posts with label rights. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rights. Show all posts
Friday, November 19, 2010
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Unrelenting Change: my two cents worth.
When I was youngster, I wanted to become a veternarian. There were a couple of problems, however. I couldn't bear watching animals suffer, and there are fewer schools of Veternary Medicine than there are medical schools. I lacked the requisite academic discipline to achieve entry into vet school. Things change. I ultimately landed in the world of words...broadcasting, politics, teaching and writing. Now I worry about spelling "parvovirus" rather than treating it.
Change is inevitable. Two sayings come to mind: Burns' "best laid plans...sometimes go astray" and "you can't stay were you are, you're either going forward or slipping behind." They both suggest that no matter what we do or how we plan, we cannot avoid change. As I age, I become more aware that change is pervasive. I now carry a cell phone after resisting for years. Oh, I still find it somewhat annoying, but because of some medical problems in the past, I know my family feels more at ease due to my having "9-1-1" easily accessible on my belt. There have been other changes over the years that I have sought to avoid, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I remember the halcyon days of the '50's (nineteens, not eighteens)...those "Ozzie and Harriet" times, living on a farm near a small village. My teens and early twenties were lived during the turbulent sixties and seventies. Change has been a constant in my life.
Nearly twenty years ago I preached a sermon about the Apostle Peter. He was a tough-skinned, calloused handed fisherman with little schooling and limited sophistication. He was summoned by the Son to follow Him and learn at His feet for three years. At a time of great trial he failed...not once, or twice but three times, but Peter went on to nurture a movement and died a gruesome death while clinging to what he knew was true. Today, some twenty two centuries later billions of believers have venerated his name and his memory. Now there's some change for you.
Some changes are obviously good, and others are downright destructive. Perhaps it's the oldster in me who believes that the soft core porn that passes for primetime television is bad. Maybe my fossilized attitudes cause me to regret that younger generations appear to be unfamiliar with the Bible and United States' history. Perhaps I have a distorted perception when I suspect that many of my fellow citizens have unrealistic ideas about rights without understanding that one must earn respect and privileges. Maybe I have assumed my role as a cranky curmudgeon without my having qualified for it.
In the final analysis, though, I reserve the right to celebrate the change that I believe to be good, to tolerate that change that I suspect is meaningless, and to excoriate the change that I find poisonous. And....I reserve the option to change my mind about anything and everything.
Change is inevitable. Two sayings come to mind: Burns' "best laid plans...sometimes go astray" and "you can't stay were you are, you're either going forward or slipping behind." They both suggest that no matter what we do or how we plan, we cannot avoid change. As I age, I become more aware that change is pervasive. I now carry a cell phone after resisting for years. Oh, I still find it somewhat annoying, but because of some medical problems in the past, I know my family feels more at ease due to my having "9-1-1" easily accessible on my belt. There have been other changes over the years that I have sought to avoid, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. I remember the halcyon days of the '50's (nineteens, not eighteens)...those "Ozzie and Harriet" times, living on a farm near a small village. My teens and early twenties were lived during the turbulent sixties and seventies. Change has been a constant in my life.
Nearly twenty years ago I preached a sermon about the Apostle Peter. He was a tough-skinned, calloused handed fisherman with little schooling and limited sophistication. He was summoned by the Son to follow Him and learn at His feet for three years. At a time of great trial he failed...not once, or twice but three times, but Peter went on to nurture a movement and died a gruesome death while clinging to what he knew was true. Today, some twenty two centuries later billions of believers have venerated his name and his memory. Now there's some change for you.
Some changes are obviously good, and others are downright destructive. Perhaps it's the oldster in me who believes that the soft core porn that passes for primetime television is bad. Maybe my fossilized attitudes cause me to regret that younger generations appear to be unfamiliar with the Bible and United States' history. Perhaps I have a distorted perception when I suspect that many of my fellow citizens have unrealistic ideas about rights without understanding that one must earn respect and privileges. Maybe I have assumed my role as a cranky curmudgeon without my having qualified for it.
In the final analysis, though, I reserve the right to celebrate the change that I believe to be good, to tolerate that change that I suspect is meaningless, and to excoriate the change that I find poisonous. And....I reserve the option to change my mind about anything and everything.
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