Friday, April 30, 2010

Are Your Individual Rights Contingent Upon Citizenship?

The controversy over Arizona’s passing of their version of an “illegal” immigration law is raising hackles, receiving praise, and generally bringing forth all types of commentary.  If you desire to read some commentary which may cause you thoughtful discomfort, go and read The Rights of Man, the Privileges of Citizen, which was written by Jim May and posted at his blog The New Clarion.  A short burst of thoughtful discomfort.

The invocation of national sovereignty as justification for arbitrary immigration controls operates on the unstated premise that individual rights (to life, liberty, property etc.) are contingent upon citizenship (a state-granted status), instead of being inalienable to the person.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/30 at 02:27 PM
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Double Bag It, Please

A real short story, Double Bagger, regarding the nickel fee charged if you need a bag for your groceries, amongest other things.  Made me chuckle.

Linked via dispatches from TJICistan.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/30 at 02:11 PM
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“Logical, if Absurd,” Conclusions

History has shown us, think of the former Soviet Union, and continues to show us, think of China, North Korea and Cuba, the natural progression of commie (word), planned, societies.

America is currently in the planning stages, and has been for some time, of a planned society, controlled life, if you can controlled living life, under the direction of the powers that be in Washington D.C. and in local state governments, with results which we can see and experience on a daily basis.

The most recent manifestation of this State controlled living, here in America, is ObamaCare (DeathCare).  Where will this lead to, as private individuals and private businesses are milked drier and drier, to fund the vision of controlled living?  Some examples, unfortunately current ones, are available for individuals to consider.

Doctors in southern China are working around the clock to fulfil a government goal to sterilise — by force if necessary — almost 10,000 men and women who have violated birth control policies. Family planning authorities are so determined to stop couples from producing more children than the regulations allow that they are detaining the relatives of those who resist. About 1,300 people are being held in cramped conditions in towns across Puning county, in Guangdong Province, as officials try to put pressure on couples who have illegal children to come forward for sterilisation.

The above quote is taken from a UK Times story, which I lifted from the blog Wintery Knight, which I was led to by a post at Lex Communis titled Only Communists would think that it makes sense to actually implement bad science fiction plot ideas.

The author of Lex Communis, Peter Sean Bradley, has additional examples for you to consider, and ends his post on this brutal reality this way.

The common thread might be the Communist belief that human beings are just sophisticated animals, and, therefore, there is no ontological barrier against using human beings like animals.

It is said that truth is stranger than fiction because fiction has to be plausible, which seems accurate until some utopian humanist gets involved.

Original link to this news via Blazing Cat Fur.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/30 at 01:41 PM
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Census 2010 - Knock, Knock, Neo

In the first movie from The Matrix trilogy, the main character, Neo, is awoken from a somnolent state by a seemingly nefarious intrustion into his computer.  Little does he realize, at that instant, that he is still thoroughly, deeply, and nefariously ensconced in a sleep so deep that upon being re-introduced into a wakeful state, reality, it almost kills him, which brings me to the subject of Census 2010.

I first posted about skipping the census as a civil disobedience idea back in April 2009, and followed up that post with many additional posts on refusing to participate in Census 2010.

Unfortunately, this peaceful means of Americans expressing their disgust, enmass, with the burgeoning size of the United States government, and the government’s intrusion into all aspects of American life, has fallen flat.  The current numbers for participation in Census 2010 show the mailed in response rate at seventy-two percent (72%), which leaves approximately forty-nine million households which will receive a knock on their GPS marked front door, starting tomorrow.

Based on an AP news story posted at MSNBC, titled Census mail results could be trouble for 5 states, here is what individuals who have not participated in the census can expect.

...But he (Robert Groves - ed.) said it remained uncertain how that will translate to “how the American public reacts when we knock on their door.”

“The census is not over,” said Groves, who noted the non-respondents were disproportionately low-income, lesser-educated or renters. “For those of you who haven’t been counted in the 2010 census, this is your moment.”...

At training sessions this week, temporary census workers were instructed on the protocols of conducting interviews, such as how to tabulate answers on race (let people self-identify if they’re multiracial, but a label of “American” isn’t a sufficient response), where to ask questions (outside, since census workers should not ask to enter a person’s home) and carrying proper identification (government badges and a “U.S. Census Bureau” bag).

Census workers also are being told to be respectful if homeowners refuse to cooperate, to keep data confidential and to alert supervisors if there are signs of danger.

“This is your moment,” as Groves states, to continue to refuse to participate in the census, if you have refused to participate to this date, as a means of peaceful, polite civil disobedience, and this refusal should be respected, per the census bureau’s instructions.

Knock, knock, Neo, reality is at your door, and will soon be at mine.  I’ll be waiting, peacefully and politely.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/30 at 12:03 PM
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Billy Beck - The Most Dangerous Man in America?

Is Billy Beck the most dangerous man in America?  Bill Clinton seems to consider him as so, and quotes him, paraphrasily, in a talk at the Center for American Progress.

I’ve been aware of Billy Beck for just over ten or twelve years, now, reading most everything he has written that I could find on the internet, and exchanging a number of emails, and I have never found, or even considered him, as a dangerous individual.

But let’s let Billy address the question of his danger to America and Americans himself.  Scott Ott has interviewed Billy, and you can listen to Scott’s interview in a post at Ott’s website titled Meet the Man Whose Words President Clinton Thinks We Should Fear and Guard Against.

Via Billy Beck.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/30 at 11:45 AM
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Danger - Tea Partiers - Danger

Quincy, IL, sends out riot gear clad police to confront Tea Party protestors, who are quite lawabiding and peaceful.  The Quincy, IL police department then issues a BS filled official statement, regarding these Tea Party protestors, which is thoroughly refuted by the viddies taken by private individuals (viddies can be viewed at link) who are attending the protest.

As if this perception of peaceful Tea Party protestors as exceptionally dangerous by an arm of the State is not bad enough, regular Army personnel, stationed at Ft. Knox, have also included Tea Party protestors as an exceptionally dangerous element in a recent military exercise scenario.

This week, I was contacted by a number of civilian and military personnel (enlisted and officer ranks) who expressed concern about a military exercise scenario proposed for Ft. Knox, the U.S. Bullion Depository. (For the record, I called Ft. Knox security for an official comment and received the standard reply: “We are not authorized to discuss this exercise.”)

As with most such exercises, the Ft. Knox scenario outline occurred in stages, as if real time intelligence was being provided at various intervals. The first intel advisory I received was issued on Friday, 23 April 2010, and identifies the terrorist threat adversaries as “Local Militia Groups / Anti-Government Protesters / TEA Party.”

You read that right: “TEA Party”!

As the writer of the above quote notes, this is an “ominous political precedent,” and indeed it is, so I am cautiously encouraged to read this also.

The military officers and enlisted personnel with whom I spoke are all dedicated uniformed Patriots who are loyal, first and foremost, to their oath to “support and defend” our Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

Their concerns about this exercise mirrored my own…

We are living history, America, right now, today.  What will be recorded about these times when we are dust?  Will the record show the decline of America into Socialism and collapse, or will the record show America throwing off the chains which are even now being added to, link by link, and arising as a true nation of liberty, freedom and opportunity?

Army Preps for Tea Party ‘Terrorists’

Linked via Western Rifle Shooters Association.

Posted by John Venlet on 04/30 at 06:27 AM
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