Archives for: October 2009
Cultivating a Rat Infestation October 30, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 30, 2009
Government is a form of participatory larceny in which the wealth created through the honest exertions of the productive is taken by force and redistributed according to the whims of the ruling elite.
This is underscored by a proposal from Chicago Mayor Richard Daley in his 2010 municipal budget, which includes a “Tax Whistleblower Program” designed to entice Chicago residents into becoming paid informants.
The Chicago Sun-Times notes that the program “is expected to include cash bounties for informants who deliver the goods on unpaid business taxes. The cash reward would be a percentage of the amount recovered [.]”
A similar informant program was started in Newark, New Jersey under Mayor Corey Booker: Citizens were offered $1,000 in exchange for anonymous tips that resulted in police seizure of firearms. The victim of the seizure need not be charged with or convicted of a crime.
As Albert Jay Nock observed, government doesn’t seek to abolish crime – it seeks a monopoly on crime.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Government: A Predatory Parasite October 29, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 29, 2009
Like many others caught in the undertow of the ongoing economic collapse, Las Vegas resident Delinda Epstein has lost nearly everything. Her well-paying job with a construction company disappeared when the Vegas real estate market went bust. Her truck was repossessed, and she was compelled to move into a tiny apartment in a bad part of town.
Delinda posted an ad on Craig’s List offering various services – including transportation. Her first customer soon called – a man called Richie who needed a ride from the airport.
After Delinda picked him up and negotiated a fee, “Richie” proved to be an undercover agent of the Transportation Authority. Delinda was hit with a $3,800 fine for offering transportation services without a license. That fine was reduced to $250, but her car was seized and impounded. And now the TA wants to seize her cell phone, as well.
At every level, and wherever it is found, government is a viciously predatory parasite.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
The Unfolding Global Eco-Dictatorship October 28, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 28, 2009
Merely describing the ambitions of those who seek to re-order the world can make a critic sound paranoid.
One example is provided by the upcoming United Nations “climate change” summit in Copenhagen. At that meeting, heads of state from numerous countries – including, it is expected, President Obama – will sign a Framework Convention on Climate Change explicitly calling for the creation of a world government.
Page 18 of that document specifies that the treaty will create a global governing body with the power to collect what can only be called global environmental taxes.
Page 127 calls for huge transfers of wealth from the West – meaning, primarily, the United States – to what is called the “developing world.” This would be done until the West makes what the UN would consider a “full and effective payment of climate debt” supposedly incurred through our purported environmental sins.
Although this sounds demented, it’s what the UN intends to do, with the Obama administration’s enthusiastic support.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Don't Do the Crime -- But Still Do the Time October 23, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 23, 2009
Two years, ago, West Virginia resident Megan Williams, a black woman, told police that she had been kidnapped and tortured by six white captors who beat and sexually assaulted her.
Three men and three women were arrested and strong-armed into plea bargain agreements that resulted in prison terms of up to 40 years.
Days ago, Miss Williams admitted that the entire story was a fabrication. The bruises on her face were inflicted by an abusive boyfriend. Her other injuries were self-inflicted. According to her attorney, Williams is admitting the truth, at the risk of prosecution, because she wants to “right the wrong” inflicted on the six innocent people in prison.
However, the prosecutor who sent the six to prison insists that the convictions were sound, and that they should remain behind bars – despite the fact that the supposed crime never occurred.
Remember: In contemporary America, one needn’t commit a crime in order to wind up in prison.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Truths about Obama from the Left October 22, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 22, 2009
Author Chris Hedges could fairly be described as a leftist. He is a commentator of a rare and valuable kind, telling the truth as he sees it without regard to ideology or prejudice.
In a recent essay, Hedges observed: “The right-wing accusations against Barack Obama are true. He is a socialist, although he practices socialism for corporations. He is squandering the country’s future with deficits that can never be repaid. He has retained and bolstered our surveillance state to spy on Americans. He is forcing us to buy into a health care system that will enrich corporations…. He will not stanch unemployment. He will not end our wars. He will not rebuild the nation. He is a tool of the corporate state.”
Hedges is concerned that the coming political backlash against Obama will result in the imposition of a right-wing militarist despotism in America. But the real problem is the centralization of power in Washington, whatever the ideological pretext.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
A Manufactured "Crime" October 21, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 21, 2009
North Carolina defense attorney Johnny Gaskins was recently convicted in federal court of an offense called “money structuring” – making a series of cash bank deposits of just under $10,000, the amount at which banks are required to report transactions to the IRS.
Like most asinine laws of its kind, the statute criminalizing “money structuring” is an outgrowth of the murderous fraud called the war on drugs. It assumes that large cash deposits must be the product of illicit commerce.
Gaskins earned his money legally, and paid taxes on his income. His only supposed crime was to conceal his own money from official scrutiny.
Professor William Anderson of Frostburg State University observes: “This was payback, pure and simple. Gaskins had success representing people accused of crimes, and the police and prosecutors paid him back with what only can be a trumped-up charge.”
The persecution of Johnny Gaskins illustrates the ease with which our rulers can turn anyone into a criminal.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Welfare Queens in Pinstripes October 20, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 20, 2009
Since the original Yankee Stadium opened in 1923, the New York Yankees have been America’s showpiece sports franchise.
Behind the team’s colorful legacy, however, the Yankee organization is one of the country’s most shameless corporate welfare whores.
Matt Welch of Reason magazine points out that the new, recently opened Yankee Stadium cost nearly $1.6 billion. Of that amount, an estimated $1.2 billion came from city, state, and federal subsidies, including special tax waivers, bond subsidies, and property seized through eminent domain.
Thanks to subsidies squeezed from taxpayers nation-wide, the Yankees can charge extortionate ticket prices that only the rich can afford. Thus the new Yankee Stadium is an architectural metaphor for the emerging American feudalism, with opulent, scandalously expensive prime seating for the wealthy and powerful, separated from over-priced regular seats common people can’t afford.
As the financial collapse deepens, the new Yankee Stadium may someday become an empty relic – a monument to subsidized greed.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
The "Birthers" May Be Right October 16, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 16, 2009
The much-derided “Birthers” – those who believe that there are legitimate questions regarding Obama’s status as a native-born U.S. citizen – appear to have a point.
Five years ago, the Nairobi Standard newspaper ran a story headlined: “Kenyan-born Obama all set for US Senate.” The lede to that story announced that “Kenyan-born US Senate hopeful, Barrack Obama, appeared set to take over the Illinois Senate seat after his main rival, Jack Ryan, dropped out of the race….”
Also noteworthy is the fact that many Kenyans perceive Obama’s Nobel Prize as – in the words of the Los Angeles Times – a “hometown victory.”
Ironically, there were legitimate questions about the constitutional qualifications of both major party candidates in the last presidential election, since Arizona Senator McCain was born in Panama, not the United States. The larger problem, of course, was that neither major-party candidate took the Constitution seriously, a problem that will most likely persist.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Aggressive War is NOT Pro-Life October 15, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 15, 2009
According to a new report from the group Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, more than 30,000 single mothers have been deployed to war zones in those two countries. The Army permits mothers of newborns only four months with their children before sending them off to war.
Where both parents are in the military, it’s becoming common for both parents to be deployed simultaneously. Even if both parents return safely, their children are still temporary war orphans.
Children on the receiving end of the war are faring much worse. Multiple reports out of Fallujah, Iraq have documented a terrifying increase in the number of stillbirths and infants born with grotesque deformities and severe cancers. Several years ago, Fallujah was subjected to severe bombardment by white phosphorous and depleted uranium munitions in what the military called a “shake and bake” mission.
Why are pro-life and pro-family activists silent in the face of such horrible consequences of an unnecessary war?
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Obama: Left-Wing Warmonger October 14, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 14, 2009
“I don’t know how he can get this prize,” complained a 30-year-old resident of Kabul, Afghanistan in reaction to Obama’s Nobel Peace Prize. “Maybe it's been awarded for all the houses they are bombing, or perhaps it's for all his soldiers that are dying in Afghanistan and Iraq."
It’s been said that once a person develops a reputation for punctuality, he’s free to arrive late at work for the rest of his life. In similar fashion, Obama’s reputation as a peacenik is impossible to reconcile with his performance as president.
He was nominated for the Nobel within days of being inaugurated, and within that brief time frame Obama managed to escalate the Afghan conflict by ordering Predator drone strike into Pakistan. He has also conspicuously left the door open for war with Iran.
Despite all of this, Obama has been embraced by the domestic left and the self-designated international community. Apparently, he’s their kind of warmonger.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
A Blueprint for Tyranny October 13, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 13, 2009
Justice Ministers and law enforcement officials from more than 60 nations gathered in Singapore on October 12 to inaugurate a new joint venture between the United Nations and Interpol that would create the framework for a UN-directed global police force.
Interpol secretary-general Ronald Noble, who was a high-ranking Treasury Department official under Bill Clinton, refers to this proposal as a “visionary model” that would create an “alliance of all nations” united by a “global police doctrine.”
To some, this proposal seems like something out of a campy 1960s television show, and with good reason: During the 1960s spy craze, a program called the “Man from UNCLE” depicted the exploits of agents working for the United Nations Command for Law Enforcement.
But secretary general Nobel’s background, which includes both participation in and covering up the 1993 Waco massacre, should be enough to convince us that his proposal is neither innocent camp, nor visionary idealism. It’s a blueprint for tyranny.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Drop the Sudafed, and Nobody Gets Hurt! October 8, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 8, 2009
Our factories are shuttered and our assembly lines are unraveling, but the government ruling us continues to find new ways to manufacture crimes.
Today’s Opelika-Auburn News reports that twenty-five people in that region of Alabama were arrested on “meth-related charges.” Of those arrested, only two were charged with either possessing or manufacturing methamphetamine; the others were arrested for what was described as “unlawful possession of a precursor” – that is, “purchasing over the legal amount of pseudoephedrine.”
That is to say that these people were arrested for buying legal cold medicine. Jeffrey Tucker of the Ludwig von Mises Institute points out that “Before 2005, you could by as many Sudafed packages as you did Big Mac sandwiches…. Now, your 30-allotment is nine grams,” which probably isn’t enough during cold and flu season. And the government-approved replacement is little better than a placebo.
Cold and flu seasons come and go, but the government afflicting us is an unremitting plague.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has set us free.
Support Your Local Molester? October 7, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 7, 2009
During the past several years, Police Chief Edward Locke, Jr. of Bella Vista, Missouri has repeatedly exploited opportunities to molest and humiliate women.
During a 2005 traffic stop involving suspicion of DWI, Locke handcuffed a woman named Diane Cook. After slamming her head against the vehicle, Lokce – under the pretense of searching her – groped her intimate anatomy. He also tasered her husband.
During a 2006 arrest over a license plate sticker, Locke injured William Cavataio so badly he needed to be hospitalized. For good measure he briefly detained Cavataio’s wife Mary Lou and fondled one of her breasts. In two other incidents Locke was accused of sexually exploiting arrested women.
Several of Locke’s victims filed a federal lawsuit against Locke and the City of Bella Vista. The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court ruled that Locke is protected by “qualified immunity” – the conceit that a government-issued costume confers special protection for crimes committed in the course of official business.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
Obama's "Permanent Depression" October 6, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 6, 2009
Leon Trotsky, a founder of the Soviet Union, is remembered for creating the doctrine of permanent revolution. Barack Obama’s chief historical contribution, observes the Asia Times, may be the creation of a permanent depression.
Fervently applying the discredited economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, Obama and his advisors are systematically redistributing what remains of America’s capital into the hands of government and a handful of politically favored financial institutions.
As the Asia Times points out, when the government borrows money it “has to come from somewhere. Right now, it’s coming from households who choose to save rather than borrow, and from the balance sheet of the Federal Reserve or the banks, as well as foreign investors.”
Foreign investors are walking away. The Banks are bankrupt. Household savings are pitifully small. All that remains is the Fed’s printing press, and the prospect of currency hyperinflation until the Fed runs out of zeroes – or the dollar is utterly destroyed.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
This Is Just The Beginning.... October 5, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 5, 2009
People in positions of responsibility who claim an economic recovery is at hand are either clinically deranged or criminally dishonest.
Detroit, once the hub of America’s industrial economy, is plummeting into third world status. Unemployment is at nearly 28 percent, and bodies are piling up in morgues because nobody can afford to pay for burials or cremation.
Las Vegas, an oasis of corrupt opulence in a vast desert, is disintegrating. Half-finished construction projects litter the city; home foreclosures ravage the residential sections.
Unemployment has spiked, and stock prices for the MGM Mirage and Las Vegas Sands have dropped as much as 99 percent.
The Guardian of London notes that California, the world’s eighth –largest economy, is on the brink of becoming a “failed state.” Unemployment has climbed to 12 percent – highest in 70 years – workers are being paid with IOUs, and hundreds of thousands are fleeing the state.
These aren’t low-water marks. They’re portents of dire times to come.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.
The Sentence is Light -- But Where's the Crime? October 1, 2009
Will Grigg’s Liberty Minute
October 1, 2009
Oregon residents Veronica Rodriguez and Daryl Buck were convicted of first-degree sexual assault and sentenced to roughly a year in prison.
In both cases, the supposed assault didn’t involve violence, seduction, or even skin-to-skin contact. Rodriguez was accused of assaulting a 13-year-old boy by hugging him; Buck’s supposed crime was incidental contact with the seat of pants worn by a 13-year-old girl during a fishing trip.
In both cases, the trial judge set aside the mandatory minimum sentence of 75 months in prison. The prosecution appealed, insisting that under Measure 11, an amendment to the criminal code passed by voter referendum in 1994, judges do not have that discretionary authority. The state supreme court ruled that this application of Measure 11 would violate the state constitution’s ban on disproportionate sentences.
Rodriguez and Buck remain registered sex offenders for acts no reasonable person could describe as sexual assault. Such is the state of criminal justice in contemporary America.
Let us take back the liberty wherewith Christ has made us free.