Unhappy Fourth Of July
It's what you had if you were awake.
Andrew Napolitano writes for reason that our freedom has diminished, not just in recent years, but a great deal just in the past year -- since 2012:
In the past year, all branches of the federal government have combined to diminish personal freedoms, in obvious and in subtle ways. In the case of privacy, we now know that the federal government has the ability to read all of our texts and emails and listen to all of our telephone calls -- mobile and landline -- and can do so without complying with the Constitution's requirements for a search warrant. We now know that President Obama authorized this, federal judges signed off on this, and select members of Congress knew of this, but all were sworn to secrecy, and so none could discuss it. And we only learned of this because a young former spy risked his life, liberty and property to reveal it.In the past year, Obama admitted that he ordered the CIA in Virginia to use a drone to kill two Americans in Yemen, one of whom was a 16-year-old boy. He did so because the boy's father, who was with him at the time of the murders, was encouraging militants to wage war against the U.S.
He wasn't waging war, according to the president; he was encouraging it.Simultaneously with this, the president claimed he can use a drone to kill whomever he wants, so long as the person is posing an active threat to the U.S., is difficult to arrest and fits within guidelines that the president himself has secretly written to govern himself.
In the past year, the Supreme Court has ruled that if you are in police custody and fail to assert your right to remain silent, the police at the time of trial can ask the jury to infer that you are guilty. This may seem like a technical ruling about who can say what to whom in a courtroom, but it is in truth a radical break from the past.
Everyone knows that we all have the natural and constitutionally guaranteed right to silence. And anyone in the legal community knows that judges for generations have told jurors that they may construe nothing with respect to guilt or innocence from the exercise of that right. No longer. Today, you remain silent at your peril.
In the past year, the same Supreme Court has ruled that not only can you be punished for silence, but you can literally be forced to open your mouth. The court held that upon arrest -- not conviction, but arrest -- the police can force you to open your mouth so they can swab the inside of it and gather DNA material from you.
Put aside the legal truism that an arrest is evidence of nothing and can and does come about for flimsy reasons; DNA is the gateway to personal data about us all. Its involuntary extraction has been insulated by the Fourth Amendment's requirements of relevance and probable cause of crime. No longer. Today, if you cross the street outside of a crosswalk, get ready to open your mouth for the police.
He calls the "litany of the loss of freedom" "sad and unconstitutional and irreversible."
And still, so many are asleep.
What will it take for people to wake up?
I think it is a lost cause. By the time people wake up it will make the Civil War look like a kid's birthday party.
Unfortunately Lester Del Rey wasn't heard by more people in the 80's/
And what sucks is there is nowhere to go.
Jim P. at July 7, 2013 12:56 AM
It is definitely a lost cause. The founders built better than they could ever have expected, but liberties started dying almost immediately.
In retrospect, the Civil War was probably the beginning of the end, as that was the first time the government blatantly, deliberately disregarding people's fundamental rights (for example Habeas Corpus). The first really big government interventions in the marketplace were those misguided attempts at curing the Great Depression (and, in retrospect, prolonged it). LBJ's "Great Society". Undeclared wars throughout Asia and the Middle East. War on Drugs. War on Terrorism.
At every step, government power expanded, but it never shrinks. Law and regulations are added, but never removed. It's been a decent ride, lasting more than 200 years, but it's over now, we have reached the tipping point: The burden of government has become more than the country can bear. The US standard of living has been flat or declining for around 15 years now, and there's really no reason to believe this trend is going to change.
a_random_guy at July 7, 2013 3:46 AM
At THIS point, the only hope I have, as sick as it is to say it. . . is that the Collapse comes. By the time we work ourselves out of the rubble that was America, most of the utter BS would have died along with the vast majority of the Looter class. And then we go another 250-300 years. . . and repeat the cycle.. . .
It's times like this that I curse at NASA. . . we COULD have had a Lunar colony, L-5 Colonies, maybe even be on Mars and mining the Belt. . . instead. . . we're going to be stuck here on this rock. . . by the Hordes of Stoopid. . .
Keith Glass at July 7, 2013 8:01 AM
"Law and regulations are added, but never removed."
So much truth and relevance to the cesspool we're in is shown in this statement.
ValiantBlue at July 7, 2013 8:22 PM
That's why I'd like to have an amendment:
Jim P. at July 8, 2013 8:24 PM
Given the number of laws extra constitutionally altered by signing statements I dont see how that would be effective.
lujlp at July 8, 2013 9:09 PM
Think about it. You have to get 2/3 of both houses to re-approve the IRS?
You have to get 2/3 of both houses to re-approve the current immigration code?
You have to get 2/3 of both houses to re-approve DOMA?
You have to get 2/3 of both houses to re-approve the social security?
You have to get 2/3 of both houses to re-approve the war on drugs?
You have to get 2/3 of both houses to re-approve the Apportionment Act of 1911?
And the president has to sign it too?
It would cut roots, branches, trees, and may get us where we want to go.
Jim P. at July 9, 2013 9:50 PM
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