Gambling Away Your Liberty
by William Huff
It was not meant to be. It is not lawfully the case. But government IS a gambling enterprise. Without an accurate risk/benefit analysis you may never know how to cut your losses - when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. You might even exhibit symptoms of gambling addiction as most political partisans do. As government becomes more and more corrupt the gambling metaphor becomes more accurate and useful. If we voluntarily combine to delegate certain powers or authorities in order to protect our remaining rights, we are taking a chance on the integrity of someone else. This has not always worked out well. Power has often corrupted - and absolute power… well, you know! We have now reached the lesser of two tyrants phase with this election cycle. What a crapshoot!
How to improve your odds
I will not hesitate to recommend the most accurate and comprehensive government measuring device I have found so far. Originally titled: "Your American Yardstick," it was later reprinted as "The American Ideal of 1776: The Twelve Basic American Principles" by patriotic attorney, Hamilton Abert Long. For your convenience we have provided the entire text on line as a study resource. If you search lexrex.com you can easily move around and utilize this and all our other resources to measure the performance of your servants in government. At one of our other sites we link to a map of the Bailout vote for all U.S. Senators and Reps.
Ben Franklin said we do not deserve either security or liberty, if we trade our liberty for security. This seems to apply equally to life, liberty and property. Those who turn themselves, their property and their children over to the loving care of government have not done well historically. FDR tendered an offer to the people to give them freedom from fear and freedom from want. The first two freedoms of religion and expression were not his to offer. He offered them anyway to sweeten the deal. They were guaranteed by the Declaration and the Constitution. The third and fourth freedoms; the freedoms from want and fear, are not the prerogative of any free government to offer. This would be unlawful to attempt because they require the violation of rights or tacitly portend a policy of preemptive war - or perpetual war - to "make the world safe for democracy" or some other nonsense. Interestingly, the freedom from want poster states it is "Ours to Fight For." The freedom of speech poster implied that buying war bonds would save our freedom of speech.
Even the National Archives "Powers of Persuasion" on line exhibit doesn't begin to tell the story of war propaganda used to get our parents and grandparents in the mood to Kill "Japs" and "Huns" by the hundreds of thousands. While, thanks to Norman Rockwell and the war propaganda machine, we could pull the trigger or drop the Bomb - while we visualized our Thanksgiving Turkey.
Once perverted, governments make war against the liberties of the people - until the people rise up and overthrow them. Then the cycle starts over again.
The Warfare Line and the Welfare Line at the Government Roulette Table
McCain and Obama will drain the Treasury [now a mere a euphemism - this used to be a place where money was kept] probably with almost equal amounts of warfare/welfare. Obama has a few more chips on the welfare line. McCain's larger pile is on the warfare line. Every time they spin we all lose. The Odds are Always with the House - and its cronies. The House has backers in both camps. The bankers are just as happy to loan fiat currency for projects on either side - just as long as the debt continues to grow and can never be repaid.
Relief [Social Welfare] is the Poor Man's Plunder.
In 1850, the great French Statesman Economist Bastiat, speaking of various ways in which the law could be used a weapon for wealth redistribution:
But on the other hand, imagine that this fatal principle has been introduced: Under the pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the law takes property from one person and gives it to another; the law takes the wealth of all and gives it to a few -- whether farmers, manufacturers, ship owners, artists, or comedians. Under these circumstances, then certainly every class will aspire to grasp the law, and logically so.
The excluded classes will furiously demand their right to vote -- and will overthrow society rather than not to obtain it. Even beggars and vagabonds will then prove to you that they also have an incontestable title to vote. They will say to you:
"We cannot buy wine, tobacco, or salt without paying the tax. And a part of the tax that we pay is given by law -- in privileges and subsidies -- to men who are richer than we are. Others use the law to raise the prices of bread, meat, iron, or cloth. Thus, since everyone else uses the law for his own profit, we also would like to use the law for our own profit. We demand from the law the right to relief, which is the poor man's plunder. To obtain this right, we also should be voters and legislators in order that we may organize Beggary on a grand scale for our own class, as you have organized Protection on a grand scale for your class. Now don't tell us beggars that you will act for us, and then toss us, as Mr. Mimerel proposes, 600,000 francs to keep us quiet, like throwing us a bone to gnaw. We have other claims. And anyway, we wish to bargain for ourselves as other classes have bargained for themselves!"
And what can you say to answer that argument! Read more.
Obama is the new Champion of organized Beggary - at least until he is elected.
Of course McCain could win and the Beggary of the War Machine would have a slight edge over the Welfare State.
Doubling Down with the Democrats
Maryland is already a Democratic Monopoly Buffer Zone for DC. If Obama is elected this could mean the entire region will be infested with socialists like never before. But the War Machine lobbyists will still be hanging around the focus of illegitimate political power - just in case Obama needs to create another Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Iraq, or Iran "event" to distract the public from internal "complications."
Here in Maryland, "the Free State [confusing archaic State motto]" we have two ballot initiatives to Amend the State Constitution: One for "Easy Voting," and one to allow Slot Machines. Of course extending voting "rights" will only promote more misuse of government power to expand the welfare state, while the amendment for slots tends to cheapen the Constitution and the amendment process. It is thought that some Maryland State legislators are too cowardly to vote the slots back into existence [Maryland had them before]. So, the Amendment has been cleverly crafted to leave a lot of the decisions to the legislators and their newest "business partners." The Amendment provides the pie and the legislature will carve it up. Not to worry. It's all for education. It's Always for the children you know.
Why do we need an Amendment to the State Constitution in order to have slot machines? They had them before without any amendment and they were taken away before without any amendment.
One possible solution:
Put the slots in all the Schools - the VOCED kids could learn to service and repair casino equipment. Slot machines and voting machines could be placed side by side in all the schools - they could even be housed in the same console. Perhaps we should also consider amending the Constitution by lottery. Just buy a scratch-off ticket. The Supreme Court thinks it can amend the Constitution on one person's vote. Why not offer that to our school children? The sooner the kids learn their schools are really only brainwashing clinics run by hypocrites and controlled by tyrants, the sooner they will be able to get on with their lives - and perhaps get into politics.
Deal or No Deal
Why does any State, or the Federal Government, need to amend its Constitution for Anything it ever wants to do? Why do they take oaths? Think of all the paperwork we could save if we simply stop pretending to be governed by our Constitutions. Does your intelligence feel insulted? It should. It is at least confusing to have pompous ceremonies and place right hands on the Bible solemnly swearing to uphold and defend what has become a legal fiction in their minds.
Almost all of them are violating their Constitutions in myriad ways. But let me offer perhaps the most important example:
The Lawful Money provisions of the US Constitution have been effectively set aside by the States and the Feds. This, combined with an unlawful, unconstitutional, private banking cartel known as the Federal Reserve System is choking our Republic to death. According to Madison's Notes on the Constitutional Convention the Constitution requires Gold and Silver and peremptorily prohibits paper money - which the Framers abhorred. One Framer, Mr. Langdon of New Hampshire, said he would "rather reject the whole plan [the entire Constitution] than retain the three words '(and emit bills) [create paper money]'."
Can you lay a finger on an Amendment in any State, or in the Federal Constitution, that would allow paper money - or excuse the States from their Constitutional Imperative to make nothing but Gold and Silver a payment in tender of debts? Does this comport with the Federal Government stealing the gold from the People under FDR [done without any amendments]? Remember there was never any "Emergency Powers Amendment." The Constitutional responsibilities and limits of the Presidency cannot be set aside merely because one Felon elects to describe a situation as an "Emergency."
Who said "Let no change happen by usurpation [does your public-school-educated child have a good handle on this 'archaic' term?]."
If, in the opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates [see Article V]. -- But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. -- The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield. - Geo Washington
It's supposed to be difficult to change our Constitution - at least according to Bulletproof George above. Sadly, nice folks like Alexander Hamilton and later John Marshall were eager to be among the first to chip away at it with great aplomb. Later, Honest Abe did all he could to destroy State Sovereignty and consolidate overarching National government. The amendments that accompanied Reconstruction are window dressing after the fact.
The government IS a gambling operation.
Government at all levels has become desperate to restore the illusion of its own credibility. It's not just broken - it's obsolete. Therefore it always needs to make, or "identify," more wars, and more poor people, and more old people, and more sick people, that it can "help." It needs more of us to throw the dice again, and see if, just this once, a government solution will be the right solution or the best solution. The odds are getting worse all the time.
As State and Federal politicians become more subservient and dependent upon banksters and lobbyists it gets harder and harder for politicians to pretend they are in charge. They have become little more than Roulette Wheel Operators, Dealers and Cocktail Waitresses, in the Giant Casino we call Government. Most politicians just want to keep hanging around the casino and raking in the cash. Reelection is the ONLY thing that matters. They are the Lounge Lizards of the Military Industrial Complex.
Copyright © 2008 Bill Huff