🚀 go-pugleaf

jgadams@leland.Stanford.EDU (Joseph G. Adams) wrote:


>Bill Watts <wwatts@nothinbut.net> wrote:

>>Individual liberty as garunteed in our constitution sets forth the
>>right for me to live how I wish so long as it does not interfere with
>>your, or anyone else's rights to do the same. 

>This is surely wrong.

>A number of Constitutional provisions empower Congress to restrict
>your liberty, even if you aren't interfering with anyone else.

>For example, Art. I, s. 8 allows Congress to impose taxes, regulate
>interstate commerce, and raise armies.  All of these powers may 
>infringe on your right to live the way that you wish.

I believe the point is, dear Joseph, that legal or not, a truly harmless,
non-dependent individual may not be JUSTLY forced to do anything.  This sounds
a great deal less workable than it actually is.  The Constitutional powers to
which you refer above DO exist, but it is morally unconscionable and
pragmatically destructive to impose them in such a manner as to interfere with
the truly harmless activities of ANY individual -- especially by prior
restraint!  If this basic concept is NOT uppermost in the minds of ALL public
servants, then we are surely doomed to a continued tailspin toward overt,
unashamed, arrogant tyranny.  The Law was originally invented to SERVE
individuals NOT to "engineer" their collective behavior according to the
current whims and Machiavellian intrigues of those who hold the public gun.
This is especially true of those who gained access to the public gun by lying
to the public (fraud) in order to "make the sale" in the voting booth.  When
private business lies to make a sale, it's called fraud and is justly
prosecuted.  When the Law ceases to serve, it ceases to deserve any respect,
support or cooperation!  "Legal" does not necessarily equal right good or
moral.  As they say at the IRS: "Just because a judge says were wrong, doesn't
mean we are!"  And if the IRS says it, it MUST be true -- wouldn't you agree?
:-)

--Mike


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"Did you really think we want those laws observed? said Dr. Ferris.
We WANT them to be broken.  You'd better get it straight that it's 
not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against.... We're after power 
and we mean it .... There's no way to rule innocent men.  The only 
power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals.  
Well, when there aren't enough criminals one MAKES them.  One 
declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible 
for men to live without breaking laws.  Who wants a nation of law
abiding citizens?  What's there in that for anyone?  But just pass 
the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or 
objectively interpreted--and you create a nation of law-breakers--
and then you cash in on guilt.  Now that's the system Mr. Reardon, 
that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be much easier 
to deal with."  --Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged"
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