tagged w/ Individual Rights
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Ron Paul points out the corporatism in the two party (one party) system, including but not limited to the military industrial complex and the medical industrial complex.
http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=3666Ron Paul points out the corporatism in the two party (one party) system, including but... more
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Besides the Shakespeariana and Elizabethan maritime rarities on display, the highlight of the evening was the story former ALA President Carol Brey-Casiano told—for the first time in its entirety, she said—about an experience she described as the worst in her professional career. It involved a Texas Ranger, a lawyer named Paco, the Patriot Act, and the Merritt Fund.
Shortly after the September 11 attacks in 2001, two men came into the El Paso (Tex.) Public Library where Brey-Casiano was (and still is) director. One man, wearing a white cowboy hat and a huge belt buckle, identified himself as a Texas Ranger. He told her a threat had been sent recently from one of the library computers and demanded to see the sign-up sheets. Brey-Casiano replied that she could not release patron records without a court order and that, in any case, the sign-up sheets were shredded every night. The ranger’s sidekick began citing the USA Patriot Act as authority, but she reminded him that it was a federal law, which cannot be invoked by a state law enforcement official.
The two men left, but the next morning a court order arrived asking for specific sign-up sheets—ones that could not be handed over because they had already been shredded. The following Monday, Brey-Casiano got a call from the mayor of El Paso, who accused her of withholding information (a felony in Texas) and told her he was putting her on administrative leave. Knowing her rights, she insisted she had done nothing wrong and followed proper legal procedures. The mayor admitted it was out of his hands, since the Texas Ranger had filed the complaint. He agreed to let her stay on the job as long as she told no one about the situation—effectively a gag order—during the course of an official investigation of her actions.
She immediately called the ALA Office for Intellectual Freedom, which advised her to find a lawyer quickly. OIF Director Judith Krug told her she should apply for assistance from the Merritt Fund. She applied and received a grant of $1,000, which helped her pay for her lawyer, an El Paso attorney named Francisco “Paco” Domínguez.
“The investigation was more far-reaching than I could ever have imagined,” Brey-Casiano told the audience. “Police interrogated all 140+ of my staff members, asking about my character but without saying why they wanted to know. Some of them came to me in tears, and others refused to answer any questions at all.”
Finally, after months of this intimidation the El Paso police chief (whom she considered a friend) gave her some reassuring signals, and Paco called to say that the District Attorney had decided not to prosecute her for withholding information. She found out later the decision was due largely to the response of her staff, all of whom had said, “Carol would not do that.”
All of this, she said, resulted in her “increased dedication to intellectual freedom and the privacy of users.” In addition, every year her staff reviews the library procedures for handling requests for documents and information from the police. “If it had not been for OIF and the Merritt Fund, it could have been 10 times worse,” she concluded. And she did repay the Merritt Fund the money it had provided her.Besides the Shakespeariana and Elizabethan maritime rarities on display, the highlight... more
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bdungg
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added this
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1 year ago
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By David P Shirk
It is foolish to attack what you do not understand. Being foolish is being ignorant of the facts and acting upon your limited knowledge. It is not possible for one person to know everything, and therefore foolish to act more than they have too. However whenever you place a power over you to make decision that you could not, than you are twice the fool.
The problem with being a governed people is that we all too often want our politicians to fix the injustices of this world as we see them. The problem is that in the pursuance of this, we are often blissfully unaware of the collateral damage until it becomes too late. This has a multitude of unintended consequences that only serves to further divide our nation. This creates a very diverse set of rules that attempts to please everyone, but only has one conclusion – a collapse.
For instance, Hamilton thought that the only way to protect the newly formed union was by making a standing army with a solid navy. At the time, there was only one way to accomplish this, and that was to create a fiscal military state. This means that the lion’s share of the national income goes to paying for said entities. However he recognized from earlier examples of other nations that the only way to build a sizable military was to institute a central bank that could fund such a debt that is inevitably created by having standing armies.
In this particular case he met well, but was blissfully naive as t...
http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=3604By David P Shirk
It is foolish to attack what you do not understand. Being foolish... more
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6/2/2010 “The Liberty Solution” Radio with Amanda Owens & Mike Shanklin
Every Wednesday 10pm-12am Eastern
An introduction to Freedom ideals with co-hosts Amanda Owens & Mike Shanklin. This weeks guests, Darren O’Connor - from http://nocoercion.com/, Aaron Yeargan - Military Veteran, & Sean Haugh/Christina Tobin from freeandequal.org on to discuss the 2010 Libertarian National Convention. Every Wednesday 10pm-12am, Call-in 347-633-9636 Thanks for listening to PFP Movement Radio byhttp://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com
http://www.peacefreedomprosperity.com/?p=35486/2/2010 “The Liberty Solution” Radio with Amanda Owens & Mike... more
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3/1/2010 John Stossel explains how the FDA impedes on our individual rights and how the whole bureaucracy is filled with waste and red tape, in many cases to benefit big business.3/1/2010 John Stossel explains how the FDA impedes on our individual rights and how... more
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Our federal government is controlled by an Administration that believes deficits don’t matter. They think that we can continue to borrow, print and spend our way to prosperity. I stand here to say that deficits and debts do matter. Dr. Dan EichenbaumOur federal government is controlled by an Administration that believes deficits... more
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The last century has seen the rise of bigger and bigger governments, with very little discussion or debate on merits or the implications. Discover the truth about Big Government. It is not a practical/efficient machine, working successfully for the good of the people. The bigger government gets, the less representative, accountable and efficient it is.The last century has seen the rise of bigger and bigger governments, with very little... more
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You have the right as an individual to own a gun and defend yourself.
Prohibition didn't stop liquor use; the drug laws can't stop drug use. Making gun ownership illegal will not stop gun ownership.
The primary victim of these misguided efforts is the honest citizen whose civil rights are trampled as frustrated legislators and police tighten the screws.
Banning guns will make guns more expensive and give organized crime a great opportunity to make profits in a new black market for weapons. Street violence will increase in new turf wars. Criminals will not give up their guns. But, many law abiding citizens will, leaving them defenseless against armed bandits.
Rather than banning guns, the politicians and the police should encourage gun ownership, as well as education and training programs. A responsible, well-armed and trained citizenry is the best protection against domestic crime and the threat of foreign invasion. America's founders knew that. It is still true today.You have the right as an individual to own a gun and defend yourself.
Prohibition... more
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Almost every time a gun is used in a homicide, a chorus of special interests calls for gun control. These calls happened after the shootings at University of Texas in 1966 and in Columbine, Colo., in 1999 and more recently at Virginia Tech University where a student rampaged through the campus killing 33.
There was an organized outcry at Virginia Tech for banning guns. This was farcical since Virginia Tech, like most college campuses, was already a gun-free zone.
On March 22, a prison parolee and felon, 26-year-old Lovelle Mixon, shot and killed four police officers in Oakland, Calif. The officers were upstanding citizens leaving behind families. The incident was predictably followed by a call for banning guns. Even if California had total gun control laws, it would not have prevented the killing of the four officers. Felons already are banned from acquiring weapons.
Felons are antisocial beings who do not follow laws. Not surprisingly, when they want a gun they obtain it illegally. Criminals use the underworld, not legitimate businesses to obtain guns. The Cato Institute has noted that since 1978, when the Washington, D.C., gun ban went into effect, violent crimes rose 55 percent. The same phenomenon has been reported in Australia in 1996, in England in 1997 and the Canadian 2003 gun bans. Preventing citizens from having guns increased violent incidents.
Please read article at link and discuss-Almost every time a gun is used in a homicide, a chorus of special interests calls for... more
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"An animated [6 part] series exploring the substance behind the political terminology used in contemporary debates.
The research of Mr G Edward Griffin reveals how all viewpoints can be stripped down to 2 basic positions.
Discover how the different approaches of Collectivism and Individualism impact on all aspects of our lives, from human rights, governmental authority and the use of force.
INTRO
P1. The Nature and Origin of Human Rights
P2. Group Supremacy
P3. Coercion vs Freedom
P4. Equality and Inequality under the Law
P5. Proper Role of Government"
(End of excerpt)
Videos produced by YouTube user ST0PandL00K"An animated [6 part] series exploring the substance behind the political... more
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[U]nderstanding libertarianism is vital if the United States is ever to reverse the current 100-year trend away from freedom. What most Americans don’t know is that libertarianism is simply the modern political label given to the philosophy that the United States was founded upon. It is the philosophy of individual liberty. Without rediscovering what that means, the United States may soon be a glorious experiment with self governance by a free people that ultimately devolved into just one more socialist mediocrity or authoritarian nightmare...
... While most Americans still consider the United States the “land of the free,” few probably understand that “free” means individual liberty. Most Americans in 2008 have either never heard of individual liberty, or haven’t heard about it in so long that they have forgotten what it means. After decades of immersion in collectivist ideology, most Americans have been led to believe that freedom is “democracy.” Most Americans are content to be told that they are free, so long as the evening news explains why the most recent decisions made about their lives are really in their best interests. They are content to derive their “freedom” from government.
Imagine the presidential campaign of 1796 with today’s political frontrunners and today’s American psyche. John McCain is promising a generous helping of warfare, without neglecting essential welfare. Barack Obama is promising a generous helping of welfare, without neglecting essential warfare (at least on behalf of Israel). As these two titans battle for the prize, Thomas Jefferson, the Libertarian candidate, and John Adams, the Constitution Party candidate, answer the occasional question from the debate moderator in those states where they are able to get onto the ballot and into the debates at all. What might our country have become if this had been reality in 1796? What is it becoming now?
Certainly there will not be a Libertarian Party candidate elected president in 2008, nor likely in 2012 or 2016. The most successful LP candidate for president was Ed Clark in the 1980 election, with a whopping 1% of the vote. While it would be wonderful to see the Libertarian political party gain prominence and power, this is not the essential priority. What is much more important is that the American people start rediscovering libertarianism, the philosophy of individual liberty, and once again start demanding to be free. Libertarianism must again dominate the platforms of all political parties, as it once did, if the present trends toward socialism and authoritarianism are to reverse. Only when a libertarian Republican runs against a libertarian Democrat, with perhaps even a libertarian third party candidate in contention, will we have a chance to restore the freedom that fueled America’s mercurial rise to greatness. Only by restoring individual liberty will America return to prosperity, and once again become the land of the free.
(End of excerpt)
Full article at link by theskeptic// BREAK THE MATRIX[U]nderstanding libertarianism is vital if the United States is ever to reverse the... more
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