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Paradise Lost???
22WRF
Member Posts: 3,385
Chapter #1
Once upon a time there was a people that inhabited a majestic land under an all-powerfull govenment. Now this government had the recources to control practically every aspect of human existance; hundreds of thousands of "public servants" could access the most personal details of every citezine's life because every one was issued a number at birth which the government would track him throughout his life. No one could even work in gainfull employment without this number.
True, the government left certain domains of individual action largely free, particularly matters concerning speech and sex. These activities posed no real threat to the government
Chapter #2
When not used to entertain and divert, the power of speech was used principally to clamor for more or better goods from the state, or for "reforms" to make the state work "better," thereby entrenching the people's dependency. And insofar as sex was concerned, well the people's behavior in this area also really had no effect on the scope of governmental power. In fact the rulers noted that people's preoccupation with matters of sexual morality-- whether premarital, teenage pregnancy, adultery, divorce, homosexuality, or general "who's zooming who"-- diverted the peoples attention from the fact that they were, for economic and all other intents and purposes, slaves.
Chapter #3
Slaves, though, who labored under the illusion that they were free. The people were a simple lot, politically speaking, and readily mistook the ability to give free reign to their appetites as the essence of "personal freedom".
In that fruitfull land, the state took about 50 percent of everything the people earned through numerous forms of taxation, up from about 25 percent only a generation earlier. However, this boastfull people, who believed themselves to be the freeest on earth, retained the right to keep and bear arms. Tens of millions of them possesed firearms just in case their government became tyrannical and enslaved them.
Chapter #4
In that land, an astronomical number of regulations, filling more than 96,000 pages in the governments's "code of regulations," were promulgated by persons who were not elected by the people. The regulators often developed close relaytionships with the businesses they regulated, and work in "agencys" that had the power both to make llaw-and to enforce it.
The agencies were not established by the government's constitution, and their existance violated that instrument's principal of seperation of powers. Yet the people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, ceased to be a "government of the people".
Chapter #5
In that land, the constitution contemplated that people would be governed by two seperate levals of government- "national" and "local". Matters that concerned the people most intimately- health, education, welfare, crime, and the enviroment- were to be left almost exclusively to the local leval, so that those who made and enforced the laws lived close to the people who were subject to the laws, and felt their effects.
Chapter #6
Different people who had different ideas about such things would not be subject to a "one size fits all" standard that would apply if the national government dealt with such matters. Competition among different localities for people, who could move freely from one place to another, would act as a reality check on the passage unneccesay, or unwise laws.
But in a time of great crisescalled the great economic downturn, the people and their leaders clamored for "national solutions to national problems", and the constitution was "interpreted" by the Majestic Court to permit the national government to pass laws regulating practically everything that has been reserved for the localities.
Chapter #7
Now the people had the pleasure of being govorned by not one, but two beneficient governments with two sets of laaws regulating the same things. Now the people could be prosecuted by not one, but two governments for the same activities and conduct. Still this fiercely independant people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government some day no longer secured the blessings of liberty to themselves or their posterity.
In that fair land, property owners could be held liable under the nations environmental legislation for the cleanup cost associated with toxic chemicals, even if the owners had not caused the problem.
Another set aof laws provided for asset forfieture and permited government agencies to confiscate property without first establishing guilt.
Chapter #8
Yet the people retained their right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government denied them due process by holding them liable for things that were not their fault. (The Majestic Court had long ago determined that "due process" did not prevent government from imposing liability on people who were not at fault. "Due process", it turned out, meant little more than a law had been passed in accordance with established procedures. You know, it was actually voted on, passed by a majority and signed by the President. If it meant those standards, it didn't much matter what the law actually did.)
Chapter #9
Oh well, the people had little real cause to worry. After all, those laws hardley ever affected anyone that they knew. Certainly not the people that mattered most of all: the country's favorite celebrities and sports teams, who so occupied the people's attention. And how bad could it be if it had not been the subject of a movie of the week, telling them what to think and how to feel about it? In that wide open land, the police often established roadblocks to check that the people's papers were in order. The police-armed agents of the rulers-used these occaisions to ask the occupants whether they were carrying weapons or drugs. Sometimes the police would ask to search the vehicles, and the occupants-not knowing whether they could say no and wanting to prove that they were good guys by cooperating-would permit it.
Chapter #10
The Majestic Court had pronounced these roadblocks and searches lawfull on the novel theory, unknown to the country's Founding Forebears, that so long as the police were doing this to everyone equally, it didn't violate anyones rights in particular.
The roadblocks sometimes caused annoying delays, but these lovers of the open road took it in stride. After all, they retained their right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, engages in unreasonable search and seisures.
Chapter #11
In that bustling land, the choice of how to develope property was heavily regulated by local governments that often demanded fees or concessions for the privelege. That is, when the developement was not prohibeted outright by national "moistland" regulations that had no foundation in statutory or constitutional law.
Even home owners were often required to get permission to simply build an edition to their homes, or to erect a tool shed on their so-called private property. And so it seemed that "private property" became not a system protecting individual liberty, but a system which, while providing the "illusion" of ownership, actually just allocated and assigned government-mandated burdans and responsibilities.
(C&P from lakeman1999 iBoats forum)
Red sky in the morning
Once upon a time there was a people that inhabited a majestic land under an all-powerfull govenment. Now this government had the recources to control practically every aspect of human existance; hundreds of thousands of "public servants" could access the most personal details of every citezine's life because every one was issued a number at birth which the government would track him throughout his life. No one could even work in gainfull employment without this number.
True, the government left certain domains of individual action largely free, particularly matters concerning speech and sex. These activities posed no real threat to the government
Chapter #2
When not used to entertain and divert, the power of speech was used principally to clamor for more or better goods from the state, or for "reforms" to make the state work "better," thereby entrenching the people's dependency. And insofar as sex was concerned, well the people's behavior in this area also really had no effect on the scope of governmental power. In fact the rulers noted that people's preoccupation with matters of sexual morality-- whether premarital, teenage pregnancy, adultery, divorce, homosexuality, or general "who's zooming who"-- diverted the peoples attention from the fact that they were, for economic and all other intents and purposes, slaves.
Chapter #3
Slaves, though, who labored under the illusion that they were free. The people were a simple lot, politically speaking, and readily mistook the ability to give free reign to their appetites as the essence of "personal freedom".
In that fruitfull land, the state took about 50 percent of everything the people earned through numerous forms of taxation, up from about 25 percent only a generation earlier. However, this boastfull people, who believed themselves to be the freeest on earth, retained the right to keep and bear arms. Tens of millions of them possesed firearms just in case their government became tyrannical and enslaved them.
Chapter #4
In that land, an astronomical number of regulations, filling more than 96,000 pages in the governments's "code of regulations," were promulgated by persons who were not elected by the people. The regulators often developed close relaytionships with the businesses they regulated, and work in "agencys" that had the power both to make llaw-and to enforce it.
The agencies were not established by the government's constitution, and their existance violated that instrument's principal of seperation of powers. Yet the people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, ceased to be a "government of the people".
Chapter #5
In that land, the constitution contemplated that people would be governed by two seperate levals of government- "national" and "local". Matters that concerned the people most intimately- health, education, welfare, crime, and the enviroment- were to be left almost exclusively to the local leval, so that those who made and enforced the laws lived close to the people who were subject to the laws, and felt their effects.
Chapter #6
Different people who had different ideas about such things would not be subject to a "one size fits all" standard that would apply if the national government dealt with such matters. Competition among different localities for people, who could move freely from one place to another, would act as a reality check on the passage unneccesay, or unwise laws.
But in a time of great crisescalled the great economic downturn, the people and their leaders clamored for "national solutions to national problems", and the constitution was "interpreted" by the Majestic Court to permit the national government to pass laws regulating practically everything that has been reserved for the localities.
Chapter #7
Now the people had the pleasure of being govorned by not one, but two beneficient governments with two sets of laaws regulating the same things. Now the people could be prosecuted by not one, but two governments for the same activities and conduct. Still this fiercely independant people retained the right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government some day no longer secured the blessings of liberty to themselves or their posterity.
In that fair land, property owners could be held liable under the nations environmental legislation for the cleanup cost associated with toxic chemicals, even if the owners had not caused the problem.
Another set aof laws provided for asset forfieture and permited government agencies to confiscate property without first establishing guilt.
Chapter #8
Yet the people retained their right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government denied them due process by holding them liable for things that were not their fault. (The Majestic Court had long ago determined that "due process" did not prevent government from imposing liability on people who were not at fault. "Due process", it turned out, meant little more than a law had been passed in accordance with established procedures. You know, it was actually voted on, passed by a majority and signed by the President. If it meant those standards, it didn't much matter what the law actually did.)
Chapter #9
Oh well, the people had little real cause to worry. After all, those laws hardley ever affected anyone that they knew. Certainly not the people that mattered most of all: the country's favorite celebrities and sports teams, who so occupied the people's attention. And how bad could it be if it had not been the subject of a movie of the week, telling them what to think and how to feel about it? In that wide open land, the police often established roadblocks to check that the people's papers were in order. The police-armed agents of the rulers-used these occaisions to ask the occupants whether they were carrying weapons or drugs. Sometimes the police would ask to search the vehicles, and the occupants-not knowing whether they could say no and wanting to prove that they were good guys by cooperating-would permit it.
Chapter #10
The Majestic Court had pronounced these roadblocks and searches lawfull on the novel theory, unknown to the country's Founding Forebears, that so long as the police were doing this to everyone equally, it didn't violate anyones rights in particular.
The roadblocks sometimes caused annoying delays, but these lovers of the open road took it in stride. After all, they retained their right to keep and bear arms. Just in case their government, some day, engages in unreasonable search and seisures.
Chapter #11
In that bustling land, the choice of how to develope property was heavily regulated by local governments that often demanded fees or concessions for the privelege. That is, when the developement was not prohibeted outright by national "moistland" regulations that had no foundation in statutory or constitutional law.
Even home owners were often required to get permission to simply build an edition to their homes, or to erect a tool shed on their so-called private property. And so it seemed that "private property" became not a system protecting individual liberty, but a system which, while providing the "illusion" of ownership, actually just allocated and assigned government-mandated burdans and responsibilities.
(C&P from lakeman1999 iBoats forum)
Red sky in the morning
Comments
God,Guts,& GunsHave we lost all 3 ??
God,Guts,& GunsHave we lost all 3 ??
Yes, Paradise Lost.
spiny
'not all who wander are lost'
[:D] [:D] [:D] [:D]
ATF
The constitution consists of more than just a second amendment. A shame people dont read the rest of it.
"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once"
-David Hume