Whither the 3rd Amendment?

The Text:

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

The purpose was to Constitutionally prevent the then-common practice of bankrupting the citizenry by quartering troops in their houses and forcing their direct support upon the homeowners. In times of war or peace this is a tremendous burden for a family to bear, and forced the family to suffer privation by implied threat of the force of arms.

The corresponding grievances in the Declaration of Independence were:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

In my opinion, these grievances should be considered under this as well:

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

I wonder if the Scholars among us can make a case for rampant bureaucracy and the application of foreign laws in our jurisprudence as being in violation of the Constitutional limits imposed under the 3rd Amendment. While we are not directly supporting Troops in our homes, there is ample evidence to support the theory that the "multitude of New Offices" with their "swarms of Officers" do indeed "harass our People and eat out their substance"; and, they do so under implied threat of Force of Arms.

Don't believe me? Try and resist... After the State's thugs murder you, your heirs will get to watch a mock trial protecting the thug from punishment, "Only Ones" style.

Pax,

Newbius

Amazing Essay 2

“All laws which are repugnant to the Constitution are null and void.”

— SCOTUS Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803

Coordinated Illumination hits another one out of the park in an essay entitled "When the Gov't is Repugnant to the Constitution". An excerpt:

"The communist take over of my country, "the Coup", is now complete. Having "won", the commisars expect and demand that we accept their Coup and lick their boots and follow their laws. Laws repugnant to our Constitution and our way of life. The attack on America continues and accelerates. Every month brings new amazing outrages. The aim of a communist takeover is a defeated people dependent upon the state. Taxes and regulations that kill our businesses and reduce us and our children to poverty.
They Won, they say. Their laws and bureacracies are in place and will not be repealed within the current system. Modified and adjusted, maybe; enlarged and expanded, probably. But we will never go back to being America. The "change" that was promised; it's better pronounced "chains"."

Go. RTWT.

Newbius
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Green is the new red

Way back when, a committed Communist was referred to as a "Tomato". This was because they were red on the outside, and red on the inside.

Nowadays, while we still have "Tomatoes", the committed Communist is more likely a member of the environmental movement. Thus, has been coined a new term. Watermelon.

Beneath the surface of the climate debate lies an ugly truth. It is not about saving the planet. It never has been. It is about control, and power over people's lives in the name of some "greater good". It is about power which THEY wish to wield.

Do not be blinded by the feel-good rhetoric. They want to disarm you and make you obey. They want to become eco-mandarins (like Al Gore), telling you what you can and cannot do, make, or consume. All the while they will be living in their mansions, being driven in their armored SUVs and Limos, and flying to the next conference on a private jet.

Watermelons. Because Green is the new Red.

Pax,

Newbius

November 7th

Sadness. Shock. Dismay.

That is what I am feeling right now. I truly do not have the words to express anything else, because the feelings are much more complex than that.

We all knew that this was coming. We tried to warn the politicians not to do it. We were dismissed as "Astro-turf", "Radicals", "Un-patriotic", "Extremists" and "Right-wing Terrorists". We were marginalized.

We were ignored.

In my mind, November 7th, 2009 is the political equivalent of September 11th, 2001. It is an assault on our country.

On 9/11, Radical Islamic terrorists attacked our country and our financial centers with airplanes, and temporarily wounded our economy. The Nation came together in response with a unity of purpose and resolve that was short-lived but was a beautiful thing to see while it lasted. The People remembered what it meant to be an American.

On 11/7, Radical Marxist Democrat Congressmen attacked our country and our small businesses with an assault on their financial stability. They also attacked the citizen's Liberty with 2000+ pages of regulations that will have the net effect of intruding into every aspect of our lives. If you do not play along with this takeover, you will be fined, or imprisoned, or both.

On 9/11, I cleaned my guns. It seemed like a rational response to an attack on our country whose scope was unknowable. Yesterday's assault on our country will be far more devastating in the long run than 9/11.

What should the rational response be this time?

Newbius
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More FTC

OK...

In the interest of full disclosure, there are companies whose products I use and recommend. So far (hint, hint) none of them have deigned to give me a freebie...

I use Red Star yeast; Con-Agra and King Arthur flours; Kirkland (Costco) cheeses; Trader Joe's Salts, spices, and pasta; Contadina canned tomato products; Bertoni pasta; Land-o-Lakes dairy products; McCormick spices; Hormel sausages and pepperoni; and various fresh produce vendors.

Pizza is every Friday starting around 1800.

I use Winchester, Remington, CCI, Black Hills, Prvi Partizan, Federal, Norma, PMC, Lake City (Surplus), and RCBS ammunition. I could use a case from each manufacturer, in various calibers. (HINT HINT! FREE AMMUNITION FOR EVALUATION IS IN SHORT SUPPLY AT THE NEWBIUS HOUSEHOLD!)

I use Hoppes and Break Free. More than I should...

I have firearms by several manufacturers, all of which were either purchased with my own money or inherited, and which I will not detail here, except for the DPMS LR-308 STRIPPED LOWER which I recently acquired. (DPMS, you make amazing guns. Send me a free sample next time, will ya? Your stuff rocks the socks!)

I use Leupold scopes. Nothing better for the price. Yeah, I could use Swarovski...but I would rather spend the money elsewhere. Ditto Trijicon. (Swarovski, Trijicon: I might change my mind if you sent me a sample...No, Really!).

I like A.Fuente cigars, and will happily smoke Cohiba, Macanudo, Hoyo y Monterrey, Romeo y Julieta, and a few other brands...Ship to the house please.

I drink Smirnoff Vodka, Jim Beam or Ezra Brooks Bourbon, Bombay Gin, Cuervo Gold Tequila, and Bacardi rum. Most wines-red or white- are fine too. And I love champagne. Crystal could send me a case and I would heartily endorse it to my 9 readers.

Western Digital gets the nod on hard drives. ATi gets the nod for video cards, although nVidia could make me an offer and I would consider it. Chips? Intel or AMD...just as long as it is stable. Microsoft, Apple, or Linux? Depends on the system. I have all three. Logitech makes a lot of my peripherals, and Microsoft makes the rest. Wanna send me more stuff to review? I will take all offers.

Cameras? Canon right now, but Nikon runs a close second. Try and persuade me to use your stuff instead. Let me play with a sample for a year or so.

Cars? Honda, Acura (Honda), Chevy, and Geo. And, all were built in the USA. I have owned Toyotas too and would not hesitate to encourage someone to buy any one of the cars I have owned. Good products, all of them.

And so on...ad nauseum.

My point? None of this is any of the government's business. These are all personal choices made from an evaluation of the best products on the market at the time of purchase, representing the best value for the money I was willing to pay. The government is trying to use arcane laws to stifle people they perceive as threatening to their tyranny, using vague rules enforced by partisan bureaucrats.

Screw them. Stand up for Liberty, or perish trying.

Newbius
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Still no supply

Still no supply

Every day I stop into the local Wal-Mart to see if their supply of ammunition has improved. Sadly, it has not. Instead, a sign appeared recently which likely shows the true state of affairs in the industry. Namely, that we are still experiencing extremely tight supply, and now rationing is being imposed.

Rationing is a reasonable response from a seller's point of view, if your goal is to spread available supplies to a wider audience. From a Liberty perspective though, rationing ignores the truth that those who are prepared and can pay for an item or service should be able to reap the reward of their preparation.

Please think about rationing of goods and services for a moment. Whenever there is scarcity of a good or service, whether through true market forces or artificial interference into a market, the laws of supply and demand should allow the price of an item to rise until the new market value is established and market forces are once again in equilibrium. Whenever rationing is imposed, the market is distorted because the value of the good or service is never allowed to establish itself. Thus, competition is stifled and scarcity will continue.

If we apply this thought to the Mortgage market, or to Health care, or to Automobile manufacturing, we can see that whenever undue outside influence (IE, not market forces) are brought into the equation, the natural market adjustments of supply and demand are disrupted.

In the Mortgage market, an outside agent (FNMA and FHLMC-acting on behalf of the US Government and under the cover of the Community reinvestment Act) forced lenders to make loans which were not sound, at prices far below the true risk that they represented to the lenders. Lenders responded by figuring out a way to shift that risk to others in the form of diluted shares of the risk, spread about many different security vehicles. The investors of these securities were never the wiser, until the house of cards collapsed.

In the Health Care industry, we see an outside agent (The US Government, acting through the FDA, Medicare, and insurance regulations; and the AMA acting as a trade guild to limit entry to the market by additional providers) causing distortions in the provision of health care by constraining product development, limiting access, and forcing companies to forgo profits by capping fees, after requiring that the service providers give care to people who are unable to pay for the services. Combine these forces with rampant tort exposure from an out of control legal system and you have a situation where the care is either going to get very expensive (rational market reaction in a free market), or care will get rationed (the case today). Government created the same problem that they are about to "solve", through nationalization of an industry that they crippled through regulation and legal extortion.

The Auto industry: General Motors' demise and takeover, at the hands of the very people who enabled the cause of their destruction, was inevitable. The US Federal Government leviathan rigged the system in favor of the UAW and SEIU, siding with the workers almost every time that a labor dispute went to mediation and in at least one case that went to the Supreme Court. The UAW and SEIU are wonderful examples of looter organizations sucking a company dry through legalized extortion and wage-benefit concessions. Shame on GM, Ford, and Chrysler for signing those suicide pacts, but a great deal of the problem rests at the feet of the enablers in the Labor Department and the Congress.

If you value your life and liberty, learn the lesson that the looters have shown us so far with these three major industries. It is not a matter of if, rather of when, they come for your industry or company next. The leviathan is all about aggrandizing power unto itself now, and is doing so nakedly, openly, and without any pretense any longer. If you have not prepared yourself or family for survival in the event of a natural disaster, you need to do so NOW. The system is no longer going to come to your aid. You need to be prepared to take care of yourself and your family when services are disrupted. And, if the services are disrupted due to man-made events, then you need to be prepared for that too.

There are storm clouds gathering on the horizon. Take action now.

Pax,

Newbius
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Let them fail, and why the Feds won't

Buddhists call it Karma.

The Bible says "as you sow, so shall you reap"

The rest of us call it Justice. At least those of us who still understand Cause and Effect. Yes, I am talking about the end game of the Slow-Motion Suicide called the American Auto Industry, and their personal "Dr. Death" - the United Auto Workers union.

I think that the workers, who blindly believed that their union bosses would take care of their needs, are in for a big disappointment. For some of them, the death of these companies will mean the end of life-long careers. Working at the auto plants is a family tradition for an awful lot of very good people. And, many families are devastated by this tragic failure. But, these workers trusted a group of players who sold them out for personal power and political gain. And the car makers played along.

Let them fail.

The Big Three say they cannot make it in today's economic environment. That their legacy costs, which they failed to streamline, are too high. That their pension obligations, which they agreed to, are crippling them. That their labor costs, which they agreed to, are unreasonable. That too many workers, which they agreed to carry even if plants close, will be displaced if their companies go under. That foreign competition, which they lobby for protection from, places an unfair burden on them. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Enough!

Let them fail.

The Unions, with considerable help from sympathetic lawmakers (supported by campaign contributions funded by union dues) throughout the years, played bully-boy with the companies when times were fat. The companies, with short-sighted Boards of Directors, waged a retreat of incrementalism in conceding corporate power to their workforce and the unions. Both of them went to Congress and whined about the rest of the world throughout the years, to try and keep their scheme protected from outside influence and competition. Now, they are reaping what they have sown.

Let them fail.

In the news today, federal lawmakers are pleading with the President to slow down on his "reform" of General Motors. Fiat, mostly state-owned by Italy I might add, is having issues with Chrysler's financial structure.

Other than Bankruptcy Court, why is this even a Federal matter? Answer: Because "Oh-Barry" can't control the means of production in the US without this trial balloon succeeding. Once the auto makers are under control (and "Card Check" is passed), then the next large industries in line will become the targets of centralization.

He already has the banks.

Remember the 10 pillars of Communism? Here is a link for those who have forgotten. I posted about this right after the inauguration, predicting that we would see a return to the Statist policies that feeds the virulent Left in America today. I also posted a comparison to the Democrat Party platform here (along with a contrast to the Objectivist or Capitalist position as described by Ayn Rand). The D-Party platform is populist in approach, but their underlying means to achieve them bear a striking resemblance to the 10 Pillars. (No, I am not saying that the Democrat Party is really the Communist Party. They have different voter rolls. Same agenda at the top though. And "Brand R" is darned near as bad...)

We are not even six months into this administration and have seen proposals for nationalizing the Press, the auto makers, the banks, the Internet, and Health Care. That is nearly half of the economy, including supporting industries and businesses, and including the Defense Contractors who are at the mercy of the Fed already.

For review:

1. Abolition of property in land and application of all rents of land to public purposes. (See Kelo v. New London, and any regulation by other means which amounts to a taking without just compensation)

2. A heavy progressive or graduated income tax. (Ah..Yup)

3. Abolition of all right of inheritance. (Let's start with the Inheritance, or "Death", Tax, and go from there, shall we?)

4. Confiscation of the property of all emigrants and rebels.
(Special note on this one: Obama has proposed a policy to the legislators for figuring out a way to punish banks who allow US depositors to shelter their foreign capital from US taxation. The goal here is to confiscate through taxation that capital which has emigrated, even if the owner of the capital is still under US jurisdiction. Expect to see Seizure laws expanded to include people accused of "Domestic Terrorism"...).

5. Centralisation of credit in the hands of the State, by means of a national bank with State capital and an exclusive monopoly. (Anybody who still believes that the Banks are independent is naive).

6. Centralisation of the means of communication and transport in the hands of the State. (Communication is more important than transport, but both are heavily regulated by the Fed currently. Obama has also proposed to have legislation drafted allowing him to shut off the Internet in the US "in the event of Emergency").

7. Extension of factories and instruments of production owned by the State; the bringing into cultivation of waste-lands, and the improvement of the soil generally in accordance with a common plan. (Nationalizing General Motors looks like it is Step One).

8. Equal liability of all to labour. Establishment of industrial armies, especially for agriculture. (See Obama Youth Corps and the text of H.R.1388. See also Card Check...the Unions LOVE this one).

9. Combination of agriculture with manufacturing industries; gradual abolition of the distinction between town and country, by a more equal distribution of the population over the country. (I am not sure that this one even matters in our decentralized economy...)

10. Free education for all children in public schools. Abolition of children's factory labour in its present form. Combination of education with industrial production. (We have State-run schools and Child Labor laws, and our schools do not teach our history but do produce marginally-effective sales clerks for a consumerist economy to utilise).

Whenever a "solution" is proposed to any "problem", always ask yourself: "Who Wins?"

As a Patriot, I see the above and shake my head in disbelief that we have strayed so far from the Liberty ideal. The yoke of slavery is indeed willingly donned if placed lightly enough initially. The takeover of the United States by the forces of Statism - Communism or Fascism (depending on the amount of private property is left)- is nearly complete. The creation of "zero-liability voters" by Government has assured a constant power base of recipients who will feed on whatever life blood is still left to consume, as long as the Elites stay in power to supply them. Woe betide those welfare-voters when they discover how fragile that system truly is. And, that they are just lower on the food chain, but not off of it altogether.

For those of you who can see, keep them oiled...

Pax,

Newbius
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A little Crow, extra sauce...

Well, I made a mistake. I apologize to all of you left-leaning sympathizers. I got it wrong.

Obama is NOT a Socialist. There. I said it. I even agree with you.

The Democrats are not Socialists. Yep. I said that one too. I really mean it, too.

You see, Socialism (a milder form of just like Communism) requires that the State own the property, and then assigns the beneficial interest to whomever it pleases. This is not a description of what is happening today. It is not at all like what we are experiencing at the hands of our government. Well, maybe in the case of the banks and other companies that the government took (partial) ownership of...but just those cases. Otherwise, not the general situation in the country today.

Truly.

The situation we are in right now is one where private individuals and corporations get to retain ownership, and the State tells them how much of the benefit they will get to enjoy (if any).

This is definitely NOT Socialism.

This is Fascism.

Pax,

Newbius

Politics, again... (sigh)

Sorry readers. This one is about rights again. It is perfectly OK if you want to go do something else, because these fundamental truths will still be here when you get back.

Today, I am going to ask you to read and compare the Democratic Party platform of 2008 (found HERE) with an essay written by Ayn Rand (found HERE) entitled Man's Rights.

Since this is a request for you to do some work, and I know that some of you are too lazy to do so on your own, I will summarize. To wit: The Democratic Party, since before the turn of the twentieth century, has been interested in consolidating political and economic power into Government's hands in order to subjugate the people. They are doing this, one interest-group at a time, by creating rights where none existed previously and using the power of regulation and taxation to disarm their victims. Ayn Rand believes (as do I) that RIGHTS are something each person holds for themselves, and which do NOT impinge upon another's freedom to live and earn for himself (and dispose of those earnings) in any manner whatsoever, so long as no coercive force is involved.

The right to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness does not mean that one person gets to gain them at the expense of another. The United States of today is far removed from that noble ideal.

(Lest you think I am absolving the Republican Party of any wrong-doing, the same statement applies to them, but with a different twist. The Republican Party is ALSO subjugating the people to their schemes by promoting fear of Government among their constituents while at the same time growing the very same government in the name of public security.)

Since this piece is about the Democrats though (and especially since they hold absolute political power at the moment), I will focus upon them.

In 1944, FDR put forth an "Economic Bill of Rights" which basically stated that the "People" (presumably, the working class) had a right to unearned economic benefits which were to be obtained by taking them from other People (presumably the "evil rich people"), in the name of fairness. This kind of populism works politically because usually there are many more working-class voters than there are potential victim voters. Throw into the mix an elaborate Ponzi scheme known as Social Security, and you now have an electorate that will become dependent upon Government for moneys extracted from others.

In 1960, the Democratic Party renewed this pledge of economic rights with these promises taken from the 1960 party platform:

“1. The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation.

“2. The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation.

“3. The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living.

“4. The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home and abroad.

“5. The right of every family to a decent home.

“6. The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.

“7. The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accidents and unemployment.

“8. The right to a good education.”

Ayn Rand asked then, as we should ask now: "At whose expense?"
"Jobs, food, clothing, recreation(!), homes, medical care, education, etc., do not grow in nature. These are man-made values—goods and services produced by men. Who is to provide them?

If some men are entitled by right to the products of the work of others, it means that those others are deprived of rights and condemned to slave labor.

Any alleged “right” of one man, which necessitates the violation of the rights of another, is not and cannot be a right.

No man can have a right to impose an unchosen obligation, an unrewarded duty or an involuntary servitude on another man. There can be no such thing as “the right to enslave.”

A right does not include the material implementation of that right by other men; it includes only the freedom to earn that implementation by one’s own effort."

It is my firm belief that we are now at a perilous time in our Nation's history. As a nation of (ostensibly) free people, we should all be asking ourselves if we really want to go down this path. The Democrats' recently passed "Stimulus" bill is nothing more than a TRILLION DOLLARS (far worse actually, including interest) of pay-offs to their special-interest constituencies, big-government apologists, and anti-freedom groups who seek to disarm you and OWN you through regulation and wage-slavery. It is an unprecedented expansion of the Federal Government that makes Bush look like the amateur he was. As a citizen, it is your duty to read what is in this bill, understand it and its implications for restrictions on your freedoms, and then spread the word to others.

Your kid's future depends upon it.

Pax,

Newbius