The die is cast. Of Constitutions and suicide pacts.
"[A] strict observance of the written law is doubtless one of the high duties of a good citizen, but it is not the highest. The laws of necessity, of self-preservation, of saving our country when in danger, are of higher obligation. To lose our country by a scrupulous adherence to the written law, would be to lose the law itself, with life, liberty, property and all those who are enjoying them with us; thus absurdly sacrificing the ends to the means." -- Thomas Jefferson.
Oregon governor signs expanded gun background checks law.
In the Terminiello case in 1949, Associate Justice Robert Jackson reformulated Jefferson by writing:
"The choice is not between order and liberty. It is between liberty with order and anarchy without either. There is danger that, if the court does not temper its doctrinaire logic with a little practical wisdom, it will convert the constitutional Bill of Rights into a suicide pact."
Jackson was dissenting in a case that held that a Chicago law was a violation of the First Amendment. In other words, Jackson was siding with the power of government over individual liberty, which is not, I think, what Jefferson had in mind.
But if Jackson could reformulate Jefferson, then I can reformulate Jackson. A close study of history demonstrates that if constitutions are not suicide pacts, then violating them -- on the part of the violators -- can be suicide, of a regime, or an individual politician, rapacious enough in their tyrannical appetites to try.
This is something that the Governor of Oregon, the other tyrant wannabes in that state's governing elite (and their media toadies) as well as Michael Bloomberg apparently have not learned. The lesson, if they enforce this unconstitutional 'Intolerable Act," is likely to be expensive for all of us.
Suicide pact? Oregon Governor Kate Brown signs the Intolerable Act, applauded by other domestic enemies of the Constitution and assorted collectivist myrmidons and tyrannical toadies.
9 comments:
If the US Constitution were the "fine document" that many claim it is, US Marshals would have shown up at that signing and arrested everyone in that room.
That that didn't happen is yet, again, proof of what Lysander Spooner said over 140 years ago, "...it is unfit to exist".
Methinks Madison was right;
"Since the general civilization of mankind, I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations; but, on a candid examination of history, we shall find that turbulence, violence, and abuse of power, by the majority trampling on the rights of the minority, have produced factions and commotions, which, in republics, have, more frequently than any other cause, produced despotism. If we go over the whole history of ancient and modern republics, we shall find their destruction to have generally resulted from those causes."
Death before slavery!
Comrade X
....Read the smoke signals, and the warning is clear: It’s time to circle the wagons, folks. The government is on the warpath, and if we are to have any hope of surviving whatever is coming at us, we’ll need to keep our wits about us and present a unified front. Most of all, we need to restore “we the people” to our rightful place at the center of government. How we do that depends largely on each community’s willingness to get past their partisan politics and blind allegiance to uniformed government officials and find common ground. To put it a little more bluntly, stop thinking like mindless government robots and start acting like a powerhouse of citizens vested with the power to say “enough is enough.” We have the numbers to stand our ground. Now we just need the will. - See more at: http://www.thedailybell.com/editorials/36289/John-Whitehead-We-the-People-Need-to-Circle-the-Wagons-The-Government-Is-on-the-Warpath/?uuid=6F80869B-5056-9627-3CED16C471BED163#sthash.USVAfVHB.dpuf
The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the land. And as such it shares some attributes of all laws in general with respect to peoples' attitude towards it.
1. Some people obey the law because they feel it is the right and proper thing to do.
2. Some people obey the law because they fear the punishment they might receive if caught breaking it.
3. Some people ignore the law, period.
The question then becomes: What are "We the People" going to do about groups #2 and #3?
Quoting Jefferson: "...all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."
At some point in the future, we will find out if the American people find these acts to be truly "intolerable" or not.
Aside from a couple of recent dust ups with BLM, it ain't looking good for our side. Yet I doubt anyone, on either side, expected the events at Lexington and Concord,e xcepting perhaps the royal marines and regulars as they marched into earshot of William Diamond's drum.
As one of my co-workers used to say, "When you least expect it, expect it!"
@Anonymous: "Look at 'em! Standing around and applauding....proud to violate the constitution! "
Tyranny generally comes in to the sound of applause.
The Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots and tyrants from time to time
Pat H. is absolutely correct. As long as constitutional due process is given, the constitutional-apologists will have no reason to complain once they are constitutionally frog marched off to the constitutional detention camps after being constitutionally denied their human right to bear arms.
One can see that we citizens will soon have to defend ourselves with a firearm. Great comments on here! Molon Labe.
“Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.” C.S. Lewis
Post a Comment