SO THEY PASSED A LAW

There is so much upon which to comment in the news these days, from last week’s announcement that the President will consider talking to the “more ‘moderate’ factions of the Taliban” (Isn’t that like being “a little bit pregnant”?), to the cabinet appointment of another tax cheat. It’s tough to keep up in a simple weekly blog, and Fox News is taking care of it nicely anyway.

So instead, I’ll tell you a story.

Once upon a time, in a land far, far, away . . . from Ohio that is . . . the people of Southern California decided they wanted to protect their citizens from the dangers of vicious breeds like Pit Bulls, Rottweilers, Cane Corsos, and Presa Canarios. Now that made sense, since everyone knows that these are very powerful dogs that can be very dangerous if not bred, trained, and managed properly.

So they passed a law.

Over time, they became concerned that people who owned these dogs might not follow the training and management laws, and that the breeds themselves should be banned. If you don’t have those breeds around, then they can’t cause trouble, right?

So they passed a law.

Later, they thought, what about all of those poor little puppies and kitties who end up in the shelters? Everyone loves soft furry pets, but with the seeming overpopulation, shouldn’t we require the owners to spay and neuter their animals?

So they passed a law.

Recently Los Angeles County has stopped supporting free spay/neuter clinics, because the county’s finances have become so terribly desperate they just can’t keep bleeding money. But there’s no move to change the law. So, it will now cost you up to $350 to own a pet, not including the registration and other fees that are ever growing in that area. If you can’t afford it, then the public policy is that you shouldn’t own a pet.

Behind all of it are organizations such as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), and the Doris Day Foundation. These organizations are dedicated – publicly stated or not – to the eradication of pet ownership, and they especially like to help legislators pass laws!

Now you may or may not care much about the plight of animals, and this site is not dedicated to them in particular, but what is important is the degrading state of property ownership within the U.S.

How do dogs and cats relate to guns, SUV’s, and even the ownership and enjoyment of your personal homestead? It all comes back to the fact that there are those who wish to subvert our American culture of capitalism and free market enterprise, and are doing so by degrading the nation’s property laws. From the misuse of eminent domain to whether you can breed your dog or not, these are just the hedge battles of a much more serious and comprehensive social war.

Realize it or not, America is socializing. We’re no longer the economically free nation we once were, and it’s all because of groups such as PETA, HSUS, Greenpeace, the Urban League, and even the United Nations. They all have one goal; to place the people under subjection to the state, and to remove individualism to the greatest extent possible.

Ok, I’ll remove my tinfoil hat for a moment. But at least listen to the logic.

I’ll grant you that President Bush is the one who instituted the beginning of our most recent governmental power grab. By initiating the bailout programs that are now setting the noose around the neck of the free market, he paved the way for President Obama to nationalize the banks, begin “spreading the wealth” through excessive taxation, and to open the floodgates of environment al policy to the likes of Earthshare.

There is a massive power grab taking place in Washington, and most Americans are dismally unaware it’s even taking place. They want a public Yule, without realizing they’re the ones who will foot the bill on April 15th. (To understand how even the poor pay for tax increases on the evil rich, see the entry from Monday March 9th.) These, as radio talk show host Neal Boortz calls them, “Dumb Masses” have no concept that by welcoming such entitlements as the prescription drug program, they are actually giving over another portion of their health decisions to the government – you know, the guys that run the Veterans Hospitals that were in the news a few years ago for providing incredibly sub-standard care. And let’s not forget that according to former Senator Tom Daschle, any planned health care reform "will not be pain free," and that "seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them."

Legislators don’t originate laws on their own. They almost always have input from outside special interest. Using the original example, the animal rights world has long been in the shadows to guide the hands of busy bureaucrats. They are also careful to keep the public’s impression of them high, so as not to betray their actual aims. This includes PETA’s most recent attempts at contacting breeders to find a Portuguese water dog to present to the President. As an unpaid campaign ad, then Senator Obama told of how he promised his daughters a puppy if elected, and that he wanted to find a nice shelter dog to show his enduring kindness. PETA’s a shelter, right? In 2006, PETA euthanized 97% of the animals handed over to them for placement. But if successful in purchasing a dog and making the presentation, it’s doubtful that statistic will be announced over the airwaves.

What is the effect of these sorts of meddling shenanigans? In Goshen Kentucky, it is illegal to keep your own dog in your own front yard, fenced or not, and regardless of the breed. It sounds a bit over the top, doesn’t it?

Legally, animals are property. Tighten regulation on animals, and you open the door to regulating any other form of property. And when you begin to increase directives on animal ownership, you change the nature of agri-business as well. Without going into the consequences for rodeos and circuses, it doesn’t take Einstein’s genius to connect the dots all of the way to veterinary clinics, pet shops, grooming salons, and even to the deli counters at your local supermarkets. Every aspect of animal husbandry falls into the firestorm raging between animal owners and the animal rights contingent.

Of course, that’s not the only battleground. In Ohio a smoker may not take their perfectly legal tobacco into any public place – including the worst and most raunchy biker bar – and light up. There’s a smoking ban throughout the state, and it has already passed its initial tests in the Ohio courts. That started in the late 1970’s, when someone complained that it was uncomfortable to sit in the smoking section of an airliner.

So they passed a law.

These are just two examples of state usurpation of public freedom. There are plenty more were there time to tell of them. But how did all of this come to be? Aren’t we the “home of the free and the land of the brave?”

It’s called “incrementalism”, and is the key tactic in the war against our personal freedoms. The problem with liberalism is that it wishes to conquer and hold absolute power. These issues are only the banners above a much deeper and more focused confederacy. Freedom is the supreme antithesis of that concept. That’s why the term “Social Democracy”, is actually an oxymoron. It should be called “self-imposed tyranny”. Under the guise of protecting the people, the state removes liberty and replaces it with alleged security. However, the sad truth is that once established, the individual has neither! There is no security for any person who is unwilling to subjugate him or herself to the will of the state. And that leaves little room for freedom.

Granted, it is so much easier to live in a world where all of your cares are assuaged by the body politic. But the problem is that a benevolent utopia cannot exist. The state is not capable of meeting every need of every individual, and is completely devoid of attending to personal desire. What one person wants, another may not, and the state is only able to enforce what’s left in between. When tied to the realm of personal ambition and aspiration, what we get in return is a tyrannical enforcement of commonality. It’s much the same as Henry Ford once said about choosing one of his cars. You can have, “any color - so long as it's black.”

Even in Sir Thomas Moore’s Utopia, the masses didn’t just sit around waiting to be fed. Granted, they had a communal society where everyone ate, worked, and lived together. But the catch was, in order to partake, everyone had to work. Even strangers visiting the island were required to contribute. There were public tables, but no public doles. People got their meals after a day’s work, instead of in America where people get a check as a reward for simply being impoverished.

Of course, even the Great Sir Thomas Moore left out the aspects of individualism. He was merely making a veiled statement about the way feudalism was ravaging English society in his day. Unlike the various social welfare organizations of today, he wasn’t trying to legislate his fanciful ideals onto the public at large.

Most importantly . . . “Utopia” was fiction!

So here we are in America, attempting to live the great experiment in individual freedom. President Obama, with the help of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reed, and backed by the great liberal social contingent, is stripping away what remains of that which we once held most dear. We are transferring the very rights our forefathers fought so courageously to obtain, into the hands of our self-appointed oligarchy. Freeing ourselves from a king, we have returned to another by the name of “we the people”. We have forgotten the responsibility of self-government, and are following the pied piper of social justice.

Instead of “Give me liberty, or give me death,” we now cry “give me health care, unionized labor, and social security, or I’ll vote you out of office for someone who will.” Rugged individualism is now nothing more than a phlegmatic antipathy toward anything individualistic. Heavens, in some localities, even our children’s schools no longer keep grades for the sake of not upsetting the little darlings. It’s no wonder “we the people” are no longer able to critically evaluate the perils of socialism.

How did we get to be so apathetic? How did we find our way into collectivism? How did we ever think that government could bring “change you can believe in”? It all started when we asked congress for social equity in place of seeking self-actualization and a self-determinate life.

So they passed a law!