As the Left works to distract us — and, if possible, to bully and frighten us — with its orchestrated, race-tinged wildings disguised as “protests,” the SCOTUS begins hearing oral arguments in re: Obamacare, where it is likely a single appointed Justice will determine if the Constitution survives, and with it, the very relationship between a citizen and the government envisioned and enshrined by the founders and framers, and ratified by representative state governments, on behalf and those who fought a Revolutionary War to escape the dictatorial powers of a centralized authority.
A single appointed Justice.
That’s how tentative has become our hold on individual liberty.
Noted Benjamin Franklin, in his speech to the Constitutional Convention, September 17, 1787:
[…] though many private persons think almost as highly of their own infallibility as of that of their sect, few express it so naturally as a certain french lady, who in a dispute with her sister, said “I don’t know how it happens, Sister but I meet with no body but myself, that’s always in the right — Il n’y a que moi qui a toujours raison.”
In these sentiments, Sir, I agree to this Constitution with all its faults, if they are such; because I think a general Government necessary for us, and there is no form of Government but what may be a blessing to the people if well administered, and believe farther that this is likely to be well administered for a course of years, and can only end in Despotism, as other forms have done before it, when the people shall become so corrupted as to need despotic Government, being incapable of any other.
That we’ve even reached this point — where we practically know beforehand that four SCOTUS Justices will likely be able to reason backwards from various poorly-reasoned and demonstrably strained prior decisions by previous Courts to reach a plausible-sounding rationale for deconstructing the very institutionalized motivation of our founding (and with it, dismiss entirely the philosophical Enlightenment tenets deployed to reason us into national existence) — should be truly terrifying and sobering to any citizen protective of his or her individual liberty.
And yet, here we are, a short step away from completing our return to the tyranny whose defeat was the occasion of our national birth.
Tyranny will return not at the point of a gun. It will return, when it does, at the end of a pen — our epistemology having been so thoroughly debased by willful, incoherent linguistic assertions adopted as legitimate interpretative methodology (by those of all political stripes) that we will have allowed ourselves to “reason” our way into a complete inversion of the intent of the founders and framers and their texts, all the while pretending that we are still, with fidelity and prudence, following the foundational documents that provide the contours of our social compact.
Frankly, we have it coming.
Tyranny will return not at the point of a gun. It will return, when it does, at the end of a pen… Frankly, we have it coming.
What’s this “we,” kemo sabe? I’m pretty sure they have it coming. We’ve seen what works: vilifying your enemies, assuming bad faith, making up false accusations, Occupying their places of business, harassing their families, threatening their friends and allies, and otherwise doing what it takes to marginalize and silence them. And all the while, we will pretend that the laws which apply to others do not apply to ourselves. Push comes to shove, these bastards are going to find out what happens when they can no longer count on our good manners and meekness to shield them from the natural consequences of their behavior.
We will get in their faces. We will punch back twice as hard. And frankly, they have it coming. If the Supreme Court insists on working backwards from a desired outcome, they might want to reconsider just how desirable this particular outcome would be.
Me? A Visigoth? I’ve barely gotten started!
I was using the Royal we. For the return to a monarchy.
The court has a Prog branch, an accommodationist branch, and one Supreme Court justice. I can’t decide if I hope he maintains his silence over the next three days or if he verbally demolishes Pickard just to see everyone sweat.
Ol’ Ben at least seems to have found Plato a congenial enough political thinker to have bothered to learn from him.
“We”, in our apathy, have let them have it. We get the government we deserve.
Me excluded, natch.
Tyranny first.
If the mandate stands, which should I do: A) refuse to play along, refuse to pay the penalties, and give Uncle Sam the middle finger, 2) buy a sailboat and leave my former country forever, or iii) gleefully consume every minute, every pill, every procedure, and every dollar I possibly can, in order to bring the system down that much faster?
Instead of a sailboat, a properly timed and executed campaign contribution for an equivalent amount will buy you a waiver. Then again, perhaps it is better watching the alligators feed from the boat.
oh if the mandate goes through i’ll be amish. 2 can play this make sh*t up game.
A titration:
“We have a new type of rule now. Not one-man rule, or rule of aristocracy or plutocracy, but of small groups elevated to positions of absolute power by random pressures, and subject to political and economic factors that leave little room for decision. They are representatives of abstract forces who have reached power through surrender of self. The iron-willed dictator is a thing of the past. There will be no more Stalins, no more Hitlers. The rulers of this most insecure of all worlds are rulers by accident, inept, frightened pilots at the controls of a vast machine they cannot understand, calling in experts to tell them which buttons to push.”
? William S. Burroughs, Interzone
Amish for medical care, anything but Asian heritage for college.
If the mandate stands, which should I do: A) refuse to play along, refuse to pay the penalties, and give Uncle Sam the middle finger, 2) buy a sailboat and leave my former country forever, or iii) gleefully consume every minute, every pill, every procedure, and every dollar I possibly can, in order to bring the system down that much faster?
Declare yourself a union, Squid. You’ll get an exemption by return post.
Obamacare flowchart.
Declare yourself a union, Squid.
Maybe I’ll follow Raven’s lead and declare myself a sovereign. I just need the right sort of passenger for the sidecar of my motorbike…
Sorted, Squid.
Good n+ews Squid! According to the Solicitor General, the mandate is more like a helpful suggestion than a requirement.
Doesn’t that make you feel better?
Grab that crab, Clarissa!
(Lovely Bride and I adored that show.)
Tried that. It gets old after awhile.
How could leafing through issues of Newsweek from 1998 ever get boring, Moe? Next you’ll be telling me that jury duty isn’t fun, either!
This interview with Clarissa cracks me up, Squid:
God Love the Two Fat Ladies.
Started each show with a pound or two of butter, ended with enough to spread on a roll.
Squid, Re your question.
I dropped off the rolls 2 years ago, Am almost entirely off the grid. Someone(s) I may or may not of ever heard of use seemingly questionable practices that I of course dissaprove of in the strongest sense.
I would NEVER suggest that Guns Gold and God would be a possible answer to the coming tumult, but ammunition? yeah
God Love the Two Fat Ladies.
Amen, brother. They were always good watching. If you don’t understand the plummy accent, this one has subtitles!