Archive for the ‘Blanket Search Warrants’ Category
The Definition of the Word “Infringed” In The Context of The Second Amendment
Posted on: March 15, 2013
When I examine the almost daily legislative encroachments states are now enacting, often with little or no debate, on the right to keep weapons as a result of the hysteria caused by recent mass shootings I am compelled to examine the Second Amendment once and again, “A well-regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
In the past all types of historians, legal scholars and pro’s and anti’s have attempted to examine the amendment to determine what the amendment says exactly. It’s pretty clear to me. The supreme court also ruled recently that it means Americans have the right to keep and bear arms. But once again the anti’s, those in particular from fringe segments of society, have come out of the woodwork after the recent mass shootings with all kinds of highly restrictive legislation with the hopes of “infringing” upon your right to keep and bear arms.
The phrase “keep and bear” from the amendment has been examined. Sounds pretty straight forward to me. “Keep” is a pretty obvious word and “bear” means to have it with you, perhaps at all times, something that only until recently many states have allowed even though the Second Amendment, part of the law of the land, has been around for 222 years!
“Well regulated militia” has been examined and that is just as clear.
But the word “infringed” hasn’t really been examined all that thoroughly as a component of the Second Amendment, at least to my knowledge. To me it means that perhaps even the fringes of weaponry are legal, the most modern, those which branch off from what is traditional, that which is experimental and leads to new technologies, that the very edges and types of ownership are legal, the weapons which may not be socially acceptable to somebody such as Senator Feinstein, for example, the “fringe” weapons, the ones which are perhaps the most effective, the most dangerous, the most deadly, those with which Americans may be able to secure most effectively their liberty, whether Senator Feinstein or anyone else does not like the idea, particularly as they raise our taxes. They just raised everyone’s taxes, by the way.
But that is just what the anti’s want to do, they want to “infringe” upon the types of ownership, they want to encroach, to trespass, to step on your rights. If you ask me, the very last word, “infringed,” of the amendment is one of if not the most crucial, particularly as those who wish to infringe upon ownership send their families to secure schools that are guarded all day or that they themselves have bodyguards, all paid for with our tax dollars. It’s OK for them to take away the right to protect ourselves, but far be it from them to go without protection when they feel they need it, armored cars, bulletproof glass, tax payer paid for intelligence, records of your credit card transactions, authority to examine your tax records, secret dealings, you name it.
The hypocrisy of the anti’s is in my opinion justification in and of itself for ownership.
If you ask me, all of the recently enacted legislation infringing upon your right to keep and bear arms, particularly at the state level, is just that “infringement,” but not just on your right to keep and bear arms, infringement upon the law of the land enacted by our founding fathers, all which is particularly concerning since the Federal Government recently purchased billions of rounds of ammunition for use right here in America. Oh yes, ladies and gentlemen, they will not be without theirs as they work to make sure you have none!
Another word to consider, “Overbearance.” Another, “Excessive.”
Copyright © William Thien 2013
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The thing that concerns me the most about The Patriot Act, that insidious piece of legislation that the country seems to have for the most part forgotten, that piece of legislation which enables the government to accumulate and collect each and every piece of information it wishes about any and all private citizens in The United States which makes everyone by definition a suspect in the War on Terrorism, that piece of legislation that enables the government to surveil any private citizen it so chooses without judicial oversight, the thing that concerns me the most about The Patriot Act is that it is probably the most unpatriotic piece of legislation ever enacted in The United States.
The ACLU claims The Patriot Act has only been responsible for one, yes, that’s one arrest due to terrorist activity. Yet, the government has been monitoring all of our financial transactions, credit card activity, emails, can monitor telephones, and anything else the government so chooses in the name of the War on Terrorism for a decade now.
I was surprised to discover that The ACLU is not against The Patriot Act in its entirety but has taken the position that it needs to be “reformed.”
A sheep might not find anything abhorrent in such behavior. But to a man, it is unacceptable.
The most disconcerting aspect of The Patriot Act is raised by the question, “What is the government doing with all of that information they have been collecting for the last TEN YEARS!” Why is everyone by definition a suspect?
I personally don’t believe the goal any longer, and it may never have been, I don’t believe the primary goal of The Patriot Act is to address the problem of terrorist bombers running around our country, but it is instead to surveil potential threats to the government from within the indigenous population of The United States that wish to see the changes our government is working so very hard to prevent. I believe that the legislation’s original intent has been bastardized in the name of “Big Government” and for that very reason The Patriot Act must be repealed.
Who knows how the government is utilizing the information? They are still collecting it. Is the government quietly assassinating citizens based on information collected using The Patriot Act? Are they harassing those they feel represent a political threat of some sort as defined by some secret council? Such disquieting questions are myriad and persistent.
It is time to repeal The Patriot Act and replace it with something less pervasive.
It is time to repeal The Patriot Act or we are not a country of men.
Copyright © William Thien 2011
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Conservatism vs. Republicanism
Posted by: William Thien on: April 4, 2012
Is there a time coming in America’s Political History whereby conservatives are going to distance themselves from Republicans? Republicans going all the way back to Ronald Reagan have definitely given conservatives enough reason.
One of the pillars of conservatism is individual liberty. When the Supreme Court recently ruled that someone jailed for not paying a traffic ticket could be strip searched, and not just strip searched but cavity searched, I had to conclude that when everyone becomes aware of that fact, it will be a watershed moment in the history of The Republican Party, a watershed in that Conservatives are going to get in their boats and float away from The Republican Party. Why? Because the Supremes who reached said ruling were nominated predominantly by Republicans.
But that is just the latest intrusion upon individual liberty brought by Republicans. Going back to Ronald Reagan, who is known for re-invigorating the “War on Drugs,” as if the drugs themselves were massing on our borders with no help from humans, going back to Reagan, Republicans have been hacking away at individual liberties.
When Reagan re-fueled the drug war along came all kinds of search and seizure authority which until then was considered unconstitutional such as search of autos during traffic stops with no probable cause, more invasive searches of persons, personal effects, personal records, you name it, all without warrant, all in the name of The War on Drugs.
Then, when the WTC attacks occurred, along came new and more pervasive electronic searches, additional powers of intrusion, all in the name of The War on Terror and The Patriot Act, all under another Republican, George Bush Jr., necessary, perhaps, but definitely another landslide in the Republican led erosion of personal liberty in The United States. And of course none of this is without the support of Congress and The Senate comprised of both parties, which must essentially sanctify such legislation and authority. But it is under the leadership of Republican Presidents that we see the implementation of the most pervasive intrusions.
Some conservatives that I know are looking for alternatives to Republicanism as a form of conservatism.
True conservatives are fed up with Republicans in that regard and it may be time for Republicans to consider what they have done before they do more damage and find themselves squatting in prison intake and being told to cough in the shakedown of individual freedom for which they seem to have so much disregard.
Copyright © William Thien 2012
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