It's definitely time to knock lawmakers down from their high horses!
Posted on 01/25/2005 4:37:42 PM PST by Cornpone
Dear Freepers,
I'm getting old and perhaps a little wacky but as I look back over my life I continue to try and understand how my country hasn't quite turned out the way my mother and father brought me up to believe it should be and what it was I was always raised to defend. So I've started making a list of those things that just seem to represent a betrayal of what I always thought America is about...freedom. Its a short list, I'm still working on it and I know many, if not most, will not agree with everything on it. But I'm sure everyone has something to add to it...like the state of medical care in this country which I haven't even begun to think about. Anyway, they are simple things that individually don't amount to much. But, taken together they represent a fundamental change in our culture if you think about it. Please help me add to this list. I don't know what I will do with it. Perhaps I'll just go nail it on the doors of Congress..not likely. I'd rather nail it on the doors of the White House except we can't really go there anymore...another freedom lost.
• Mandatory motorcycle helmet laws
• Mandatory automobile seatbelt laws
• Mandatory boating lifejacket laws
• Increasing erosion of property rights
• Increasing regulation of alcohol consumption, tobacco use and firearms possession
• Virtual elimination of the right to self defense
• Denial of the right to carry a weapon for self defense
• Hate crime laws that ridiculously imply that the murder of one human being is more heinous than the murder of another based on some politically motivated criteria
• Encroachment on the constitutional right to assembly
• Increasing attempts to limit our constitutional right to free speech through hate speech laws that seek to dampen dissident opinions
• Increasing restrictions on demonstrations of personal faith with a bias against Christians
• Increasing restrictions on hunting
• Increasing restrictions on fishing
• Increasing restrictions on the traditional use of fireworks
• Increasing restrictions on traditional methods of outdoor cooking
• Increasing restrictions on water rights and usage
• Increasing government incursion and attempts to regulate the possession of domestic animals which in all cases don’t happen to be ‘pets’
• Unfair taxation to fund social practices abhorrent to most Americans
• Government advocacy of socially deviant lifestyles
• Government attempts to redefine millennia-old family relationships and bonds, i.e., gay marriage
• Affirmative action laws and policies that unjustly punish and deny opportunity to current generations based on the shortcomings of generations long past
• Ridiculous product liability judgments that seek to limit access and deny choice through judicial activism rather than legislative debate
Add your thoughts to the list please.
God Bless our Forefathers and God Bless You
How does this interfere with your freedoms?
End of the right of anonymous travel.
Requirement to interface with government whether you want to or not (income tax returns, for instance).
Over zealous building codes destroy right to do as you please with your property.
Elimination of the right to defend our borders against ILLEGAL immigration.
most recent, allowed dog sniffing in your vehicle
It started with mandatory auto license and registration laws that started guess where? Taxxachusetts in 1903.
http://taor.agitator.dynip.com/on_law.htm
I'm paying for it through my tax dollars and I don't believe it meets the constitutional test of the 'common good.' Its like playing poker against your own money.
Bush's fault, right?
I could hardly blame a man for problems that began before his birth.
When Clinton altered military policies concerning sexual preferences he opened up a can of worms. When soldiers go into the "field" they are provided 1 shelter half. Two soldiers join the "halves" together to make a tent. That tent is shared for sleeping . I think that certain Troops might takes exception to such sleeping conditions. Amplify that sentiment in a barracks or a ship or in other situations requiring close living quarters.
The bottom line is that it could be bad for morale. That could effect individual performance. The Military could lose a battle because of disgruntled Troops compelled to endorse a lifestyle which personally offends them. Losing a battle could result in losing a war. Losing a war might interfere with our freedoms!
Simplistic for sure, but there are reasons that the military has policies, and society has mores.
It's definitely time to knock lawmakers down from their high horses!
Oh, rent control in cities is a big infringement.
Here in Massachusetts a court ordered a private country club which receives no tax money to allow in a group of women as full fledged members against the wishes of the club members and owners.
There are many many examples.
Because our government is based on moral laws. When our government promotes immorality (and not just homosexuality), the nation suffers. Most immoral activities are hurtful to families.
Social security numbers on everything.
Thanks for your contribution. I'll have to consider how to turn it into a lost freedom but I'm sure it can be done. But, what I really think you're highlighting is the rise of selfishness in America and the loss of civil respect for others.
You got it. This works two ways. With freedom comes responsibility.
Use of litigation to control peoples behavior. Smoking. Soon eating.
I would suggest that perhaps your list would be better served by dividing issues into state and federal ones.
Many of the issues you note are state issues, not national ones, and best solved by a return to federalism.
Of course, there are issues on your list that are indeed problems at the federal level, and more difficult to address.
Here's some more for you:
The creation of policies that virtually force our children into public schools.
Increasing federal intervention in the public school curricula.
Virtual elimination of accessibility to the public lands.
The creation of tax policies that undermine our Agricultural industries.
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