The Idea of America

The Daily Reckoning ^ | 11/25/2011 | Jeffrey Tucker

[Mr. Jeeves]

There are occasions in American life — and they come too often these days — when you want to scream: “what the heck has happened to this country?!” Everyone encounters events that strike a particular nerve, some egregious violations of the norms for a free country that cut very deeply and personally.

We wonder: do we even remember what it means to be free? If not — and I think not — The Idea of America: What It Was and How It Was Lost (hardcover and Kindle), a collection of bracing reminders from our past, as edited by William Bonner and Pierre Lemieux, is the essential book of our time.

...snip...

And it isn’t just about our personal liberty and our freedom to move about with a sense that we are exercising our rights. It hits us in the economic realm, where no goods or services change hands that aren’t subject to the total control of the leviathan state. No business is really safe from being bludgeoned by legislatures, regulators, and the tax police, while objecting only makes you more of a target.

Few dare say it publicly: America has become a police state. All the signs are in place, among which is the world’s largest prison population. If we are not a police state, one must ask, what are the indicators that will tell us that we’ve crossed the line? What are signs we haven’t yet seen?

[Mr. Jeeves]

They don't yet care if you talk about it. They don't yet care if you write articles about it . They only care if you try to change it...

[Colonial Warrior]

It is NOT this!!

[donna]

world’s largest prison population

Take the non-citizens out of the total and get back to me.

[Talisker]

Few dare say it publicly: America has become a police state. All the signs are in place, among which is the world’s largest prison population. If we are not a police state, one must ask, what are the indicators that will tell us that we’ve crossed the line? What are signs we haven’t yet seen?

The 14th Amendment makes us a police state. It enables the substitution of administrative jurisdiction for civil jurisdiction. It enables the replacement of rights with privileges. It enables every single government overreach, bar none - federal, state, county municipal, and dog catcher.

And every attorney, prosecutor and judge (and many cops) know it, because they are empowered to PRESUME it is in effect without telling you, and ACT on that presumption without every admitting it, and remain SILENT concerning its application - when it's applicability is, 99% of the time, ILLEGAL.

That's the truth.

[WildSnail]

What part of the 14th are you talking about? I don’t see anything like that.