Frightened Turtles

capitalismmagazine.com ^ | 9/12/2014 | Ed Cline

[rktman]

I would like to remind readers that we live in a country that is barely free. If we lived in ideal political conditions in which the only flaw might be a border closed to some or all immigration, the “open borders” argument might hold water. But we live in a growing authoritarian or police state.

This is an issue which many intellectuals – including some I should logically regard as moral and intellectual allies – shy away from like frightened turtles.

This country for too long has been the plaything of statists and “social engineers” of every stripe – Republicans, Democrats, environmentalists, welfare statists, special interests or lobbyists, and so on. President Barack Obama is the apex and end heir of every statist law and notion ever proposed or legislated, ever since ratification of the Constitution, even as the ink on it was barely dry – and Obama is the logical end of all those unopposed laws and policies.

[rktman]

Fence post turtles. Or would that be tortoises? Long but interesting read. Take from it what you will. I'm just the messenger. :>}

[cuban leaf]

I’m not quite done with the article but let me just say this: The author and I are on the same page on so many issues we are almost redundant.

And why, for some time, I’ve summed it up in my current tag line.

[Resolute Conservative]

“Open immigration is both morally right and economically beneficial.”

One of the most stupid, asinine things I have every heard.

[cuban leaf]

Also, regarding the freedom. I cancelled all health care at the beginning of the year. I feel that I am a free man in this country as long as I don’t have health care - or obama care is repealed, at which point I may freely acquire health care again.

[Alex Murphy]

[cuban leaf]

Oops. Health care = health care INSURANCE.

[SMARTY]

“Open immigration is both morally right and economically beneficial.”

Sure, tell that to those guys getting their heads chopped off in the ME!!

Tell that to the kid who is going to stir for 6 years in NK....etc.

THEY were ‘immigrants’ in those places weren’t they?

[DannyTN]

I thought the article was highly disjointed and jumps to conclusions that aren't supported by the article. It's more of a rant than a serious piece.

The first paragraph make the claim that we are living in an authoritative and police state. I expected to see a justification of that argument in the article.

Instead the author first bashes both parties for being statists, then discusses immigration at length, and then calls for the dismantling of the welfare state. Finally he concludes that refusal "to identify a hostile, murderous foreign enemy, Islam, hampered by a plethora of controls and prohibitions on virtually every aspect of American life" puts us into a "no-win" situation.

In some ways we are indeed becoming a police state. The burden of legal compliance is increasing, meanwhile the rule of law is ignored by authorities, and laws are made purposely gray and selectively applied. But the author doesn't focus on any of those causes. He focuses on a plethora of pet peves that have nothing to do with a police state or where they do, he fails to draw the link.

He doesn't even link Immigration, which he discusses at length, to ignoring the rule of law, but rather to Obama's taquiya as though Obama is being deceptive but using legitimate power. He's not using legitimate power, but he is enabled by a Senate that is more partisan than dedicated to the rule of law.

[rockrr]

I read a quote similar to that attributed to Milton Friedman recently. I had a hard time believing it so I researched some more. The rest of his thought was, “...but totally incompatible with a welfare state”.

I still have trouble with the notion of open borders but find some small solace in his recognition that it’s suicidal to prop open the door and then try to feed every buzzard that flocks in.

[Defiant]

You can do what I did, become part of a health sharing network, and remain a free man. A free man who is covered if he has a health problem.

[cuban leaf]

It’s ok. I’m self insured.

I will not acquire health insurance as long as the government requires me to.

[Texas Songwriter]

George Castanza......’shrinkage’

[Lurker]

You really should try reading the entire article. You might be enlightened.