Personally, I hope this wakes up a whole bunch of people to the fact that:
Posted on 06/23/2005 8:06:55 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants
Everybody knows about the shot that was heard around the world as the birthing pains of this once great nation. Today, sadly, we may have heard it's death knell.
It did not come with violence or shots fired. It came with the virtual elimination of personal property rights.
Our founding fathers knew how important the ownership of property was and sought to protect the right to be secure in the ownership of property to the extent that they enshrined the guarantee that property would not be taken for public use without due process and just compensation.
For over 200 years it was understood that "public use" meant that the ownership would transfer from the private owner to the local, state, or federal government for things such as military bases, roads, schools, prisons, etc. Now, the meaning of "public use" has been altered by 5 people who were never elected to office and in all reality, are completely unaccountable to anyone, to mean privately owned condos, shopping centers, and business parks under the thin guise that those enterprises would contribute more tax money to the coffers, thus increasing the "public good"
Justice Stevens, writing for the majority said that judges should give city councils and state legislatures "broad latitude in determining what public needs justify the use of the takings power," he added. To make sure that he wasn't misunderstood he added, "The city has carefully formulated a development plan that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community, including, but not limited to, new jobs and increased tax revenue," and just destroyed any pretence that you have any recourse whatsoever if the government or county decides that they want your property for any reason at all.
Sandra Day O'Connor writing a scathing dissent correctly said that now rich and politically land developers and businesses could basically take your land away from you with the help from the local government. Yes, you could fight it in court, but it is now fruitless as you are guaranteed to lose in a fixed fight.
For years the people have for the most party sat quietly as the government stole more and more freedoms from us. Prior to 1914 and fool could take any drug he or she wanted and kill themselves, thus increasing the quality of the gene pool for the rest of us. Before 1918, the government had no claim to your wages and could not tax them. Prior to 1934, Sears sold machine guns from their catalog and nobody thought anything about it. Prior to the 1950's preachers could freely endorse or denigrate any political candidate they wanted, just as had been done since the very first town government was formed in this country almost 350 years prior. Since 1986 it has been illegal to manufacture and sell a machine gun to a civilian despite the fact that in the past several decades the number of people int he US murdered by a person with a machine gun has been exactly one, and the person doing the shooting was a police officer using a gun issued to the police department.
But hope is not lost however, ownership of real property does a funny thing to people. It is a spot that a person can say, "This land is MINE!" with a dedication and a fierceness that is somewhat scary. Religion and politics and abortion and the WOT all take a back seat when two neighbors are faced with having their property stolen by the government.
Maybe that bell sounding isn't the death knell but the alarm.
Maybe this will awake the sheeple to realize that the socialist have gone too far.
Maybe the bell is just signalling round two of the Revolutionary War.
Will this war be fought with bullets or ballots?
We shall see.
And there will be tremendous pressure on the RINOs to support a change tot eh filibuster rules.
I thought Ellis was a liberal. How was that book?
Personally, I hope this wakes up a whole bunch of people to the fact that:
The thing we need to do is start a grassroots Property Rights Amendment to the Constitution. It should go something like this:
No person shall be deprived of their property by any government body federal or otherwise provided they have obtained it legally and have full ownership of said property with no leins or outstanding mortgages. The government can only exercise immenient domain where fully government fuded projects are concerned and the voters in the locality have authorized the exercise of immenient domain by vote. In such case that immenient domain is exercised, those individuals who own said property will be given fair market value for said property to be asertained by an independent asessor chosen by the owner of the property and any additional damages and expense caused by having to relocate such as in the case of a primary residence. This is just a start....but this is where we need to go. The Amendment can not have any loopholes and must take local officals out of the decison making process so the deck is not stacked and that the onus is always on the government not the owner of the property.
IMO the only reason the idiots at DU are against this is that it is a blue colar neighborhood = Democrats. If was a more upscale suburban neighborhood, they would be laughing as they would claim it was against Republicans and that was okay.
Would it be fair to call it the Imperial Federal Government? I love this country, but I think the founding fathers are rolling over in their graves.
Donald Scott owned some land abutting a national park in California. The Feds coveted his land...even had it appraised. They raided his house, and he was shot dead.
The widow ended up selling the land to the government in order to pay her legal fees.
What you said! Great post!
The next step - Construct Soylent Green factories on the expropriated land.
Ha ha.
Either that or the Royal Federal Government, yes.
ALREADY HAD ONE IN THE CONSTITUTION, CALLED THE 5TH AMENDMENT! IT WAS JUST OVERTURNED BY FIVE SOCIALIST IN THE U.S. SUPREME COURT!
One of Mr. Jefferson's most eloquent quotes.
Also one of my favorites.
Honestly, read it. They founders wrote it as simply and as acurately as anyone could wish. We just need judges who understand that this is a limitation on the government not on the people!
Excellent post. And so much for the property values of the homes stuck as "neighbors" to the new big box mega store, strip mall, business park, condo development, etc.
1 Timothy 6:10-11 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Exodus 20:17 Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbour's.
Which way will the USSC rule on the public display of this witness against them?
That makes one out of the last twenty.
She's because a pseudo-lib otherwise.
. . . and hang them from the nearest tree in from of the Court with rusty barbed wire for all to see!
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