Posted on 07/23/2010 10:30:44 AM PDT by jpl
It is way past time we started shooting back.
The UK is a country that imprisons people from defending their homes against burglars while routinely turning burglars loose. The UK leads all "rich countries" in home invasions as a result.
Selling dodgy orchids on the grey market is not a particularly serious offense, but in the UK self-defense is a crime punishable by imprisonment.
Moreover, the statistics on impriosonment between the US and the UK are simply not comparable. While about 8 million, or 3%, of all US adults are under legal supervision (either in jail, on parole or on probation), more than half of that number consists of members of a sole ethnic group - a group that is 12% of the US population and 2% of the UK population.
Mr Norris was 65 years old at the time, and a collector of orchids.
A truly truly sad sad story ...
They used to hang horse thieves. And some bicycles can be pretty expensive.
Make everyone a criminal, then charge whomever you want based on politics and/or profit.
“Did you really think we want those laws observed? said Dr. Ferris. We want them to be broken. You’d better get it straight that it’s not a bunch of boy scouts you’re up against... We’re after power and we mean it... There’s no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted ? and you create a nation of law-breakers ? and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon, that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll bemuch easier to deal with.” (’Atlas Shrugged’ 1957)
Also see my tag...
So our government can locate a man who brings in maybe a dozen undocumented plants but cannot locate and deal with 12,000,000 illegal aliens? This so unbelievable. Did I wake up in Bizzaro?
That quote is one of the first things I thought of when I saw this headline.
I agree. We may still be a relatively benign police state, but it seems to become just a little less benign with each passing day.
“It is way past time we started shooting back.”
Why? I’ve got nothing against orchid growers.
You can not argue with the premise of the article.
In 1789 a thousand dollars was several years income for most people, now it is less than a month for minimum wage workers. Lest than a week for skilled workers. But a thousand dollars is still the cut off for a felony.
You can spend more time in jail for killing your neighbor's dog than you will for killing your neighbor.
In the “land of the free” of the United States, if ALL of the laws currently on the books could be enforced, we would be the most oppressed nation on earth.
Point in case - there are well over 20,000 gun laws actively in the books across the United States and, yet, NONE of them will prevent either the next gun-related crime nor will they stop the Congress, a state legislature or city council from adding more gun laws!!!
It’s time that our “legislators” STOP passing laws for the sake of passing laws that are more for show and justifying their jobs!! It’s time that the laws we have either be repealed if they are unenforceable or that they are enforced. Passing more laws that do nothing is pointless and ONLY opens the door for someone to, eventually, try to enforce them all.
Then, we will rue the day when everyone is in jail and no one can bail us out.
Great article.
Maybe it would be helpful if instead of state and federal legislators dreaming up vaguely written laws for actions that shouldn’t be considered crimes, they’d go over all the vague and unconstitutional laws on their books and purge them.
Either that or meet once every five years or so. When they’re in session, they’re a menace.
Shoot the orchid smuggler? The guy who trafficked unlicensed dentures? What about the person who transported water hyacinths across state lines? And then there's the person who misappropriated the likeness of Woodsy Owl. Should these people be shot? Should they even be imprisoned at a huge cost to society? Yet, they're each and every one criminals (and so are many of us. We just don't know it).
Sheesh! Your tax dollars at work!
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Highly recommend Phillip Howards Death of Common Sense: How Law is Suffocating America The abdication of personal responsibility in favor of a dense thicket of laws and more recently, regulations that no one could conceivably be aware of in their entirety much less comply with sets the stage for the 'priests of power' to do what they will with us. Common sense was thrown out of the window long ago - and deliberately so - in favor of bureaucracy and procedure. That is also the death of one of the underpinnings of individual liberty.
“It’s time that our “legislators” STOP passing laws for the sake of passing laws that are more for show and justifying their jobs!!”
and every law passed should have a sunset provision. Like the Bush Tax cuts.
Doesn’t all this pretty much start with “zero tolerance” and “political correctness” as early as pre-school? A background in “school administration” might look pretty good on an application for police or prison-system employment.
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