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Posted on 08/21/2002 10:22:21 PM PDT by Nix 2
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The Free State Project is a plan in which 20,000 or more liberty-oriented people will move to a single state of the U.S. to secure there a free society. We will accomplish this by first reforming state law, opting out of federal mandates, and finally negotiating directly with the federal government for appropriate political autonomy. We will be a community of freedom-loving individuals and families, and create a shining example of liberty for the rest of the nation and the world.
The Free State Project is a new strategy for liberty in our lifetime.
We don't want to wait decades for most citizens in the U.S. to realize that the nanny state is an insult to their dignity. For those of us who already understand the debilitating effects of a government bent on reducing liberty rather than increasing it, the Free State Project aims at liberty in a single state.
What do we mean by liberty? We believe that being free and independent is a great way to live, and that government's only role should be to help individuals defend themselves from force and fraud. To quote author L. Neil Smith, we believe that "no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation."
What can be done in a single state? A great deal. We will repeal state taxes and wasteful state government programs. We will end the collaboration between state and federal law enforcement officials in enforcing unconstitutional laws. We will repeal laws outlawing drugs and guns. We will end asset forfeiture and abuses of eminent domain. We will privatize utilities and end inefficient regulations and monopolies. Then we will negotiate directly with the federal government for more autonomy.
The state where we will move will be decided once membership has reached 5,000. We are doing extensive research on all the candidate states. The vote will be conducted according to the method of Cumulative Count, which more closely approximates the ideal of individual choice than simple majority rule.
Before joining, please be sure also to check out our FAQ and articles sections, which contain more detailed information about the Free State Project, including answers to common questions like, "What can 20000 activists do in one state?," "What is cumulative count?," and "Do you think the federal government will oppose your efforts?," along with many others.
Join the Free State Project and take part in a rapidly growing movement aimed at securing liberty in our lifetime.
We don't want your money, just your signature - and when the time comes, your willingness to carry through on your word of honor.
If you would like to participate in this exciting new venture, please carefully read our Participation Guidelines and sign the Statement of Intent. To view these documents and to join, click here .
Look, I honor all who have served ; however , that doesn't make you a " wolf " ; not in this context. So, get off your high horse, dear, put both feet on the ground, and reflect on the true, nonrevisionistic , factual history of this country. Man is not a singualr being; he has and always shall travel in packs. Packs always have leaders and followers. That is human nature. Sure, there have been and always shall be those who are hermitlike. That isn't what we're talking about. Calling me names / attempting to insult me, because you are abjectly incapable of refutation, with facts, is just childish, spurious, and patently ridiculous . That you are such a political naif, feel so impotent, that you can not see beyond your own nose, is quite obvious ; however, attempting to claim my factual posts wrong, or worse, because they don't jibe with your own delsuional musings, doesn't make you correct, nor me wrong. LOL
Brilliant. Do your parents know you are on thier computer this late?
So all those people who declared freedom from the King where what? Playing follow the leader? How about all those explorers that just took off into the wilderness, on who's orders? All those innovators who were told their ideas would never amount to anything, and ended up being some of the worlds greatest success stories, where just following the herd?
What is patently ridiculous is the amount of fear you have that someday there may not be anyone around to tell you to get out of bed in the morning.
"All men are created equal". You would have us go back to the days when it was assumed that some were in fact better than others by simple dint of birth and that the Laws of a country should reflect that.
Go back and re-read the Declaration and the Constitution. Then come back here and try to spout your revisionist drivel.
The DOI was a declaration of war on the King. Now, do you want to declare war? I think you may need to repeat High School civics. You appear to be a bit in need of remedial education.
Isn't this all a rehash of the fabled and failed island-government takeover planned by some American fringe ideologues some years back? We really ought to encourage their pilgrimage to their own foreign Jonestown-like utopia.
The Founding Fathers didn't ever say that the " common man " was far too uneducated to ever be capable of electing the right sort of president and were also not qualified to elect Senators ? That's not why they set up the Electoral College and had state leaders choose Senators ? Neither did they allow salves ?
You really need a thorough course in American ( if not world, to boot ! ) history. Obviously you aren't as familiar with facts, as you assume you are.
I'm probably old enough to be your mother, sonny. Do your parents still change your ditties ?
Yep, that's the Claire, whom Jim has banned from being used on threads.
Unless you can state the passage in the DOI in which we declare a state of war existing between the Colonies and the Crown, you'd best keep quite on who needs a remedial education.
That's good. Normal people like you and I and Jim want nothing to do with those who advocate political murder.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
Electoral college came about to balance State power vs. direct representation. The Senate was the "voice" of the State government, and the Reps the voice of "We the People". Checks and Balances. They had to do something to appease the Tory faction, as I'm sure you can empathize with.
I tell you what, you start reading here and by the time you catch up with me in a decade or so, maybe we won't have to continue this conversation.
that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved
Obviously you missed that part. Of the fact that this is called a "Declaration of Independance" and not a "Declaration of War". The Crowns actions after that were entirely the decision of the Crown. We certainly weren't about to sail back across the sea to attack Britannia as we would in a War.
You've got to be doing this just for the sake of an argument. No one can be THAT dense.
Oh, and dear, the FFs really did NOT think that the common man was " good " enough, to choose the president, nor Senators. You can couch it in whatever verbiage, that makes you " feel " better; however, their own words belie your blinkered views. There has always been a class system here. Your claim that " all men are created equal ", means more than it does, is the position of those who neither know and comprehend factual history.
Oh believe me you are really DENSE. You are the very definition of dense. Your denseness has yet to be assigned an Atomic Weight. You are the black hole of denseness. Now, am I getting through to you?
"I have such reliance on the good sense of the body of the people and the honesty of their leaders that I am not afraid of their letting things go wrong to any length in any cause." --Thomas Jefferson to C. W. F. Dumas, 1788. ME 6:430
"Whenever our affairs go obviously wrong, the good sense of the people will interpose and set them to rights." --Thomas Jefferson to David Humphreys, 1789. ME 7:322
"Our fellow citizens have been led hoodwinked from their principles by a most extraordinary combination of circumstances. But the band is removed, and they now see for themselves." --Thomas Jefferson to John Dickinson, 1801. ME 10:217
This one sounds hardly sheeplike as well...
It should be your care, therefore, and mine, to elevate the minds of our children and exalt their courage; to accelerate and animate their industry and activity; to excite in them an habitual contempt of meanness, abhorrence of injustice and inhumanity, and an ambition to excel in every capacity, faculty, and virtue. If we suffer their minds to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. John Adams, Dissertation on the Canon and Feudal Law, 1756
The fabric of American empire ought to rest on the solid basis of THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE. The streams of national power ought to flow from that pure, original fountain of all legitimate authority. Alexander Hamilton, Federalist No. 22, December 14, 1787
I]f the public are bound to yield obedience to laws to which they cannot give their approbation, they are slaves to those who make such laws and enforce them. Candidus in the Boston Gazette, 1772
It becomes all therefore who are friends of a Government based on free principles to reflect, that by denying the possibility of a system partly federal and partly consolidated, and who would convert ours into one either wholly federal or wholly consolidated, in neither of which forms have individual rights, public order, and external safety, been all duly maintained, they aim a deadly blow at the last hope of true liberty on the face of the Earth. James Madison
How's that for some verbiage?
Your type of history gave us the downfall of Rome, the abuses of monoarchs, and tyrants galore. Good grief woman... what more do you need?
Flame wars, intentionally deflectionary remarks, baiting... yep. I got your number pal.
And this is the thing that keeps me, I guess, from being a True Libertarian: I approve of intrusive local and, to a somewhat lesser degree state-level governments. These levels are more representative of the will of the people, and thus ought to be more powerful. I've always felt that as governments become more local, they should become more powerful with the following cavat: They must not overstep the bounds set by the Federal or State constitutions, or the local charter under which they operate.
If a person doesn't like the way a local government operates, they can do one of three things: They can endure it, they can change it, or they can leave. As you move to progressively higher levels of government, it becomes increasingly more difficult to change things, and you must travel further afield in order to move away from it. At the level of the Federal government, today more than ever, it is impossible to affect any real change, IMO, and the only way to move out of its influence is to emmigrate, in which case you would lose even the nominal protections of the US Constitution. Thus, the only option left open is to endure and hope our fellow citizens begin to want change on the highest levels. That doesn't seem very likely.
I've heard about Dickens' comments about America. I was forced to read some of his 'classics' when I was in high school. I still don't see what was so special about him. I can imagine that someone who wrote 'Great Expectations' about poverty and class struggles would not like the America of the day. Today's liberals must love his attitude...oh, wait, I think I know why I was forced to read him in high school now.
Tuor
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