Posted on 03/08/2003 9:29:27 AM PST by forest
[NOTE: This text was first published in the March 7, 1997 newsletter. It was an important message in 1997, but seems even more important today.]
Last week we gave Rep. Ron Paul's toll-free Legislative Update number (1-888-322-1414) and suggested that readers listen to his message "The Coming Police State." We were told by a lot of people that they missed it.
Originally, that message was part of a one hour speech Rep. Paul made on the floor of the House. And, thanks to Jeff in Michigan, we have the complete text. Below is the shortened version of Rep. Paul's speech recorded as the "Legislative Update:"
Centralizing power and consistently expanding the role of the Government requires an army of bureaucrats and a taxing authority upon which a police state thrives. There are over 100 laws on the books permitting private property seizure without due process of law. We have made it easy to seize any property by absurdly claiming the property itself committed the crime. The RICO mentality relating to law enforcement permits even the casual bystander to suffer severely from the police state mentality.
The drug war hysteria and the war on gun ownership started by Roosevelt in 1934 have expanded Federal police power to the point that more than 10 percent of all of our police are Federal. The Constitution names but three Federal crimes, so where is the justification? Talk about swarms of officers to harass our people and eat out their substance. We have hovering over us daily the Federal police from the EPA, OSHA, FBI, CIA, DEA, EEOC, ADA, F&WL, INS, BATF, and worst of all, the IRS. Even criticizing the IRS makes me cringe that it might precipitate an audit. It seems that all administrations, to some degree, used the power of the agencies to reward or punish financial backers or political enemies.
So much [of] that had its origin in the 1930's, it was then that the FBI's role changed from friendly investigator helping local authorities to that of national police force.
We live in an age where the fear of an IRS registered letter bearing news of an audit surpasses the fear of a street mugging. The police are supposed to be our friend and the Federal Government the guarantor of our liberties. Ask the blacks in the inner city of Los Angeles if they trust the police and revere the FBI and the CIA. We should not have to cringe when a Federal agent appears at the door of our business. We should not even see them there.
A Congress sworn to uphold the Constitution ought to be protecting our right to our property, not confiscating it. Congress ought to protect our right to own a weapon of self-defense, not systematically and viciously attacking that right.
Congress ought to guarantee all voluntary association, not regulate and dictate every economic transaction. We should not allow Congress to give credence to inane politically correct rules generated by egalitarian misfits. Setting quotas ought to insult each of us.
We need no more centralized police efforts. We need no more wiretaps that have become epidemic in this last decade. We have had enough Wacos and Ruby Ridges.
Two stupidities in one sentence. First, it is manifestly not true that every human being has agreed that there is a right not to be killed (unless you're going to tell us that Hitler and Stalin, for example, were really space aliens).
Second, your "arbitrarily" weasel word is a painfully obvious attempt to wriggle out of difficulties (killing in self-defense, execution as punishment for a crime, etc). Sorry, but you don't get to do that -- or, if you do, then you must allow no less latitude to the rights of property, freedom of speech, etc. Since these other rights do not, in fact, require such weaselry to avoid contradiction (but instead require only equal regard for the rights of others), your position in arguing against them collapses.
A white southerner of a century ago would nod and say, "Yes, ma'am; keepin' the public ordah is exactly why we need to make sure the good ol' boys got shotguns so them Nigras don't git uppity" -- and your philosophy would leave you utterly without a counterargument.
You're something like a chihuahua, aren't you?
First, it is manifestly not true that every human being has agreed that there is a right not to be killed.
So, you're arguing for arbitrarily killing?
Second, your "arbitrarily" weasel word is a painfully obvious attempt to wriggle out of difficulties (killing in self-defense, execution as punishment for a crime, etc
I'm against the death penalty. And apparently you, unlike me, are against self-defense.
Steve, stop trying to defeat my positions and start examining how foolish and stupid some of yours are. Don't make me offer you a burger from the Gunga Diner.
Except for the part where I stated that all people are equal before the law because of their intrinsic worth.
You sound a lot smarter than you really are steve.
"Trying"? You flatter yourself amongst the broken wreckage of what passes for your "position".
On the contrary, in your statement that you would allow speech that did not offend you and prohibit that which did, you expressly rejected any notion of equality before the law.
1.You have the right to free speech as long as you are not dumb enough to use it.
2. You have the right not to be killed unless it is by a POLICEMAN OR AN ARISTOCRAT.
3. You have the right to food money as long as you don't mind a little intimidation, investigation and a little humiliation.
Are these some of your recognised rights of man?
Sheeeeeeeeeeeeessssshhhhhh.
CATO
Steve, are you a homosexual? Your level of immaturity would imply as such.
No one on FR should ignore your idiocy, as above.
BWAAAAHAAAHAAAHAAA
Oh, this is a new level of delusional inanity, even for you.
Nah, HV sounds like any of a dozen DUmpster denizens who barely rise to the rank of Kinsley wannabees. Admittedly, "I believe you have no "right" to own a firearm." is a good attempt at making the leftist position sound intellectualoid enough to be coming from a TV talking head, but the various juvie insults (e.g. "Are you a homosexual?") drop the mask.
You can take the troll out of the DUmpster, but you can't take the DUmpster out of the troll.
You're dim, my friend, very dim. But worse, you're an intellectual coward. Goodbye.
For the benefit of those keeping score at home, that would be "zero".
[ ROCKET J. SQUIRREL ] Again? [ /ROCKET J. SQUIRREL ]
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