Roman’s Website

Happy 4th of July.

A few years ago, Congressman Ron Paul wrote this brief essay clarifying some of George Orwell’s “meaningless words.” My paraphrase:

Freedom: The absence of government coercion. Our Founding Fathers understood this, and created the least coercive government in the history of the world. The Constitution established a very limited, decentralized government to provide national defense and little else. All government action is inherently coercive. If nothing else, government action requires taxes.

Democracy: The word “democracy” is found neither in the Constitution nor the Declaration of Independence. Democracy is simply majoritarianism, a tyranny of the majority, which is inherently incompatible with real freedom. James Madison: “[under a democratic government] there is nothing to check the inducement to sacrifice the weaker party or the obnoxious individual.” John Adams argued that democracies merely grant revocable rights to citizens depending on the whims of the masses, while a republic exists to secure and protect pre-existing rights. A truly democratic election in Iraq, without U.S. interference and U.S. puppet candidates, almost certainly would result in the creation of a Shiite theocracy.

Liberalism: Liberalism once stood for civil, political, and economic liberties, but has become a synonym for omnipotent coercive government. The political left equates freedom with liberation from material wants via a large and benevolent government that exists to create equality on earth. To modern liberals, men are free only when the laws of economics and scarcity are suspended, the landlord is rebuffed, the doctor presents no bill, and groceries are given away. But philosopher Ayn Rand (and many others before her) demolished this argument by explaining how such “freedom” for some is possible only when government takes freedoms away from others. In other words, government claims on the lives and property of those who are expected to provide housing, medical care, food, etc. for others are coercive – and thus incompatible with freedom.

Conservatism: The political right equates freedom with national greatness brought about through military strength. Like the left, modern conservatives favor an all-powerful central state – but for militarism, corporatism, and faith-based welfarism. Unlike the Taft-Goldwater conservatives of yesteryear, today’s Republicans are eager to expand government spending, increase the federal police apparatus, and intervene militarily around the world. “Conservatism,” which once meant respect for tradition and distrust of active government, has transformed into big-government utopian grandiosity.

We must resist any use of the word “freedom” to describe state action. We must reject the current meaningless designations of “liberals” and “conservatives,” in favor of an accurate term for both: statists. Every politician on earth claims to support freedom. The problem is so few of them understand the simple meaning of the word. Read more from lewrockwell.com

“…man is not free unless government is limited. There’s a clear cause and effect here that is as neat and predictable as a law of physics: As government expands, liberty contracts.” ~ Ronald Reagan

“It appears the Ron Paul wing of the Idaho Republican Party has scored its first victory at the party’s state convention in this North Idaho resort town.

The state party’s platform committee voted overwhelmingly Friday to add to state platform language supporting abolishing the Federal Reserve System and pegging the dollar to gold and silver.”

Read more from idahostatesman.com

“In a major change of policy, the Transportation Security Administration has announced that passengers refusing to show ID will no longer be able to fly. The policy change, announced on Thursday afternoon, will go into force on June 21, and will only affect passengers who refuse to produce ID.”

Read more at dailypaul.com

“B.J. Lawson, endorsed by Ron Paul, overwhelmingly won tonight’s primary contest for U.S. Rep District 4 in North Carolina with over 70% of the vote. The best part about this victory is that his neocon opponent, Augustus Cho, openly attacked Dr. Lawson during a February debate for being a Ron Paul Republican.

Dr. Lawson’s victory makes him the ninth Ron Paul Revolutionary to win primaries so far this year. He now faces Democrat incumbent David Price in the general election.”

Read More at disinter.wordpress.com

DOJ memo says “Fourth Amendment had no application to domestic military operations.”

“The American Civil Liberties Union has uncovered details pertaining to a secret Justice Department memo from October 2001 that reveals the Bush administration effectively suspended the Fourth Amendment where domestic counter terrorism operations are concerned.” (Read More from Infowars.net)

I once took an oath . . . something about supporting and defending the Constitution . . . something about all enemies . . . foreign and domestic.

See Also:
FBI Pamphlet says “If you encounter any of the following, call the Joint Terrorism Task Force.” Then, without explanation, includes “‘Defenders’ of the US Constitution against federal government and the UN.” See for yourself: pic1 pic2

Plaintiffs maintain that current election practices, including the widespread use of computerized voting machines, are unconstitutional because they are ripe for fraud and error and effectively hide the physical vote counting process from the public, effectively denying citizens their legally protected Right to cast an effective vote. The lawsuit seeks an Order from the Court prohibiting the use of all voting machines and to force election officials to instead use paper ballots and to count and total all votes by hand, always in full view of the public. (More)

We should export democracy by setting the best example of it.

PBS’s Bill Moyers moderates a discussion with constitutional scholar Bruce Fein (who drafted the first article of impeachment against President Bill Clinton) and author John Nichol.