GOVERNMENTAL TYRANNY TEARS AT FABRIC OF AMERICA

You know the little range light on your dashboard that comes on every now and then, “Check Engine?” The light is intended to let you know that something has gone wrong and it’s usually in your emissions system. Some manufacturers have the light come on every 3,000 miles or so to remind you to get an oil change. Some people disconnect it, others tape it over. But, because it’s usually an emissions problem and because the technology is there, some leaders in our government have proposed that your car send a message to the “big brother” satellite in the sky that will then contact your state motor vehicle department, which will send your violation notice and a fine in the mail. You think I’m kidding?

Remember those video cameras that sit on top of street lights at intersections? Yes, the ones that “big brother” promised would be used only to determine what happened in a traffic accident. Many cities are now using them to catch people who run red lights or flip off the camera on their way through the intersection. Never mind that the person driving your car may not be you; the presumption is that if they are driving your car, they have your permission and therefore you’re in the wrong. Cough the fine money up.

Ah yes, I haven’t mentioned the spotted owl who, (no play on words intended), if he lives within 1,000 miles of your mountain lot, cannot not only prevent you from building a vacation retreat there, but can also keep you from having a picnic there. It’s a big time fine if you get caught.

Then there’s that recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that says citizens DO have the right to bear arms in this country. The Washington, D.C. “big brother” is not to be outdone by a simple Supreme Court ruling; it’s formulating a process and regulations that will make it almost impossible for you to legally get a gun, anyway. California is on the verge of passing a law that essentially says that no one can buy or sell more than 50 rounds of ammunition in any one month, which will mean that gun shops and sporting goods stores can only sell 50 rounds for the month…(total, not just per person).

I’m not a smoker. I agree that cigar and cigarette smoke is offensive in confined spaces, and that it is dangerous to your health. Yet, I believe that if a bar allows smoking and I know it, I don’t have to go there to buy a drink; I can go someplace else. The same applies to a restaurant or a casino. As far as public buildings go, where we citizens are required to enter in order to conduct business, I agree that smoking should be banned. Yet, the move is on to ban smoking in the privacy of your own home on the basis that your children could be adversely impacted, as well as the next occupant.

In Norwalk, Connecticut, the city took a house and lot from a private citizen using the law of eminent domain and sold it to a shopping mall developer. The Supreme Court said that was okay, which now opens the door for the government to seize your private property for any reason it deems “in the best interests of the community,” and you can’t stop them. In this case, it doesn’t seem to matter that the Bill of Rights says otherwise.

In California, the law now is that you can’t drive and talk on your cell phone at the same time unless you use a “hands free” device. However, you CAN drive your car while reading the newspaper, with your boom box turned up full blast, while you’re shaving, and while you’re disciplining the kids in the back seat, all at the same time. That’s legal.

There’s a city in northeastern California that says you cannot build a house there unless it has at least one fluorescent fixture in it. Since druggies use ingredients of over-the-counter cold and allergy medicine to make meth, it’s illegal to sell such medications off the aisle; you have to buy them over the counter and in small packages that cost a future on a per pill basis.

U.S. law provides for legal ways to enter this country. If you violate the law, you get deported. In fact, you may spend some time in jail before you get deported. Yet, Congress and the President refuse to enforce that law. The two primary candidates for election to the Presidency are also refusing to enforce that law. The City of San Francisco has declared itself to be a “safe haven” for illegals in this country. No one has the guts to go up against Congress or the President or the San Francisco “good old boys” and to charge them with crime of aiding and abetting or refusal to carry out the sworn duties of their public office. In fact, a couple of law enforcement types who were patrolling our borders down in Texas are now sitting in jails for doing their job.

You and I know that this post, if it listed all of the examples of how our government is ignoring the foundations of law that this country was built upon, could fill the vast resources of the Internet. One by one, day by day, our freedoms and liberties are eroding and the power of government is shifting more and more from the power of the people dangerously close to totalitarianism.

Do you care?

That’s MY AMERICAN OPINION, respectfully submitted.