Henry Lamb
Safe in the arms of government
By Henry Lamb
They don't sit around and plot ways to destroy freedom; they really think that what they are doing is good for the people, and for the nation. But they are wrong. Freedom restricted is freedom lost, and he who holds the authority to restrict freedom wields tyranny with each new restriction.
"They" are the new power brokers in Washington. Their answer to every problem is more government control. As government control expands, freedom is restricted. Government control is expanding at warp speed, and the loss of freedom is not even a consideration.
While the president stands before TV cameras to tell the people that he has no desire to run the banks or the car companies, his lieutenants take control of the banks and the car companies. A free market would squeeze out banks and car companies that cannot compete and replace them with product and service providers that are approved by the consumers. But "they" have no faith in a free market. They believe a free market produces greed and widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Government control eliminates excessive salaries and dictates the kind of cars that people should be driving. Therefore, government control, they contend, is better than freedom in the market place.
The free market has allowed greedy corporations to let contaminated food reach consumers. Therefore, government must tighten control over the food market. The TRACE Act of 2009 (Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act of 2009) is one of several bills that seek to put government in complete control of food production, processing, and distribution.
These bills will likely be merged into a single bill, and no one yet knows what the final bill will require, but it is clear that sponsors of the bills have no regard for the Constitution's privacy guarantees when they require that every livestock owner and the owners of every backyard garden register with the government. One bill would even require the submission to the government of a written plan for the production of food before food could be produced.
This lunacy is justified by the claim of improved food safety. But it destroys individual freedom, makes a mockery of private property rights, bloats government bureaucracy, swells the tax requirements and does nothing to improve food safety.
Government is already responsible for food safety. Every recall of beef or peanut butter is like a neon sign flashing government's inspection ineptitude. More law is not the answer; better enforcement of existing law is what is required. Government already has the authority, and the responsibility, to see that food is safe before it enters the distribution system. Forcing every private citizen who owns a livestock animal or plants a backyard garden to register and report to the government would be a massive loss of freedom while providing little or no improvement in food safety.
They — this new crowd in Washington — are taking steps to control the banks, auto manufacturers, food producers, processors, and distributors, and many other facets of what was once a free society. Control over all water, which will result from the enactment of S-787 — The Clean Water Restoration Act, will give the government more control over the private lives of individuals, especially food producers. Neither gardens nor farm fields can grow without water. This bill will give government total control over all water.
Government control over land use is also expanding dramatically. The federal government already owns about one-third of all the land in the United States. State and local governments own an additional ten percent. And all governments are on a binge to purchase, or gain control over even more land. This new crowd in Washington wrapped more than 150 separate land bills into a single "Omnibus" bill that added millions of acres to the government inventory.
Even this is not enough. HR980 — The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act — will take another 15 million acres of public land out of public use in order to expand "wilderness corridors." This wilderness corridor concept arises from the Wildlands Project and is specified in the Convention on Biological Diversity — which the Senate has not yet ratified.
The government is rapidly expanding control over every facet of life. Government control over the use of energy is on the horizon, as is government control over access to health care.
It matters not that the perpetrators of these attacks on freedom may sincerely believe that government is a better manager of society than are free people in pursuit of personal happiness. History has proven time and time again that government management of society enslaves people as it empowers government. They who devise these new schemes for expanded government control may not realize it, or they may not care, but they are strangling freedom from the society they seek to protect.
Freedom, with all its injustice, is far superior to enslavement by any government.
© Henry Lamb
May 17, 2009
They don't sit around and plot ways to destroy freedom; they really think that what they are doing is good for the people, and for the nation. But they are wrong. Freedom restricted is freedom lost, and he who holds the authority to restrict freedom wields tyranny with each new restriction.
"They" are the new power brokers in Washington. Their answer to every problem is more government control. As government control expands, freedom is restricted. Government control is expanding at warp speed, and the loss of freedom is not even a consideration.
While the president stands before TV cameras to tell the people that he has no desire to run the banks or the car companies, his lieutenants take control of the banks and the car companies. A free market would squeeze out banks and car companies that cannot compete and replace them with product and service providers that are approved by the consumers. But "they" have no faith in a free market. They believe a free market produces greed and widens the gap between the haves and the have-nots. Government control eliminates excessive salaries and dictates the kind of cars that people should be driving. Therefore, government control, they contend, is better than freedom in the market place.
The free market has allowed greedy corporations to let contaminated food reach consumers. Therefore, government must tighten control over the food market. The TRACE Act of 2009 (Tracing and Recalling Agricultural Contamination Everywhere Act of 2009) is one of several bills that seek to put government in complete control of food production, processing, and distribution.
These bills will likely be merged into a single bill, and no one yet knows what the final bill will require, but it is clear that sponsors of the bills have no regard for the Constitution's privacy guarantees when they require that every livestock owner and the owners of every backyard garden register with the government. One bill would even require the submission to the government of a written plan for the production of food before food could be produced.
This lunacy is justified by the claim of improved food safety. But it destroys individual freedom, makes a mockery of private property rights, bloats government bureaucracy, swells the tax requirements and does nothing to improve food safety.
Government is already responsible for food safety. Every recall of beef or peanut butter is like a neon sign flashing government's inspection ineptitude. More law is not the answer; better enforcement of existing law is what is required. Government already has the authority, and the responsibility, to see that food is safe before it enters the distribution system. Forcing every private citizen who owns a livestock animal or plants a backyard garden to register and report to the government would be a massive loss of freedom while providing little or no improvement in food safety.
They — this new crowd in Washington — are taking steps to control the banks, auto manufacturers, food producers, processors, and distributors, and many other facets of what was once a free society. Control over all water, which will result from the enactment of S-787 — The Clean Water Restoration Act, will give the government more control over the private lives of individuals, especially food producers. Neither gardens nor farm fields can grow without water. This bill will give government total control over all water.
Government control over land use is also expanding dramatically. The federal government already owns about one-third of all the land in the United States. State and local governments own an additional ten percent. And all governments are on a binge to purchase, or gain control over even more land. This new crowd in Washington wrapped more than 150 separate land bills into a single "Omnibus" bill that added millions of acres to the government inventory.
Even this is not enough. HR980 — The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act — will take another 15 million acres of public land out of public use in order to expand "wilderness corridors." This wilderness corridor concept arises from the Wildlands Project and is specified in the Convention on Biological Diversity — which the Senate has not yet ratified.
The government is rapidly expanding control over every facet of life. Government control over the use of energy is on the horizon, as is government control over access to health care.
It matters not that the perpetrators of these attacks on freedom may sincerely believe that government is a better manager of society than are free people in pursuit of personal happiness. History has proven time and time again that government management of society enslaves people as it empowers government. They who devise these new schemes for expanded government control may not realize it, or they may not care, but they are strangling freedom from the society they seek to protect.
Freedom, with all its injustice, is far superior to enslavement by any government.
© Henry Lamb
The views expressed by RenewAmerica columnists are their own and do not necessarily reflect the position of RenewAmerica or its affiliates.
(See RenewAmerica's publishing standards.)
