Lens of Liberty

Two late night videos:

A pastor and his wife have been notified by San Diego county officials that they need a permit to hold a prayer meeting in their home.

“The county asked, ‘Do you have a regular meeting in your home?’ She said, ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you say amen?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you pray?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Do you say praise the Lord?’ ‘Yes.’”

The county employee notified the couple that the small Bible study, with an average of 15 people attending, was in violation of County regulations, according to Broyles.

This is one of those stories that leave me thinking that there must be something else going on. Could any bureaucrat  have the temerity to so blatantly violate the 1st Amendment?

CWCD: Minnesota Chris on Twitter (read his blog here)

-It simply does not matter which political party happens to be in control, government can be relied on to do only one thing well, relieve you of your liberty. Politicians have become skilled at selling you on the idea that they can provide you with that which you lack and most fail to notice that any largesse provided is at the price of our freedom. The price is too high.

-The Republican party, if their campaigns are to be any indication, believes that lower taxes should be the focus of economic policy. It’s not surprising that they continued to be successfully portrayed as the party of the wealthy. Since those at the top pay the overwhelming portion of taxes they will see the most immediate benefit from lower taxes. What the GOP needs to learn is that lower taxes are not the definition of, but the result of good policy. A government properly limited to its constitutional role would not need to confiscate nearly one third of all the wealth produced in the country.

Liberty Papers has posted a timely explanation of what causes inflation and how it affects you. This is the issue, above all others, because it is the ability to inflate that gives Washington it’s power. Americans have learned to accept deficit spending and inflation as facts of life, but are oblivious to the insidiousness of debasing the currency for political gain. We’ve had hysterical media coverage and congressional hearings about credit card fees and fifty cents a gallon more at the pump, but until Ron Paul’s presidential campaign monetary policy rarely registered on the political radar. This message is not going to be delivered through mainstream media outlets, so explanations of the problem and it’s ramifications are crucial to awakening the American public to the fraud being perpetrated on them.

Another great bit of satire from Reason.tv:

Your wireless router, even a cordless phone or baby monitor gives the FCC the right to enter your home without a warrant to inspect the device. Wired.com reports on several cases of warrant less “inspections” by the FCC of suspected pirate radio broadcasters. But according to the FCC it doesn’t end there:

“Anything using RF energy — we have the right to inspect it to make sure it is not causing interference,” says FCC spokesman David Fiske. That includes devices like Wi-Fi routers that use unlicensed spectrum, Fiske says.

Lew Rockwell of the Mises Institute commented on Freedom Watch this week that the Federal Reserve is “the central institution of evil” and that is certainly true, but it is not the only one. The very existence of the FCC is an inherent threat to the first amendment and apparently the fourth amendment as well. Even if, and I don’t, you grant the notion that the FCC is needed to manage competing claims to radio frequencies, it is impossible to defend giving the commission this sort of unconstitutional power.

CWCD: Freedom Bunker

The crew from Motorhome Diaries stopped at the Branch Davidian compound where a 51 day siege by the federal government ended in with death of 76 people in 1993. It is a sober reminder of the power our government has over us.

If you aren’t familiar with Motorhome Diaries, please take the time to go to their site and see what they’re doing.

Gene Healy writes in an article posted at Cato:

Whatever you think the right policy is regarding enemy combatants, warrantless wiretapping, and “enhanced interrogation,” the differences between Obama and Bush are far more stylistic than substantive.

He then compares the policies of the two administration regarding the “war on terror” and shows that “change we can believe in” was a great campaign slogan and that’s about all.

The attacks against John McCain during the campaign was that his would be a third Bush term. I wonder how many Obama voters have noticed that, in many ways, that’s what we’ve gotten with their guy. Since his inauguration we’ve seen continued reckless spending, plans to push the governments tentacles further into health care, and most of all foreign policy which is nearly indistinguishable from George W. Bush.

Now here’s an elected official you can be proud of.

Soy un perdedor, baby

No matter where you come down on gay marriage, please read Jerry Salcido’s article at Campaign for Liberty The Separation of Marriage and State.

The article is a spot on explanation of why it’s imperative to  resist the temptation to use the government to advance your agenda, whatever it may be. In the end, you only cede more power to the State.

Gotta love this line:

Thus, to the advocates and opponents of Proposition 8 alike, the deb8 on Prop 8 is not about h8, choosing your m8, determining your f8, or whether it has come too l8, but whether we should give in to its b8 to infl8 the control of the st8.