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Friday, July 20, 2012
Register Today, MHPC Luncheon: Celebrating Friedman Legacy Freedom Day
Too Much Truth For You? WND Exclusive: Hillary aide tied to al-Qaida front
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"Farewell America , the World will really miss you!" By: Lou Pritchett
Am e r i c a n P o s t - G a z e t t e
Distributed by C O M M O N S E N S E , in Arizona
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Lou Pritchett is one of corporate America 's true living legends --- He
is a former P & G executive, an acclaimed author, a dynamic teacher, and one
of the world's most highly rated speakers.
You may remember a previous letter he wrote in 2009 to President Obama
and the New York Times which went viral.
********************************** ***********
From a speech given by Lou Pritchett April 15, 2012:
"I was born in year two of the Great Depression (1931) and spent the first
10 years of my life influenced by the extreme hardships of the
depression. By today's standards my family was about a mile below today's so called
'poverty level'; but if you never 'had'---doing without was not so 'bad'.
Borrowing shoes to graduate from the 8th grade didn't seem at all demeaning
because most of the 8th graders did the same thing.
In June 1944, my only brother, Joe, was killed in action on Utah Beach in
Normandy , France during the D-Day landings. Exactly one year later, my
father died and left me, my mother and my sister to go it alone. and alone
we went. My mother went to work at a department store, my sister dropped out
of school and joined her and I went to work shining shoes on the streets
of Memphis for a dime a shine.
Government assistance was not available and if it were I am confident my
mother would have refused it because she never wanted the government
involved in our lives.
I mention this bit of personal history to help you understand that
millions of Americans, including your parents and grandparents, grew up like me
during the Great Depression and never expected nor wanted the government to
offer them anything other than an Opportunity , and now to see what Obama
is trying to do to our country tends to make you crazy. As some of you
know, my "Scare Me" letter went viral with millions of hits on the internet
during the past 3 years. I have now written a follow-up letter which I will
now share with you. It will be released to the press.
********************************** **************
To the editors:
"In April 2009, I sent President Obama and the New York Times a letter
titled "You Scare Me" because, as a candidate, he promised to "fundamentally
transform America ." Now, after observing his performance for over three
years, he no longer scares me--- he terrifies me for the following reasons:
FIRST He has done more to damage America 's standing in the world, to
lower the standard of living in America , to impoverish future generations and
to shake our faith in the country's future than any other American
president in history.
SECOND-- With a compliant Democrat congress, a lapdog media and a weak,
almost nonexistent Republican opposition, he has shattered the American
dream of job security, home ownership and rugged individualism for millions of
Americans and has poisoned and divided our civil society with his
politics of envy, class warfare, race warfare, and religious warfare which he is
using as fundamental building blocks for his 'socialist' agenda.
THIRD culturally, he remains totally out of touch traditional American
values. This has absolutely nothing to do with race or where he was born,
rather it has everything to do with where, how and with whom he was raised,
schooled, educated, trained and associates with still today.
FOURTH-- he has surrounded himself with naive academicians, lawyers,
politicians, bureaucrats and socialist leaning czars who arrogantly think and
behave exactly as he does. People who offer no balanced suggestions or
devil's advocate positions and think in lock step with him that big government
is the answer to all our problems.
FIFTH-- he not only encourages but aids and abets the unionization of all
American industry, the albatross around the neck of the free market. In
turn, they provide the money and muscle to intimidate his opponents.
SIXTH-- he has increased the national debt by over 30% in just three
years. If re-elected and this rate of increase continues, America will be
burdened with an unsustainable 20 trillion dollar debt which will result in the
Country's financial death. Recovery will be impossible--------- America
will be the Greece of 2016.
SEVENTH-- given his fanatical beholding to the 'environmental' and
'man-caused global warming' fringe, he has deliberately discouraged U.S. fossil
fuel exploration and production while wasting millions of tax payer dollars
on solar, wind and algae experiments. He refuses to accept that oil, gas
and coal are not America 's enemies, they are America 's assets, which,
properly managed, could make us energy independent within a generation.
EIGHTH-- He views the U.S. as a power in retreat which abused its World
dominance. Therefore he systematically apologizes round the world. Last
March he whispered to Russian President Medvedev "--this is my last election.
After my election, I have more flexibility". Just what is the secret that
Obama and Putin are concealing from the American people until after the
election? With what other leaders has he made similar secret agreements?
NINTH---and finally, after all his mis-steps, bad decision making, poor
management, and zero leadership, the fact that he has the audacity to seek
re-election should terrify every American.
I predict that if re-elected, future historians and political
interpreters will look back at the eight year period 2008-2016, and conclude "the 44th
President of the U.S. allowed the takers to overpower the payers which
resulted in the greatest economy in history vanishing from the face of the
Earth".
Farewell America , the World will really miss you!"
Lou Pritchett April 15, 2012
It is my hope and prayer that this letter will also go viral and serve as
a 'wake up' call to Americans of all political leaning, convincing them
that never before in U.S. history has so much depended on Americans
understanding that we are facing one of the greatest crises in U.S. history.
Convincing them that this election will be won not by letters to the editor,
political speeches or radio and TV sound bites.
No! it will be won by those with a conviction, with a belief and with a
willingness to pay the price in helping put the most enlightened voters in
the polling booth on November 6.
Let me end on my favorite quote which I think is very appropriate for each
of us today---
"TO EVERY MAN
There comes in his lifetime that special moment when he is physically
tapped on the shoulder and offered the chance to do a very special thing,
unique to him and fitted to his talent; what a tragedy if that moment finds him
unprepared or unqualified for the work which would be his finest hour."
Those words spoken by Winston Churchill over 70 years ago are very
appropriate today.
For if each of us is prepared and is qualified then November 6, 2012, just
might be our and our Country's finest hour as we reclaim this "shining
city on the hill" from the ravages of Obama Socialism.
IT IS NOW OR NEVER FELLOW PATRIOTS-- I would add "God help us not to
Fail"!
Lou Pritchett
Soros' Sorrow: WND Exclusive: White House 'idea factory' attacks websites you read
Why is a liberal activist group – linked to the White House and funded by George Soros – so miffed at the Drudge Report?
After all, Drudge doesn't do much reporting – he mostly just posts links to stories on other sites.
Ahhh. That's the problem ... and here's why it "represents a real threat to their interests."
Read the latest now on WND.com.
We Erred, Obama Is Right, The Government Helped Illegal Aliens Get Pilots Licenses: BrassCheckTV: TSA approved flight lessons for illegal aliens ( 9/11, flight school, flight training, illegal aliens, Transportation Security Administration, TSA)
Does anyone understand the magnitude of destruction that OUR Government is doing to US?
Most likely not cause you don't even comprehend the destruction in your own local Lisbon Government.
And now we have another misdirected youth (24 year old James Holmes) going wild with firearms and killing at least a dozen in Colorado.
We pray for the victims and their families.
God Bless US All
Lisbon,
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA)
approved flight training for 25 illegal aliens at a
flight school OWNED by yet another illegal alien.
YOU, however, need to be groped and humiliated
just to get on a plane as a passenger.
Video:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/11497.html
Goodman Green
- Brasscheck
Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation Security delivers an opening statement at a Subcommittee Hearing entitled: "A Decade After 9/11 Could American Flight Schools Still Unknowingly Be Training Terrorists?"
TSA approved flight training
for 25 illegal aliens
for 25 illegal aliens
TSA Let 25 Illegal Aliens Attend Flight School Owned by Illegal Alien
By Edwin Mora
CNSNews.comThe Transportation Security Administration (TSA) approved flight training for 25 illegal aliens at a Boston-area flight school that was owned by yet another illegal alien, according to the Government Accountability Office.
The illegal-alien flight-school attendees included eight who had entered the country illegally and 17 who had overstayed their allowed period of admission into the United States, according to an audit by the GAO.
Six of the illegal aliens were actually able to get pilot's licenses.
Discovery of the trouble at the flight school began when local police--not federal authorities--pulled over the owner of the school on a traffic violation and were able to determine that he was an illegal alien.
Continue reading here:
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/tsa-let-25-illegal-aliens-attend-flight-school-owned-illegal-alien
For more TSA nonsense and abuse: videos, click here
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Lisbon Fireworks Workshop July 17, 2012
FIREWORK WORKSHOP – JULY 17TH
Last Tuesday night, the town council coupled with the Community Policing Advisory Group tried to find a workable solution to the new fireworks law created by the Maine Legislature. The Maine Legislature created a monster situation for each municipality to deal with without proper guidance or funding.
The new fireworks law includes items snappers, sparklers, and Morning Glories. Snappers, sparklers and Morning Glories have always been considered “Novelty Fireworks” and have been legal in the state of Maine for as long as I can remember. One of my fondest memories growing up is sitting on a blanket in Freeport with my parents, brothers and sisters watching the fireworks. My parents would light sparklers and we all would twirl them in the air. I played with snappers all my life and I never hear of anyone ever being hurt or killed from snappers.
Now, because some politicians voted to approve the new fireworks law, apparently without reading or paying attention to the language, municipalities are trying to find a way to abide by this law. Keep in mind, Dale Crafts and Garrett Mason both voted for this new fireworks law.
According to Chief Brooks, the State Attorney General has made an exception to the new law to allow small retailer to sell sparklers and Morning Glories. Snappers are still illegal in the state of Maine and the State Attorney General has not made an exception for them. According to this new law, everyone who uses fireworks MUST be 21 years old. Can you imagine a 21 year old utilizing snappers?
Now we come to Lisbon and how does the community deal with this new fireworks law? This is a nightmare for the town council to deal with and totally unenforceable by Lisbon Police Department. To add to the problem, Chief Brooks informed the workshop that he did not believe any court would hear minor violations of the law. Chief Brooks did say if someone continued to violate the law after being educated about the law; they would be cited.
The Fire Chief pointed out the fact the buildings are too close together in the downtown, village and housing area to shoot off fireworks. This is a simple safety issue putting people’s residences at risk. It is simply a matter of time before a house catches on fire from a runaway fireworks. According to Chief Brooks fireworks that fly are illegal according to the new law.
We still have not gotten into where and when you can utilize legal fireworks. The law says you can shoot fireworks from 09:00 A. M. until 10:00P.M. People on third shift will never get a chance to sleep.
I personally believe 09:00 A.M. is totally ridiculous and should be adjusted until 6:00P.M. Four hours of fireworks is sufficient for any given day. I do not believe fireworks should be totally banned in Lisbon because responsible individuals who abide by the law and respect their neighbors should be allowed the right to enjoy fireworks. We have a few and always will have individuals who cannot be responsible and respectful and these few individuals should be punished. I believe if the police concentrate on these few; we can make this new law work. Of course, our Legislators have to take a closer look at the new law and make it enforceable and enjoyable for the people of Maine. Kids should be allowed to utilize snappers, sparklers and Morning Glories with ADULT SUPERVISION.
Since our neighboring towns have prohibited the sale of fireworks, I personally believe Lisbon should ban the sale of fireworks. Citizens of Lisbon need to be good neighbors and act responsible. Once the Legislature has ironed out all the bugs in the new law and we have educated the people, then it would be a good time to reconsider the sale of fireworks in Lisbon but not before.
This article may sound more like my opinion than what took place at the workshop but trust me there was a great deal of discussion on fireworks. Both the town council and the Community Policing Advisory Group are split on this issue. I have provided, what I consider, the important information put out during the workshop.
Larry Fillmore
Concerned Citizen
Last Tuesday night, the town council coupled with the Community Policing Advisory Group tried to find a workable solution to the new fireworks law created by the Maine Legislature. The Maine Legislature created a monster situation for each municipality to deal with without proper guidance or funding.
The new fireworks law includes items snappers, sparklers, and Morning Glories. Snappers, sparklers and Morning Glories have always been considered “Novelty Fireworks” and have been legal in the state of Maine for as long as I can remember. One of my fondest memories growing up is sitting on a blanket in Freeport with my parents, brothers and sisters watching the fireworks. My parents would light sparklers and we all would twirl them in the air. I played with snappers all my life and I never hear of anyone ever being hurt or killed from snappers.
Now, because some politicians voted to approve the new fireworks law, apparently without reading or paying attention to the language, municipalities are trying to find a way to abide by this law. Keep in mind, Dale Crafts and Garrett Mason both voted for this new fireworks law.
Garrett Mason
Dale Crafts
According to Chief Brooks, the State Attorney General has made an exception to the new law to allow small retailer to sell sparklers and Morning Glories. Snappers are still illegal in the state of Maine and the State Attorney General has not made an exception for them. According to this new law, everyone who uses fireworks MUST be 21 years old. Can you imagine a 21 year old utilizing snappers?
Now we come to Lisbon and how does the community deal with this new fireworks law? This is a nightmare for the town council to deal with and totally unenforceable by Lisbon Police Department. To add to the problem, Chief Brooks informed the workshop that he did not believe any court would hear minor violations of the law. Chief Brooks did say if someone continued to violate the law after being educated about the law; they would be cited.
Photo by: Sam T. Used under fair use act.
Lisbon Fire Chief "Superman" Sean Galipeau
The Fire Chief pointed out the fact the buildings are too close together in the downtown, village and housing area to shoot off fireworks. This is a simple safety issue putting people’s residences at risk. It is simply a matter of time before a house catches on fire from a runaway fireworks. According to Chief Brooks fireworks that fly are illegal according to the new law.
We still have not gotten into where and when you can utilize legal fireworks. The law says you can shoot fireworks from 09:00 A. M. until 10:00P.M. People on third shift will never get a chance to sleep.
I personally believe 09:00 A.M. is totally ridiculous and should be adjusted until 6:00P.M. Four hours of fireworks is sufficient for any given day. I do not believe fireworks should be totally banned in Lisbon because responsible individuals who abide by the law and respect their neighbors should be allowed the right to enjoy fireworks. We have a few and always will have individuals who cannot be responsible and respectful and these few individuals should be punished. I believe if the police concentrate on these few; we can make this new law work. Of course, our Legislators have to take a closer look at the new law and make it enforceable and enjoyable for the people of Maine. Kids should be allowed to utilize snappers, sparklers and Morning Glories with ADULT SUPERVISION.
Since our neighboring towns have prohibited the sale of fireworks, I personally believe Lisbon should ban the sale of fireworks. Citizens of Lisbon need to be good neighbors and act responsible. Once the Legislature has ironed out all the bugs in the new law and we have educated the people, then it would be a good time to reconsider the sale of fireworks in Lisbon but not before.
This article may sound more like my opinion than what took place at the workshop but trust me there was a great deal of discussion on fireworks. Both the town council and the Community Policing Advisory Group are split on this issue. I have provided, what I consider, the important information put out during the workshop.
Larry Fillmore
Concerned Citizen
Recap Town Council Meeting - July 17th
The meeting started out as usual, the pre-meeting where the puppets are provided guidance on what to say and do during the meeting was held in Eldridge’s office. The meeting went very smoothly and all puppets did as they were told.
One of the major issues discovered was that the town was below the recommended Charter’s Undesignated Fund of 12.5%. This question had to be asked three times before the public could get an answer. The impact of this is that the town must maintain 12.5% of the General Funds in order to protect the town. Falling below this 12.5% put the town in a vulnerable situation. Thankfully, nothing happened but the 12.5% was put into the Charter for an important reason and the town council certainly should remain within the parameters of the Charter at all times.
The town council moved and approved the following items:
Dump Body Replacement Bid for $29,500.00
Road Striping Bid for $15,554.99
Town Planner for $20,000.00
Health Officer for $10,000.00
Ballot for MMA’s Legislative Policy Committee
Amendments to the General Assistance Temporary Housing and Overall Maximums
There was a discussion about a well at 24 Davis Street which appears to be polluted by the town. The council decided there was not sufficient information to render a decision so they rescheduled this item for a workshop. The town engineer was tasked to gather additional information.
The same applied to the Upper Dam situation. Additional information was needed before the council could make a decision so they rescheduled it for a workshop.
There was a laundry list of appointments and resignations which they went through and approved.
Then they moved to Executive Session. This lasted approximately 40 minutes and when they came back they provide no information on what was discussed. The topics were Labor negotiations; Consultations with legal counsel; Consultation with code enforcement officer and town attorney on pending enforcement matters and finally Economic Development. This most significant issue here is the town never reveals what the Economic Development actually is which is not according to the statute. There are certain items which need to be discussed in private but the subject matter should never be kept from the citizens. People need to know what is going on in their town. All topics had a clear indication of what was being discussed with the exception of Economic Development. What is the big secret? What are they hiding from the people?
After the meeting the council moved to a lengthy discussion on a Fireworks Ordinance. I will cover this separately because it is very involved and is divided.
Larry Fillmore
Concerned Citizen
One of the major issues discovered was that the town was below the recommended Charter’s Undesignated Fund of 12.5%. This question had to be asked three times before the public could get an answer. The impact of this is that the town must maintain 12.5% of the General Funds in order to protect the town. Falling below this 12.5% put the town in a vulnerable situation. Thankfully, nothing happened but the 12.5% was put into the Charter for an important reason and the town council certainly should remain within the parameters of the Charter at all times.
The town council moved and approved the following items:
Dump Body Replacement Bid for $29,500.00
Road Striping Bid for $15,554.99
Town Planner for $20,000.00
Health Officer for $10,000.00
Ballot for MMA’s Legislative Policy Committee
Amendments to the General Assistance Temporary Housing and Overall Maximums
There was a discussion about a well at 24 Davis Street which appears to be polluted by the town. The council decided there was not sufficient information to render a decision so they rescheduled this item for a workshop. The town engineer was tasked to gather additional information.
The same applied to the Upper Dam situation. Additional information was needed before the council could make a decision so they rescheduled it for a workshop.
There was a laundry list of appointments and resignations which they went through and approved.
Then they moved to Executive Session. This lasted approximately 40 minutes and when they came back they provide no information on what was discussed. The topics were Labor negotiations; Consultations with legal counsel; Consultation with code enforcement officer and town attorney on pending enforcement matters and finally Economic Development. This most significant issue here is the town never reveals what the Economic Development actually is which is not according to the statute. There are certain items which need to be discussed in private but the subject matter should never be kept from the citizens. People need to know what is going on in their town. All topics had a clear indication of what was being discussed with the exception of Economic Development. What is the big secret? What are they hiding from the people?
After the meeting the council moved to a lengthy discussion on a Fireworks Ordinance. I will cover this separately because it is very involved and is divided.
Larry Fillmore
Concerned Citizen
"My Country 'tis Of Thee" :The Maine WIRE: M.D. Harmon: Obama usurps legislative, judicial authority with welfare memorandum
I guess, if I had to stand in a crowd listening to President Obama brag about what he’s done so far and what he plans to do in the next four years if he’s reelected, I might faint too.
News reports said that upwards of 20 people fainted at a speech he gave last week in hot, muggy weather in Roanoke, Va. Either the heat or the power of the president’s presence (your choice) apparently had members of the crowd toppling over like tenpins.
So, the president told his prostrate partisans that if they needed help, “the paralegals” would come to their aid.
Sure, he misspoke, and one should not make too much of a slip of the tongue, any more than when he said that people who lived in Austria spoke “Austrian,” or that there were 58 states in the union (not, as often reported, 57 — “I’ve now been in 57 states, and I think there’s one more to go,” was what he said).
Or when, while in Poland, he referred to Nazi-run death camps in German-occupied Poland as “Polish death camps,” greatly offending his audience. Or when he said “It’s good to be in Texas” when he was in Kansas. Or — oh, forget it. If Dan Quayle had said these things, he’d still be a running joke on late-night TV.
And then there’s Vice President Joe Biden, who at one speech told a man confined to a wheelchair to stand up and take a bow …. Sigh.
It’s a good thing for us that our leaders are such intelligent, accomplished people, with records of achievement that run the gamut of government service to … er, more government service.
Private sector accomplishments? Run businesses, hire people, create jobs, provide paychecks, produce useful goods? Ah, not so much. Or not at all.
In fact, actually creating jobs and establishing going concerns is, we are told continually in Democratic campaign ads, a liability for Mitt Romney, because some of the businesses he was involved in lost money or couldn’t make a go of it.
Which means, he took risks, which is the heart and soul of entrepreneurship. You only are a success if your viable efforts outnumber your stillborn ones, not that you never fail. If you don’t fail from time to time, you are not taking the kinds of risks that lead to spectacular successes.
No, what’s much more important about our president is when he speaks accurately about what he believes — although you need to keep close track and do frequent updates.
The really scary things, the ones that keep you up at night wondering if God really does keep watch over fools, drunkards and the United States of America, come when the president speaks out in all sincerity and honesty about his vision for the nation and its laws.
Here are a trio of recent examples. Recall that Obama said, while campaigning for office in 2008, that a president was not constitutionally empowered to change immigration laws by himself. But a mere four years later, by a wave of his newly empowered hand, he forbids law enforcement authorities to deport young illegal aliens who came to this country while they were still in parental custody.
Now, it’s not by itself a terrible idea: Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., himself a citizen born to legal immigrants from Cuba, suggested something similar in a recent speech. But Rubio realized that the law had to be changed to permit it.
What’s scary about Obama is that he apparently thinks that he is the law, and he can alter it at his whim, simply by ordering a change in “prosecutorial discretion” in such cases.
As a number of former prosecutors (including National Review’s Andrew McCarthy, who prosecuted the first World Trade Center bombing case in 2003) leaped from their chairs to note, that’s not what “discretion” means. It gives prosecutors leeway in individual cases to modify charges and sentencing requests, but it never has been used to apply to a whole class of people covered by a specific law.
Until now, that is.
But that’s not the only case of “l’etat, c’est moi” syndrome we’re seen on Obama’s part.
When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld part of an Arizona law allowing police officers to ask people detained for other offenses to show proof of legal U.S. residence (not by any means a “stop and frisk” measure, which is why the court upheld it), the Department of Homeland Security, under the leadership of “Big Sister” Janet Napolitano, told Arizona authorities that federal officials would no longer accept inquiries from the state regarding a immigrant’s legal status.
That led one wag to say that, in not honoring a state law upheld as constitutional by the Supreme Court, “the United States had seceded from Arizona.”
There’s more. A July 16 article by Todd Gaziano and Robert Alt on the Heritage Foundation’s website (blog.heritage.org) strongly criticized an administration ruling July 13 that allowed states to change the welfare-to-work requirements specifically laid out in the 1996 welfare reform law passed with bipartisan majorities and signed by President Bill Clinton.
They said the Department of Health and Human Services is authorized only to change the reporting requirements of the states under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) section of the law.
However, an entirely different section says that the work-to-receive-benefits part of the law cannot be waived by memorandum.
Here’s the relevant portion: “Section 415(a)(2)(B) of the welfare reform act, now codified at 42 U.S.C. § 615(a)(2)(B), expressly states that “a waiver granted under section 1315 of this title (the one that HHS now claims it is acting under) or otherwise which relates to the provision of assistance under a State program funded under this part (as in effect on September 30, 1996) shall not affect the applicability of section 607 of this title (which applies the work requirements) to the State.”
That means, they say, that “whatever else might be said of the scope of the waiver authority, the secretary has no lawful authority to waive the work requirements of section 607, which is what HHS is contemplating in its memorandum.”
So, Obama is usurping legislative authority, and to some extent judicial authority, when he does such things.
In so doing, he treats as ineffectual, and therefore essentially nonexistent, a founding principle of American society.
To see that more clearly, we can turn to the writings of John Adams, who incorporated a phrase he had often used before into the founding document of his native state.
It is in Article XXX of the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Here Adams speaks to our present dilemma, and his words are worth noting in their entirety (my italics):
“In the government of this commonwealth, the legislative department shall never exercise the executive and judicial powers, or either of them: the executive shall never exercise the legislative and judicial powers, or either of them: the judicial shall never exercise the legislative and executive powers, or either of them: to the end it may be a government of laws and not of men.”
M.D. Harmon, a retired journalist and military officer, is a free-lance writer. He can be contacted at: mdharmoncol@yahoo.com
http://www.themainewire.com/2012/07/m-d-harmon-obama-usurps-legislative-judicial-authority-welfare-memorandum/
So True For Lisbon: BrassCheckTV: Without the consent of the governed, there is no State ( Etienne de la Boetie, Larken Rose, The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude, The Tiny Dot, withdrawing consent)
Lisbon,
A friend recently recommended I read a 500 year old essay
on 'voluntary servitude'.
I did.
This video boils down and simplifies the concept.
The Politics of Obedience...
Video:
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/11466.html
Goodman Green
- Brasscheck
Corrupt states collapse when consent is withdrawn
The Politics of Obedience: The Discourse of Voluntary Servitude
by Etienne de la Boetie
A review and primer
Mises.org
States are more vulnerable than people think. They can collapse in an instant -when consent is withdrawn.
This is the thesis of this thrilling book. Murray Rothbard writes a classic introduction to one of the great political essays in the history of ideas.
In times when dictators the world over are falling from pressure from their own people, this book, written nearly 500 years ago, is truly the prophetic tract of our times.
Etienne de La Bo tie was born in Sarlat, in the Prigord region of southwest France, in 1530, to an aristocratic family, and became a dear friend of Michel de Montaigne. But he ought to be remembered for this astonishingly important essay, one of the greatest in the history of political thought. It will shake the way you think of the state. His thesis and argument amount to the best answer to Machiavelli ever penned as well as one of the seminal essays in defense of liberty.
La Bo tie's task is to investigate the nature of the state and its strange status as a tiny minority of the population that adheres to different rules from everyone else and claims the authority to rule everyone else, maintaining a monopoly on law. It strikes him as obviously implausible that such an institution has any staying power. It can be overthrown in an instant if people withdraw their consent.
He then investigates the mystery as to why people do not withdraw, given what is obvious to him that everyone would be better off without the state. This sends him on a speculative journey to investigate the power of propaganda, fear, and ideology in causing people to acquiesce in their own subjection. Is it cowardice? Perhaps. Habit and tradition. Perhaps. Perhaps it is ideological illusion and intellectual confusion.
La Bo tie goes on to make a case as to why people ought to withdraw their consent immediately. He urges all people to rise up and cast off tyranny simply by refusing to concede that the state is in charge.
The tyrant has "nothing more than the power that you confer upon him to destroy you. Where has he acquired enough eyes to spy upon you, if you do not provide them yourselves? How can he have so many arms to beat you with, if he does not borrow them from you? The feet that trample down your cities, where does he get them if they are not your own? How does he have any power over you except through you? How would he dare assail you if he had no cooperation from you?"
Then these inspiring words: "Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces."
In all these areas, the author has anticipated Jefferson and Arendt, Gandhi and Spooner, and those who overthrew Soviet tyranny. The essay has profound relevance for understanding history and all our times.
As Rothbard writes in his spectacular introduction, "La Boetie's Discourse has a vital importance for the modern reader an importance that goes beyond the sheer pleasure of reading a great and seminal work on political philosophy, or, for the libertarian, of reading the first libertarian political philosopher in the Western world. For La Bo tie speaks most sharply to the problem which all libertarians indeed, all opponents of despotism find particularly difficult: the problem of strategy. Facing the devastating and seemingly overwhelming power of the modern State, how can a free and very different world be brought about? How in the world can we get from here to there, from a world of tyranny to a world of freedom? Precisely because of his abstract and timeless methodology, La Bo tie offers vital insights into this eternal problem."
Read the essay for free or buy a copy here
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