The Patriot Post - Alexander's Essay 4-18-2013

________________________________________
The Patriot Post - Alexander's Essay 4-18-2013
From The Federalist Patriot
Free Email Subscription
________________________________________

Patriots' Day 2013 -- Liberty in the Balance
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

By Mark Alexander

April 18, 2013

"Very many and very meritorious were the worthy patriots who assisted in bringing back our government to its republican tack. To preserve it in that, will require unremitting vigilance." --Thomas Jefferson (1822)

Patriots' Day (April 19th), though not widely celebrated, commemorates the substance of the eternal fight for Liberty as "endowed by our Creator." More than just the anniversary of the Battles of Lexington and Concord1, Patriots' Day embodies the spirit of the first American Revolution and the original Sons of Liberty2.

This week in which we observe with reverence the sacrifices of our Founding Fathers and successive generations of American Patriots3 who defended Essential Liberty4, there was notable news of the good, the bad and the very ugly.

First, the good news: Guns

"... The right of the People to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." --Second Amendment to the United States Constitution

 On Wednesday, the Democrat-controlled Senate failed to advance Barack Obama's5 prized "sensible gun control measure6" to expand background checks for gun transfers -- legislation which ranked second only to ObamaCare in his list of policy priorities. Senate Democrats then blocked a vote on Obama's so-called "assault weapons7" ban and a ban on high-capacity magazines, effectively tabling those measures for "more opportune timing."

Responding to the vote, Obama declared, "The gun lobby and its allies willfully lied about the bill [claiming it would create] some sort of Big Brother gun registry. It came down to politics. All in all, today was a pretty shameful day for Washington."

As for "lies," the BIG lie in the so-called "gun loophole" legislation is that none of the sociopaths in any of the mass murders that Obama shamelessly exploits acquired the weapons they used through any loophole.

Regarding "Big Brother," if you believe that the central government does not maintain a database of the background checks now required for gun purchases, then you're a candidate for our Non Compos Mentis award. That database may not exist as one complete record, but I can assure you that a master list of all background checks for gun purchases in recent decades can be reconstituted from its component parts maintained on government servers.

And "shameful politics"? That more aptly describes the way Obama has paraded around like political puppets the grieving parents of murdered children8, and used the caskets of those children9 as a political soapbox. Using that heart-wrenching grief to stir the sentiments of the nation in hopes of passing statist gun control measures is beyond disgraceful. In truth, this "shameful politics" is simply the "new politic norm" of the Hope-and-Change president.

Notably, Obama added, "I see this as just round one. The fight is not over."

In other words, he and his NeoCom cadres10 await the next opportunity to politicize a mass murder, take the ready-to-go Senate legislation off the shelf and pass it before raw public emotions once again give way to reason.

For the record, the results of the most comprehensive gun control legislation survey of American law enforcement officers ever conducted were released last week. When Obama embarks on one of his gun-grabbing tours, he usually surrounds himself with uniformed officers -- "prop cops" as we in our humble shop call them -- for his press remarks. (And when he isn't using prop cops, he's using prop children as "human shields" for this same purpose.) This is notable, because more than 95 percent11 of law enforcement officers believe that Obama's weapons ban will have NO impact on crime reduction.

Not only do the vast majority of law enforcement officers reject Obama's gun control mandates, but apparently, despite months of heavy lobbying by Obama, only four percent of Americans12 actually believe that guns are the most important problem facing our nation.

Many more Americans rank the economy, unemployment, dissatisfaction with government and the federal budget debt as top priorities. Obama's policies have, of course, failed miserably in each of those concerns, so it's no surprise that he attempts to change the subject.

Now for the bad news: Taxes

"An unlimited power to tax involves, necessarily, a power to destroy; because there is a limit beyond which no institution and no property can bear taxation." --Justice John Marshall (1819)

Monday, April 15th, was Income Redistribution Day. This week sadly marked the 100th anniversary of the advent of the income tax, signed into law as the Revenue Act of 1913 by Woodrow Wilson, a statist forerunner of Obama. From a small populist tax on the original "One Percenters," now every American is burdened with the cost of taxation to the tune of $2.7 trillion this year alone.

The income tax was passed as a "temporary" measure, with the highest marginal rate of seven percent and the 1040 form was one page. The current tax code has almost 74,000 pages, the instruction for the 1040 alone has 190 pages and the top marginal tax rate is 39.6 percent.

With national debt approaching $17 trillion, Obama's current budget calls for additional income redistribution, while making no budget cuts in spending.

As Voltaire wrote in 1770, "In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other."

Today, April 18th, is Tax Freedom Day. For the average American taxpayer, every dollar earned from January 1 until today -- 108 days of work -- will be confiscated by the government in the form of taxes.

Not only is "an unlimited power to tax, necessarily, a power to destroy," but the power to tax is also the only real power of the state13. The only way to diminish that power is to institute either a flat or national sales tax, or a combination thereof, and eliminate any tax withholding. When all Americans share in the burden of taxation, especially if they must actually write a check to the IRS once a year and see what's really taken from them, then the congressional big spenders will be history.

In the inimitable words of Mark Twain, "The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin."

And finally, the ugliest news: Boston Bombs

"They who can give up essential Liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither Liberty nor safety." --Benjamin Franklin

Patriots' Day is celebrated in Massachusetts on the third Monday of April, and it always coincides with the running of the famed Boston Marathon.

The detonation of two bombs near the Marathon's finish line took the life of two American citizens and a Chinese student. The blasts also critically wounded more than two dozen others, and wounded approximately 150 more spectators. This deadly assault on our citizenry, this Second Boston Massacre, reminds us that life is both precious and fragile, and that Liberty is always the target of barbarians, be they domestic anarchists or foreign fanatics.

Tuesday Obama finally declared the incident a "terrorist attack," something that was evident to the rest of the nation when the first videos were released Monday.

The FBI is leading the investigation to determine who detonated those bombs, but at present it is not known whether they were homegrown anarchists of some political stripe or Jihadists. An FBI circular I received in 2010, after the Times Square bombing was thwarted and an Islamic jihadist arrested, detailed similar pressure cooker bombs. And pressure cookers have often been used to construct anti-personnel IEDs in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, anyone with Internet access and a well full of hate can construct and detonate such a device. Given the potential of these devices, I am thankful that the number of casualties in Boston was not much higher.