March 10, 2009
Quote of the Day
The greatest tyranny has the smallest beginnings. From precedents overlooked, from remonstrances despised, from grievances treated with ridicule, from powerless men oppressed with impunity, and overbearing men tolerated with complaisance, springs the tyrannical usage which generations of wise and good men may hereafter perceive and lament and resist in vain.Posted by John Kranz at March 10, 2009 12:39 PMAt present, common minds no more see a crushing tyranny in a trivial unfairness or a ludicrous indignity, than the eye uninformed by reason can discern the oak in the acorn, or the utter desolation of winter in the first autumnal fall. Hence the necessity of denouncing with unwearied and even troublesome perseverance a single act of oppression. Let it alone, and it stands on record. The country has allowed it, and when it is at last provoked to a late indignation it finds itself gagged with the record of its own ill compliance. -- from the Times of London, Aug. 11, 1846.Hat-tip: WSJ
Brilliant!
Now, in contemporary terms, "When good men permit the theft of small portions of private property by government under color of law they have little recourse when, at the taker's sole discretion, that theft is rapidly enlarged."
This train of thought naturally stopped first at the 16th Amendment. A 'google' of "16th amendment controversy" took me to the ongoing effort of one Paul Andrew Mitchell, Private Attorney General residing in San Diego, CA, to end the IRS on the grounds that the 16th Amendment was never ratified.
(I might never have taken such a notion seriously absent the spectacle that is Global Warming/Climate Change theory cum government coercion.)
AlexC may yet get his "Tea Party!"
Supreme Law update highlights here.
Posted by: johngalt at March 10, 2009 4:06 PM | What do you think? [1]