On 03-14-13, BOB KLAHN said to MATT MUNSON:   
      
   BK>Please do not po   
      
      
   MM>>Was Rand Paul wasting his time, or did he have some claim to his argument   
   MM>>about the domestic use of drones?   
      
      
   In fact, we are moving closer and closer to Orwell's `Big Brother' notion of   
   government is all, and the individual is nothing.   
      
      
   For many decades we've been having more and more of our freedoms and   
   individual rights chipped away from us. And the liberals go on with the `we   
   just need this one law' mantra to close the grip of government control over us   
   tighter and tighter.   
      
      
   And now a strong offensive against our 2nd Amendment rights is under way.   
   Along with a lot of other rights as well.   
      
      
   Give this a read:   
      
      
   Sooner Or Later Progressives Will Get Around To You - Derek Hunter   
      
      
   First, they came for the smokers.   
      
      
   No one would argue smoking is good for you. But it's legal; growing tobacco is   
   even subsidized by the government. Yet, when governments started limiting the   
   right of people to smoke in places public and private, non-smokers did   
   nothing.   
      
      
   They didn't like smoke; they'd heard second-hand smoke was dangerous. Why   
   should they allow owners of private establishments to choose whether those   
   establishments allowed people to engage in a legal - in fact, subsidized --   
   activity?   
      
      
   Then, they came to "clean up" the healthcare mess. They would take the sick   
   and poor off our hands. We would no longer have to join together as a   
   community to provide for those who can't provide for themselves; dear,   
   benevolent government would do this for us. First, with Medicare for the old.   
      
   Then, with Medicaid for the poor. Then, the definition of poor would expand -   
   and expand - and expand... and nobody would speak up because who wants to come   
   out against the old, the sick and the poor?   
      
      
   And then it wasn't just the poor. It also was the uninsured. Some were   
   uninsured because they were unemployed. Others because their income level   
   didn't permit them to buy health insurance. Can't be for allowing them to just   
   hang there. No convincing evidence they were dying in the streets or were   
   significantly underserved by the healthcare system regardless of their health   
   insurance status. And plenty had the money to buy health insurance and chose   
   not to.   
      
      
   But hey, when you're a Progressive, and you've tried for a half-century to   
   take over health care, who are you to let minor details such as this stand in   
   the way? And when you get your chance - so much disaffection with a   
   spendthrift Republican president that Democrats could grab control of both   
   houses of Congress and both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, you grab that chance   
   and you pass the most sweeping Progressive legislation since the New Deal -   
   Obamacare.   
      
      
   And when the rest of us find we can't afford our health insurance because of   
   all the new requirements placed on it by our Progressive friends and their   
   enlightened legislation, nobody can do much more than complain. Who defends   
   greedy insurance companies? Who defends faceless corporations when costs   
   finally reach the point where they drop their plans, forcing their employers   
   into the Obamacare system where Progressives have wanted them all along, or   
   even drop their employees?   
      
      
   The secret is the impact is felt gradually. It's like a boa constrictor. By   
   the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late.   
      
      
   Now, they come for our guns. It's for our own good. Otherwise, we'll have more   
   school shootings, such as the terrible incident in Connecticut. Never mind the   
   guns used that day were stolen. We hear about the need Newtown illustrates to   
   limit weapons and ammunition clips that can fire several rounds per minute. We   
   are never reminded the killer at Newtown shot 24 people in 22 minutes. Speed   
   or power of the weapon was not an issue. One person somewhere in that school   
   with a weapon would've saved many lives.   
      
      
   But most of us don't think of those details, and we don't own guns -   
   particularly the geniuses in Washington who make these decisions. So we don't   
   complain sufficiently, and the Progressive agenda advances.   
      
      
   They also have come for the rich people. I'm not rich; what do I care if the   
   rich get taxed a little more? Never mind that I might like to be rich one day   
   or that almost certainly a rich person pays my salary. Never mind what it   
   might mean to him paying salaries that his taxes keep going up. He is   
   indefensible.   
      
      
   He's taken more than his fair share. Tax him. And tax him some more. And when   
   that's not enough, tax the rest of us - but do it in a way we don't really see   
   it. Not income taxes. Payroll taxes. They're gone before we even get our   
   checks.   
      
      
   If there's one thing progressives love it's a power grab in the name of "doing   
   good," and the "good" they most often wrap themselves in is "for the   
   children."   
      
      
   When they eventually discover the "good"� they sought to accomplish by quashing   
   a little piece of our personal liberty did not come to pass, they never   
   reverse course and retract their government intrusion. Instead, they offer a   
   solution that seizes a little bit more. It's a never-ending cycle of self-   
   fulfilling prophecies, a Yellow Brick Road that leads to an Emerald Prison of   
   mini-tyrannies populated by a disconnected people who stood by doing nothing   
   because the power government was exerting did not affect them.   
      
      
   But sooner or later government will run out of other people to tax, other   
   things to ban, other choices to regulate and, like a caged tiger, it will turn   
   on the hand that feeds it. It's its nature.   
      
      
   New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg doesn't want his people to be fat. So he   
   tried to ban "sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces"� but was rebuffed by a   
   court, at least temporarily. Progressives do not quit, or get deterred, when   
   voters reject their ideas, what chance does a court have?   
      
      
   He's now going after Styrofoam containers to leave a "better"� planet for the   
   children. This will lead to higher costs to restaurants, which will lead to   
   higher prices for customers. Customers will ignore it or blame the   
   restaurants.   
      
      
   There's always another kabuki dance.   
      
      
   What do the non-rich care if taxes were raised on people who were not them?   
      
   What do those with health insurance care if government enacts a requirement   
   that everyone who doesn't have it buy health insurance?   
      
      
   Tyranny seldom comes all at once, it comes slowing, incrementally, in small   
   doses cloaked as something else, something good. Each thread appears innocuous   
   and unimportant but is part of a tapestry rarely recognized as what it is   
   until too late.   
      
      
   You may not care about any of the targets progressives are pursuing now or in   
   the near future, but they will run out of things you don't care about before   
   they run out of will to control. Sooner or later they will come after   
   something you like or do. If you sit by do nothing as the individual liberty   
   of others is continually limited, you'd better hope there are enough people   
   left able and willing to speak up when they get around to you.   
      
      
      
      
      
      
   ---   
   *Durango b301 #PE*    
    * Origin: Fidonet Since 1991 Join Us: www.DocsPlace.org (1:123/140)