The government siezes your land in order to give it tos someone else. When you attempt to fight the siezure and lose, the government charges you back-rent for the years you were living on “their” land. Sound like a story straight out of some third world tin-pot dictatorship? It’s Connecticut, USA – backed up by the decision of the US Supreme Court.
Oh, but us libertarians are crazy paranoiacs for fearing government.
And since I had to spell it out in previous discussions of the topic – this is not all a result of Bushitlers Amerikka. The relevant SCOTUS decision was opposed by two of the court’s staunchest conservatives, and supported by all of it’s Democrats. I’m not trying to make a partisan point here; Bush and co. have their own abuses to answer for. Just trying to head off the inevitable knee-jerk comments.
I fully hope and expect to live in peace to the end of my days, never haveing had to take up arms to protect myself from our government. But if the revolution does come in our lifetime, don’t fucking whine about how you didn’t see it coming.
un fucking believable
what is left *other* than picking up arms to defend your property?
my interest in assault weapons is growing once again…
The libertarians I was hanging out with in NH sincerely believe that every household *should* have a battle rifle.
Only comment I might make…
Is that if I’m not mistaken.. thisland seizure was not done by the Feds… but was rather done by the local city government officials…
Most Libertarians tend to bitch about the “Massive Federal Bureaucracy” and to tout the grandness of giving power back to locally elected officials..
but isn’t this an example of those local officals screwing over the residents?
Of course.. I personally think that this is a really shitty deal–both the abuse of the eminent domain clause to take privately owned land and “sell/give” it to other private groups… and the fucking icing on the cake of back charging rent to the people fighting the case.. This is all horseshit so far as I’m concerned.. but I don’t think this is the typical case of the evil powerful feds abusing private citizens.. rather.. it’s evil local government…
Re: Only comment I might make…
1) Gub’mint’s gub’mint. True, we tend to lean federalist on a lot of issues; but an abuse of rights is an abuse of rights, no matter who instigates it.
2) I’m on record as saying this is one of the rare occasions where I think the Fed should have stepped up to the plate. If they can’t even protect people’s most basic rights to property, what purpose do they serve? however,
3) I’m less in favor of “giving power back to local officials” than I am of taking power away from officials, be they local, state, or federal. And finally,
4) Every year I lean more and more towards pure anarchism, partly because of stories like this…
Re: Only comment I might make…
I was about to say “you sound a little more anarchist than libertarian”… but then I read #4.
/me shuts my mouth.
Re: Only comment I might make…
I waffle between a typical libertarian minarchist and an anarcho-capitalist. I still think a nonprivate court system might be a good idea. Other than that I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that I am bothered by the idea of getting rid of. Most libertarians cite national defense as a legit purpose for government; but (especially considering recent performance) I think it’s entirely possible insurance companies would do a better job at a fraction of the price.
2 cents from the anarchist
“Today’s Reason to Hate Your Government”
“libertarians are crazy paranoiacs for fearing government”
“if the revolution does come in our lifetime”
*Sigh*
There was once a democratic federal republic here. It served as an inspiration for the rest of the world to throw off the chains of oppressive monarchies and build free states where all people had at least some freedom.
That republic has died. We, for several generations, have failed to keep it in order and now we pay the price.
There is nothing here to hate but our own failures.
There is nothing here to fear but our lack of action.
Nothing will happen in our lifetime unless we make it happen.
I’m as guilty as the rest. All I want is to enjoy life and make my family happy. Confrontation and violence were not on my ‘to do’ list.
When life gives you lemons, make lemonade.
When life gives you self-righteous, power hungry, greedy control freaks and spineless or corrupt civil servants…
It’s time to get ugly.
BTW…
I’ve noticed a huge increase in low flying planes and helicopters over my property this summer. I see them several times each day and even more frequently at night.
Don’t give me the tinfoil hat business either. One is med-flight…most are private or unmarked…some are clearly military.
Re: 2 cents from the anarchist
You’re not going to get tinfoil-hat comments from me. You don’t seem like a nutcase, at least not from what I’ve seen.
I agree that in a sense it’s our fault; but from another perspective I think it may have been inevitable. Democracy isn’t perfect, and I think we’re seeing an illustration of it’s primary failure mode here. Mobocracy will eventually evolve into tyranny as people become complacent.
Which is why I can respect your position as an anarchist. At least you’re not saying “let’s do it over, and this time we’ll get it right!”
I never knew you were a libertarian. I have quite a bit of respect for my libertarian friends. Most of the Republican friends that I have that I respect their political beliefs (or respect most of them… I still don’t think we’ll ever agree on the war) are actually closer to libertarian.
Heh… it took you this long to notice? Here I thought I was being pretty “out” about it lately… but then again, I know you’ve probably been too busy lately to read LJ much.
Suffice to say, I just came home from spending a week in New Hampshire with a bunch of crazy gun-toting libertarians, and I’m seriously considering moving there as part of the Free State Project 🙂