Category: Libertarian

Finch Fuzz Say Respect My Authoritah

Finch Fuzz Say Respect My Authoritah — In the early morning two days after the Lancaster Intelligencer Journal/New Era carried a feel-good feature about how a grandmother nursed back to health a house finch found by her German shepherd and how the bird became a pet and followed her around the house singing, a Pennsylvania Game Commission Officer and three armed cops showed up at her door with a warrant.

They wanted the bird. Yes, the grandmother, Pati Mattrick, — OK, she’s a 57-year-old grandmother — had broken the law . Apparently it is illegal in this state to heal a sick bird. One must turn it over to licensed “rehabbers”.

The incident happened in May but is now starting to percolate into the rest of the state and, unfortunately, the nation. Having fools and petty tyrants in authority are never things about which one should boast.

Hopefully, the accompanying cops were restricted to just one bullet each and prohibited from keeping their service weapons loaded.

Kudos to Lancaster County District Attorney Craig Stedman who seems sincerely ticked. “At best, this case was a grossly misguided abuse of law enforcement discretion,” he told the Philadelphia Inquirer. ” At worst, it was just plain cruel.”

Earlier this month, he decreed that all game officers go through his office to obtain search warrants rather than simply via a local magistrate.

Finch Fuzz Say Respect My Authoritah

Finch Fuzz Say Respect My Authoritah

 

Race, Libertarians And Democrats

Race, Libertarians And Democrats — Rand Paul, who is the GOP senatorial nominee for Kentucky and the son of America’s most famous libertarian, said on Rachel Maddow’s MSNBC show that  business should be allowed to discriminate with regard to how they serve customers which is something prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Section II ).

While he also defended the landmark law in general terms and condemned racial discrimination he was raked over the coals by the wolves who run the establishment media for the sake of the sheep.

Here is something to ponder: throughout America’s history every ethnic group faced discrimination from those on top at the time. This is true of the Irish, the Italians, the Swedes, the Eastern Europeans (upon who was bestowed the slur “honky”,  and, in fact, if you go back far enough was the inspiration for the word “slave”), Japanese, Chinese, Cubans and even the Germans.

All of course persevered and eventually prospered in the face of the bigots in business.

So what made the black experience different? The answer is government. Laws were passed to require that restaurants and hotels and buses have separate accommodations for blacks and whites. Officers of the law ignored with impunity crimes committed against blacks, and even at times joined in their commission. Agents of the state conspired to keep blacks from exercising their votes much less their rights to speak and lobby, often by sanctioning terror.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was progress in that it ended these things, but what if it stopped short of prohibiting business owners to be bigots? Maybe blacks would end up with the same stature in small business that they enjoy in professional sports and entertainment which were never really subject to civil rights legal action. Does it occur to anyone that businesses that refuse customers don’t survive?

Something else to ponder: the group that imposed the government oppression of blacks was not the libertarians.

It was the authoritarian, anti-business, big government Democrats. And don’t think those Democrats were just  disgruntled Confederates from the 19th Century.

Progressive hero Woodrow Wilson — the Democrat who gave us the income tax, the IRS and Federal Reserve Board — turned Washington D.C. from a racially integrated city in 1913 to a racially segregated, Jim Crow town.

Fitz Hollings,  the Democrat senator from South Carolina and ally of Bill Clinton, was the one who who started flying the Confederae battle flag over South Carolina’s Capitol to protest the civil rights movement in 1962.

Robert Bryd’s support was integral to the government take over of health care in March. The Democrat senator from West Virginia and one-time Senate Majority leader was once a recruiter for the Ku Klux Klan.

It was Democratic mayors, governors and police chiefs that turned firehoses and police dogs on civil rights marchers in the 1950s and 1960s.

If the Rand Pauls of the world ran things Jim Crow would never have existed, and if they ran things in 1964 Jim Crow  would have ended with a lot less turmoil and heartache, and blacks and whites today would be about as divided as Italians and WASPs are today.

Race, Libertarians And Democrats
Race, Libertarians And Democrats

 

 

Race, Libertarians And Democrats

 

8 Years For Videotaping Outside Fed Courthouse?

8 Years For Videotaping Outside Fed Courthouse? — A libertarian activist who began videotaping when federal officers confronted his three-man group distributing fliers outside the federal courthouse in Allentown, Pa. has been charged with assaulting a court officer after he struggled to keep court officer Claire Burns and Deputy U.S. Marshal Enrique Trevino from taking his camera.

The incident began after Ms. Burns, who was part of a contingent of several officers, approached Julian Heicklen of Fully Informed Jury Association — a group that feels jurors are often not adequately aware of their powers and obligations under the Constitution — and Heicklen began to argue.

George Donnelly began videotaping the incident. Ms. Burns attempted to take his camera, Donnelly struggled to keep it and Trevino and other marshals came to her assistance.

Donnelly was arrested and charged. He was released on his own recognizance after spending two days in custody. He must remain in his home and wear an electronic bracelet until his May 25 hearing.

The charge comes with an eight-year jail sentence.

Here is the story from the The Morning Call of Allentown .

Here is the one from FIJA.

See if you can spot the differences.

8 Years For Videotaping Outside Fed Courthouse?

Live Free Pa. Is A Week Away

Live Free Pa. Is A Week Away — The Commonwealth Foundation’s celebration of “freedoms we enjoy but are under attack by Harrisburg and Washington” is 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., May 8, at the Elstonville Sportsman’s Association in Manheim.

Live Free Pa. comes with breakfast, lunch,beer, shooting activities, cigars and live rock ‘n’ roll by Jump the Gun and features a chance to shoot up a car.

Obviously the beer and cigars are for attendees over 21.

Cost is $65 for shooters and $40 for non-shooters.  The car shoot is extra.

To register email ajg@commonwealthfoundation.org; call 717-671-1901; or go here .

Live Free Pa. Is A Week Away

Irv Homer Hall of Famer

Irv Homer Hall of Famer — Pat Delsi has informed me that Irv Homer is to be inducted into the Hall of Fame of the Broadcast Pioneers of Philadelphia. Mr. Homer was informed of the honor at the group’s November banquet so he knew before his passing. Irv Homer Hall of Famer

The Broadcast Pioneers has a fantastic website featuring audio clips of John Facenda (and many others) from the ’30s, ’40s, and ’60s; video clips going back to the ’40s — there is even one of Bernie the Bunyip; and many other rare bits of nostalgia.

It can be found at http://www.broadcastpioneers.com/

Irv Homer Hall of Famer

Irv Homer R.I.P.

Talk Radio great Irv Homer died Wednesday after collapsing while speaking at an event at Eastern University regarding the Federal Reserve System and how money works. The featured speaker was G. Edward Griffin, author of “The Creature from Jekyll Island”. Mr. Homer was responsible for introducing Griffin to thousands in the Philadelphia area. Irv Homer R.I.P.

I have fond memories of Mr. Homer. Circa 1994 I was managing editor of most of the papers in the Press newspaper chain and we carried a column criticizing the IRS. A short time later, we were subject to an audit.

A young lady named Pat Toddy was working for us part-time as a writer and sales rep and working part-time screening calls for Mr. Homer at WWDB-FM. She told Mr. Homer about our plight and Mr. Homer stuck up for us via his mike.

R.I.P. Mr. Homer.

Pat, btw, has done pretty well for herself and has a slot on the anchor desk at KYW Newsradio.

Irv Homer R.I.P.