The Rule of Law

I often wondered why my thoughts on prepping continuously lead me to the political arena. Prepping makes sense in the same way wearing a seatbelt makes sense. In prepping, the failure could (again) be FEMA. With the recent threat of Irene, it was nice not to have to run to store for anything. The house had food, water and batteries with flashlights and the like. OK, so I used the hurricane to rationalize purchasing a few more rechargeable AA and AAA batteries. So having a few days’ supply of water, batteries, seasonal appropriate clothing and minor first aid in a small bag makes sense in the face of stormy weather, power outages and earthquakes. Or larger bag(s) if you want, with perhaps an analogy to airbags here.

But how does that meld into politics? You prep for a for a foreseeable emergency that is less likely than a normal day but could happen. Like the spare tire in the trunk, you don’t expect to frequently use it but you keep it there. A few days power loss, sure; space alien invasion, not so much. I depend on the rule of law in my life. I do not expect roving bands of marauders nor assaults on my home by gangs next week. But reading the news, I am struck by the loss of sensibilities and by the loss of the rule of law by both private citizens and the government. Pick your headlines. Even the New York Times reported that the Obama administration ignored Federal law regarding shipping oil from the National Strategic Reserve, to pick a recent ‘headline’ as the latest disregard of the rule of law by the administration. Obama’s decision to not deport non-violent illegal aliens is also bereft of law. Put your favorite lapse(s) here. Rule of law is lacking in our political system as is honesty let alone clarity of thought. Remember the bizarre statement from the DNC chair about how (evil) Republicans want to deport ‘undocumented workers’ who broke no law -- forgetting than the Orwellian doublespeak translation of ‘undocumented worker’ is, uhhh, illegal alien? I am sure numerous examples come to your mind, many more come to mine. How many Congresspeople have a decrease in their personal wealth while serving? Well, as far as I can tell, zero. Their investments do far better than the private citizen, imagine that. So when I think prep, I think of possible/probable scenarios, and unfortunately the loss of the Rule of Law has become one of them. Somewhere far closer to power outages than space aliens. No tin hat yet.

Another problem with the government which slowly adds to my fear that the rule of law will be lost, at multiple levels, is any discussion of the cause of whatever the problem on the table is, gets hijacked into a bizarre blame game or name game. The economy in doldrums? Dang earthquake. Evil rich people.Talk about illegal immigration --you must be a racist. Don’t want sharia used in the American legal system - islamophobe. The discussion, often hijacked by progressives, does not address the problem, and thus the policy (or lack thereof) remains unchanged because the strange logic now dictates the policy is a good one except for (place boogeyman here) or that the criticism is irrational (racist) or plain stupidity (AGW). The Congress spending too much? You racist, jet-owning, greedy, not taxed enough bazillionaire! Concerned about wasting money on anthropomorphic global warming? You’re an idiot if you don’t ‘believe’ in it, there’s a scientific consensus agreeing to it, if you exclude scientists that punch holes in the theory. The Green Economy is the solution despite the fact it isn’t as seen in Spain and here. And now Obama not only had a aunt who was an illegal alien here, but now an uncle. Go figure that one out. These issue-skirting arguments are made by elected officials. The arguments by their supporters can be far worse.

And then the combination of whether or not a state or federal prosecutor wants to prosecute you over the impossibly huge number of laws and regulations out there. About a week ago, I was pulled over for “looking down while driving” as the cop said. Fortunately, I was able to smoothly enter ‘yeah, I was in the Air Force...’ into the conversation. I’m not sure if that or the sheer stupidity of the whole thing (a pretext for those drivers who text while crossing an intersection on a green light - which I wasn’t) or the former Marine cop extending some courtesy to a fellow vet. And I watch the DoJ let the New Black Panther thugs go free after conviction for voter intimidation in Philadelphia; the Fender Guitar makers getting busted; Gunwalker anyone? There are so many rules out there that if you piss off a prosecutor, they’ll find something. And even if they don’t, the cost of defending yourself may bankrupt you. How many citizens have been sacrificed on some prosecutors alter to the re-election god? How many citizens and businesses have been scrutinized by government auditors and agreed to plead guilty because the cost of proving their innocence was too costly?

Or some of the truly bizarre stuff emanating from the current administration. NASA promoting moslem self-worth? You know, after 1400 years of murders, stonings, rape and destruction, they know their worth. So do I. There’s a reason why there are so few Nobel LAureate-moslems. There are less than 10 moslems out of 1.4 billion or so that can use that hyphenated identifyer. Developing hijackings, homicide vests and IEDs doesn’t impress Western civilization. A Department of Education SWAT team breaking down doors in California? TSA not only ‘patting down’ little girls and the Depends-wearing infirm, but scanning high school students before entering a Prom (presumably in a gym, not a jet). And the topper for bizarre: Maxine Waters. Well, actually there’s tremendous competition for the ‘topper’ position in the government. Put your favorite here.

Throw in crony-capitalism/kleptocracy somewhere in this mix , and I begin to doubt the legitimacy of this administration. Too many examples to list or specifically recall. The husband of some environmental administration official was ‘lucky’ enough to get a multi-million dollar grant for his super-duper windows - are they still in business or did the go under like several recipients of these politically-correct but inept application of money taken from you and me through our taxes? GM. Windmills. Solar.

I see the Police, in general, take action where action is easiest. Sure, jam cell phone signals in San Francisco in response to a possible demonstration that possibly could become violent. So much for the Freedom of Speech in the US while Hilary extolls it and decries foreign government shutdowns of the same sort. Respond to mob-robs, not much response there. Restrict law abiding citizens’ means to protect themselves, sure; target thieves with weapons, not so much. I think if I worked for the ATF or similar and given the choice of looking for paper-work errors of a law-abiding citizen and risk a paper-cut versus trying to bust a weapons cache of a gang and risk getting shot, I would chose the paper-cut.

Go visit http://www.injusticeeverywhere.com/ which documents police misconduct from stupid stuff (waving their badge to get out of a fender-bender to significant abuses). It is updated daily. What struck me the most, is that the abuses are exactly what mere mortals would do with a bit of extra-authority. Except for the child-porn stuff. And waving guns around. And beating the crap out of innocent citizens -or should it be subjects? Now imagine that the social fabric weaved by the presumption of the rule of law is wearing thin, perhaps in tatters and how that would perhaps further change police behavior.

I have a feeling if I, as a White, non-moslem, employed, heterosexual, USAF veteran, reasonable well-adjusted male started to rant ‘moslems are pigs and we should wipe moslem countries off the map - just nuke them’ on this site, I would get a visit from some Federal three lettered agency; yet many US-based moslem web sites spouting violent action against Jews, Israel and America remain untouched. Same rationale - spouting about protecting the US against white-based terrorism good (and easy), but the other would be a manifestation of islamophobia and imperialism. Apparently the errors of past ideologies need to be atoned (see Holder's remarks re the New Black Panthers) by errors of current ideologies.. If I thought there was more competence than I do within the Federal system, I could justify a seemingly hands off attitude to hide far deeper covert monitoring. Tea Party members equated with terrorists for sitting in lawn chairs to ease the aches of artificial hips , and for God’s sake, ‘militants’ from Gaza murdering civilians in Israel as reported in the New York Times. CAIR still being billed as a grassroots organization rather than a front for the moslem brotherhood -- all far easier than being called islamphobic! And Arab Spring? Language means something, and the message I get is not a good one.

A brand-new favorite quote by Orwell: "In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible." is more true now of both the politicians and the coverage from the media. And the news keeps pouring in as I write this rant: The democrat Representative, Andre Carson, explained the Tea Party’s mission: “ Some of them in Congress right now with this Tea Party movement would love to see you and me ... hanging on a tree,” referring to lynchings. Rep Carson is African-American, so we can’t criticize (see above) for fear of being called a racist. The story was initially suppressed by MSNBC who had one of the reporters sitting at the podium. I guess it’s all part of relative morals. Imagine a Caucasian saying that Black Panthers want to riot and loot White businesses, let alone rape White women. Would that get a similar pass from the lamestream media? The outlets that cover such news, that is news not kowtowing to the progressive party line, to the present administration, nor to Obama, are negatively characterized by the lamestream media and progressive politicians to change the conversation from the facts to an ad hominem attack thus avoiding the issue at hand. As Ayn Rand said, you can ignore reality, but not it’s consequences.

And I haven’t even started on the mess called foreign policy... I am sure the Arab Spring will blossom into more than just murder and mayhem ....

So, by all means, have a ‘get home kit’ at work, have a 72 hour bag at home in case you and your family need to flee a storm, or get stuck in the house from some natural catastrophe. Be prepared for what think is within the realm of possibility for you and your family. What else could go wrong? You mean besides the small (?) chance the government will get caught up in its own doublespeak, have reality interfere with their the blame-game, have cronyism/kleptocracy markedly disrupt the economy and really screw the pooch? Some get more politically involved (the founder of this site is running for public office). Me, I’m prepping a bit deeper in other ways. At least until JW is President!

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