The State Be Damned

If there’s one thing you can depend on its bureaucrats will do stupid things and will try to get more power.

This article does a great job of explaining how one rancher has to deal with insane bureaucracy just trying to run a simple country farm. [More on him here]
In Norfolk, Va, they stepped over the line by arresting a man illegally. At least the public showed up to let them know the error of their ways.

More than 100 gun-rights advocates, most carrying handguns on their hips and wearing buttons saying “Guns Save Lives,” came to the City Council on Tuesday night to protest what they called harassment of law-abiding gun owners by city officials.

The protest was called by the Virginia Citizens Defense League, a gun-rights group, after Chet Szymecki of Yorktown was arrested in June at Harborfest for carrying a gun.

Szymecki was arrested for violating a city ordinance banning guns at Harborfest - an ordinance that officials now acknowledge violates state law. City Attorney Bernard A. Pishko said city officials were unaware of a state law prohibiting localities from banning guns.

Carrying a weapon openly is legal in Virginia, even at a large gathering such as Harborfest. Once city officials realized their error, the charges against Szymecki were dropped.

“We made a mistake,” Councilman Barclay C. Winn said. “It was unintentional.”

Most who came to protest didn’t appear to believe it was an innocent mistake.

“You know it was illegal,” said Dave Vann, who drove from Falls Church to speak. “You arrested someone, and now it’s going to cost you dearly.”

It’s great to see the one of them squirm. For too long these people have ridden rough shod over our lives. The public really needs to let them know who they work for. They are our employees, not our bosses. And they need to get that through their heads.

Too many laws have been passed, too many cases of the publics rights being ignored or trampled on.

They always have some excuse. Terrorism is the latest one. Frankly, they need to be reminded who’s boss. We can do it as individuals, but we can do it as a group. And groups do effected policy. Look how some Dems bow and scrape to the net roots crowd.

Considering how pathetic our many leaders are, it should be easier to get our point across. All we have to do is agree on something. 

1. Well, outside of his dislike for bioengineered food, he seems to be reasonable.
   I noted, however, his comment about minimum 900sqf housing.  Remember this “way cool eco-friendly-smash the state” micro homes you posted on a while back?
   Illegal, every one.

   Posted by  on  08/29  at  05:32 PM

2. “Guns Save Lives” ... ???  Jesus ... *sigh*

   Posted by  on  08/30  at  02:53 AM

3. He doesn’t like bio engineered foods because he is selling organic. Like a lot of people, he’s got an ideological agenda. But I like his libertarian views.

   Hey, Bob,

   Guns do save lives. They have many a time. They also take lives, which is why they are an effective threat to criminals.

   Posted by James Hudnall  on  08/30  at  08:30 AM

4. Remember H. Beam Piper’s short novel “A Planet for Texans”? In it, all practicing politicians on the planet New Texas had the threat of constitution-sanctioned political assination hanging over their heads. If any politician did something that upset sufficient constituents, one of them would usually end the politician’s career rather permanently. In the early part of the book, a Senator who proposed an income tax gets killed with a machete!  Yow! Talk about having to truly represent the people properly or else!

   Posted by  on  08/30  at  10:12 AM

5. Well, that wouldn’t work to well. You have all the politicians afraid to do anything.

   No, what we need are narrowly defined tasks they can do. And they should not be able to do whatever they want. The problem is, they keep voting in ways to give themselves more authority and power and there is no mechanism to keep them in check except the courts, and the courts take so long to act in many instances, years of abuse can go by. Plus, the courts can choose to do nothing or rubber stamp it.

   The system needs more counterweights. I think a better organized voter base is the answer and the net provides the means.

   Posted by James Hudnall  on  08/30  at  10:26 AM

6. Well, that wouldn’t work to well. You have all the politicians afraid to do anything.

   You say it like it would be a bad thing.

   Posted by  on  08/30  at  04:02 PM

7. Toren’s got it: the politicians on New Texas didn’t do much that anyone objected to, just took care of the necessary infrastructure.  Sure, it’s fiction, but the concept of keeping the government poor so that IT is the servent of the people, vs what we have now: a wealthy government that doesn’t have to answer to the people, is quite sound indeed!

   Posted by  on  08/31  at  10:19 AM
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