When the time comes will we have enough people who will stand up against tyrannical Government like Henry Rearden in Atlas Shrugged II?
Henry Rearden owns Rearden Steel. Under the Fair Share Law he is required to sell to the Government. When he refuses, he has to go to court. His speech in front of the court starts around 8:00. It is outstanding.
Here are some excerpts from a conversation Rearden has with a Government bureaucrat who is sent to convince him to sell steel to the Government.
Bureaucrat – Please understand it is my job.
Rearden – It’s a job you chose…. I’ve just never met a looter with your kind of dedication and endurance.
Bureaucrat – I’m not a looter!
Rearden – No! You’re not here to take something from me you didn’t earn yourself?
Bureaucrat – You can’t just reject a Government order for your materials.
Rearden – Why can’t I.
Bureaucrat – It’s an essential needs project.
Rearden – Essential to whom.
Bureaucrat – It’s very important, it’s for the State Science Institute. Rest assured Mr. Rearden, It’s in the public interest.
Rearden – You tell your people that I will not sell any Rearden metal to the State Science Institute at any time, for any price, for any purpose whatsoever.
Bureaucrat – Mr. Rearden, no one has ever refused to sell a strategic material to the Government. It’s against the Fair Share Law. You have to sell it to them.
Rearden – I’ll make it simple for you. Tell them I won’t accept payment. Now their welcome to come down here with their trucks and guns and seize as much metal as they want.
Bureaucrat – That would be theft.
Rearden –Damn son, you’re brighter than you look……….. One of these days you’re going to have to decide whose side you’re on.
Bureaucrat – You know Mr. Rearden times have changed. We all have to be flexible. You can’t be tied down by rigid principles.
Rearden – Try pouring a ton of steel without rigid principles.
President Obama held a town hall meeting about gun violence last week. When the President is off his teleprompter, he always lets his true ideology slip out for all to see. The video below is no exception.
Here is a recap of the video if you don’t want to watch it.
Gabby Gifford’s husband talks about how people are afraid that the government wants more back ground checks so it can have a registry, which will lead to confiscation, which will lead to a tyrannical government. He than asks, if the government wants to confiscate 350 million guns, how would they do that?
Some in the audience start to clap as the camera pans to a priest who is clapping and smiling. But look closely at the ladies on each side of him. Not only are they not clapping, they have a scowl on their faces.
One comment about the set up to the question. Tyrannical government doesn’t follow the confiscation of guns. Tyrannical government would have had to have been in existence long before any confiscation.
THE PRESIDENTS VIEW OF THE FOUNDING
The President than says. “This notion of a conspiracy out there it gets wrapped up in concerns about the federal government. Now there’s a long history of that. That’s in our DNA. The United States was born suspicious of some distant authority.”
Mr. President, with all due respect, our founders weren’t suspicious of something distant. They were living with the reality of the tyrannical British authority that was present in the colonies. Of course the King was in England which was some distance away, but King George sent his governors and generals over here to rule over the colonists. The long arm of the King stretched across the ocean. The third amendment of the Constitution states, “No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner….”
Our founders made this part of the Bill of Rights because “Red Coats” were actually taking over people’s homes without the consent of the owners. Doesn’t our constitutional scholar and chief know that we broke away from a tyrannical government that was here on our shores, not “something distant”? Of course he does. He is a propagandist along the lines of Edward Bernays, Joseph Goebbels, and Noam Chomsky.
THE PRESIDENTS VIEW ON GUNS
He goes on to say that people who believe his government wants to confiscate guns are conspiracy theorists. Here is an excerpt.
“It is a conspiracy. Are you suggesting a notion that were creating a plot to take everyone’s guns away so that we can impose martial law. Is that a conspiracy? Yes that’s a conspiracy…..down state Illinois is closer to Kentucky than to Chicago and everybody hunts down there. And a lot of folks own guns so this is not alien territory to me. I’ve got a lot of friends…who are hunters….. It is a false notion that I believe is circulated for political reasons or commercial reasons in order to present a coming together of many people of good will to develop common sense rules that will make us safer…..”
The propagandist and chief tries to use the term conspiracy to paint the opposition as crazies. He tries to make it seem like the only use for guns is hunting. He tries to seem sympathetic by saying he has friends who hunt. He implies that people of good will and common sense agree with him. He implies that the only reasons people don’t agree with him are because of political or economic interests.
The President and his ilk are willing to move their football down the ideological field inch by inch until they get what they want. Just look at how many decades it took to get government-run healthcare, and they aren’t finished yet. The progressives hope Obamacare is the penultimate step toward their goal of a single payer system. If Progressives where this patient with healthcare, don’t you think they’re willing to work in incremental steps over many decades to reach their goal of getting rid of guns?
“In chapter three of his new book, At The Brink, Mr. Lott discusses gun-control and takes the reader back to his time at the University of Chicago, where he and then visiting professor Barack Obama spoke on numerous occasions about guns in America.”
“I don’t believe People should be able to own guns,” Obama told Lott on day at the University of Chicago Law School.
“Lott explains that he first met Obama shortly after completing his research on concealed handgun laws and crime.”
“He did not come across as a moderate who wanted to bring people together,” Lott writes.
“After he introduced himself to Obama, Lott suggested that they have lunch one day to discuss their views on guns. According to Lott, Obama “grimaced and turned away.” That was the way many conversations with Obama ended, Lott says.”
“Although the Law School was famous for openness of its faculty and friendly engagement, Lott says, “Obama…preferred silent, scowling disdain to collegiality.”
“… in a Fox News interview Obama stated, “I have said consistently that I believe that the Second Amendment is an individual right.”
Lott isn’t convinced: “Despite his assurance to Fox News that he understands the Second Amendment, it’s a good bet that the positions Obama took on guns during his time at Chicago reveal his true convictions.“
Who is telling the truth? President Obama or John Lott.
"THE COORDINATION OF MENS ACTIVITIES THROUGH CENTRAL PLANNING OR THROUGH VOLUNTARY COOPERATION ARE ROADS GOING IN VERY DIFFERENT DIRECTIONS, THE FIRST TO SERFDOM AND POVERTY THE SECOND TO FREEDOM AND PLENTY."
"THERE IS NO SUBTLER, NO SURER MEANS OF OVERTURNING THE EXISTING BASIS OF SOCIETY THAN TO DEBAUCH THE CURRENCY. THE PROCESS ENGAGES ALL THE HIDDEN FORCES OF ECONOMIC LAW ON THE SIDE OF DESTRUCTION, AND DOES IT IN A MANNER WHICH NOT ONE MAN IN A MILLION IS ABLE TO DIAGNOSE."
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