Free Advice and Opinions

Yet another letter to Representative Davis:

Dear Representative Davis,
This is a follow-up to a call I placed yesterday to your office regarding the “American Community Survey”, which is being conducted by the US Census Bureau. Mr. Kincannon, the Census Bureau Director, informs me that I am “required by US law to respond to this survey”. As you surely know, the Constitution requires an “Enumeration” of citizens; this “American Community Survey” goes far beyond that, and is therefore in direct contravention to the 10th Amendment.
This “Survey” requires, or attempts to require me, to reveal the value of my home, the number of hours I work and for whom, whether any retards live in my home (I’m not making this up, it’s question #16, although they didn’t phrase it quite so “insensitively” as I did). The survey further demands that I reveal my income from all sources.
This “Survey” renders the Fifth Amendment completely meaningless. I am, it seems, forced by law to testify against myself in all the matters listed above, and others. The main objection I hear when I say this is, “If yew ain’t got nuthin’ to hide, whut’re yew skeered of?” To such morons, I reply, “Well, then, drop your drawers and prepare for your daily body-cavity examination. Do you have a problem with that? Why, do you have something to hide??”
Representative Davis, I have nothing to hide; I do, however, have something very valuable to protect, and that is my freedom. That is my natural and God-given right not to be searched, or interrogated with the threat of legal action against me if I refuse to comply.
I look to you in Congress to perform certain duties, specifically described in the Constitution, and nothing more. Under the Democrats and Republicans, the government grows larger and more intrusive and presumptuous by the day. It is past time for that to end. I will not reply to the “Survey”, incarcerate me if you think that’s the right thing to do.

Very Sincerely,
John Ray

Update: representative Davis responded, sorta-kinda, and I replied to him:

> December 6, 2007
>
>
> Mr. John Ray
> P.O. Box 84
> Sewanee, Tennessee 37375
>
> Dear Mr. Ray:
>
> Thank you for contacting my office with your concerns.
>
> Our ability to maintain and improve America’s
> communication systems is crucial to preserving the American way
> of life. From cable to the internet, phone service to wireless
> communication, we must do all we can to use American
> technology and innovation to move our infrastructure forward. As
> you may know, I serve the fourth most rural Congressional District
> in the U.S. Congress, and it is the small farmers, small
> businesspeople and hard working families of my district that I am
> here to protect and represent. It is increasingly important, with our
> Nation’s reliance on services like cable and the internet, that
> people in districts like mine have the same level of service as
> Americans in more urban areas. I am committed to policies that
> will continue to grant access to more Americans at an affordable
> price.
>
> Again, thank you for contacting me. Should you have additional
> comments or questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.
> Sincerely,
>
> Lincoln Davis
> Member of Congress
>

Dear Representative Davis:
I wrote to you about an intrusive, arrogant, Unconstitutional item I received recently from the US Census Bureau, called the “American Community Survey”. They tell me I am required by law to complete it. I told you I intend not to complete it; in other words, I told you, a law-maker, of my intention to break a law.

Your response, which I have attached below, is unresponsive to my concerns. You may view my original email at blog.jrpottery.com I would greatly appreciate a response that addresses my concerns, not high-speed internet availability out here in the sticks (which I already have by the way, thanks to the free market and no thanks to Big Government, and I’m among the most rural constituents in the entire Gerrymandered 4th District.)

If you are truly my “representative”, please represent me as I fight to keep the US Census Bureau out of matters that are none of their business.

Sincerely,
John Ray

“Living On Earth” fell off the left edge of the Earth this time, so I sent them a comment that is less than flattering. The NPR Commies will most likely ignore it, but please be assured I’ll post their response here, if there is one, just for entertainment value.

Wouldn’t you just love to hear that official-sounding disclaimer at the end of every NPR radio show, with the text in the last paragraph below?
Here’s the letter:
——-
“Blowing up mountain tops” for coal? Please.

Global Warming? Fine, believe it as you believe other things that government-paid “scientists” say. Dismiss dissenters and don’t give them one second of time on the so-called “public airwaves”! They’re not real scientists anyway because they disagree with the vast majority of government-paid sycophants. Don’t ask for empirical proof of “Public Radio” assertions, we have evolved beyond empiricism and now we test our theories by consensus of the scientific community.

Support for this program comes from US Taxpayers, whether or not they like it.
The views expressed on this program are not necessarily those of the taxpayers who pay the bulk of the bills, nor are they necessarily the views of the National Propaganda Radio Stations that will start begging for your donations again, suckers, in just a few days.

Not too long ago, I wrote an essay about Tennessee’s “Unauthorized Substances Tax”, you will find it below. (I was in one of those moods, it has some crackly-crunchy delicious irony if I dare say so!)
Briefly, the Tennessee State legislature had enacted an unconstitutional tax bill that would allow a person who possesses or intends to possess illegal drugs to pay, in advance, a tax that would disallow confiscation of his personal property in the unlikely event that he was “busted”. Get it? Go to the government, buy a tax stamp, keep your SUV or speed-boat in the unlikely event you’re busted.

Well, well. The Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled that a lower court was correct, the “Unauthorized Substances Tax” violates citizens’ rights to due process and to keep from self-incrimination.

As one of the few citizens left in this country who love FREEDOM more than government “protection”, I don’t have many opportunities to gloat, so please indulge me, dear reader.

The courts perhaps were not as acerbic as I in how they said it, but they upheld my position in this matter.

詰み.

I got a reply from Representative Davis today, presumably to what I’ve written below. I can only conclude that his helpers are either illiterate or they are avoiding the issue. I invite my myriad readers to draw your own conclusions:

August 20, 2007

Mr. John Ray
P.O. Box 84
Sewanee, Tennessee 37375

Dear Mr. Ray:

Thank you for recently contacting my office to express
your views regarding healthcare. Knowing your views enables me
to better serve you in Washington.

Providing affordable healthcare to citizens of the Fourth
District is one of my major concerns. In my opinion, too many
people are without insurance; while those who do have healthcare
coverage continually see their premium payments increase.
Meanwhile, small businesses are having a difficult time finding the
funds necessary to offer healthcare to their employees. As we
move through the 110th Congress, I am hopeful that a bipartisan
solution to these problems will be reached and that Congress will
find solutions to help make healthcare affordable and accessible
for all Americans. I will keep your views in mind when this or
related legislation comes before the House of Representatives for a
vote.

Please feel free to contact my office regarding this or any
other issue that may be of concern to you. My door is always
open.
Sincerely,

Lincoln Davis
Member of Congress

August 19, 2007

To the Honorable Representative Davis:
I must not have communicated clearly. I am concerned with the continuing problem of *prohibition* in the fourth district.

Point 1: You will not find the words “drug prohibition” in the Constitution that you swore to abide by. You will, however, note the inclusion of the 10th Amendment, which prohibits you from doing anything that the Constitution does not specifically empower you to do.

Point 2: You, and just about every other politician or pundit out there, love to talk about “personal responsibility” and “liberty”. Prohibition is antithetical to these concepts, as you know; that’s why you renamed prohibition as “War On Drugs”. That sounds so much more patriotic and righteous, doesn’t it? Consider, though: it’s certainly not a war on Merck, or Takeda, or Glaxo-Smith-Kline, it’s not a war on caffeine or nicotine, it’s not a war on alcohol anymore although you and most Americans have failed to learn from history and are dooming all of us to repeat it. Face the fact, it’s a war on recreational use of substances that are hard for you to tax.

Point 3: The Black Market exists for the single purpose of subverting prohibition laws. Crime does not attend drugs themselves, crime attends the lucre that drugs bring on the Black Market. Sure, there are weekly stories about “stupid drug criminals” and they’re often funny or tragic, therefore they make good sound-bites. Most violent crime, though, is associated with exchanges of large sums of cash and drugs, in places where the participants intend and believe that there are no police present except corrupt ones.
The “market” itself is and shall be extant, despite DARE’s gallant efforts to educate/indoctrinate the children in the notions that feeling good is not fun, or that recreation is sin, or that one cannot “commit recreation” responsibly. The market is extant. The only question is, will it be a Black Market, or a Free Market? Illegal aliens and terrorists cannot take advantage of a Free Market. Bulk tobacco costs about $15/lb in our state; marijuana is less expensive to produce, they don’t call it “weed” for no reason, so one would expect that if the market were Free, pot would be cheaper than tobacco. Therefore it would not make economic sense to smuggle or secretly produce it, in the absence of prohibition laws.

Point 4: Why did God Create marijuana in the first place? Do you suppose His Purpose was to give you yet another thing to tell the rest of us not to do?

Point 5: Harry Anslinger (Sieg-Heil!) was the first “drug czar” in the Land of the Formerly Free. He and his partner in crime, Clinton Hester, testified before Congress in 1937 in support of the 1937 Marijuana Tax Act. (Yes, it began as a tax because America had not yet forgotten how alcohol prohibition had backfired.) I have excerpted a few of the things they said:

Hester: “Although the $100 Transfer Tax in this bill is intended to be prohibitive, as is the $200 Transfer Tax in the National Firearms Act, it is submitted that it is Constitutional as a revenue measure”.

Hester: “… the rule is that if on the face of the bill it appears to be a revenue bill, the courts will not inquire into any other motives that the congress may have had in enacting this legislation.”

Anslinger: “I believe in some cases one [marijuana] cigarette might develop a homicidal mania, probably to kill his brother”.

Anslinger: “Last year [1936] there were some 338 seizures of marijuana in some 38 states.” (There were that many arrests last month in Nashville. You’re not “winning” the “War on Drugs”.)

There was one voice of reason in that congressional session, believe it or not. Dr. William C. Woodward, legislative counsel to the AMA, said that marijuana prohibition is “utterly unsusceptible of execution”. He was only slightly wrong:

Point 6: Prohibition laws can be successfully executed. You read correctly, you can “win” your “War on Drugs”. Just give plenary power to the DEA to force us all to submit to blood and urine tests whenever they see fit; give the DEA authority to search all our closets and basements, every glove box in every car, every pocket of every pedestrian on every street. Give the DEA power to perform body-cavity examinations on every citizen, and I specifically include every congressman. Give them power to snoop into every bank account. In words of few syllables, make the US a Police State. Then you’ll “win” your “War on Drugs”. Half-measures in the Land of the sorta-kinda Free serve only to make the Black Market more lucrative.

The points above are all irrefutable. All who attempt to refute them will surely begin by citing the interests of children who are not their own. “What about the children?” Take care of your own, don’t tell me how to care for mine. If I cause you harm, I will answer for it. Until then, leave me in peace…and Freedom.

Sincerely,
John Ray

> August 17, 2007
>
>
> Mr. John Ray
> P.O. Box 84
> Sewanee, Tennessee 37375
>
> Dear Mr. Ray:
>
> Thank you for recently contacting me regarding drug issues
> in the Fourth District. Knowing your views enables me to better
> represent you in Washington.
>
> From your letter I can tell you are deeply concerned about
> the growing problem of drugs in the Fourth district. First, let me
> say we share the same feelings of frustration and heartache when it
> comes to this problem. As you may know, meth in particular has
> become the worst drug facing the Fourth District. Since coming to
> Congress in 2001 I have done everything in my power to help
> combat Meth and other drugs. I have joined the Congressional
> Meth Caucus which over the years has fought for more funding
> and equipment to help our local law enforcement agencies. In
> addition to joining the Meth Caucus I have supported legislation
> that protects law enforcement officers who work with this toxic
> drug everyday by supporting H.R. 798, Methamphetamine
> Remediation Research Act of 2005. This bill seeks to develop a
> national set of health-based clean-up guidelines for former meth
> labs, funds the development of field-test kits to detect meth labs for
> use by law enforcement, and funds a study on the long term health
> effects of children recovered from meth labs and the long term
> effects on law enforcement officers. As we move through the
> 110th Congress, I will keep your views in mind on all legislation
> that deals with drugs.
>
> Again, thank you for contacting me. Should you have any
> further questions or comments, please do not hesitate to contact
> me or my staff. My door is always open.
>
> Sincerely,
>
> Lincoln Davis
> Member of Congress
>

Your stupid drug czar said we are terrorists because we smoke pot.

Then, is God the Ultimate Terrorist because He Created pot in the first place?

Reality: Pot, which is called “weed” because it grows robustly from Alaska to Argentina, is expensive because it is only available via the Black Market. The Black Market exists for the single purpose of subverting your damned Prohibition Laws. Violence attends Black Market lucre, regardless of which commodity is purveyed. Ergo, it’s your fault, Prohibitionists!!

You just love to talk about “personal responsibility”, but what you really mean by that phrase is, “docile willingness to do as we are told, and be good little boys and girls”. You love to talk about “freedom”, but again, what you really mean is “freedom to do as we are told, as you munificently protect us from ourselves”. It’s a thankless job.

Why don’t you just send your cloven-hoofed, quadruped, Jack-booted thugs out to make sure that terminal cancer patients are properly punished for having “Committed Recreation” by means of the evil gateway-drug? Never mind, you already do precisely that.

Have a recreation-free day.

John Ray

To Whom It Ought To Concern:
Today on “All Things Considered” you broadcast a segment which should have been a discussion of the pro’s and con’s of granting Washington DC “the right to vote”, de facto Statehood. In fact, it was an extremely polemic piece that presented the opposing side as white racists and nothing more. Early in your segment, you played a recording of a Representative from California attempting to speak while the “Representative” from the District of Columbia had the floor. I am not writing to defend his comity or politeness or rudeness, but the 1/2-sentence he attempted to utter during that recording was the only voice given to the opposition. Then you invited the DC “Representative” to speak and make her case on your show, and she was allotted several minutes. The interviewer was quite sympathetic to her position. I was not at all surprised that you did not grant the Republican from California the same time to make his case. (Perhaps you Democrats ought to reconsider your support of the insanely-named “Fairness Doctrine”, which would require you to give him equal time, unless of course, as Orwell wrote in “Animal Farm”, “…some are more equal than others”.)

Bottom line: You at NPR are liberal Democrats, all -not most, all- of you. You want Washington DC to be the 51st State because you know you can count on DC residents to vote Democrat. I have no problem with you holding your own opinions. We have a very big problem as a nation, because you continue to take Federal Tax Dollars to finance your broadcasts. Without tax dollars, which come from liberals as well as conservatives, and a few libertarians such as I, your broadcasts would soon go the way of Air America. If you would deny that, then just go down to the Capitol and tell the Bipartisans you won’t be needing their -our- money anymore. What you are doing is not “Taxation without Representation”, it’s arrogant and shameless “Taxation With Overt Misrepresentation.” Revolutions have been fought over lesser abuses of government power. They were justly waged, and we would be just today in overthrowing you.

我が国はよく無意味な事を注目する。今週は Duke University　の強姦の申し立てを検察官がやめて、先週は Anna Nicole Smith　の死んだ周りとか、Smith　のあかちゃんのパパは誰？今度の大統領の汚れた下着は何色？　Don Imusといううるさいおしゃべりラジオのおじさんは黒人さんが失礼と受けたことを放送した。運動選手はなにか社会はよくないと思うことをした。

何でもかんでも、他人のすることを見て、自分のことを無視する。もしくは、自分の問題と社会の問題を他人のせいにする。

毎年７月４日、独立記念日を祭り、花火をみながらハンバアガアを食べて、ビイルをたくさん飲んで、”America, Land of the Free”と叫ぶ。

そうであろう。英語では “casting pearls before swine”ということわざがあるが、そのとうりでもけっこうだ。観念論者, 空論家も中にいる。私もそうか？　いい。思うことをちゃんという。隠すのが嘘をつくとどう違う？　
　鏡をみる適時がいつでも？　みて喜ぶ人が多い？　みたらどうか？　満足？　その質問をする私は悪い？　
　私の他に、その疑問をする人はたくさんいる？　そうであれば幸いであろう。

今日もマキをわりながら，やかましいtalk-radioを聞いた。右派は左派の責任にして，左派は右派の責任にして、両方は子供みたい。知性と英知　（intellect and wisdom) を同等にして、反対側はどちもないつもりで自分の意見と賛成じゃなければ馬鹿だという。政治の世界は理想ではなくて，うまいくちしかいらない。それだけをみれば、多くのアメリカ人の能力がよくわかる。選挙権が国籍さえあれば与える事が我が国の大間違いだ！！
　まして、テレビ、ラジオ、インタアネットでも，自分の意見と同じバカリあるのを人々がすぐ見つけて、違う意見を一所懸命聞かないようにする。耳に指を突っ込んで、　”LALALALALALA聞こえないよ”と言う、しかしどうして子供に思われるかと理解できない。そんなひとは選挙権がある。それより、候補者にもなれる！そして頭のいい人が選挙の相手だったら、バカのほうは勝つ確率が多い。どうしてかと言うと、社会的なテレビ番組を思えば分る:　”Happy Days”の主唱者の Richie and Fonzie　はそれぞれ、頭と心、人気と…どう言えばいいか、人気じゃなくてもかまわずに正直に言うこと。どちらは選挙を勝つ？　人気の　Fonzie.　毎度。

両方のことわざ，ご存知か？　熟考するのがいやなのであろうか？　人気ではない世界へようこそ。Politics and religion.話題にしないのがどうして法律になっているか？
　９９．９９％の人は、実際、話題には最初からしない。自分が思っている事を話の相手も思わすだけで、自分の信じている事を疑問する勇気がない。出ている釘になるな。Squeaky wheelになるな。それで気分が満るか？
　ご自分の最も秘密の所では、質問がない？　Judgment Dayにはね返ってくると思わない？言うまでもなく，こんなに気をつかうのが普通な人間にはもったいないと言えるかも知れない。そう思わない。I have more to say on this, but I’m tired and it’s time to go to sleep now.