Friday, April 24, 2009

Quote for the Day

"It is not the function of our Government to keep the citizen from falling into error; it is the function of the citizen to keep the Government from falling into error." -- Robert H. Jackson, US Judge (1892-1954)

Obama Legal Team Wants to Limit Defendents Rights

"The Obama administration is asking the Supreme Court to overrule long-standing law that stops police from initiating questions unless a defendant's lawyer is present, another stark example of the White House seeking to limit rather than expand rights.

The Justice Department, in a brief signed by Solicitor General Elena Kagan, said the 1986 decision "serves no real purpose" and offers only "meager benefits." The government said defendants who don't wish to talk to police don't have to and that officers must respect that decision. But it said there is no reason a defendant who wants to should not be able to respond to officers' questions." [link]

That's nice let's just kick off a bigger Police State Party. Let us not forget some of the wonderful insights into how much the "Only Ones" will actually respect a decision of someone not to talk and other travesties they will attempt to pull off because they feel they can hide behind a shield.

Barney Frank: Enemy of Total Freedom

“I would let people gamble on the Internet,” Frank said. “I would let adults smoke marijuana; I would let adults do a lot of things, if they choose."

He added: “But allowing them total freedom to take on economic obligations that spill over into the broader society? The individual is not the only one impacted here, when bad decisions get made in the economic sphere, it causes problems.” [link]

Interesting how he can allow some freedoms and not others. Freedom is not as easy as pick and choose Barney Rubble. Freedom also comes with responsibility, you make a bad choice your likely to get bit on the ass by it later on. Prime example was forcing banks to make loans in all areas where they operate. Forget about low-income families living in these areas, just force the banks to make the loans then swallow the losses. That is what has gotten us in this mess.

In the past a family, individual, whatever goes in for a loan and the bank would pretty much know if they could make payments or not. If you could wonderful sign by the X and give us $XXXXX each month. If you couldn't sorry, "You need a larger down payment." Or, "You may want to think about something more in your price range."

Freedom works by guiding individuals to make choices that are best for them, because they will get rewards from good choices, and quite the opposite from poor choices. Yes, in a way poor decisions have got us into this trouble, however in the past these decisions would not have been allowed to take place to start with.
 
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