by Panther » Mon May 22, 2006 1:33 pm
and the same can be said for shall NOT be infringed.
In fact, the entire Bill of Rights simply enumerates pre-existing inalienable Rights granted to us by our Creator. These Rights do not come from government and are not dependent on government for their existence; they belong to the individual regardless. (Including the 9th and 10th Amendments which state that there are more Rights that haven't been specifically enumerated.)
Don't want your kids to see rude, crude, lewd depictions on TV? Turn to something else! Better yet, turn off the ultra-violent and provocative video game you let them play!
Unfortunately, the Bill of Rights has been deemed "void where prohibited by law" by our government. Even though that doesn't remove any of our inalienable Rights, it certainly makes it dangerous to use them. Try invoking one of your enumerated Rights in a Court these days and see how far you get. You can use it on appeal and you can keep appealing all the way to the SCOTUS, but even the SCOTUS has refused to hear egregious Rights violation cases in recent times. SCOTUS is just the same government stomping on your Rights under a different guise.
Since the PATRIOT Act (which is anything but) even if you want to view or read material that is your Right, your actions are being monitored. Perhaps you have an interest in canning vegitables... Be careful because now keeping "stores of food" has been outlawed. Sure, they probably won't come after you for canning some beans or tomatoes, but that doesn't change the fact that they could. So, they monitor what you check out from the library or buy from the book store or rent at the video store or who you call. Maybe it's to watch for "terrorists", but with the technology in place, pointed at each of us, and the newly passed laws that say they don't have to tell anyone they're doing it, and that anyone who knows they're doing it can be arrested if THEY tell you about it... Well, all it takes is for government edict to say that YOU are the terrorist and that's the end of it. You may say it seems unlikely and you may say that government stays out of religion, but when the law was passed making it illegal to store food for emergencies (more than a small minimum amount), a few million Mormons were made criminals at the stroke of a pen. What is your weakness? Who knows... The 9/11 hijackers didn't have guns and they have become very strict about carrying even the smallest sharp object onto airplanes, what's next? Isn't it an "unfair advantage" for someone to have special training in unarmed combat? When is the stroke of a pen going to make anyone who studies or has studied martial arts a criminal? Maybe they won't take you into custody, but will only prohibit you from air travel. So, you drop out of your dojo, go "underground", and your dojo destroys all of it's student records... what about that book you purchased about it? You may not think you have anything to hide now, but it isn't a stretch to realize that you may be persecuted at some point for something that is currently legal, which they have already monitored you on, and which becomes illegal at the stroke of a pen! Comments about the government not being able to create ex-post-facto laws are irrelevant given the fact that they have been doing so without recourse for decades and continue to do so at an alarming rate.