Thursday, July 8, 2010

Making everything illegal (almost)

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Back in the days following the American Revolution, virtually nothing was illegal except murder, theft, fraud, assault and battery, and libel (at least at the Federal level).  As far as I have been able to tell, no physical objects of any kind were illegal to manufacture or to own.  I am sure that if you asked any of the Founders, they would say that the Constitution simply does not give the government the power to make property of any kind illegal.

It was called freedom.
 
The march of modern liberalism can be defined as simply putting the word "illegal" in front of almost any other word.  For example, we now have:

Illegal drugs
Illegal chemicals
Illegal trash
Illegal pesticides
Illegal guns
Illegal emissions
Illegal fireworks
Illegal lumber
Illegal trade
Illegal business practices
Illegal investments


I could go on listing hundreds of thousands of things that are now illegal.  Then there are the millions of little regulations that control every aspect of every product from cars, to food, to computers.  If violated, the object becomes illegal.

It is kind of odd when you think about it.  Back in the early 1900's, it required a Constitutional Amendment to give the government the power to make alcohol illegal.  Nowadays, it doesn't even require the passage of a law to make something illegal -- just a new regulation from some government agency that is run by unelected bureaucrats.


How can that be Constitutional?  Why do we have to obey laws that are not passed by the Congress?  Why do we have to obey laws that are well beyond the powers given the government by the Constitution?

The regulations that businesses must obey are now so numerous and complex -- and so changeable --  that if the government doesn't like you, they can always find something that you did wrong. And with this administration, if you are in business at all, they don't like you.

Very soon we will have "illegal health care providers".   As the government ramps up the controlled medical care bureaucracy, I expect a huge outbreak of "health crimes" that will require a whole new breed of enforcers.

But I must admit that liberals are working to remove the word "illegal" in some areas.

Soon there will be no such thing as an "illegal alien".



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