Tag: Freedom (page 3)

While the meat heads in the labor unions are figuring out new ways to persuade our leaders to LIMIT the ability of Michigan business to operate, the scholars in many other countries are figuring out what made America so great for so many years.  And while our leaders in Michigan insert their own brand of controls on Michigan residents and business owners, it offers an opportunity for those who create jobs to "supersize" their crap sandwich from the drive-through window of Lansing's growing bureaucracy.

Laws that tell you what you pay..  Laws that tell you whom you can hire..  Laws that tell you what legal substances can be used in the business you "own." Laws that govern whether you dismiss someone appropriately, the hours they work, and soon whether you should be providing insurance for them.  Add to this, the business owner has become the tax collector.

Is this truly Liberty?  The top four definitions would say not:

lib·er·ty
Showing Spelled[lib-er-tee]
-noun, plural -ties.

1. freedom from arbitrary or despotic government or control.
   
2. freedom from external or foreign rule; independence.
   
3. freedom from control, interference, obligation, restriction, hampering conditions, etc.; power or right of doing, thinking, speaking, etc., according to choice.
   
4. freedom from captivity, confinement, or physical restraint: The prisoner soon regained his liberty.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. -- That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Indeed.

As the progressives who now lead our nation would take our children's lives through abortion, Our liberty through an unanswerable liability of national debt, and our happiness (property) by removing it from us through use of force and redistributing it in the name of "fairness," we celebrate the courageous call of our forefathers to throw from our backs the yoke of the Tyranny of Kings.

happy independence..

Grab the tissues...

We are a caring state. We proved it by passing legislation making it illegal for smokers to light up in bars and restaurants. (That is, unless the bar or restaurant happens to be in a casino where smoke miraculously has no poisoning effects.) We proved it too with the passing of our helmet laws and seat belt laws.

We prove it with mandated warning labels on everything from window screens to canned food. We see it proudly displayed in the purchase and installation of MDOT's expensive electronic signs that remind us that it is dangerous to smash into a deer while speeding, in the fog and on sheer ice, while sending a text message and eating a burger.

Conspiracy theorists imagine wide, well-coordinated, concerted efforts to pursue particularized agendas. To some extent, these efforts exist, though I would not necessarily call them conspiracies, since that implies something sinister. For example, when the White House changes its message or adopts new terminology (think about the change from "health care reform" to "health insurance reform" to make insurance companies the target), memoranda go out, talking points are distributed, and the organization -- the MSM included -- delivers a coordinated message.

Beyond that sort of rudimentary message distribution, widespread conspiracies are hard to implement, and one should take such accusations very skeptically. It is far more likely that persons pursue similar agendas, not because they are engaged in a conspiracy, but because they share a particular ideology or worldview.

This is the alarming condition -- the number and variety of initiatives spawned, not by conspiracy, but by a common disregard for constitutional liberties and an infatuation with government power.

Cue Gretchen Whitmer.

The First Amendment prohibits any law abridging freedom of speech or prohibiting the free exercise of religion. Religious freedom is further enshrined in Article I, Section 4 of Michigan's constitution, and Article I, Section 5 states:

Every person may freely speak, write, express and publish his views on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of such right; and no law shall be enacted to restrain or abridge the liberty of speech or of the press.

Unfortunately, Sen. Gretchen Whitmer (D-East Lansing) and certain of her colleagues do not share this perspective on freedom. They are attempting not only to tell certain non-profit organizations what they can and cannot say, but they want to force these organizations to share information promulgated by certain, selected professional associations. In so doing, they are circumventing the will of the people of the State of Michigan and infringing on our constitutional rights.