To Our Veterans, and Our Fallen

  Happy Memorial Day to all the veterans of this Great Nation, and to the families of those who have given their lives for its defense.  May all citizens aspire to your courage; and above all, may that courage live forever in the memories of a free Nation, always in your debt.

"All the armies of Europe and Asia could not, by force, take a drink from the Ohio River, Nor set a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of one thousand years."  - Abraham Lincoln

 

Vigil Strange I Kept on the Field One Night

Walt Whitman 

Vigil strange I kept on the field one night; 

When you my son and my comrade dropt at my side that day,

One look I but gave which your dear eyes return’d with a look I shall never forget,

One touch of your hand to mine O boy, reach’d up as you lay on the ground,

Then onward I sped in the battle, the even-contested battle,

Till late in the night reliev’d to the place at last again I made my way,

Found you in death so cold dear comrade, found your body son of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding,)

Bared your face in the starlight, curious the scene, cool blew the moderate night-wind,

Long there and then in vigil I stood, dimly around me the battle-field spreading,

Vigil wondrous and vigil sweet there in the fragrant silent night,

But not a tear fell, not even a long-drawn sigh, long, long I gazed,

Then on the earth partially reclining sat by your side leaning my chin in my hands,

Passing sweet hours, immortal and mystic hours with you dearest comrade—not a tear, not a word,

Vigil of silence, love and death, vigil for you my son and my soldier,

As onward silently stars aloft, eastward new ones upward stole,

Vigil final for you brave boy, (I could not save you, swift was your death,

I faithfully loved you and cared for you living, I think we shall surely meet again,)

Till at latest lingering of the night, indeed just as the dawn appear’d,

My comrade I wrapt in his blanket, envelop’d well his form,

Folded the blanket well, tucking it carefully over head and carefully under feet,

And there and then and bathed by the rising sun, my son in his grave, in his rude-dug grave I deposited,

Ending my vigil strange with that, vigil of night and battle-field dim,

Vigil for boy of responding kisses, (never again on earth responding,)

Vigil for comrade swiftly slain, vigil I never forget, how as day brighten’d,

I rose from the chill ground and folded my soldier well in his blanket,

And buried him where he fell.

Sincerely,

Buffalo Forrester
Jack Tornabalde

The Patriot's Guide to Fine Spirits

The Right to Bear Arms, Now Available in 'Federal-Employee Only' Sizes!

We tend to harp on the Second Amendment quite a lot on this blog, and today will be no exception.

Despite the withering strength of the Second Amendment these days, it appears as though there is one group of individuals that the federal government, perhaps unsurprisingly, wholly supports in its right to bear arms - the federal government.

Indeed, there are currently upwards of 40 armed federal agencies in today's version of America.  Some of these agencies, such as the FBI, CIA, ATF, DEA, Secret Service, Homeland Security and Military Security Forces, will come as no surprise.  And then there are the other ones.

For example, in 2010 the Department of Education purchased 27 Remington Model 870 Police-Variant 12-Gauge Shotguns.  Why?  To replace the aging models currently in use, of course!  Here's a more detailed explanation, courtesy of The Washington Post:

"The Office of Inspector General is the law enforcement arm of the U.S. Department of Education and is responsible for the detection of waste, fraud, abuse, and other criminal activity involving Federal education funds, programs, and operations. As such, OIG operates with full statutory law enforcement authority, which includes conducting search warrants, making arrests, and carrying firearms."

So the DoE needs shotguns to handle wasteful and fraudulent misappropriations of education funds by teachers and principals?  If your reaction to the above statement was anything other than "Why in the hell does the Department of Education have a law enforcement arm?", then you may have come to this blog by mistake.

Abusive teachers and officials do, of course, require their own category (the wording above is quite vague - I will give the benefit of the doubt that 'abuse' here is meant to signify the physical, emotional, and/or sexual abuse of children in schools or by school officials, and is not being used as just another way of saying 'fraudulent use' or 'exploitation' of federal funds).  But is it necessary to create an entire paramilitary wing of the Department of Education, when local police departments, and even the FBI, would be more than willing to investigate and apprehend such scum? 

I wish that were the worst of it.

The Food and Drug Administration (not to be confused in ANY way with the Drug Enforcement Agency, which actually does conduct dangerous raids (whether or not you agree with their purpose)) makes a somewhat surprising appearance on the list as an armed federal agency.  I neither exaggerate nor simplify when I say that the purpose of an armed FDA is to raid Amish settlements and small, local farmers who are suspected of possessing raw milk and other prohibited consumables with the intent to distribute and/or use them for personal consumption.  Some people often mock Ron Paul for his advocacy of raw milk usage, but it's not often that these people mention the FDA's activities against it.

Speak of the Devil - the good doctor's son, Senator Rand Paul (R, Kentucky), recently introduced an amendment to the Food and Drug Administration User Fee Reauthorization bill which would disarm the agency and also allow for the acceptance of medicinal studies conducted outside of the U.S. to prevent “overzealous regulation of vitamins, food and supplements by codifying the First Amendment prohibition on prior restraint.”

So who else made the list?

• Internal Revenue Service - Thank God I filed on time this year!  To be fair, I think we've all imagined ourselves roaring triumphantly, hammer in-hand, over the now-unrecognizable body of an auditor.
• The Small Business Administration - Just in case an 8(a) application is actually a terrorist device in disguise.
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - A little-known but promising study has shown that hurricanes may be effectively dissipated by shooting them a lot.  The study is suspiciously moot on whether or not this effect may be enhanced by yelling "Yee-haw!"
• The Railroad Retirement Board - Because ... you know what?  I give up.  I can't even think of a satirical reason for this one.

And over 35 others.

It's bad enough that the right to bear arms is being eroded throughout the public sphere.  But to do so while simultaneously promoting armed paramilitary forces in even the most (hilariously) mundane of federal agencies is downright terrifying.

Watching the Watchmen

We have posted about police abuse before.  As libertarians we in this blog view abuses of power by the police as a threat to liberty, and we tend to think that the growth of government leads to such abuses.  To shed light on the extent of this threat, the Cato Institute has started a website with the mission of tracking and analyzing cases of police brutality in the US.  From the "About" page on the site:

"No one disputes the idea that police misconduct is wrong, but reasonable people do disagree about the scope of the problem and how it ought to be addressed. The purpose of this project is to gather reports of credible allegations of police misconduct so policymakers (and others) can make informed assessments of the nature and circumstances of police misconduct, and consider proposals that can minimize wrongdoing."

 I am looking forward to the results of this analysis; if nothing else, because this data will provide a degree of clarity on how far down the road to tyranny we have come, and perhaps change the minds of some of those who believe that safety is a surrogate for freedom.

All's Well

... if a bit slow.  Buffalo and I have been up to our necks with our personal lives -- individually, we're not married or anything -- and as a result we haven't posted anything for close to a month.  Such is life.  We're still here, still alive.  At least as of this writing.