Liberty Is A Lie: Justifying Ourselves To The Government

A quick political rant if you don't mind. Just wondering, why exactly do I need to justify anything and everything I do to the government before, maybe, getting permission?

With the tragedy at Sandy Hook the refrain again becomes "why does anyone need an 'assault rifle' to hunt ducks?" As if I have to justify my ownership of a particular firearm as a law abiding citizen to some elected official from New York. I don't need an assault rifle and I don't own one. I also don't need any of the books I own. I don't need Cheetos. When you get right down to it the list of things I need is pretty short. That doesn't give the government the authority to limit my ownership of any of them. The Second Amendment doesn't say "The right of the people to keep and bear arms for hunting and target practice shall not be abridged"

On taxes we are told that some people can afford to "pay a little more" in taxes. The mindset in play here is that you don't really have a claim one nickle of your money more than the rest of America says you do. If you make some mysterious amount that qualifies you as "rich" (perhaps best defined as anyone who makes more than I do), then you should gladly forfeit the wages you earned by your own effort for "the greater good", which looks a lot like feeding the Federal bureaucracy. If you think you should keep the wages you have earned you need to justify why and that is political poison so we hide it behind exemptions and deductions.

Even what you eat is subject to approval. Selling milk that doesn't get processed according to the government's standards to willing and informed consumers? That might get you a visit from friendly neighborhood Federal agents, guns drawn on you or your wife or even your children. Processing and selling meat on your own that doesn't get run through an industrial plant? Same thing. The government tells us what and how much to eat more and more each year and yet the population grows progressively more obese. Small farm raised food is deemed too dangerous to consume but when the recalls for tainted meat come out guess where they come from? The same government that says unadulterated milk from a cow is a hazard to your health is fine with you eating snack foods made from chemicals that no one can pronounce.

Your milk is too fresh, your soda pop is too large. Your gun is too scary, your bank account too flush, your pickup truck to big.

Please sir, may I keep more of my wages?

What happened that we find ourselves coming hat in hand before the government, begging like Oliver Twist to get what by rights is ours to begin with? In our society, when you get right down to it, liberty is a lie. Anything you "own" is only yours as long as you obey the government. Your house, even paid in full with the deed in hand, is only yours as long as you follow the government rules and pay the government tax even when it goes to government schools that you don't use. Want to drive a car? You have to get permission from the government. Want to get married? You need a license from the government. You are a guy and turn 18, you have 30 days to register for the draft so you can be forced to go fight some inane war that our government has deemed is in the "national interest". Land of the free and home of the brave huh? Can we stop singing that because it isn't true now and might never have been true anyway.

If I still thought that America was pivotal to God's Kingdom advancing I would despair. Now that I realize that America could disappear overnight and it wouldn't matter one iota in the real grand scheme of things it is a relief. That doesn't mean I still don't get angry about this stuff it just means that I am starting to realize that none of it really matters very much.