The owner of a 32-year-old horse named Peter Rabbit wasn't able to buck a local ban on livestock within city limits.
After widespread publicity of the ban that threatened to kick Peter Rabbit off the pasture where he was born, the Hickman City Council considered an ordinance Tuesday night that would allow horses inside city limits. But council members ultimately voted 4-2 against adopting it, leaving the ban intact.
Lest you think this is simply urban progress, consider that Hickman has a total population just over 1,000 and is supposed to be a retreat from that 'urban' center of Lincoln, NE, population roughly 250,000. And yet, they were able to annex property that had been in this family since 1935 and dictate what the property can be used for.
I'm very sadfor Peter Rabbit but I am much sadder that this once great nation has all but eliminated private property rights. Or, as Thomas Sowell would phrase it, "Property Rites".
According to the Constitution of the United States, the government cannot take private property without compensation. However, judges have been letting governments get away with doing just that for about half a century now. So long as the title to the property remains in the hands of its owners, the courts let local, state and federal governments do pretty much what they please, even if that destroys much of the value of the property.
He further identifies the root cause of the abandonment of the Constitutional protection of property rights.
One of the reasons property rights do not get all the protection that the Constitution prescribes is that they are seen as special benefits to the affluent, which must give way to the general welfare. The old leftist phrase "property rights versus human rights" summarizes this mindset.
This ignores the value of property rights to the society as a whole, including people who own no property. Most Americans do not own agricultural land, but they get an abundance of food at affordable prices because farmers own both land and its produce as their private property, and therefore have incentives to produce far more efficiently than in countries where the land is owned by the government. The Soviet Union was a classic example of the latter, with hungry people despite an abundance of fertile land, inefficiently used under government control.
City Councilman Richard Harms said before Tuesday's meeting that he didn't plan to be swayed by all the talk.
"I'm not giving them breaks anymore," Harms said. "They've had opportunities in the past."
Besides, Harms said, "a horse is a horse and a mule is a mule _ it's all livestock."
No, Mr. Harms, it isn't all livestock. It is, ultimately, the deterioration of a free society in favor of a collectivist one.
Remember Our Fallen Soldiers
Sunday, 25 May 2008 19:00 |
These words were found written on the wall of a military hospital in the Philippines after WWII.
A Prayer to St. Peter
Let them in Peter, for they are very tired;
Give them couches where the angels sleep and light those fires.
Let them wake a whole again to brand new dawns fired by the
sun not war time’s bloddy guns. And may their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie –
God knows how young they were to have to die!
Well, God knows how young they were to have to die!
Give them things they like. Let them make some noise.
Give dance hall bands not golden harps, to these are boys,
Let them love Peter, — for they have had no time –
They should have trees and bird song, hills to climb
The taste of Summer in a ripened pear,
Girls sweet as meadow wind, with flowing hair –
And Tell them how they are missed. But say not to fear;
It’s going to be alright with us down here.
Let them in Peter, for they are very tired;
Give them couches where the angels sleep and light those fires.
Let them wake a whole again to brand new dawns fired by the
sun not war time’s bloddy guns. And may their peace be deep
Remember where the broken bodies lie –
God knows how young they were to have to die!
Well, God knows how young they were to have to die!
Tell them how they are missed. But say not to fear;
It’s going to be alright with us down here.
Sgt. Merlin German: A Profile In Courage
Sunday, 25 May 2008 04:07 |
As we pause to reflect upon the sacrifices that the men and women of
the U.S. Armed Services have made through the years, it is important to
remember that heroes aren’t made simply because they were killed by a
stray bullet or an IED. We call them heroes because they had the
courage to stand in the gap, to put themselves in harms way to defend
freedom.
One young man that stood in the gap for you and me was Sgt. Merlin
German. Perhaps you heard his story when he finally passed away last
month, three years after suffering injuries so serious that doctors
gave him little to no chance of surviving.
The young Marine came back from the war, with his toughest fight ahead of him.
Merlin German waged
that battle in the quiet of a Texas hospital, far from the dusty road
in Iraq where a bomb exploded, leaving him with burns over 97 percent
of his body.
No one expected him to survive.
But for more than three years, he would not
surrender. He endured more than 100 surgeries and procedures. He
learned to live with pain, to stare at a stranger’s face in the mirror.
He learned to smile again, to joke, to make others laugh.
Some say that there is no stronger bond than that between mother and son. In Sgt. German’s case, this was certainly true.
But he was closest to his mother. When the hospital’s
Holiday Ball approached in 2006, German told Norma Guerra he wanted to
surprise his mother by taking her for a twirl on the dance floor.
Guerra thought he was kidding. She knew it could be agony for him just to take a short walk or raise a scarred arm.
But she agreed to
help, and they rehearsed for months, without his mother knowing. He
chose a love song to be played for the dance: “Have I Told You Lately?”
by Rod Stewart.
That night he donned
his Marine dress blues and shiny black shoes — even though it hurt to
wear them. When the time came, he took his mother in his arms and they
glided across the dance floor.
Everyone stood and applauded. And everyone cried.
Have I told you lately that I love you
Have I told you there’s no one else above you
Fill my heart with gladness, take away all my sadness
Ease my troubles, that’s what you do
There were many dark days for Sgt. German, days of depression and of
wondering why? Why did I not die? Why didn’t God save me before I was
injured like this? Why should I live? A simple “Thank you for serving
your country” from President Bush changed that. In his own words;
That was a life changing moment. So I felt like I did something in Iraq that was worth something.
I started realizing that I was here and I was inspiring
a lot of people. People come up to me and say, ‘you’re so strong and I
look up to you. And some people call me their hero. The more people
were getting excited, the more I realized that I didn’t want to die and
I’m okay with the way I am and continuing inspiring people.
Sgt. German finally lost his battle on April 11, 2008. But not
before touching the lives of thousands of others. His story will
continue to change lives for years to come. Yes, Sgt. German, you did
something in Iraq that was worth something.
Regardless of whether you think, as I do, that our mission in Iraq
is right and just, or if you think, like legions of Americans that are
just as loyal and patriotic to their country as I, that the conflict in
Iraq was not our battle to fight and we need to exit as soon as
possible, we must never forget that we are one nation, under God,
indivisible only because of the sacrifice, courage and strength of
character of men and women like Sgt. Merlin German.
An American Hero
Saturday, 24 May 2008 02:44 |
“No one has greater love than this – that one laysdown his life for his friends.”
Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis put these words into action on Dec. 4, 2006.
A Pennsylvania soldier who jumped on a grenade in Iraq
to save the lives of his comrades at the cost of his own will be
awarded the Medal of Honor.
The nation’s highest military honor will be given to 19-year-old
Army Pfc. Ross McGinnis of Knox, Pa., on June 2, the White House said
Friday.
McGinnis “distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism,” White House deputy press secretary Tony Fratto said.
McGinnis was in the gunner’s hatch of a Humvee on Dec. 4, 2006, when
a grenade sailed past him and into the vehicle where four other
soldiers sat. He shouted a warning, then jumped on the grenade while it
was lodged near the vehicle’s radio. It blew up and killed him.
Lt. Col. Anne Edgecomb, an Army spokeswoman, said McGinnis easily could have jumped out of the vehicle and saved himself.
“The instinct is, jump out of the vehicle, but his four buddies were
in the vehicle with him … and he chose to place himself on top of the
grenade and absorb the impact, and it saved their lives,” Edgecomb said.
The Berkeley City Council voted Tuesday to tell the
Marines that if its recruiters choose to stay in their rented downtown
space “they do so as uninvited and unwelcome guests.”
Obviously, the Marines have been told to leave far more hostile
places and well, you can guess how well that’s worked. And they aren’t
leaving this time either.
Gunnery Sgt. Pauline Franklin said Friday that while the
Corps respects city officials’ right to free speech, the Marines would
not be leaving.
What hasn’t been reported much is that the council also voted on a few other things that will make life hard for the recruiters.
They voted 8-1 to encourage Code Pink to disrupt the
recruiting office on a weekly basis but giving them a designated
parking space in front of the recruiting office on Shattuck Avenue,
from noon to 4 p.m. every Wednesday for six months, as well as a free
sound permit during those same hours.
That pretty much sucks. But Sen. Jim DeMint, R-South Carolina, has a little surprise for the red city.
DeMint said he would draft legislation to strip the city
of federal money, including funds destined for UC Berkeley, for school
lunches in the Berkeley Unified School District, and public safety.
“The First Amendment gives the City of Berkeley the right to be
idiotic, but from now on they should do it with their own money,”
DeMint said in a statement.
Society
