The Morning Roar: Justice Scalia Tells Crowd To Revolt If Taxes Go “Too High,” Lawmakers Look To Ban Microbeads In Soap, And High Speed Police Chase Catches Woman That Stole $140 Of Merchandise
Justice Scalia Tells Crowd To Revolt If Taxes Go “Too High” Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia had a surprise response when a student asked a question during a speaking event at the University of Tennessee College of Law. CBS Washington DC reports on the longest-serving justice's reply when asked about the constitutionality of the income tax.
Scalia responded that the government has the right to implement the tax, “but if it reaches a certain point, perhaps you should revolt.”
He went on to discuss constitutionally acceptable methods you're entitled to use to criticize the government.
“You’re entitled to criticize the government, and you can use words, you can use symbols, you can use telegraph, you can use Morse code, you can burn a flag,” Scalia told the standing-room-only crowd, according to the News Sentinel.
The ambiguous manner that Justice Scalia phrases his reply to the constitutionality of the income tax is interesting. For a libertarian, or to be more precise a natural law libertarian, the income tax is immoral. It is theft of property, plain and simple. Justice Scalia implies that some level of theft is tolerable, but at a distinct point on an imaginary scale a certain level of taxation become unacceptable. This illogical sequence raises more questions than it does provide answers. It only serves to further cloud the discussion around taxation.Justice Scalia mentioned in the same talk that the Constitution is "not a living organism." He goes on to say that “It’s a law. It means what it meant when it was adopted.”It is good that Justice Scalia is not advocating re-writing the Constitution, but is the original document enough to protect the individual liberty of the citizens of the United States especially when those "in charge" pay no attention to the laws outlined in the document? Probably not, but this doesn't mean a new document would be any better. It is these issues which our editor-in-chief Marc Clair pointed out in his stellar article last week, The Constitution, Be Careful What You Wish For.
The Constitution is not a principle. It is simply a document by which the entity known as the U.S. government spells out its powers. It’s true that this entity has in no way limited its power to those in the Constitution, and it’s a worthy enough cause to point this out when appropriate.Libertarians in particular need to stay focused on principles. If one has no principles and simply keeps pointing to this document that the government itself could care less for, they will be one “hey, what about this clause” away from losing every single argument.
Lawmakers Look To Ban Microbeads In SoapThe war on microbeads has officially begun. States around the country are pushing legislation that would ban their use in popular soap, scrub, and toothpaste products. The Huffington Post reports on some states' efforts to ban the production and use of the controversial plastic beads in health care products by 2018.
Commonly found in popular personal health care products, tiny plastic particles known as microbeads have triggered concerns over contamination, with a growing number of states looking to ban the bead.Just last week, Illinois moved one step closer to becoming the first state to enact a microbead ban. The state Senate unanimously approved legislation that would end the production and manufacture of microbeads by 2017, with a state-wide ban on selling products containing microbeads by 2018.States like California, Minnesota, New York and Ohio are also considering legislation to ban microbeads from store shelves.The plastic pellets -- which are not biodegradable -- are so small they slip through sewer and water treatment filters and end up in the water supply, where environmental advocates say they can absorb toxins and harm fish and other wildlife.
How convenient that all of a sudden major health care product manufacturers and distributors have decided to work with politicians to eliminate a supposedly dangerous product from waterways. I wonder what spurred them to act?The evidence against microbeads appears to be circumstantial at this point. There is evidence that microbeads are getting through water treatment filters and back into the water supply. Detractors to microbead usage in products claim this could lead to fish or other animals ingesting the beads. The effects from there on the food chain are unknown.Nobody is addressing the heart of the issue: ownership and property rights associated with bodies of water. Property rights determine which parties' concerns, wants, and needs are addressed. In the current system, corporations are able to work directly with the government agencies that are supposedly supposed to have the people's interests in mind. These two parties work together to draft regulations or legislation with the advertised intention of keeping waterways "clean." I discussed the topic of water way ownership in a previous edition of Mondays With Murray about the California drought, but the principles discussed transfer to water way cleanliness.
The appropriation method might also prevent areas from attracting more people than water resources could support. It could even encourage investment in water transportation methods that could move water to areas where it is not naturally abundant. This could be appealing to investors if the economics are favorable and the project could be executed at a price acceptable to the market. Water would not be moved by government decree, but by the will of the people.In today’s State worshiping society people are more inclined to demand more State involvement to fix problems that are a byproduct of the State distribution model. As a society, we must stop putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound. The road to peace and prosperity is not paved by State coercion, but instead is built brick by brick through peaceful transactions with others looking for a favorable return from the marketplace.
High Speed Police Chase Catches Woman That Stole $140 Of MerchandiseWe take pride at Lions of Liberty in bringing a fresh perspective to reporting the stories that impact your liberty directly. This is why we really appreciate when our readers provide us with first hand accounts of relevant stories by reaching out to us on Twitter, Facebook & Google+. A reader provided us a link on the Lions of Liberty Facebook page regarding a police chase just outside of Pittsburgh, PA.CBS Pittsburgh has the latest on a police chase that began after a woman stole $140 of merchandise from a North Fayette, PA Target.
It all started when two women were suspected of stealing merchandise from a Target in North Fayette.Keisha Young, 24, is accused of speeding away from the store and leading police on a chase down Interstate 376.Police say she rammed several vehicles before crashing near the Interstate 79 interchange in Collier Township.Her son was found unbuckled inside the car.The second woman, 25-year-old Whitney Felder, stayed at the store.
Lions of Liberty Podcast guest and all around good guy Trent Derek was in the area when the police chase occurred. On our Facebook page he provided an eye-witness account of the dangerous maneuvers used by police, which placed other drivers in harm's way.
I was sitting at a stop light and personally saw a North Fayette police cruiser move into an oncoming lane almost causing a head on collision with a mini van. These occurrences of police abusing power are becoming way too commonplace in our society.
The tactics used to apprehend the alleged perpetrator in this crime do not reflect well upon the police involved. Chasing the alleged thief, who had a two-year-old in the car with her, had the effect of causing the fleeing driver to swerve into oncoming traffic and placed many innocent lives at risk.Obviously, the criminal in this chase is mostly to blame for causing the chase to occur by stealing and driving away, but the police exacerbated the problem by chasing in hot pursuit and swerving into oncoming traffic as Trent witnessed on the scene. Perhaps a more reserved, calculated, and more cautious pursuit could have resulted in safely apprehending the perpetrator without putting more people's lives at risk.The most disturbing aspect of the story is that the police were willing to risk injuring or killing innocent bystanders in order to recover $140 in property and arrest a small time thief.Read The Morning Roar every weekday Monday-Friday!The Lions of Liberty are on Twitter, Facebook & Google+Receive access to ALL of our EXCLUSIVE bonus audio content – including “Conspiracy Corner”, “Degenerate Gamblers” and the “League of Liberty Podcast” by joining the Lions of Liberty Pride and supporting us on Patreon!
