The Morning Roar: It’s Time To Lower The Drinking Age, Obama Is Not Welcome In The Philippines, And 700+ People Sign Petition Demanding Michigan City Police Return Military Vehicle
Welcome to your Thursday edition of The Morning Roar!It’s Time To Lower The Drinking AgeA recent opinion article by Camille Paglia in Time made the assertion that it is time to lower the drinking age in the U.S. to align with the rest of the civilized world. Throughout the article the self-proclaimed libertarian author utilized only two of the three ethical philosophies of liberty, emotivist and utilitarian. It is exciting to see a mainstream outlet make the case for the removal of a liberty sapping federal law from the books, but unfortunately the method used leaves the argument full of holes and does not address the immoral nature of the law. The author does make some decent points using these two libertarian philosophies, but fails to formulate a principled, moral reason for doing away with the drinking age.The following is an excerpt from the Time article titled, The Drinking Age Is Past Its Prime:
Learning how to drink responsibly is a basic lesson in growing up — as it is in wine-drinking France or in Germany, with its family-oriented beer gardens and festivals. Wine was built into my own Italian-American upbringing, where children were given sips of my grandfather’s home-made wine. This civilized practice descends from antiquity. Beer was a nourishing food in Egypt and Mesopotamia, and wine was identified with the life force in Greece and Rome: In vino veritas (in wine, truth). Wine as a sacred symbol of unity and regeneration remains in the Christian Communion service. Virginia Woolf wrote that wine with a fine meal lights a “subtle and subterranean glow, which is the rich yellow flame of rational intercourse.”
Many of the points made by the author represent how any reasonable person would feel about the underage drinking law, if they had not been inundated with propaganda by public schools and media outlets that repeatedly touted the necessity of the law throughout their lifetime. The author neglects to adequately argue the immorality of the federal underage drinking law. For the State to dictate what individuals can put into their bodies is unnatural and brings with it unintended consequence. These consequences frequently are more damaging to the individual than the substance prohibited would have been if consumed.Murrary Rothbard was gifted at succinctly explaining why it is absolutely vital for humans to learn from their own actions and missteps, free from interference by the State. In Chapter 2 of For A New Liberty: The Libertarian Manifesto, which fellow contributor to this site Marc Clair cited in the aforementioned installment of Mondays With Murray: 3 Ethical Philosophies of Liberty, Murray eloquently describes how State meddling (like with the proper age to drink alcohol) violates the natural law of man.
Possessing no automatic instincts, each man must learn about himself and the world, use his mind to select values, learn about cause and effect, and act purposively to maintain himself and advance his life. Since men can think, feel, evaluate, and act only as individuals, it becomes vitally necessary for each man’s survival and prosperity that he be free to learn, choose, develop his faculties, and act upon his knowledge and values. This is the necessary path of human nature; to interfere with and cripple this process by using violence goes profoundly against what is necessary by man’s nature for his life and prosperity. Violent interference with a man’s learning and choices is therefore profoundly “antihuman”; it violates the natural law of man’s needs.
Obama Is Not Welcome In The PhilippinesWhile President Obama was dining on $300 sushi with the Japanese Prime Minister in Tokyo, hundreds of left-wing activists in the Philippines protested the coming visit from the President of the United States. They gathered at the U.S. embassy in Manila on Wednesday to oppose a security pact that would increase the number of U.S. troops in the country. NBC News reports:
Police armed with truncheons, shields and a fire hose clashed with more than 100 left-wing activists who rallied at the U.S. Embassy in Manila on Wednesday to oppose a visit by President Barack Obama and an expected security pact that would increase the American military presence in the Philippines.
Some of the protesters carried paper U.S. flags with the message: "Obama not welcome."
It is admirable that these brave souls in the Philippines stood up to their own government, which is in bed with the big bad U.S. government. The spineless U.S. government puppets that hold leadership roles, starting with the President of the Republic of the Philippines Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino III, have learned from their American allies how to silence dissenting opinion, by using force and violence. In this instance they turned a fire hose on the protesters.With the U.S. government increasing troop levels in Eastern Europe and Asia, it is likely that more and more of the people on the ground in these countries will be opposed to the U.S. government violating their perceived national sovereignty. Without a doubt, the citizens of these nations have seen the destruction the U.S. military caused in Iraq and Afghanistan. Thanks to the Internet, people across the globe are now aware of the U.S. government's involvement in clandestine operations that have resulted in violent coup d'états in Egypt and Ukraine.These are different times and people are starting to push back against encroachment on national sovereignty, especially by the United States government as a result of their growing reputation as global instigators.700+ People Sign Petition Demanding Michigan City Police Return Military VehicleIt looks like this installment of The Morning Roar is all about fighting back against the State. First we discussed a mainstream outlet calling for the repeal of the federal law which sets the drinking age at twenty-one, then we traveled to the other side of the globe to cover Filipinos being assaulted by their government for peacefully protesting an increase in the amount U.S. troops in the country, and now we'll look at a town in Michigan that is demanding its police department return a military vehicle they had been given.The citizens of Michigan City, MI are afraid their local police force is becoming too militarized. Instead of sitting on their hands as they watch police officers turn into heavily armed soldiers, they are doing something to put a stop to it. Led by Ray Wolff, the chairman of the Libertarian Party in LaPorte County, an online petition in the town has gathered more than 700 signatures demanding that the police department returns the military grade vehicle, which was supplied at no cost by the U.S. military.
Ray Wolff, of LaPorte, started the petition drive believing that the Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Vehicle represents too much of a military presence in grassroots law enforcement."The concerns run the gamut but one of the those big reasons is kind of a concern that people have about the militarization of the police," said Wolff, who is chairman of the Libertarian Party in LaPorte County.Michigan City police recently obtained its MRAP worth $800,000 at no cost under the federal military surplus vehicle giveaway program.Police have cited the potential for occasional uses like safely transporting more than a dozen officers at once to situations involving gunfire and driving up to a doorway to provide a better chance for hostages to safely flee in a vehicle that's bulletproof.
It is concerning to watch as police departments across the country become increasingly militarized, but it is great to see the residents of this little town fighting back against this trend. This petition is a similar tactic to the letter sent to a police chief, voicing concern over an unnecessary high-speed police chase, which we covered in yesterday's installment of The Morning Roar. These are the type of tactics that need to be used to reign in the current system, while continuing to work to educate people on the need to end the State's stranglehold on the institution of justice.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!
