One of the bulletin boards that I frequent is the Hot Rodder’s Bulletin Board (http://hotrodders.com). In addition to the car related forums which contain thousands of threads regarding technical car issues, there is an “Off-Topic” forum which often contains threads of political nature. If you have read any of my posts, you have probably already figured out that I spend a lot of time reading and posting in the “Off-Topic” forum as well.
There was a post several days ago which prompted the tome you are reading now. The thread starter posted some information about Cap and Trade. The upsetting part of the post for me was the potential infringement it seemed that Cap and Trade would make on the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution with respect to property rights. The post said that the Cap and Trade bill would require home owners to have an energy audit performed on their home. If the home was found to be below par, it would have to be improved to a certain level before the owner could sell it.
What I found almost as troubling as the potential infringement on our rights was the response posts of several other members of the bulletin board. Completely ignoring the thread starter’s legitimate concerns about the government illegally infringing on our rights, they accused him as wanting to destroy the planet. They also ridiculed him for not understanding that the government would pay for part of the improvements to bring the property to sellable condition.
After making a few uneducated comments on the thread, I decided to write a more in-depth comment. Time to do some research.
I googled H.R. 2454. I found a lot of conflicting information. After a considerable amount of search fine tuning, I found some sites which had the actual bill. The first one had a summary and other basic information. Basically, the summary gave you warm fuzzies because the bill is going to single-handedly save the planet. There may have been something in there about curing the common cold.
Buried deep in the page was a link to “Read the entire bill.” At last, the holy grail of conservation. I could read for myself whether or not I would have to get a government energy audit license in order to sell my house. One quick click and there it was. “This file is extremely large and may slow your computer down or cause it to crash. Do you want to continue?”
I was stunned. What had our elected officials done? I can use my computer to find instructions on everything from trimming my nose hair to how to build a nuclear weapon. Yet somehow they managed to write a piece of legislation which is so large and complex that it would likely crash my computer.
I eventually did find a PDF file which my computer would handle. At 932 pages though, I couldn’t handle it. Further searching led to a Realtor’s organization site which had excerpted the pertinent pages. At last, I had the truth from an anonymous person working for an organization with a vested interest.
It seems that the bill originally included the energy audit and license to sell regulations. These were dropped before the bill was passed in the house and sent to the senate. There is still a provision that the states can require the audit and seller’s license if the state organization created by the federal bill so decides. I felt a little better knowing that the states would be less likely to do something like this. That was until someone pointed out that the California senate passed a bill which would allow people to ride bicycles without a seat provided the bicycle manufacturer designed and built the bicycle to not have a seat. Don’t believe me? Google “Kehoe SB 527.” This is representative of the brain trust we have put in control.
Through my frustration it occurred to me that our government has taken a page from the cable companies’ operating manuals. The art of bundling. You know, that is where the cable company takes something you need, like a station which tells you if a tornado is heading toward your house, and they bundle it with something you want, like the SPEED Channel, but then force you to buy something you normally wouldn’t let in your house, like Lifetime.
The government has taken something that no reasonable person would be against, like conservation, bundled it with something we want, in this case money for part of the improvements, provided you are poor enough and your home is worthless enough, and bundled all of that with a reduction in your rights which were originally granted to you by the Creator and protected by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
My wife’s cousin recently posted a quote by James Madison on his Facebook wall.
“It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.”There is a movement afoot in the US calling on our representatives to “Read the Bill.” The idea is that, at 932 pages, there is no doubt that the majority of our representatives did not read this bill before they voted on it. I will go one step further. Write the bill so that the average American can read it and understand it.
We have to stop our run-away government. They are supposed to be working for us, guarding our rights, not stripping them away. Find a candidate who supports the work of our Founding Fathers. Someone who recognizes that our rights are not granted by the government but rather our government is in charge of protecting those rights. Donate money to that candidate. Volunteer to make phone calls and walk precincts with literature. We are a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. But we are giving that up and allowing a DC lawyers to perform our work for us. In turn, they are working hard on enslaving us.
No comments:
Post a Comment