Editor's Note: Due to personal obligations, I am unlikely to blog until June 23, and will be present on X/Twitter irregularly.

I hear that Trump wants to imprison people who burn the flag, which is both red meat for his base and exemplary of his failure to appreciate the nature of our system of government.

Trump's sentiment is nothing new among social conservatives, and the silver lining to this fact is that there are ample explanations for why this would be wrong.

Indeed, in 1990, The Association for Objective Law circulated a very good explanation that covered two of the most misunderstood points that make many otherwise patriotic Americans want to criminalize flag-burning.

First, most Americans today have forgotten or never learned the nature of rights or of our system of government, which was designed to protect them:

[Rights as being only listed permissions] is not the way rights work; it is not what the founders of this country intended, and it is not what the flag represents.

Rights arise out of the nature of man; as Ayn Rand has explained, they are "conditions of existence required by man's nature for his proper survival." They are not gifts of the state, or permissions, to be withdrawn at any time. Indeed, the only proper purpose of government is to protect the rights of individuals from those who seek to violate them by the initiation of physical force. Ayn Rand puts it as follows: "[I]t cannot be repeated too often that the Constitution is a limitation on the government, not on private individuals -- that it does not prescribe the conduct of private individuals, only the conduct of the government -- that it is not a charter for government power, but a charter of the citizens' protection against the government." [bold added]

A flag is property (with no rights), not an individual (who has, for example, the free speech and property rights that apply to flag burning).

Second, after generations of all-intrusive government, too many Americans imagine that the government should enforce morality or they readily confuse the legal with the moral. These are not the same:

The flag is an important symbol of the system of government embodying these principles, and a showing of contempt for it is despicable. But the destruction of the flag, if the flag belongs to the person burning it and the conduct endangers nobody, is not an initiation of force or a violation of anyone's rights, and nobody seems to be claiming it is. On the contrary, any statute forbidding flag burning is an initiation of force and a violation of an individual right: the right to property, which includes the right to use the property to express any ideas the owner wishes.

Any other view of rights is terribly dangerous. The view that you are not free unless the particular action you wish to take is on an approved list, that you are not free to act unless the government tells you that you may, leaves us all defenseless against those who wish to dictate what we can do... [bold added]

I recommend reading the whole thing and referring others to it. An incompetent who aspires to be our dictator has taken a keen interest in this issue, and more capable people are waiting in the wings, watching.

We must do what we can to ensure that this administration faces an informed and motivated public.

-- CAV

Defund California. No more federal money. For anything. Effective immediately.

Police in L.A. are in a thankless position. They are expected to go through the motions of enforcing law and order without actually doing it. They’re expected to risk their lives and are set up for failure, repeatedly, by the traitors in office such as the California governor and Los Angeles puppet mayor. Maybe law enforcement in L.A. should simply leave the city & give its citizens the Marxist Utopian Hell they want (and deserve).

So far, riots and scamdemics aren’t working as well as in 2020. Next move, Comrade Democrats?

The next thing we can expect to hear? Democrats have issued an order (via TikTok and The View) stating that their policies of American annihilation are the immediate law of the land, and everything President Trump does is illegal.  It saves time. It’s just satire, at the moment. In a day or a week, it probably won’t be.

U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson says we should “tar and feather” California Governor Newsom. It’s a start. Or perhaps ship him overseas to Iran and feed him to the medieval wolves. But if we’re really serious, we have to outlaw people holding office in the United States who openly and explicitly practice Communism, fascism, terrorism, violence, looting and selective enforcement of laws based on Party affiliation. If California wants to be part of the United States and live under its Constitution, it can’t put totalitarians who loathe the United States in office. Ditto for any other state.

 

The post Defund California appeared first on Michael J. Hurd, Ph.D. | Living Resources Center.

American businesses are not free to hire the employees they want.

The post Immigration Regulations Strangle American Businesses appeared first on New Ideal - Reason | Individualism | Capitalism.