Welcome to the Pursuit of Liberty. There are countless millions of blogs on the web these days, so many that virtually every niche has its own over abundance of thought expressed in endless supply online. So what’s so special about this one? Why should you bookmark us and check us out every day? Well, let me explain the purposes of this blog and I believe you will see we’re unique.
- To keep you up to date on the latest happenings in the news, relevant to people like you and me who care about our Republic and our rights.
- To bring you thought provoking analysis and start debate.
- To educate you about your rights and draw a line in the sand against government interference in your daily life.
So, what do I believe?
Government governs best which governs most locally. I believe in states’ rights because it’s a concept inserted into our constitution by very smart men who believed laws should reflect the people they affect. That is to say, what’s best for the people of Washington state may not be what works best for the people of Virginia. And you know what? That’s ok. I may be deeply pro-life but that’s an issue I will argue for my state and my community, not the Federal government. In fact, the 10th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States specifically states that:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
Which is amazing considering the constitution grants very few and clearly enumerated powers to the federal government. As it stands too much of our power has been usurped by the feds and that power needs to be returned to the people, to you.
The Republic cannot function without ethical and limited law enforcement. You might think I will speak in opposition to the left wing in America and, generally, you’d be right. To my left I see a power-hungry mob which seeks to establish its own nanny state. But I also take issue with many on the right, because I see many of them attempting to violate the same constitution for different reasons. Over bearing government is wrong regardless of the justification behind it. We should not surrender our liberty for peace and safety, whether that peace and safety is from hunger and illness or from terrorism and war. In short, I see a nanny state to my left and a police state to my right – I just want to be left alone in a free state! That also means pointing out law enforcement abuse when it happens. I am a huge supporter of police because, hey, I rather enjoy going to work each day without being robbed, beaten and killed. Don’t you? I am not some pretentious, spoiled college kid who won’t pull his head out of his bong long enough to see that cops are, by and large, the good guys. They do a tough job, not just in the sense that it’s dangerous. I’ve worked with the public for many years from retail to customer service to business ownership. If a customer will scream at me over some groceries I can only imagine what abuse the police often endure. However, when I see cops acting unethically – and the union and chiefs defending the indefensible, I will shine the light of liberty on fascism and corruption for the sake of the republic.
A pro-liberty agenda cannot survive with a giant letter “L” stamped on its forehead. Now that you have some idea what I believe, at least in as far as the nature of government is concerned, you might think I’m going to endorse a third-party. Surely, I must be as upset and disappointed with the Republican party as I am with the Democratic party. Well, I am upset with the Republican party – but not with the leadership. I’m angry that people like you and me haven’t gotten more involved, more interested, in saving our rights and our Republic. But in order to be relevant we must WIN, at least every once in a while. Third parties are great – if you enjoy losing election after election and wasting countless millions of dollars. Instead, let’s work together to push the Republican party back to what American’s want more than anything from their government: their liberty. We can do this through two important steps:
- By caring about and participating in the Republican party and its primaries, at all levels of government and in all elections.
- By supporting and uniting behind the Republican candidates for major offices, even when they are not perfect.
That second step is particularly important. For those of you with a great libertarian zeal who thinking, “I won’t settle for anything less than perfect” I’ve got some bad news: it doesn’t exist. You will never find a politician, or anyone for that matter, that you agree with on every single issue. John McCain was far from perfect, but he is also far from Obama. Do you honestly believe we would be $1.6 trillion in the red this year, or that we’d be waiting months for a decision on Afghanistan while are troops are dying, if the President was the war hero from Arizona instead of the carpet bagger from Illinois?
But there’s good news, by winning elections and making strong conservative, and, yes, libertarian arguments we can move the country in our direction. We didn’t arrive at the doorstep of fascism overnight, it took a century. The road back will be long and arduous, but will be undeniably worth it.
Join me, won’t you? And if you don’t agree with me, please engage me. No healthy republic can survive without the market of public discourse.
I look forward to this conversation.
Mark Baird
November 26, 2009
Let’s not forget us Liberals who believe in Federalism as well. Federalism is not just for conservatives and libertarians.
saintjacque
November 26, 2009
Absolutely, the broad appeal of local governance is exactly why we should be pushing this issue harder. I’m glad you stopped by, I hope we can debate these issues in the future.
Mark Baird
December 2, 2009
I do not find many Republicans and/or conservatives that believe in Federalism. This is evident by the lack of Republicans/conservatives support for the Medical Device Safety Act of 2009 which is in response to Reigel v. Medtronic.
http://www.robertsfight.com
saintjacque
December 2, 2009
If I read HR 1346 correctly, it looks as though it prevents states from exempting medical devices from liability laws. If that’s the case then yes, this is a good example of anti-federalist behavior on the part of the Congress. For clarity, I’ve attached the full text of the bill – at least it’s short.
There is no question this is an up hill battle, even in my own party. That’s why I want to work with anyone in either party who believes in the Constitution, because it will take nothing less.
—–
HR 1346:
To amend the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act with respect to liability under State and local requirements respecting devices.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘Medical Device Safety Act of 2009’.
SEC. 2. LIABILITY UNDER STATE AND LOCAL REQUIREMENTS RESPECTING DEVICES.
(a) Amendment- Section 521 of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (21 U.S.C. 360k) is amended by adding at the end the following:
‘(c) No Effect on Liability Under State Law- Nothing in this section shall be construed to modify or otherwise affect any action for damages or the liability of any person under the law of any State.’.
(b) Effective Date; Applicability- The amendment made by subsection (a) shall–
(1) take effect as if included in the enactment of the Medical Device Amendments of 1976 (Public Law 94-295); and
(2) apply to any civil action pending or filed on or after the date of enactment of this Act.
Scott
November 29, 2013
I am sure that, somewhere, gay trroerists are working with trial lawyers and union types to use government money to promote abortions and crack smoking.Actually, they’re doing quite well with the abortions, Anony. And you forgot about the ACLU. Try harder next time.Believe it or not, I wasn’t really serious about the ‘trial lawyer’ thing–because I, too, understand that there’s no “there” there for money awards.(But, as Anony observes, lawyers are an easy target.)Like Anony and Rick, I am absolutely mystified as to the rationale behind the vote of the Dems. They cannot be serious when they yammer about “not-related-to-the-main-legislation” which was their figleaf-cover.Maybe it’s just pure partisan spite and they’ll come up with their own version next week.
Mark Baird
December 3, 2009
I will be traveling to DC when this moves out of committee. I am prepared to counter any argument that is tossed at me but this comes down to one simple fact, the wisdom of a diverse crowd. We all believe in the free market and we all believe in democracy but for some reason people can not be trusted to sit on a jury. Why is that? Why is it that for some reason we are sophisticated to know what we want for ourselves and our children but we get stupid on juries? We are a nation of highly educated individuals creating and building very complex system but somehow we get stupid when sitting on juries? It does not make sense to me other then money = power = influence trying to limit the power of individuals.
I have become even more focused on federalism since I read the book: “The Wisdom of Crowds: Why the Many Are Smarter Than the Few and How Collective Wisdom Shapes Business, Economies, Societies and Nations.”
http://www.amazon.com/Wisdom-Crowds-Collective-Economies-Societies/dp/0385503865
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wisdom_of_Crowds
You may find the following book interesting. I know I did and it sealed my on Federalism. I think the key is “collective wisdom”. How do we enhance this system to get more “collective wisdom” into the system instead of egos in politics. Again information and diversity of the group is the key as well as local decision making. It works no differently with very creative corporations.
There is an interesting discussion around the second shuttle disaster and why the experts failed. You could take this same scenario and apply it to the two political parties that we have that were nationalized in the mid 90’s (This is part of the problem. Local politics has become national.)
We have moved from this utopian pursuit of consumerism to this utopian pursuit of socialism. Maybe these large swings are how this democracy is supposed to work but it sure does not feel right.
Democracy can be messy at times and it is not efficient but our founding fathers did not give us this system for efficiency. It is the best system in the world, not perfect but the best.
Xin
November 29, 2013
Rick, you are interrupting Dad’s amttept to throw together a good story. A good story needs bad guys. And, we know that all things we disagree with are the direct result of nefarious machinations by “trial lawyers,” homosexuals, white guilt sufferers, criminal coddlers, and the other usual suspects.It might have been interesting if someone actually triued to find out why the opponents were opposed so we could assess the reasoning – but that’s no fun.A guess; current law does not typically provide a cause of action for money for honestly and in good faith reporting to law enforcement concerns that a crime might be afoot.It makes me wonder what the actual affect of the change would have been.Sorry to bore you dad. I am sure that, somewhere, gay terrorists are working with trial lawyers and union types to use government money to promote abortions anc crack smoking.