Loving Freedom Enough to Defy the NDAA :: 12/25/2011

You might assume that revolution brews here in the "Homeland," given Our Rulers' paranoia: both the House and Senate have passed the National Defense Authorization Act of 2012 (NDAA) ; the bill requires only Obummer's signature by December 26 to destroy the venerable, infinitely precious right of habeas corpus. Thereafter, the president may declare American citizens "terrorists" with no evidence whatsoever and imprison them indefinitely.

The NDAA implies that the heavily armed sociopaths in office fear us pistol-packin' serfs. And while the legislation justifies their phobia by painting taxpayers as terrorists, that's merely Leviathan's excuse. Our Rulers are instead panicked that we hope to shuck their bankrupting stranglehold. And they plan to pre-empt that by throwing us in the clink and the key away while claiming to "protect" those subjects yet to be rounded up. Always and forever, the State equates slavery with safety.

I don't know what country these congressional cowards inhabit, but the Americans I know are so far from rebellion they've earned the sobriquet "sheeple." Their major preoccupations seem to be their kids' performance in Our Ruler's dumbed-down indoctrination centers - parents don't yet deem poor grades in propaganda a badge of honor - and how they'll pay their bills.

Few blame government for their poverty and struggles. They seldom if ever connect high unemployment with licensing of just about every occupation, minimum-wage laws, and smothering regulation; nor do they perceive the equally clear corollary between exorbitant prices at the gas-pumps and the EPA's diktats. One friend blames the current economic catastrophe not on the Feds' century of extravagance and swindles but on individuals' irresponsibility with credit cards.

Indeed, far from faulting the government that so loathes them, most taxpayers are touchingly loyal to it. They're proud when their kids enlist to fight its endless wars; they blaspheme their churches with its flag; they gape uncomprehendingly at the idea that the State is their worst enemy rather than a third and very doting parent. Sure, they occasionally grumble about a politician whose crimes snag the corporate media's attention, but they continue voting for him nonetheless, a la Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) or Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.).

So with the NDAA, the government has as usual drastically overreacted. And thereby grabbed immensely more power. Your imagination needn't be especially vivid to picture the many uses politicians will find for their new toy as the definition of "terrorist" - which already includes little old ladies in Switzerland -- expands at twice the speed of the national debt.