With the government’s sudden fixation with violence and terrorism (as defined by Janet Napolitano, at any rate), it’s worth going over what “security” is.<\/p>\n
The big picture, of course, is important; government has a constitutional duty to defend the country.\u00a0 It’s one of a very, very short list of duties actually spelled out for a legitimate government in the Constitution; it’s one of the few legitimate reasons any government exists.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Secure the borders?\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 There is not a nation in the world worth the title that doesn’t protect its own sovereignty.\u00a0 There’s a reason for this; we formed a nation for a reason.\u00a0 We intend<\/em> it to be disctinct from other nations.\u00a0 If tomorrow all of the world’s other nations upheld freedom, the rule of law, the value of the individual, and (after November, 2012, God willing) the free market.\u00a0 Of course, the United States is a nation of immigrants, and indeed we need <\/em>immigrants to keep rejuvenating this nation; nations with unchanging cultures become ossified and stagnant.\u00a0 But the key is that immigrants must come to the United States<\/em>, rather than bringing Ireland or Finland or Greece here.\u00a0<\/p>\n But that’s fodder for the upcoming “Culture” installment.<\/p>\n Protecting us from criminals?\u00a0 Yep.\u00a0 That too.\u00a0 The law-abiding citizen should be secure on his\/her property, with his\/her possessions, and his\/her rights.\u00a0 The law should<\/p>\n Which is where government keeps screwing up.\u00a0 It’s not just governments run by crime bosses and warlords – Russia and Tadjikistan and the Congo – that break this rule.\u00a0\u00a0 In the UK, a law-abiding citizen who defends his home, property or self from a burglar, robber or attacker with any kind of force frequently faces stiffer punishment than the criminal involved.\u00a0 In Chicago – a city prowled by gangs armed barely a degree behind the Fedayin Saddam <\/em>fashion curve – the full weight of the city’s legal system waits to fall upon the citizen who dares resist the thugs with a .22 handgun.<\/p>\n Any dictator can make you “secure”; the streets of Rome were safe enough under Mussolini.\u00a0 But that’s not security, any more that a dictator (or university dean) giving you a few minutes to say what you want within a bunch of carefully set-up guidelines is “freedom of speech”.\u00a0 “Security” that exists only at the pleasure and to the purposes of ones’ leaders – masters, really – isn’t security at all.\u00a0 It’s the kind of “Security” that a flock of sheep get when escorted by a pack of wolves; it exists only for the needs of the wolves, not the flock.<\/p>\n “No problem, Mitch.\u00a0 America’s not like that!”<\/p>\n Gun control laws that burden the law-abiding more than criminals – that’s almost all of them – don’t enhance “security”.\u00a0<\/p>\n Property forfeiture laws that penalize the innocent (which one is supposed to be, until proven guilty) do not make us more “secure”.<\/p>\n Federal “watch lists” that stimatize mainstream (if temporarily out-of-power) dissent make us less <\/em>secure.<\/p>\n A government policy that is more accomodating to those that would kill us than to those who have defended us doesn’t make us more secure.<\/p>\n That’s what I want; that’s what this nation needs; a government that knows “Security” protects the nation while upholding the citizen.<\/p>\n Wow.\u00a0 I am <\/em>an extremist!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" With the government’s sudden fixation with violence and terrorism (as defined by Janet Napolitano, at any rate), it’s worth going over what “security” is. The big picture, of course, is important; government has a constitutional duty to defend the country.\u00a0 It’s one of a very, very short list of duties actually spelled out for a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,7,24,79,9,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservatism","category-crime-and-punishment","category-culture-war","category-slander-files","category-war-on-terror","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9286"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9755,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9286\/revisions\/9755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}