In early October, U.S. Navy SEALs secretly captured one of the most wanted terrorists in Iraq, Ahmed Hashim Abed, the alleged mastermind of the murder and mutilation of four Blackwater USA security guards in Fallujah in 2004.
Now, three of the SEALs who captured him are facing criminal charges because Abed claims he was hit in the stomach by one of the SEALs.
 | chas butterfield on DEMINT: White House land grab 5th Mar 10 Obviously, once again, just like HITLER, the BLUE_SHIRTED LIBERAL NAZIS are trying to control, NOT only the Banks/car companies/ healthcare ... |
 | Brian Wilson on Unsustainable 23rd Feb 10 America may be listening -- but they sure as hell aren't comprehending. At CPAC last week, the entire hotel population ... |
 | 1776 on Unsustainable 7th Feb 10 yeah, Steyn does nail it. But I think the majority of America is listening...now. And more people wake ... |
| 1776 on Tebow’s Super Story 7th Feb 10 I think the Pro-Choice movement is all about choice....but only if you agree with them. They don't seem to ... |
| Brian Wilson on Our National Blind Spot 7th Feb 10 Excellent piece! Hendrickson uses an economy of words to pronounce the absolute essence of America's problem. Indeed, neither Marx, Engle or ... |
 | Stoby Stobart on Unsustainable 7th Feb 10 Steyn nails it. Why isn't America listening? Or reading? "Mad Max on the New Jersey Turnpike" now THAT'S a picture a ... |
 | Stand Like A Rock is a fan of |
To those of you who retain some remnant of dignity and the will to live your lives for yourselves, you have the chance to make the same choice. Examine your values and understand that you must choose one side or the other. Any compromise between good and evil only hurts the good and helps the evil.
~John Galt
When a long train of abuses and usurpations,pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism,it is their right,it is their duty,to throw off such government,and to provide new guards for their future securities.
~Declaration of Independence
Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Honor” Rally Supports Special Ops Troops and Families.
RESTORING HONOR 8.28.10
By Mark W. Hendrickson
American Thinker, February 6, 2010
Nobody will dispute the fact that there are differences between private and public behavior. We can all think of things that we do privately that we would never consider doing in public.
This holds true in politics, too. Specifically, the vast majority of Americans would never dream of stealing from another person, yet they have no compunction about wanting government to take property from some citizens to give it to others.
Friends with whom we would entrust the keys to our house and all our worldly goods are often enthusiastic supporters of government programs that redistribute wealth. Few of us would imagine that a Washington lobbyist would peek out his window at home, wait for his neighbors to leave, and then sneak into their houses to take their possessions. The very image is absurd. And yet, those same lobbyists spend their working hours trying to persuade politicians to grant favors to them and send the bill to someone else.
Decades ago, the oldest free-market think tank, The Foundation for Economic Education, Inc., published Lewis Love’s short parable, “A King of Long Ago.” In the story, an artisan, a mason, and a lame beggar petition their king for aid. The artisan can’t attract enough customers to meet his sales goals, the mason isn’t getting hired very often, and the beggar isn’t receiving sufficient alms.
They implore the king to correct this unsatisfactory state of affairs. The king commands that each petitioner be given a sword. He then authorizes the three to “go forth in the land and compel those who will not voluntarily deal with them to obey their command.”
“No! No!” the three men demur. “We are men of honor and could not set upon our fellow man to compel him to our will. This we cannot do. It is you, O King, who must use the power.”
“You ask me to do that which you would not do because of honor?” questioned the king. “I, too, am an honorable man, and that which is dishonorable for you will never be less dishonorable for your king.”
Besides illustrating the ideal of the rule of law — in which everyone, regardless of wealth, rank, and position, is equally constrained from infringing the rights of others — this little parable shows the inconsistency of believing that private citizens should respect private property, but government leaders need not. Is that which is personally immoral politically moral?
What causes otherwise-honest people to condone the political plunder and redistribution of personal property? Immorality? That’s too harsh for my taste. I prefer to say that there is a blind spot in their thinking.
Maybe what we’re dealing with is mob psychology. Perhaps it’s rationalization. “It’s for a worthy cause,” we tell ourselves, oblivious to the fact that the Eighth Commandment doesn’t say “Thou shalt not steal … except by majority vote or unless it’s for the poor.”
Perhaps the explanation for this blind spot is self-delusion. We see nothing wrong with receiving benefits from the state. What we remain blissfully unconscious of is that the state has nothing to give us but what it takes from our fellow citizens. Indeed, Bastiat called the state “the great fiction through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.” It is a dream, a myth, and a fiction to believe that government gives you wealth out of its own productive bounty. Governments don’t produce wealth; they only take it and redistribute it, substituting the political judgment of the few (the governing elite) for the economic verdict of everyone (a genuinely democratic process) acting in free markets.
Many reason that democracy somehow sanctifies and legitimates the forcible redistribution of wealth. For them, democracy sanitizes and civilizes the process of taking someone’s honestly earned property. They don’t perceive this as robbery.
But if this isn’t robbery, then what is it? If the state’s would-be victims resist being plundered, the state will retaliate by confiscating even more of their property and/or incarcerating them. The democratic process rests on force and the implied threat of force every step of the way.
We don’t bat an eye anymore when someone glibly proposes “spreading the wealth.” In fact, many Americans enjoy spreading the wealth, as long as it isn’t their own. In a recent survey, three out of four Americans agreed that Obama and Congress should raises taxes on that minority of Americans with annual incomes above $200,000. Apparently, most Americans believe that Obama, Pelosi, Reid, and their minions have more of a right to spend those dollars than the citizens who earned them.
If you think this line of thought is crazy, then let me ask you a question: What percentage of a person’s honest income should he or she be allowed to keep? The only guidelines I am aware of are “all of it” (the original American way, since income taxes were unconstitutional until 1913) or nothing beyond what anybody else (except the governing elite) can keep, according to the communist principle “from each according to his ability to each according to his need.”
Between those two polar extremes, any percentage one chooses would be arbitrary. In practice, the degree to which property is redistributed depends on whatever shifting political coalition has enough votes — enough power — at any given moment. Stripped of grandiose pretenses and specious idealism, contemporary political life has descended into a constant, contentious squabble to see who gets what at the expense of whom.
Somehow, we’re going to have to find a way to correct this ethical blind spot if we ever hope to avoid national bankruptcy and to live in greater harmony than we do today.
Mark Hendrickson teaches economics at Grove City College and is Fellow for Economic & Social Policy at the College’s Center for Vision & Values.
Source: American Thinker
Related posts:
Tags: social robbery, socialism | Category CONSTITUTION, ECONOMICS, NEW AMERICA
Obama’s Ides-of-March Moment is Near
By the end of March, Barack Obama’s administration will face its destiny, its Brutus a pawn of the fates. (snip) For the country, times equivalent to the Great Depression are likely ahead.
standlikearock: The U.S. Census: “Rule of Law” or “Rule of Men”? | http://tinyurl.com/y9au7llstandlikearock: Reconciliation and the Senate Bill | http://tinyurl.com/yaohqotstandlikearock: Perspectives Of A Russian Immigrant (No. 7) | People often ask me why I left the Soviet Union | http://tinyurl.com/y8vreyhstandlikearock: The Philosophic Roots of Eco-Theology | Relativism | http://tinyurl.com/y8uffn7standlikearock: RT @savethiscountry: "America I have wasted your time" ~ Beck. No, you havent Glenn. Now there is no doubt Massa is a total douchebag.standlikearock: Obama's Iran Policy Collapses to the Accompaniment of Mockery Around the Globe | http://tinyurl.com/ydpvshgstandlikearock: 5 Ways Liberals Misjudge the American People | http://tinyurl.com/ychkcod
jbkeener1776: got a letter from the govt today telling me expect my census form shortly and that I should fill it out and send it in. Was that necessary?jbkeener1776: Not to say that I doubt what he's said about Rahm's tactics... Rahm is one creepy dude...jbkeener1776: Really curious to see how this turns out with Massa. Is he a sleaze and looking to do some damage on his way out, or is he a victim?jbkeener1776: Interesting that the doctors advised Obama to cut his alcohol...wonder how much he admitted to drinking...& is he drinking more than that?jbkeener1776: Here's why Dems keep pushing 'dead' Obamacare despite growing public opposition | http://tinyurl.com/ybzd2p7jbkeener1776: ...its like saying that in the midst of the Revol. War...hey some of us might die...maybe we should rethink this. This is their Revolution.jbkeener1776: ...and they will seize it. They have been waiting for this time in history for over a hundred years...they don't care who gets reelected.jbkeener1776: I an honestly so tired of hearing how the dems are going to do in the midterm elections. They don't care. This is their moment...
You can already see us in several places: Twitter, RSS Feeds, Email subscription… and now we’re on Facebook too!
Our Facebook page and this website are hosted by different people and will generally bring you different stories.
So, don’t forget to become a fan of
Stand Like A Rock on Facebook!
Copyright © 2009 Stand Like A Rock. Theme by THAT Agency powered by WordPress.
PDF 
Comment By: Brian Wilson
February 7th, 2010 at 6:30 am
Excellent piece! Hendrickson uses an economy of words to pronounce the absolute essence of America’s problem.
Indeed, neither Marx, Engle or “Robin Hood” were signatories to the Declaration of Indpendence or the US Constitution.
Tom Sowell asks a similar question: How much of another person’s money are you entitled?
Walter Williams once asked How old do I have to be before American taaxpayers pay all my other bills?
Government theft, licensed by law and sanctified by envy, is indeed, the ethical blind spot.
Have we passed the tipping point? Is there a non-deluding expectation of a “turn around”? Have we reached the next “phase” of Prof Tytler’s (alleged)”progress chart”,somewhere between Dependency and Bondage?