February 01, 2005

The headline on USA Today’s web site said, “Bush: Tyranny’s End a Major Commitment.”

Cool, man!

I'm down with that.

Bring it on!

Does "tyranny’s end" mean:

An end to the income tax?
An end to social security?
An end to the capital gains tax?
An end to the inheritance tax?
An end to gun control?
An end to government intrusion in education?
An end to government intrusion in medicine?
An end to the drug war?
An end to the welfare state?
An end to corporate welfare?
An end to Medicare?
An end to the prospect of a military draft?
An end to the EPA?
An end to OSHA?
An end to racial quotas and minority set asides?
An end to the Department of Energy?
An end to the regulatory vise grip squeezing American businesses -- and with it all those jobs going overseas?
An end to the Patriot Act?
An end to the Federal Reserve Bank?
An end to fiat currency and a return to the gold standard?
An end to America’s UN membership?
An end to federal land ownership?
An end to perpetual war for empire abroad?
An end to our military presence in over 130 countries worldwide -- and with it an end to the threat of terrorism?
An end to the minimum wage?
An end to the FDA?
An end to the BATF?
An end to HUD?
An end to the ICC?
An end to the Department of Transportation?
An end to the Department of Homeland Security?
An end to the Department of Commerce?
An end to the National Endowment for the Arts?
An end to foreign aid?
An end to NPR?
An end to PBS?
An end to the Faith-Based Initiative? (i.e. taxpayer subsidies for churches)
An end to FEMA?
An end to federal tobacco subsidies?
An end to federal tobacco taxes?
An end to all federal farm subsidies?
An end to federal databases on individuals?
An end to the prospect of a national ID card?
An end to the prospect of mandatory mental health testing?
An end to police states at airports?
An end to asset forfeiture laws?
An end to judges making laws?
An end to rule by executive order?
An end to the 501(c)(3) muzzling of churches?
An end to all of our church-state squabbles?
An end to trade embargoes?
An end to tax-subsidized studies on things like the digestive tract of the hoop snake and homosexuality in fourteenth century Warsaw?
An end to any and all intrusions on our national sovereignty?
An end to big, fat, bloated, corpulent, four-dimensionally obese government and a return to very severely -- and I do mean severely -- limited government?

I could go on for hours. I know I have left a lot of things out.

I know, I know. It could be worse in America. I can write this without fear of imprisonment. And there are no death camps. At least not yet.

But it could be a whole lot better, too.

It took from 1776 to 1976 – 200 years -- for the federal budget to grow from zero to $500 billion. The federal budget has grown by $500 billion – none of it necessary -- in Dubya’s first four years. (For those of you in Rio Linda, that is $500 billion bigger than Bill Clinton's last budget.) Our economy is as highly regulated as any economy in Western Europe that we deride as "socialist." All the departments and programs that Bush groupies once said they hated are bigger, costlier and more intrusive than ever. America -- "the land of the free" -- has the world’s highest incarceration rate. America’s bobsled ride toward full-blown dictatorship shows no signs of reversing course.

If Dubya’s first four years are any indicator, tyranny’s end won’t happen any time soon.

Of course, it all depends on your definition of tyranny’s end.

Freely Speaking: Essays by Doug Newman

See also: The Drug War is Unconstitutional.

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George W. Bush: Seeing The Big Picture

Pat Tillman: He Lifted A Finger

Democracies And Republics For Dummies

Should Christians Always Obey Their Government?

1-2-3 What Are We Fighting For?

Why You Shouldn't Disarm Crazy People

America Is NOT A Free Country

Is America A Sudan Waiting To Happen?

Christian Compassion That Kills

They Are Coming For The Christians

Dumbing Down The Church