US Out of North America! When The Law of the Land is Simply Too Much By Bill Buppert

 

“A judge is a law student who marks his own examination papers.”
– H.L. Mencken

There are 27,000 pages of Federal code and many criminal offenses sprinkled in them.  Most of these laws are malum prohibitum and not malum in se; in other words, they are criminal offenses because the government says they are.  That enormous figure is the figurehead of the code, the respective executive agencies charged with interpretation and enforcement divine their own regulations and code.  The EPA alone has 25,000 pages of Federal regulations comprising almost 15 percent of the total Federal corpus by some estimates.

Mordor does not even know how many laws there are now:

“Counting them is impossible. The Justice Department spent two years trying in the 1980s, but produced only an estimate: 3,000 federal criminal offenses.

The American Bar Association tried in the late 1990s, but concluded only that the number was likely much higher than 3,000. The ABA’s report said “the amount of individual citizen behavior now potentially subject to federal criminal control has increased in astonishing proportions in the last few decades.”

A Justice spokeswoman said there was no quantifiable number. Criminal statutes are sprinkled throughout some 27,000 pages of the federal code.”

The numbers are staggering but the inherent madness even more so.  The EPA is currently trying to bankrupt the good citizens of an Alaska town for non-criminal environmental offenses totaling in the tens of millions for a town of several thousand.  Sometimes water can even be “too clean” for fish.  This madness goes on every day.

No one sums it up better than Keith Richards in view of consensual crimes:  “I’ve never had a problem with drugs.  I’ve had problems with the police.” The governments seek to make victimless crimes punishable.

Take a look at these statistics.  There are four times as many folks ensnared (not counting families and friends of the convicted) in the US penal system than the peak population of both criminal and political prisoners combined in the gulag system in the USSR.  The Land of the Free has the highest per capita prison population on Earth.

I have written before about the size of the American criminal penal systems and the innocents and political prisoners ensnared in it.  The sheer obscenity of so many laws dictated from on high that make no sense whatsoever to reasonable men (this was Blackstone’s expectation).

The Federal government has always been too large and has metastasized in the 20th and 21st centuries into a monster determined to destroy itself.  I can only encourage any behavior that leads to its self-immolation.  There was a recent town hall meeting in Alabama where a potential mining consortium just threw up their hands and said we will simply not open the mine due to the overwhelming burden of Federal regulation and oversight.

Those of you in business for yourselves can speak with aplomb on the sheer immensity of regulatory compliance and how it strangles the provision of goods and services in America.

It gets worse:

Occasionally, Americans are going to prison in the U.S. for violating the laws and rules of other countries. Last year, Abner Schoenwetter finished 69 months in federal prison for conspiracy and smuggling. His conviction was related to importing the wrong kinds of lobsters and bulk packaging them in plastic, rather than separately in boxes, in violation of Honduran laws.

According to court records and interviews, Mr. Schoenwetter had been importing lobsters from Honduras since the mid-1980s. In early 1999, federal officials seized a 70,000-pound shipment after a tip that the load violated a Honduran statute setting a minimum size on lobsters that could be caught. Such a shipment, in turn, violated a U.S. law, the Lacey Act, which makes it a felony to import fish or wildlife if it breaks another country’s laws. Roughly 2% of the seized shipment was clearly undersized, and records indicated other shipments carried much higher percentages, federal officials said.

In an interview, Mr. Schoenwetter, 65 years old, said he and other buyers routinely accepted a percentage of undersized lobsters since the deliveries from the fishermen inevitably included smaller ones. He also said he didn’t believe bringing in some undersized lobsters was illegal, noting that previous shipments had routinely passed through U.S. Customs.

After conviction, Mr. Schoenwetter and three co-defendants appealed, and the Honduran government filed a brief on their behalf saying that Honduran courts had invalidated the undersized-lobster law. By a two-to-one vote, however, a federal appeals panel found the Honduran law valid at the time of the trial and upheld the convictions.

This is a great omnibus example of so many things wrong with the system.  And in the end, you and I and our children (Mordor on the Potomac borrows at least 40 cents of every dollar it spends to oil the works that enslave all of us) pay dearly for the shackles binding us.

In criminal law, Blackstone’s formulation (also known as Blackstone’s ratio or the Blackstone ratio) is the principle: “better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer”, expressed by the English jurist William Blackstone in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, published in the 1760s.  He is also the worthy who opined that ignorance of the law is no excuse as reasonable men apprehend it.  No man of any intellectual merit could possibly be apprised of all the laws on the Federal books.  This does not even speak to the secret laws whose merits we aren’t allowed to see because they are…secret.

Tacitus said ‘[t]he more corrupt the republic, the more numerous the laws.”  As with all governments, the US Federal government is nothing more than a manufacturing facility for generating tyranny.  Liberty is its enemy.  It is nothing more than a sophisticated program to fine, cage, maim and kill ALL citizens if they happen to fall afoul of the impossibly incomprehensible web of laws and regulations it vomits out on a perennial basis.

There is no reform or repudiation or referendum or reconstitution possible to remedy the vicious and wicked system of laws emanating the Federal government.  The only path to redemption is its ultimate self-destruction at its own hands to join the ash-heap of history that the other empires have tumbled on to.

The unfortunate reality is that every one of us in America is moments from a police encounter or judicial decision that robs you of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

There is no common sense to the law anymore.  It is simply a means for a monstrous and unthinking bureaucratic machine to slowly crush everything in its path including our very futures.  The answer remains:  there is no government like no government.

“A country is in a bad state, which is governed only by laws; because a thousand things occur for which laws cannot provide, and where authority ought to interpose.”
– Samuel Johnson

“Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth!  They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of the government.”

– Pierre Joseph Proudhon, quoted in The Match!

24 thoughts on “US Out of North America! When The Law of the Land is Simply Too Much By Bill Buppert”

  1. Bill,
    I’m a little shaky on this statistic, but I know I read this somewhere.

    There are more now more black men per capita incarcerated for victimless crime than there were slaves, per capita.

    My bank account was just robbed TODAY for refusing to pay my property tax. I will not be made a slave to turn over my own property. I got the lien notice last week. I called the treasurer’s office to protest this outrage(an extra 1/3 in penalties and interest) and she said, “don’t worry we won’t put it on your credit.” Gee thanks. They finally got me today, Bill. Almost three years without paying property tax(except for the house I have no choice over that one, fascism at work). Should have called Marc Stevens. Of all the slavery schemes the State uses, I detest the property tax the most. Not only do they make you a slave, they manage to make a criminal out of you from every damn angle while they enslave you. And we have some claim to be free men?

    The people that think this is still the best and the most free country in the world need a swift kick in the ass.

  2. truth and consequences

    So what makes you so special as to think that you should not have to pay property taxes, when every other property owner in the country is also required by law to pay property taxes? If you don’t want to pay don’t own property. As for the swift kick in the ass, take your best shot. Maybe I will buy your house when it goes up for auction.

    1. T&C,

      As Dred v. Scott and Wickard v. Filburn prove, taxes are never about justice but about might making right. It is always great to hear from you to show that even the worst tyrants can find advocacy from their Helots.

  3. T&C,
    Let me learn ya something here, buddy. Personal property tax is not federal. That means, not everyone in the country is required by law to pay. There are States that do not charge property tax. Should the “citizens” there be made to pay? All because T&C pays? Talk about slave on slave mentality.

    What makes me so special? The same damn thing that makes you special. Being human.

    You said-If you don’t want to pay don’t own property.

    I don’t own property! Here’s the kicker buddy, neither do you! If your State has property tax laws, stop paying and see what happens. You’ll find out real quick who actually “owns” that property. Maybe you don’t understand the concept of ownership. When I own something I don’t have to perpetually pay a group of thugs to not steal it from me.

    That’s called extortion, but you can keep calling it property taxation if it makes you feel better. At best, you rent your so-called property.

    You are hopelessly enslaved. Take the title of “truth” out of your name. You wouldn’t know that truth was if it gave you a swift kick in your ass.

  4. Jesse,

    What is T&C’s good point regarding taxes? I must have missed it.

    Also, you ARE ACTUALLY a slave, not just a “monetary” slave. Even chattel slave owners let their slaves have some time to themselves, otherwise the slaves would die. Our case is hardly different. I work for almost three straight days before I see the fruits of my labor. My labor is my property, it is converted into FRNs, then it is taken from me. This is slavery. Theft of labor; theft of property. There is no such thing as “monetary” slavery. Money is a direct representation of your labor. Since this is the case, it could be more precisely called slave labor.

    It does not matter what you get for your taxes, you have no control over it. Even slave owners provided quarters, food, and water for their slaves. Does this justify it?

  5. Don’t mean to hijack the topic, Bill, but it is the theft of property that is directly responsible for all of these so-called laws on the books.

    The State goons don’t do it for free.

    1. You simply amplify the point and folks like T&C exhibit a Stockholm Syndrome when it comes to their own chains.

  6. Some people here think the gubmint is invalid because they came in afterwards and got hold of some property and “improved” it? That’s pretty much was the idea White farmers had against the Native Americans having any claim to prior ownership in land.

  7. 90% of the population think their rights are loaned to them from a well-meaning but occasionally inept government, one which will cause them no harm “as long as they break no laws, pay all taxes, and support the status quo.” They realize too late that constitutional law has no place in this equation.

    Required reading for everyone claiming to be a ‘free’ citizen should be to understand the difference between Admiralty law, Contract law, and Common law. Part 2 of citizen education could include the concepts of ‘All rights reserved without prejudice’, the true nature of the IRS and Federal Reserve, fractional reserve banking, usury, and property ownership. Vocabulary study list could include such terms as ‘registration’, ‘license’, ‘title’, ‘permit’, and ‘certificate’.

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  9. truth and consequences

    Alright, Listen up ALL OF YOU. Let’s get something straight right here and now. First and foremost, I agree with you, I don’t own my property, never really have and probably never will fully own it in the literal sense of the word. The point I am trying to make here is this: There is a process to use, established by law, with which we “The people” can go about making changes to those laws, or someone with a better idea can step up, become one of the legislators and attempt to make the changes that are so desparately needed. Truly, I see your points clearly and I wish things were different too. I’m just as tired of paying property taxes, income taxes, and all the rest of the myriad of taxes that we ALL work so hard for day in and day out. BUT, guess what, I haven’t seen one candidate on the ballet that has a chance in “you know where” of surviving the game long enough to make a significant difference. I doubt seriously if I will in my life time. Our Government is just that corrupt, just as every organization under it is corrupt. There is no organization in this day and age that hasn’t been corrupted; every one has their price and everyone can be bought. But let me ask you this question: Are you all willing to take the risk of losing all that you have sacrificed, as property owners, by not obeying the law? Are you willing to just say I’m not paying one more dime of my hard earned wages to the thieves in power; because if so, then you might as well start packing up and moving out because they will come and evict you, just as surely as they would do the same to me, if I chose not to pay. I’ve been tempted to just walk away from this once valuable piece of ground and house, which is now worth less than I initially paid for it, and be done with it. As I see it now, based on our pathetic economy, created by our brilliant leadership on the Patomic, will not recover it’s original value in my lifetime. Hence, I may as well be throwing my money away. That said, let me ask you another question; is there a place on the planet that is better than where we live today? Have any of you ever lived in a third world country, even for a short time? Let me tell you, IT SUCKS!! I for one will never whine about this country, or what we refer to as harships, after having spent a significant amount of time inside the borders of a country who’s Govt. had completely failed them, and those people had decided to take the law into their own hands; their situation went from bad to immeasurably worse!!! I spent a long time in the military defending our rights to question our leadership. Now I am a cop, just trying to keep you all from killing each other. My question is this, are we making a difference by just talking about it in a forum such as this? Or should we go about trying to use the system in place, established by law, to do the best we can with what we’ve got? Because Frankly, I don’t know where else I would want to live.
    I honestly believe when we get down to where the rubber meets the road, I believed long before you were all born that it doesn’t matter what my job is or what your job is and whether or not I pay my taxes or don’t that the government will come in and take what they want, when they want, and I believe that time is coming soon. I am just trying to prepare for that. So we may all disagree with each other but they are coming and we need to prepare.

    1. T&C: My question is this, are we making a difference by just talking about it in a forum such as this? Or should we go about trying to use the system in place, established by law, to do the best we can with what we’ve got?

      This forum and all the other means by which people communicate whether over the kitchen table or the lectern is the only way to make a difference to change our future. Voting and political action does worse than nothing. It legitimizes tyranny and allows folks like you to come here (you are welcome) and tell us the only legitimate choice is to work within the confines of the dungeon and don’t step out of line.

      And, of course, the provision of gold, guns and groceries = G3.

      Outside of the daily mugging we receive everyday from all vestiges of the State in our lives, WE PRACTICE ANARCHY, the stateless society and the realm of peace and cooperation with our families and friends. Everyday. There may be wife beaters out there but they are only terrific emulators of the State and why the State seeks to prosecute them instead of hire them I don’t know. The wife beater is already on board with the primary means the State uses to shape and confine us.

      I have been abroad both as centurion for the Neo-Imperialist vanguard and as a private citizen. These united States are not the only free country. Hell, we are #9 in firearms freedoms on Earth and the country we are occupying and mauling daily in Afghanistan is #1 in firearms freedoms. They don’t hate us for our freedoms, we DO…South of the Mexican border, people can be enormously civil and opportunities abound.

      Per your questions about other places to live, I am laying the expat groundwork right now after years of preparation. Unless the system collapses and US does evaporate as a means of governance north of the Mexican border, we are well and truly fucked. We beat the Soviets b/c our Soviet Union is outlasting theirs.

      BTW, when you say they are coming, you’re right. The cops from the local to the Federal level are the vanguard of oppression. Absent their mindless adherence to “we’re just enforcing the law”, this would be a free country. Blame it on the politicos and other system drones like the collaborationist in the government-media-education complex but NO ONE would be fined, kidnapped, caged, maimed or killed if it weren’t for cops. Politicians are psychopaths and the police are their Orcs. The enforcers and Praetorian Guard of bad law and viscous policy.

  10. Excellent article once again. Property taxes irk me to no end and likewise the “fees” you pay for riding your horse/car. Every year they extort you for the use of your “property”. And to add insult to injury they extend their tax-fattened hands every time you wish to sell said “property” to another individual. Say what?! It’s taxed the first time it is sold and every time thereafter…. Now that’s simply wrong. What they are saying is they want their cut no matter what the reason. Gangsters the lot of them including those who work the bowels of the system.

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  12. truth and consequences

    So it doesn’t really matter how I feel or verbalize it. All you can respond to is the fact that I am in law enforcement. So this forum is only for like minded people who view the world with the same eyes and not for others who are trying to learn and see the other side; with the ultimate goal, to make things better. I get the impression that you would all be happier if I stay away from your forum. But before I go for those of you who believe this is a police state, I pray to God that you never have to live in a real police state (think about Nazi Germany). I would make it clear on this forum that people with a different perspective are not welcome. As for you Bill I get the impression based on your perspective, that the only answer to this countries problems is another bloody civil war. I still give kudos to Kyle Gray and Keiser Lieb. I have really enjoyed their articles. They are both well written and have caused me to change my thinking about a lot of things including leaving law enforcement, much like you did Bill and contemplating what to do next. My plans include: Number 1: leave the force, Number 2: dump the house and leave, Number 3: go back to where I came from.

    Mr. McManigal, if you think what I said was insulting maybe you should look up the definition of insult or better yet spend a day in a law enforcement uniform amidst the American public; or around people such as yourselves.

    For those of you who would like to give me a swift kick in the ass take a number, stand in line, you have a long wait coming. Lastly I want to say you have all provided me hours of entertainment. I have enjoyed the word exchange. Good night Ladies!

  13. +1 to Bill’s comment. A libertarian education derived from discussion is the way out of this mess.

    T&C,
    You say there is a process, does this mean I am bound to use it just because YOU think it’s a good idea? You proclaimed this process was established by law. What law? Who’s law? In the sense of Natural Law, like the brilliant Lysander Spooner so eloquently explained it, you would be wrong.

    So, if you are speaking of Natural Law, one of the principles of Natural law if self-ownership. Your “process” has violated the laws of nature since it’s inception. What we have, and have always had is the laws of men, or in other words…..Tyranny. When you use the phrase, “established by law”, understand that you have stumbled into a place where the men and women here, ACTUALLY KNOW EXACTLY WHAT THAT MEANS, so you better be able to back that up.

    I am not discounting the progress our libertarian forefathers delivered us; I am simply saying it’s our turn to advance the ball.

    There is no “The People” there is only “The Me”, and that’s it. You were born as an individual, and you will die as an individual. The 75 years in the middle are no different. My liberty is more important than some others man’s better idea. That’s the whole problem now, everyone has a better idea. Now, here we are millions of better ideas away from the only idea, the only thing, the only fact that matters; self-ownership.

    You say the Government, and every organization belonging to it is corrupt. Does this include your department? Does this include you? You are the government. You mentioned you were a cop. Which then I must ask, which kind of cop are YOU? the 1% of cops or the 99% of cops? You know exactly what I am talking about. With a handle like “Truth and Concequences” I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt that you are the one percent. You obviously believe if something is true, it will have consequences. I agree with you. If murder, rape, and theft are wrong, and this is true, then these actions will have consequences. The thing with truth is that every human can recognize it. That’s what makes it true. So, if it is true that murder, rape, and theft are wrong, then these actions will have consequences with or without the government around. This means honest humans like you and I won’t let these crimes go unpunished. Unfortunately, this means you are not the one keeping the rest of us who don’t belong to the brotherhood from killing each other. Try again. Firearms have done a good job of keeping the private thugs at bay, it’s a shame the public thugs are as rabid as ever, but I do appreciate your intention. It’s also unfortunate you are keeping someone from killing me(because I would not be the one to kill anyone, so you can’t be talking about me) by stealing my money. I don’t seek out this peculiar form of PROTECTION it is thrust upon me with no way to opt out without FORFEITING my own life. This is the reason why I have not stopped paying taxes. I reckon being a slave might be better than being dead….to a point.

    You ask if what we are talking about here is making a difference. Let me ask you this; why are YOU reading a website called zerogov? I’ll bet you are a man who has an urge to be honest with himself, and if you are not an anarchist, you are a man who thinks like Mencken said-
    “A government that barely escapes being no government at all”

    The only two reason to be at this site is if you are a troll or a friend of liberty. I get the impression you are the latter.

    Are we making a difference on you?

  14. T&C-

    My “swift kick in the ass” line was not meant for you specifically. It was a general statement. You made it about you when you directly took offense to it. I am of the impression those who think this country is still the best are a huge part of the problem. This was who that phrase was targeted for. You just responded to it.

    And if you are thinking about leaving LE because of some internal conflict you are having, PLEASE stick around. You are exactly the kind of person we are trying to reach. The conversations can become, well, intense, but it takes two to tango. Remember that.

    Tyranny can only be stopped one mind at a time, and time is not on our side, my friend. That’s why I even uttered the “swift kick in the ass” statement. Although I didn’t mean it literally.

  15. truth and consequences

    Chris, I like you and respect you. Yes you are making a difference in my life and I want to change. This site has caused me to think and be ashamed of many things. I have had to re-think my whole belief system after reading everything in this blog. I am going to continue reading this and studying and learning and maybe someday we will meet and shake hands. Take care of yourself and stay true to your beliefs and maybe more people like me will get the msg. As to the kick in the ass statement I have kicked myself many a time. Sometimes that is what is needed. Take care.

  16. truth and consequences

    Mr. Mathewson, I appreciate your kind words and now I need to be truthful. I cannot keep up with any of you when it comes to education. When reading these blogs I have to search and try to study what has been written. The truth is I have not worked for some time with the LE. I have been away from my job for some time due to medical issues and was informed Wednesday that I have terminal pancreatic cancer. In my state I have had little support from the medical community, my peers or even the station that I have worked at. I will not be returning. While going through treatment and having lots of time off I have been reading this blog. I want you all to know that I have had more pleasure in the last few months with all of the verbal sparring. I have read and learned and have dreamed of what I would have done if I had the time and chance. But time has caught up with me and I am now concentrating on what the next few months will bring. So you all continue, stay true and maybe when I feel more up to it will read and see what you are all doing. Take care and God Bless you all for your commitment to this cause. Your pain in the ass law enforcer (ha)

    1. T&C,

      I am truly sorry for that and wish for you to remain aboard. The education most of us bring to this blog and forum is mostly auto-didactic and in spite of years of government tripe and brainwashing.

      I hope this does not sound trite but my occupation for most of my adult life has brought me close to death on a number of occasions and there is no greater force to concentrate the mind and refocus with a laser-like intensity that an indeterminate-life horizon does not grant you. Consider it a gift to erase any complacency that may have haunted you before.

      Stay with us and feel free to join the forum and shoot the shit if you wish. There is a T&C parking space there for near the front of the store. Live.

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  18. “Property does not exist because there are laws, but laws exist because there is property.” — Frédéric Bastiat

    We are experiencing the ultimate inversion… war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength.

    “Men naturally rebel against the injustice of which they are victims. Thus, when plunder is organized by law for the profit of those who make the law, all the plundered classes try somehow to enter — by peaceful or revolutionary means — into the making of laws. According to their degree of enlightenment, these plundered classes may propose one of two entirely different purposes when they attempt to attain political power: Either they may wish to stop lawful plunder, or they may wish to share in it.”
    – Frederic Bastiat

  19. Wow, what a comment thread. I’m awfully sorry to hear that, t&c, but you seem to still have your mind. I’m guessin’ you’re researching your ass off; I hope it all comes together for you. Not to make light of anything, but at least you have the advantage of not having the support of the medical community! I hope you find some answers and do the best with each day you have. In that, we’re all the same.

    > Now I am a cop, just trying to keep you all from killing each other.

    An honorable intent, to be sure. As I’m sure you discovered, one person can’t really do that for another. This is the simple fact of the matter and our refusal to accept it, is why it keeps getting shoved in our faces…from 9/11 to Oslo.

    That’s why none of this is about you. It’s about what an LEO does–tries to do and ends up actually doing–and it ain’t a pretty picture these days, for the most part.

    The neighborhood loved the “beat cop” because he was actually doing what you said you meant to do—stop people from hurting each other. He couldn’t do very much of that–criminals have brains too–but in no way was he the “enemy” of those on his beat. He was the neighborhood’s guard, with effectively infinite power behind him, should it ever be necessary. And of course, it’s almost never necessary. I did see the tanks during the ’67 Detroit riots, but even that action was trivial to the sorts of things that go on today.

    I mean, it’s really dizzying…every drop of our lives controlled in the most absurd ways, with the most extreme force and threats of force. It’s amazing we even got here, but here we are. Great post BTW, Bill and great comments throughout. I hope you crack that problem, t&c, and at least you’ve got today.

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