Thursday, May 20, 2010

Membership has its privileges- and its pitfalls

Membership has its privileges- and its pitfalls

One notion I run into when people are trying to justify "immigration" control is that of "citizenship gives us rights", and you can't just give those rights to anyone. This is so wrong.

"Citizenship" is like any other membership, it can neither add to your rights, nor take away from them. It can give you privileges in addition to your rights. You can also agree to not exercise some of your rights in exchange for these privileges if you so choose. However, those non-exercised rights remain unequivocally yours, to be called upon whenever you decide, no matter what the membership agreement claims. More on this in a moment.

If you do not explicitly agree to terms of membership, the club has no authorization to automatically force you to be a member simply because of where you were born, nor to demand you not exercise some of your rights in exchange for privileges you don't want.

Even if you agree to the membership, it is not a life sentence for either party.

If you decide at some point that the privileges of the membership are not worth the rights you agreed to not exercise you can unilaterally decide you no longer want the membership. You do not need to ask permission from the club. The club can also revoke your membership, once again unilaterally, if you don't abide by the terms of your membership agreement. It can't then kidnap you, steal your money and other property, or kill you because you are no longer a member. The most the "club" can legitimately do is allow you to go your separate way and stop delivering the privileges.

That doesn't mean "love it or leave it". This doesn't mean you must move to a new location, since the club does not have a claim to your house. Membership requirements only apply to property the club actually owns or to individuals who accept the terms of membership.

Any club that tries to impose beyond its authority is evil. It doesn't matter if it is a "country" or a book club.

I want nothing to do with "citizenship" of any sort. I am a denizen, since I do not agree to the membership agreement terms.
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Albuquerque "authorities" are encouraging the idea that foreclosed and abandoned homes are becoming gang hangouts. The city "has to do something". Some sheeple are asking for more police patrols.

Government caused the problem, more government won't solve it. Government meddling in the housing market has caused a flood of foreclosures. The Federal Reserve's counterfeiting operation is making money lose value. Socialism is destroying jobs. End the stupid and evil "War on (some) Drugs" and pull the rug out from under the gangs. Stop criminalizing self-defense and the effective tools for delivering it. It is a solved problem- the solutions are known- but government refuses to allow the solution to be implemented. Government is a disease pretending to be the cure.

I'm a grandfather

As of 1:45 PM, central time, I became a grandfather. My older daughter gave birth to a healthy boy who weighed 6 pounds, 15 ounces, and was 19 inches long. Is my younger daughter, at the age of 2 3/4, ready for someone to call me "Granddad"? Am I ready?

Wee-hour musings lead to questions

I've recently been wondering something a little strange.

Is it a "crime" to threaten to kill a former president who has already died? Say, if some writer started calling for the assassination of "Murderous Abe" Lincoln, "The American Lenin", would the jackboots show up at his or her door to kidnap the writer?

What if the jackboots were suspicious that the writer was actually referring to a living tyrant instead of the specifically named dead one, in spite of no truth to the suspicion?

It's just a question that has been hanging around in my skull. Nothing sinister here.