The Pig Trap

http://taxicabdepressions.com/?p=1193 (click for main article)

So in the context of the early 1770's, what would the Founders think about the government secretly and illegally trafficking thousands of military-grade arms to criminals, brigands, and pirates, knowing full well that those criminals will kill thousands of innocent people with said arms, as a ploy to disarm their own citizenry... and when caught red-handed in this criminal and despicable act, the governmental appointee responsible for executing this disgraceful policy lies, dissembles, and stonewalls, and suffers no sanction or penalty?

What would they think of the government reading, and oftentimes copying and warehousing, every single letter of their correspondence, their diaries, their conversations, their most private and intimate of communications?

What would they think of government agents standing on rooftops and street corners, monitoring and documenting the comings and goings of every citizen every day of his life, whom they speak with and associate with, and what they purchase and from whom?

What would they think about their government spying on journalists, town criers, and pamphleteers, and swearing out false oaths to judges to have them surveilled?

What would they think about government tax agents given specific orders to harass, intimidate, penalize, and obstruct any person who speaks for peaceful, legislative reform of the government or is critical of the government, even demanding that they document the content of their prayers?

It's long, it's depressing, and it absolutely demands to be read to the end.

h/t Ed Minchau

By Kate on April 18, 2014 11:39 AM | 31 Comments | Permalink

From this blog: http://smalldeadanimals.com/
Click on the comments as they are interesting also..
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My personal feelings have ALWAYS been if you want to kill a snake you go for the head!
Why subject yourself and others to the misery that you'll endure if you don't?

That was a damn good read.

Marked for later, thanks for posting.

Thanks

Probably would not bother most of the Founding Fathers as most especially in the North made a living smuggling, pirating, and trafficking in recreational drugs especially opium and arms. Nothings changed.

I think those hundred people would slowly and surely disappear.

Interesting read !

This is a part of the blog that is very poignant:

Kevin explained that pigs are highly intelligent animals, and can be quite dangerous. They are powerful beasts, very fast, and armed with fearsome tusks that can gore a man to death in short order. He said that commercial traps are available, but pigs are smart, and will often be wary of a new metal object suddenly appearing in their environment, and his home-made trap was much more effective. He told me that these three sections are left up year round, and over time, the pigs learn that this metal object poses no threat, and there is frequently delicious corn, slop, and beer to be had here. The scent of the slop and beer travels a long way across the property, and over time, the pigs are conditioned to not fear the strange metal object. Kevin showed me how they had formed a soft trail around one end of the fencing as they came in and out to the bowl.

When the time comes to harvest a pig, Kevin adds a section of the fencing, refills the bowl a few times, and the pigs ignore the new section of fencing. A week or two later, he adds another section, and keeps the bowl full. Finally, he puts the last section up right on the trail they created, and this section has the trap door in it. A screw eye is twisted into the end of a corn cob, and a cable is attached to it, and is connected to a pin that drops the door. As soon as a pig picks up the corn, the pin is pulled, the door is dropped, and the pig, and perhaps one or two or three others of his group, are trapped. In the morning, Kevin can simply walk up to the cage and dispatch the beasts with a handgun, without risk of personal injury or spending a lot of time stalking the animals in the woods with a high-power rifle.

I can�t get Kevin and the pig trap out of my head, because it is a perfect metaphor for the surveillance state our government has built. It has been erected slowly over time, one piece at a time, so as to not panic the populace. And the government seems to have been wildly successful, because the American population at large seems completely unphased and unalarmed at what has been built over the last twenty or thirty years.

The government is reading and storing all of my emails? No big deal; I�m not a terrorist, so I am OK.

The government is listening to and storing all my phone calls? Whatever, I don�t talk to terrorists.

The government is tracking and storing my location? So what? I don�t go anywhere that is suspect.

The government is targeting political enemies and surveilling journalists? Who cares? I�m not an activist or a partisan, so this does not affect me.

This isn�t a Republican vs. Democrat issue, it isn�t even a conservative vs. liberal issue� this is an American vs. un-American issue. Do you wish to be a free American, or will you accept becoming a slave to a massive and all-powerful police state? You are either an advocate for freedom and limited government, or you are an advocate for tyranny. There is no gray area, no middle ground to be found here. This government has slowly amassed powers over the last hundred years that would horrify the Founders of this nation. As I stated earlier, I can�t believe the shooting hasn�t already started.

People are not at all up to speed on our founding fathers...

They utilized private contractors regularly.

The cool old Ben Franklin, whom ultra conservatives love to regularly quote, owned hos own private military, the "privateers".

George Washington and the Royal American Regiment were professional private military contractors.

Many ultra conservative and ultra patriotic individuals retire from special operations and continue their service and application of their very well honed special skill sets by doing contract work for our government.

Indeed.

What the Founders worried, as do I, most about was a government monopoly on arms and men under arms. Military contractors add a degree of separation from that government monopoly without sacrificing their capabilities for our defense needs. We need to do more not less by contract.

That said, after having just seen some hired by BLM abuse the persons and rights of Americans; I suggest that we need to proscribe their use within the USA and hold off a bit on fitting any halos.

True dat...

That's what they want. You think the purveyors of such have any fear of starvation or physical recrimination?

.gov seems to be growing paranoid. Maybe there is a reason.