Put Down the Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil Or I’ll Shoot!

http://money.cnn.com/2006/12/05/news/companies/trans_fats.reut/index.htm?section=money_latest

“ NEW YORK (Reuters) -- New York City's board of health on Tuesday voted to phase out most artificial trans-fats from restaurants, forcing doughnut shops and fast-food stands to remove artery-clogging oils from their cooking.” (From money.cnn.com 12-5-2006)

I usually get blank stares from people when I tell them they are advocating violence by making useless laws for victimless crimes. But the logic is very simple. Here it is. When you commit a victimless crime, people eventually come after you with guns to enforce the law and will throw you in jail if you do not comply. That is a violent solution for what should really only be a difference in opinion! Just because time goes by doesn’t mean that you are not threatened with violence.

Try not paying your ticket for not wearing your seatbelt. This is a peaceful noncompliance to the law of a victimless crime. Eventually, a warrant will be served and you will be arrested and thrown into jail.

Try not removing your shoes to get on an airplane (Upholding the fourth amendment by the way!). You are not getting on that plane unless you comply with the TSA. If you think that is nonviolent, then that is the same thing as saying carjacking is peaceful as long as no one gets shot!

And now… Try cooking with trans-fats in your own private restaurant!

This is going too far!

So essentially New York is threatening violence against private business owners for cooking with trans-fats similar to some margarines or vegetable shortenings, hence my title.

Patriots, to quote the Declaration of independence:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."

Yes I know that some of the framers of the constitution were slave owners, just as I know some priests are pedophiles. It is not the framer’s character I am discussing, but their message of liberty (the freedom of choice!). People should not convolute the message of the gospel with the characters of those delivering it. Nor should we attack the characters of the framers either. I wanted to quell the hypocrisy argument before you started down that fruitless rabbit trail! Gotcha!

Again, Patriots, if we believe that all men are created equal (which is just another way of saying “love your neighbor” so Christians this includes you!), then why would we put a gun to our neighbor’s head for disagreeing with us about trans-fats?

Twenty years ago, the ‘experts’ were saying margarines and vegetable oils were better for us than butter. Remember? Now the ‘experts’ are saying that the trans fats created by the hydrogenation process is worse than what butter can do to us. Should we impose violence on others based on the hypothesis of people that obviously don’t know what they are talking about? - Especially for victimless crimes?

God gave us the right to choose. Imagine that! He trusted a bunch of ignorant bozos like us (Hosea 4:6) with the freedom to choose (Deut 11:26-30, Deut 30:19). He tagged along with it a curse or death for the improper choices and life for making the good choices. So Patriots and Christians, who are we to overrule God and tell Him we are better at making laws than Him? Don’t you think a curse or death is a pretty good penalty on its own? (I just gave God a High Five!)

If we are created equal, then how do we dare threaten our neighbor with violence for simply disagreeing with us?

“If you insist on using artery clogging trans-fats in your own private establishment we will throw you in jail! And if you try to defend yourself on your own property with a gun, we may shoot you! No - we are not communists or fascists, we are red-blooded Americans! You know, the land of the free the home of the brave? Sieg Heil!”

Does that sound rational?
Does it sound American?
Does it sound moral?
Is that the kind of Country you want?



One of my friends said that the laws are to protect ignorant people. You know, people that are not smart enough to wear their seat belts, those kinds of people (Which makes me wonder how they were smart enough to get a car in the first place!). I simply pointed out that he wanted to throw stupid people in jail.

“Ok so lets have a national IQ test and throw all the stupid people in jail!” Now that is precisely what the framers had in mind! Can you sense the sarcasm?

And of course studies show that lives are not necessarily saved from wearing seatbelts. But there is too much revenue from the law so it probably won’t be repealed.

http://www.eirbyte.com/gcc/info/seat_belts.html (cool link about seat belt studies and laws)

“No Conrad, I said laws are to protect the stupid people!”

Sorry, maybe I missed the point. So I should agree to have laws that protect stupid people from doing stupid things? Sounds like they are going to do stupid things anyway cause after all they are – Stupid!

I have heard that ‘ignorance of the law is no excuse.’ On that logic, then I would have to say that we are all stupid! Does anyone possibly know all the laws on the books today? I would be willing to bet that pretty much everyone is in violation of something. So it sounds like the laws are to punish stupid people, not protect them! What is funny is that congress doesn’t even bother to read the bills they pass! So they must be stupid too! They should arrest themselves!

I have used ‘ignorance’ and ‘stupidity’ as synonymously, my apologies to the definition cognizant special forces.

(If you think congress reads their legislation before passing it – think again!)
http://www.teamliberty.net/id167.html
http://www.downsizedc.org/read_the_laws.shtml


Some people have said that an establishment cooking with trans-fats is tantamount to mass murder. Do you really consider that to be the case? Have you ever heard of someone dialing 911 because there was too much trans-fat in the burger they had just cheerfully forked over the funds for? If you were going to murder someone, would you use vegetable oil?

“Give me your wallet or I am going to make you eat a stick of hard vegetable oil based butter every day for twenty years and experts say you might possibly die of a heart attack!”



Ok diet conscious consumers, I dare you to look at the ingredients label on your diet soda. Now see how many of those chemicals may have been linked to cancer - that is what the Internet is for! (Search –‘diet soda’ and ‘brain tumors’ – for starters). Are the soft drink companies trying to kill you? Is that mass murder? Of course not! They want your cash, and killing you would definitely be bad for business! So to say that private business owners are trying to kill their patrons is preposterous! Criminally negligent in some cases maybe, but criminal intent would be very rare unless perhaps Jim Jones buys Coca Cola!

Hey, what about cigarettes? They almost come with skull and crossbones on them. Why don’t we make them illegal? Hmmm… is it because of the taxes they generate? Hmmm…. So it follows that the elected officials that imposed the cigarette tax (the GOVERNMENT) are trying to kill smokers and make some money at the same time! How noble! If you are one of those people under the illusion that “we the people” are in control of the existing government, then YOU are choosing to kill cigarette smokers by allowing them to be legal. I am curious, are you getting your monies worth out of those cigarette taxes??? Are you delighted with the public school where your children go to learn about evolution, condoms, homosexuality, and the politically correct way to live? If so, then I guess it’s ok if smokers depart this life as long as your kids get such a stellar education!

While I am on a roll, why don’t we make it illegal to be fat? I mean the ‘experts’ say that obesity kills right? And we are on the subject of ‘trans-fats’, which makes people fat. Oh, we wouldn’t want to put the power of choice in the hands of the person who stuffs their mouth too much, that would be too simple! Let’s make the rest of the nation pay for a few people that cant manage their eating by outlawing everything that could possibly make a person fat. Hey! That just about includes all foods! So let’s outlaw food and all starve to death! That makes much more sense!



Some people erroneously have the idea that restaurants are ‘public’ property and therefore need governmental regulation. I mean come on! Are you socialist, communist, or one of the stupid people that doesn’t know to wear a seatbelt? Restaurants are private enterprise (or do you get your hot dogs at DMV?). And restaurant owners are civilly and criminally liable for dealings with their patrons. They have the absolute moral right to serve anyone in any fashion they see fit. If they want to cook with fat they can! If you don’t want to eat their fat, you can vote with your feet! Walk away! Don’t point a gun at them! No one is forcing you to eat there, so you shouldn’t force the private restaurant owner to comply with your unfounded ‘opinion’ about trans-fats.

If you have relatives over for the holidays, and they don’t eat pork, are you going to force them to eat pork? Even if they eat it, is that one serving going to kill them? Should they put you in jail for simply suggesting they eat pork? This may sound comical, but that is what America is, a big family. Violently forcing our neighbors to agree with our opinions where there are no victims is going to swallow the freedoms of this nation like a Boa Constrictor swallows a little bitty cute cuddly white mouse. (Please visualize a Boa eating a cute cuddly white mouse now! –but without trans-fats! That would make it go down too quickly! Choke! Boa! Choke!)

In 1858 a person by the name of Abraham Lincoln was running for state Senate in Illinois. He gave a speech referred to as the “House Divided Speech” borrowing from Jesus in the New Testament. His bold speech concerning America’s division on slavery quickly catapulted him in to the spotlight for president.

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.
I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved -- I do not expect the house to fall -- but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other.”

Abraham Lincoln
Springfield, IllinoisJune 16, 1858


At least 618,000 Americans later died in the Civil War. These casualties exceed the nation's loss in all its other wars, from the Revolution through Vietnam. Back then the U.S. population was 31,443,321. So roughly 2% of America died because of the division over slavery.

So following President Lincoln’s logic, we will either be a nation that allows the individual and private enterprise the right to govern themselves, or we won’t. The tendency now would appear to be the latter.

We’ve made a little ‘fat’ cash since President Lincoln’s time. Our passions have eroded somewhat due to financially caused complacency. We are sitting too pretty to care about freedom. I mean when is the last time you heard someone standing up for liberty? Now we are relinquishing our liberties to people labeled ‘terrorists’, ‘environmentalists’, and ‘experts’.


Our divisions are now different with our fat air-conditioned lives. We have forgotten the prices paid for our liberties by a bunch of guys with wigs. That all seems to be a far too distant unrelated past. But I beg you to think; we are now becoming like the nation that they had once escaped. Their blood forged our liberties that we are taking for granted.

www.prisonplanet.com/articles/december2005/091205pieceofpaper.htm

We are far too distracted with our obesity rather Big Brother’s agenda. Far to troubled with gas prices rather than human rights atrocities. Far too fretful with Christmas shopping to worry about a little trans-fat law that may screw up the taste of our eggnog. So we are letting the silent noose of tyranny be slipped over our necks while we are sleeping in cozy little carefree beds.

Back to Lincoln’s House Divided speech for a moment, you may have been thinking about the slavery he was addressing back then, but I ask you:

Who are the slaves now?

Make no mistake about it; if someone exerts authority over you and threatens violence in order to get you to comply with his or her wishes then you are a slave. If the state coerces to wear your seatbelt, then you are a slave of the state. If the state compels you to cook without trans-fats, then you are a slave. And the list of victimless crimes goes on and on and on.



What are you going to do about it?



Sleep tight fellow Americans. Don’t let the bedbugs bite.

Merry Christmas, or to be politically correct!

Happy Holidays!





I want to leave you with a few quotes from people who mostly don’t wear their seatbelts!



There is no worse tyranny than to force a man to pay for what he does not want merely because you think it would be good for him. – Robert Heinlein

If you are not free to choose wrongly and irresponsibly, you are not free at all. – Jacob Hornberger (1995)

I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death your right to say it. –Voltaire

People willing to give up freedom for a little safety, deserve neither freedom nor safety."--Ben Franklin.

America needs fewer laws, not more prisons. – James Bovard

Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. —2 Corinthians 3:17.

The true danger is when Liberty is nibbled away, for expedients. – Edmund Burke (1899)

Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There never was a democracy yet that did not commit suicide. – John Adams (1814)

Mark 3:25 “And if a house be divided against itself, that house cannot stand.” - Jesus

One of the greatest delusions in the world is the hope that the evils in this world are to be cured by legislation. – Thomas B. Reed (1886)

The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. – John Hay (1872)

It is not the responsibility of the government or the legal system to protect a citizen from himself. – Justice Casey Percell

The natural progress of things is for liberty to yield and government to gain ground. – Thomas Jefferson

None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free. – Goethe

When the government's boot is on your throat, whether it is a left boot or a right boot is of no consequence. – Gary Lloyd

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. – C. S. Lewis

It is not the business of government to make men virtuous or religious, or to preserve the fool from the consequences of his own folly. Government should be repressive no further than is necessary to secure liberty by protecting the equal rights of each from aggression on the part of others, and the moment governmental prohibitions extend beyond this line they are in danger of defeating the very ends they are intended to serve. – Henry George

There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals, one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible to live without breaking laws. – Ayn Rand

If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. We seek not your counsel, nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains set lightly upon you; and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen. – Samuel Adams

If a nation values anything more than freedom, it will lose its freedom; and the irony of it is that if it is comfort or money that it values more, it will lose that, too. – Somerset Maugham

Those who expect to reap the benefits of freedom, must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it. – Thomas Paine

It is much more important to kill bad bills than to pass good ones. – Calvin Coolidge

To compel a man to furnish contributions of money for the propagation of opinions which he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical. – Thomas Jefferson

Give me liberty or give me death! – Patrick Henry

And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. - Paul to the Romans

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. - Paul to the Ephesians

Give us Barabbas!

I have noticed over the span of my life that the Christian movement is really giving way to the world. Over and over again we have been letting the world encroach upon us with our passive permission. It’s not just the crazy hairstyles I am referring to either.

Lets examine one of the weaknesses of the church today. There are so many holes in the church’s armor that I am only going to talk about one today. Complacency. We have been so comfortable in our air-conditioned lives that we just don’t care anymore. As long as we have cable TV, football, air-conditioning, and a good income - who cares what goes on in the world? While we are being distracted by television, we are forgetting about abortion. Christians don’t care about abortion. Christians don’t care about the Islamic religion gaining a foothold in America. Christians don’t care about the ever-increasing laws that are aimed at eventually wiping out our freedom of speech and the free exercise of our religion. Mangers are out, ‘Merry Christmas’ is out, and the Ten Commandments are out. Christians just roll over in their comfortable beds like nothing is happening.

Christians are saying, “Give us Barabbas!” (Luke 23:18). Just to remind you, Barabbas was the murderer that Pilate released at the request of the audience. They could have chosen Jesus, but no, the religious right would rather have a murderer released to them. The same thing is going on today. Christians are electing Pro Choice (what a deceptive label) candidates, and then complaining about the country. They want murderers to rule over them so of course the country is becoming like Sodom and Gomorrah! What do you expect when you vote for Satan? Just look at the decline of the nation since abortion became legal.

I have talked to Christians about the upcoming elections. They say they favor certain candidates that are clearly Pro Choice i.e.…. Murderers. Even when I point out that they want murderers to reign over them and to create their laws, they don’t care. They look at me like I am out of my mind. Are they so blind to see that electing these people will eventually be the downfall of the church in America?

Realistically, as large as the Christian vote is (76% or America claims to be Christian according to ARIS - http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html#religions), if the church ONLY voted pro-life regardless of party affiliation then we would have only pro-life candidates in office. But sadly, the Christian’s vote is canceled out by the Christian sitting right beside them in church. They don’t even call themselves Christians; they call themselves Democrats, Independents, Libertarians, or Republicans. Instead of saying, “enough is enough!” they vote with their pocketbook in mind. Instead of saving countless millions of lives, they would rather have someone that could guarantee their social security! Instead of saying “Merry Christmas!” it is OK for the Christian to say “Happy Holidays”. Instead of having the Ten Commandments be our moral compass, its ok to impose laws that restrict our neighbor’s right to govern himself.
Things aren’t going so well for the church right now because our hands are full of blood.
Isaiah 1:15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

Do the math. Two plus two equals four. Right? Then voting murderers in office means that our hands are bloody.

Oh well, there’s a game on TV. I can’t be bothered with this!

Maybe a few lions chasing us around in the coliseum would wake us up?