The Stars and Stripes
Published June 26, 2015
by Carter Wrenn, Talking About Politics, June 25, 2015.
He’d been doing business for thirty years and if what he’d been doing wasn’t illegal like selling moonshine it also wasn’t quite the same as being President of the local bank or owner of the corner drug store: When someone got into a bind he’d pay them cold hard cash on the barrel head for their gold jewelry or silver flatware or other precious metals.
What landed him in a fix was buying gold from a stranger who turned out to be not just a burglar but a burglar from Southern Pines who was charged with 91 counts; all the police had to see was his business card in the burglar’s wallet to head for his home in Raleigh.
The search left his house a shambles but the detectives didn’t find so much as one single stolen gold coin: In the end, the worst crime they could charge him with was doing business without a city permit. So, after he cleaned up the mess, he probably figured the worst was behind him until his bank called and told his wife she needed to deposit $18,000 to cover checks that were about to start bouncing.
That’s when he found out the government had done something he’d never dreamed was possible: Take every penny he had. $115,000.
Now it’s troubling his business was more a pawn shop than the First National Bank, and the worrisomeness is compounded by the fact he paid a burglar cash for gold, but that’s beside the point: The point is when a federal agent can walk into your bank and take every penny you have – without charging you with a crime or giving you a chance to stand in front of a jury – the days when a man was innocent until proven guilty are gone.
It’s sort of like finding out they’ve taken the stars and stripes out of the flag.
June 26, 2015 at 1:33 pm
Norm Kelly says:
Government gone awry. Just another example.
No longer do we have personal freedom. Central planners are important. Group status is important.
Ability to face your accuser, have your case heard, judgement based on law, all gone.
Contracts no longer mean anything.
Words no longer mean anything.
So long as you are an ally of the powerful, belong to the 'right' group, don't criticize the 'wrong' group, you may be OK. But then again, all it takes is looking at someone in the protected group and your butt is in serious trouble.
Confiscating personal belongings, cash as it were, with no recourse, no opportunity to be heard, no opportunity to defend oneself is what totalitarian governments do. The kind where central planners rule and no one, but no one, is allowed to question or criticize.
Revolution seems to be our only option. How else will we get this evil genie back in the bottle?
Socialized medicine.
Rule of law non-existent.
Contracts no longer enforced.
Stealing money without recourse.
Failure to face ones accusers.
Changing the meaning of specific words.
Political correctness.
Assault on Christianity.
Promotion of evil, specifically radical muslim slaughter of anyone who even hints at disagreement.
Media-types and politicians becoming allies where telling the truth isn't just avoided, it's specifically prevented. And when a media-type ally LIES, they all come out to support the ally. And if a lib pol lies, as happened with socialized medicine and so many other examples, media-type allies cover for them. Stories that might be bad for the pol ally are ignored, left out, not printer/aired. So long as the pol actually is an ally, as in a demon/socialist. Otherwise, if the pol isn't an ally, then it's not even necessary to tell the truth so long as the story is told, so long as the story does the damage required.
Killing babies, and having central planners not just endorse it, demand it, and demand that those opposed still pay for it.
Is there hope left for our nation? Not as it currently stands. Shame. Used to be the best, most prosperous, generous nation on the planet. Spreading freedom wherever we went. Avoiding empire building. What other nation in history has been as generous? Now we have socialists running things, importing failed socialist policies instead of exporting freedom and prosperity!
