What’s the difference between rights and privileges?
In today’s world, we hear the word “rights” tossed out quite a bit.
What is the difference between a right and a privilege?
To me I like I like to think of the difference between a right and privilege like this:
Lets say you’re out for a little boat trip, say a 3-hour tour. Your boat crashes on an uncharted island but there are inhabitants that come out to greet you.
Do you, as a stranger to them, have the right to demand they take care of your injuries? No, you don’t. If they offer to take care of your injuries, that makes it a privilege, not a right, and you should be very grateful for their assistance and not view it as if you are entitled to it.
Do you have the right to demand they educate your children? No, you don’t. Therefore, education is a privilege, not a right.
Do you have a right to keep your property? Yes, you do.
Do you have a right to defend yourself if attacked? Yes, you do.
Do you have a right to attack the natives to take their property? No, you do not. That’s not a privilege either. It’s a violation of their rights and may cause you to lose one or more of your rights such as your right to life or liberty.
Do you have a right to vote in their elections? Certainly not.
Do you have a right to burn down their village because you learn that some of their ancestors enslaved your ancestors? No you don’t.
Social justice is the false idea that you have a right to violate another person or their property because of your individual circumstances. This doctrine leads to societal breakdown as individuals envious of other’s property or lifestyle, seek to pull down and level another person, instead of applying themselves to the effort necessary to overcome their personal circumstances. It’s always easier to destroy than build.
There are some that try to convince us that our personal, individual rights can be modified by the government or by a panel of judges. Any person with a conscience can recognize this is false. Rights can’t come from government or they can be taken by the government. A government of the people and by the people derives its powers from the consent of the governed, not by overpowering the governed with rights the people don’t possess themselves. Rights come from God and if you don’t believe in God, you can still feel the truth of the fairness of how this scenario works. We don’t seek to dominate and control each other, but allow everyone the freedom to choose how to act as long as their actions don’t interfere with others’ freedom to act.
During a crisis, it’s difficult to openly criticize leaders for their “decisive actions.” They are always making decisions on “the best available knowledge” “for the good of the people.”
How do you know if it’s really the best available knowledge or for the good of the people? Is putting 10 17 million people out of work the good of the people if we save a few thousand lives? Are you asking the unemployed people, or the families that lost someone? You’ll get different answers. The problem is, that’s the wrong question to ask. The proper question to ask is, are you willing to give up liberty?
America has always been willing to sacrifice some lives in exchange for liberty…in the past. Now we are ceding liberty at the drop of a hat with the mention of keeping us safe. We shut down our entire economy and let politicians wrap the chains of slavery (ie. compliance) around our necks. We’ve embraced the political mafia and their promise of safety (“protection”) as long as we do exactly what they say.
During World War II, the English were being bombed every day by the Germans. People were dying. They didn’t abandon their factories. They fixed them and used them every day to overcome the enemy. Only a robust economy solves individual and collective problems. The people supported the soldiers by keeping things going back home.
In our pandemic, now it’s healthcare workers on the front line. What’s happening to support them? We’ve shut down the economy. Stupid in my opinion. Taiwan and Sweden told their citizens how to take precautions and exercise good judgment, but didn’t shut down the thing that keeps everyone productive and providing for their families. That’s the model we should be emulating.
Everyone wants to be important in a crisis. From the CDC, WHO, governmental leaders, bureaucratic administrators, etc… Everyone claims their bailiwick is critical in an emergency and others can’t comment or criticize. They are saving lives… (as if a “non-essential” breadwinner going to work every day doesn’t save a family’s life…)
It’s short-term selfish thinking. Bad stuff happens to everyone. It’s life. Yes we should preserve it, but not at the cost of our freedom.
Who is Playing the Long Game?
Who is thinking in the long-term when citizens are thinking in the short-term?
The central planners. “Never let a crisis go to waste.” They pull a magic trick on us while we watch the right hand (media causing a panic) and then the left hand does the trick (government passing extensive new laws that abridge our freedom). Every crisis turns into a loss of freedom…by design.
In 1988, God’s prophet on earth, Ezra Taft Benson, said these words: “I testify that wickedness is rapidly expanding in every segment of our society. It is more highly organized, more cleverly disguised, and more powerfully promoted than ever before. Secret combinations lusting for power, gain, and glory are flourishing. **A secret combination that seeks to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries is increasing its evil influence and control over America and the entire world.**” (https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/general-conference/1988/10/i-testify?lang=eng)
President Benson (Title for the earthly president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints), previously served in President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration as the Secretary of Agriculture. In 1966 he gave a talk at BYU and in this 3 minute clip he shares a boast by Russian president Nikita Kruschev that he made to President Benson while he had to host the Russian on a U.S. tour.
In short, he said President Benson’s grandchildren would live under communism, not by any war, but Americans are so gullible, they will take socialism by doses until they wake up one morning to find they are living under communism.
We keep enacting more and more “precautions” that are turning us into a police state. Why? It’s by design of the central planners, our “masters”, the “elites” who think they know what is best and how to control the economy to make it better. There aren’t communists “hiding behind the door,” they are out in the open talking about social justice, Marxist principles, waving Bernie posters, and teaching many of our youth. The only economies that have ever functioned as close to perfect as possible is where the free market works. When people are free to capitalize on opportunities, they do so and the whole machinery of the economy functions better.
What’s the Game?
To explain what’s been happening, there is no better video clip than this one of an interview between Ed Griffin and Yuri Bezmenov in the 1970’s. Yuri was a KGB agent that defected to America and told us in great detail how the Russians took over countries and how Soviet propaganda operated. This plan was brought into play many decades ago and we are now in an end game situation where every crisis is being “normalized” by government instead of through freedom of the people to act. The Constitution of the United States is the only thing that has slowed down the communists from transforming our country even faster which is why they are so eager to abuse the Founding Fathers of this country and make it seem like they were horrible people and hypocrites. Tearing down the framers makes it easier to tear down the banner of freedom they created.
This is one of the most important videos that exists on YouTube’s servers. I’ve watched it several times to remind myself and share with others what’s happening in the America and the rest of the world.
To summarize, Yuri says the Communist purpose is to prevent people from coming to sensible conclusions about what is happening around them.
The stages of infiltration Bezmenov talks about center around a long-game plan that leads to the socialization and eventual takeover of a nation. The Soviets did this repeatedly with other nations. Their agents have been present in America for a very long time.
The four steps of the plan are:
1) Demoralization-this isn’t to put people down like you demoralize someone. It’s literally to destroy moral values (ex. Sexual revolution, life has no value so abortion is pushed, family is inconsequential, etc…). He points out that when someone loses moral values, they can no longer assess truth even when it’s presented to them in great clarity. He said this phase takes 15-20 years so that the demoralized generation becomes the teachers of the next generation and are able to pump Marxism into the heads of the children.
Once this long phase is done, the next few can be put on a loop for different industries. Just repeat 2-4 over and over till you have communism.
2) Destabilization- this takes 2-5 years for each crisis to be created. They’ll destabilize the economy in various ways (banking, savings and loan, terrorism, health care, foreign relations, defense systems).
3) Crisis-over several weeks the destabilized area hits a crisis point and “requires” a violent change in structure and economy.
4) Normalization-Leaders promise they have fixed the problem and remove more of the free market economy. It’s a government takeover of the industry and individual liberties.
Since 9/11 it’s become so easy to see these things happen. Immediately after 9/11 we had the Patriot Act, a massive document prepared far in advance of 9/11 just waiting for the right crisis to normalize life in America again. Since then, every crisis has been handled by every administration by enacting more draconian measures which the American people just roll over and accept. We stopped being the land of the free and home of the brave decades ago. We left God in favor of American idol-atry and listen to atheists more than prophets and the warnings in scripture. It’s all by design… The godless communist/Marxist threat never left. It’s just poisoning the well and cementing the evil into place until nobody can resist. Every totalitarian government wants gun control so they can’t be resisted. They promote promiscuity and the destruction of the family bonds to weaken the influence of good parents on their children so the “state” parents in government schools can pumped new doctrine into young heads as Yuri explained. This latest covid-19 crisis is a prime example of what Yuri warned us about. The disease brought about a crisis and the next phases of the program have been dropped into place remarkably fast. It’s almost like cell phone companies were ready to turn over our location tracking to the government so the CDC can “monitor the disease.” How do they know what phone owners carry the disease and how it’s spreading? I guess we’ll just have to trust these noble angels with our freedom. I’m sure they’d never do anything to strip our rights away like telling us what we can, can’t, must, must not purchase or inject into us and then carry a record of it around with us…for our own good… Meanwhile, the governments of the world are taking an interest/control of industries (airlines, etc…) because it’s so important that they not fail. They’re too big and important…
What do we do now?
If you believe in America (and not political parties), if you want to protect your freedom, do these things.
1) Pray to God to protect and preserve liberty. Listen to what he wants you to do. If this message resonates with you, you are here for a reason to help preserve liberty in whatever form we can until the nations of this earth are swallowed up under our Heavenly King whose right it is to reign, when He comes to earth to liberate the captives and establish a millennial kingdom.
2) Start writing your congressional leaders in your state and federal positions (do you know who they are?). Heck, your own town as well. The Mayors of Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, and others took draconian measures they have no authority for, to lock down the population with unconstitutional executive threats. The only reason they can do this is because we the people let them. They can only do the things we delegate to them to do. They derive their power from we the people. If you or I can’t do something ourselves, we can’t give that ability to government to do collectively. They have no authority for it, and only as much power as we cower to. You’d better start demanding they unwind all the ways they impacted our liberty or else these things will stay and just get worse with every “next crisis” they can “normalize.” You can bet they’ve already written the next dozen major laws on paper and they only wait for the next crisis to see what they can get away with. We’ve got to find people running for office that are more “Tea Party” minded that want to restore rights and shrink government. Government functions best when it’s at the most local level and the framers wisely limited (on paper as the supreme law of the land), what the federal government could do. They saw with great vision what happens to countries who have strong national governments without putting limits on them, and we’ve lost sight of that and let the camel’s nose edge the body into the tent. Vote for freedom candidates every election.
3) If you don’t know the U.S. Constitution very well, may I suggest you acquaint yourself with it through reading it and maybe taking a course like this one online (https://online.hillsdale.edu/landing/constitution-101). I had some great teachers as a youth but never read the constitution till I was 30. Heaven help today’s generation being openly taught by teachers that communism isn’t that bad. If you aren’t homeschooling, (not talking about the crisis schooling happening now) you should seriously consider it. Know your rights or lose them.
Here’s a collection of some articles which shed a little different light on this whole “pandemic.”
Related Articles:
CURE: LA doctor: COVID-19 patients go from ‘very ill’ to ‘symptom-free’ in 8 to 12 hours using hydroxychloroquine and zinc
Good news as it proves only 1 in 1,000 requires hospitalization and that would be spaced out. Coupled with the cure for the worst afflicted, Utah’s hospitals would have no problem handling this. It’s like a regular bad flu season.
Knut Wittkowski, previously the longtime head of the Department of Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Research Design at the Rockefeller University in New York City, said in an interview with the Press and the Public Project that the coronavirus could be “exterminated” if we permitted most people to lead normal lives and sheltered the most vulnerable parts of society until the danger had passed.
CDC tells hospitals to assume Covid-19 killed someone if it’s present. This has NEVER happened before to tell hospitals to assume a cause of death. Up till now they determined the cause of death on their own.
Glenn Beck reviews the cycle of history for nations, and Bill Maher says stupid people (ex. anyone not believing in evolution) need to have their decisions made for them.
On October 14th, Lord Christopher Monckton gave a presentation in St. Paul, MN on the subject of global warming helping to expose the true nature of those behind the movement. Are they really concerned about global warming (now that the earth’s been cooling for 11 straight years and scientists have conclusively shown the earth goes through warming and cooling cycles that have nothing to do with man-made causes)? Or are they in it for power and wealth?
Last week Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan dictator, said, “Every day I am more convinced that socialism is the kingdom of God here on earth. Every day I’m more revolutionary, more socialist every day. I’m taking Venezuela toward socialism, the people and workers.”
I suppose if you’re the dictator, socialism must feel like heaven.
Contrast that with what a modern prophet has said.
Marion G. Romney, Conference Report, April 1966, 95-101 —
No, brethren, socialism is not the United Order. However, notwithstanding my abhorrence of it, I am persuaded that socialism is the wave of the present and of the foreseeable future. It has already taken over or is contending for control in most nations. . . .
We have also gone a long way on the road to public ownership and management of the vital means of production. In both of these areas the free agency of Americans has been greatly abridged. Some argue that we have voluntarily surrendered this power to government. Be this as it may, the fact remains that the loss of freedom with the consent of the enslaved, or even at their request, is nonetheless slavery.
As to the fruits of socialism, we all have our opinions. I myself have watched its growth in our own country and observed it in operation in many other lands. But I have yet to see or hear of its freeing the hearts of men of selfishness and greed or of its bringing peace, plenty, or freedom. These things it will never bring, nor will it do away with idleness and promote “industry, thrift and self-respect,” for it is founded, in theory and practice, on force, the principle of the evil one. . . .
Now, not forgetting our duty to eschew [shun, abstain from] socialism and support the just and holy principles of the Constitution, as directed by the Lord, I shall conclude these remarks with a few comments concerning what we should do about the United Order. . . . If, in the meantime, socialism takes over in America, it will have to be displaced, if need be, by the power of God, because the United Order can never function under socialism or the “welfare state,” for the good and sufficient reason that the principles upon which socialism and the United Order are conceived and operated are inimical [hostile; enemies]. . . .
That we will develop the understanding, the desire, and the courage, born of the Spirit, to eschew socialism and to support and sustain, in the manner revealed and as interpreted by the Lord, those just and holy principles embodied in the Constitution of the United States for the protection of all flesh, in the exercise of their God-given agency. . . .
IF THIS ETHICS BILL PASSES, UTAH WILL CEASE TO EXIST AS A FREE STATE
I attended a town hall meeting last night where Senators Howard Stephenson and Curtis Bramble went through the text of the Government Ethics Reform bill citizens initiative. Under the guise that Utah legislators need ethics reform, made popular by the press mobbing of Greg Hughes a year ago (who was innocent but the accusers got great coverage right before his election battle and almost knocked him out), this group of “concerned citizens” has drafted a bill that WOULD GIVE THEM NEARLY UNLIMITED POWER TO CONTROL UTAH LEGISLATORS.
THIS BLATANTLY UNCONSTITUTIONAL BILL WILL DESTROY THE REPUBLIC AND GIVE ULTIMATE PUNITIVE POWER TO A SMALL GROUP OF NON-ELECTED PEOPLE SETTING UP AN INTERNAL OLIGARCHY IN UTAH WITH NO CHECKS OR BALANCES ON THEM
-This bill says that if Republicans and Democrats can’t agree on 20 people to potentially serve on an ethics committee, “the sponsors (those unelected people who wrote the bill)…unanimously shall select the 20 candidates.“
-If the bill becomes law, the only way a member is removed is “by reason of death, disability, resignation, or disqualification” meaning there is no expiration or legislative process to remove a committee member.
-They can investigate current legislators as well as “those who have served at any time in the past“.
–What is written into law is only the beginning of their powers (“This Act shall be construed liberally in furthance of its remedial goals.”)
-Further down we read the commission is vested with “power and jurisdiction…to investigate…and to do all things, whether herein specifically designated or in addition thereto.“
-“The commission may employ additional staff” meaning they can self-bloat without legislative or executive oversight
-“Although the commission serves the legislature and is not an agency within the executive branch of state government, the commission nevertheless shall have the powers and shall adopt the procedures of the Utah Administrative Rulemaking Act. This rulemaking power shall include the power to make rules governing the internal processes of the commission (meaning they are self-governing with legislative and executive authority)…”
-The commission may “[issue] subpoenas in order to compel the production of documents and the attendance and testimony of witnesses” (more executive powers)
-“The commission shall meet, allocate its budget (legislative function), marshall its resources, prioritize its work, and conduct its business as it deems appropriate, and its independence in this regard shall not be abridged, impaired, or threatened by the legislature, any committe of the legislature, or any legislator.” (ULTIMATE POWER–THEY BECOME THE UNTOUCHABLES)
-Legislators will need to annually disclose “the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of any person with which the legislator has an agency relationship, including any client of a legislator…[from whom they’ve received at least $10,000 in the prior year].” (This will violate confidentiality agreements between professionals and their clients and is a violation of law)
-“A legislator may not be charged with misconduct which occurred more than 6 years prior to the date upon which the complaint is filed, provided, however, that this 6 year limitations period shall not begin to run until the misconduct in question could have been discovered by a reasonable person through publicly available information.” (ie. there is no statute of limitations until the time a violation was discovered and then it goes 6 more years for someone to bring a complaint–even the IRS only goes back in time 6 years from when the action happened)
-“the executive director may issue subpoenas for the production of documents and to compel the attendance and testimony of witnesses by deposition or otherwise.
-“The persons who filed the complaint may participate fully in the development of evidence during this investigative phase of the proceeding, and the executive director, upon request of the complainants, shall issue such subpoenas as may be necessary to facilitate that participation…The accused legislator may participate informally, but shall have no formal rights of participation, during this stage of the proceeding.”
(So the accusers can continue to participate in a witch hunt, but the accused who may have evidence to exonerate him/herself, has no rights to provide that information. HELLO SALEM, MASSACHUSETTS 1692!)
-“Once a prima facie case has been established against an accused legislator…the burden of proof and risk of non-persuasion in relation to such case shall shift to such legislator, and such legislator must show by a preponderance of evidence that the legislator did not commit the violation or violations charged in the formal complaint.” (GUILTY UNTIL PROVEN INNOCENT)
-“there shall be no judicial review or agency review of any commission action”
-“The Attorney General for the state of Utah shall have no power or role as counsel for the commission.“
Are you kidding me??? Written into the bill is a waiver of all liability for their actions. No check or balance. No legislator can threaten them, no executive can remove them, no judge can make a ruling on them. WELCOME TO YOUR NEW RULERS UTAH
These constitutional thieves should never hold office again. They should be branded with a scarlet A for seeking to adulterate the constitution and constutional principles. It’s their constitutional right to seek to do this, but the manner in which they are doing it is so deceptive to make people think this provides some form of ethics oversight when instead it’s a measure to ensure the only people who can serve in the legislature will be this committee’s hand picked stooges. Is it any wonder this committee is doing this when you realize they were the ones running the anti-voucher movement and are seeking to punish current legislators?
Go to this website for more complete information and to see the “dirty dozen” who wrote this bill and their ties to the anti-voucher movement. Burn their names into memory and help ensure they never hold public office again.
P.S. Please forward this letter to everyone you can. If the sponsors fail to get 3,000 signatures in 26 of 29 senate districts, it won’t come to a vote next year, but it’s almost guaranteed to make it to the ballot since it’s not hard to ask Walmart shoppers “do you want an ethical legislature where legislators can’t take bribes? Sign here.”
P.S.S. If you’re in Utah, sign the petition at www.UtahsRepublic.org to help restore basic constitutional education to our children. Right now the word “Republic” doesn’t even appear in the K-12 standards for social studies.
The law firm I work for doesn’t handle medical malpractice cases but I feel the need to write to express my concern for legislation being considered in Utah. I am attaching for your review a recent NY Times article that should help explain some of the facts regarding the ever popular tort reform issue. The article deals with the number and value of cases that are handled each year by our justice system and I sincerely request that you take a couple minutes to read it as the statistics often presented by insurance companies are wildly off-base. Since the article doesn’t deal with Utah, I’ll just mention that in Utah, only 0.8% of all cases tried in this state relate to medical malpractice or personal injury cases. The vast majority of what ties up our court system is debt, criminal, and business related court work.
Few things have been so distorted as the famous McDonald’s coffee case. This case wasn’t about a big award the jury pulled out of thin air. It was decided by a jury who knew the full facts and determined to punish McDonald’s negligence with one days’ coffee sales revenue as a punitive measure and help ensure that thousandsof people would no longer be burned as they had been. This little known fact (and several others in the case) never made the press and knowing what happened changes the entire understanding of the story.
To put an artificially set cap on damage awards is not only unconstitutional, but borders on immoral. Consider this recent case in Kansas where a woman went in to have her right ovary removed and the doctor removed her left ovary. Due to an award cap, the judge struck down the jury decision of $759,680 for current and future medical bills, pain and suffering, inability to perform services as a spouse, and other non-economic losses, and awarded the state cap of $250,000. A jury of peers examined all the proper evidence and determined a fair amount, and this law now usurps their role in calculating proper damages on a case by case basis.
I know many of you are concerned about the recent Pay Czar’s determination to cut executives salaries by as much as 50%. I share in this concern as we all know that once we go down this road with one class of people (those who took stimulus money), it is all too easy to open the door to the next group. I have come to conclude, however, that this action is no different in its sphere, than that of legislators seeking to cap jury awards to plaintiffs and their lawyers to ensure “they don’t make too much money” on a case.
“One Nation Under God” is the title of a cool art piece by Jon McNaughton. Click this link and then click the picture for a neat little app he’s got that lets you zoom in on every aspect of his painting and understand the symbolism he’s put into this work of art. http://www.mcnaughtonart.com