Civil Liberties – Page 2 – Ryan S. Walters

Many conservatives and civil libertarians erroneously believed that the implementation of the ObamaCare bill would be the final nail in the coffin of a free society, which is why President Obama spent a full year trying so hard to implement it. But I respectfully disagree. Though it is part of the same big government scheme, the creation of a cashless society will be the endgame. And the movement toward it has already begun.

In March, the government of Sweden announced that it would be moving toward establishing a cashless economy. Other nations are examining the possibility of using new ways to rid their society of cash, as well as to identify and keep track of its citizens.

Biometric ID devices, or biometric authentication, can identify a human by specific characteristics and traits – fingerprints, iris scans, vein scans, DNA, voice recognition, facial recognition, and even behavior analysis. These technologies presently exist and are being perfected every year.

The populous nation of India, with 1.25 billion people, announced recently that they were forming a biometric ID program for all Indian citizens. Each person will be given a unique identification number that will be tied to biometric data, using the prints of all ten fingers, scans of the iris in both eyes, and facial photographs.

In this country, we are beginning to see an increased discussion about the usefulness of a cashless economy backed up with a biometric ID system. But to impose it, the government must convince us of its benefits. What reasons might our government have for moving us in the direction of Sweden and India in the future? Continue reading “The Dangers of a Cashless Society” →

“Which is better,” Boston clergyman Mather Byles is reputed to have asked, “to be ruled by one tyrant three thousand miles away, or by three thousand tyrants not a mile away?”

Many loyalists and fence sitters during the very early days of the American Revolution pondered that very point. It did not mean they were in love with George III by any stretch of the imagination but only that they were just as wary of homegrown despots.

In our present predicament, it seems we have both – a tyrant in the White House and a multitude just down the road in our local courthouses. We must ever be mindful that local governments can oppress the rights of citizens just as effectively as Washington, DC. Continue reading “When Tyranny Comes to Main Street” →

In 1906, President Teddy Roosevelt signed the Pure Food and Drug Act into law, which eventually led to the creation of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), a new regulatory agency that would ensure that the American people would consume only the best food and pharmaceuticals.

To conservatives who distrust government power, liberals are fond of asking, “Why oppose such a benevolent government program?” But if you understand the nature of government, as true conservatives do, then you realize that such a venture could eventually evolve into an instrument of tyranny.

According to recent reports, the Obama Administration is now using the FDA to ensure that “we the children” only choose the foods and medical treatments that our government parents approve of, and they are using the most vicious tactics to see to it that you obey. Continue reading “The FDA’s War on Health Choice” →

“The whole aim of practical politics,” wrote famed journalist H. L. Mencken, “is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Truer words were never spoken, which begs important questions: Will our “War on Terror” ever end? Will our need for national security ever diminish? Most likely not, as Washington is always on the lookout for more ways to protect us from our “enemies.” As Vice President Biden told recent graduates at West Point, “Prepare for new threats.”

But new laws designed for our safety threaten to reach deeper and deeper into our private lives with more intrusive surveillance, as many in our government have taken to heart words attributed to Cicero, “In times of war, the law falls silent.” Continue reading “The Return of Sedition” →