Sometimes, though, a law or its application strikes a sour note. When someone is unjustly by our justice system, it does more damage than a thousand appropriate convictions and punishments can repair.
Legislators try to do good things when they make laws. Occasionally, however, even well-intended laws cause disasters for peaceful, honest people: an elderly man convicted of "cruelty to animals" after using his cane in defense against an attacking dog; parents convicted of "child pornography" after taking family photos of their toddler in the tub; a lady convicted under the "open container" law after collecting empty beer cans along the road to use in making novelty hats.
Verdicts like these create hardship, discord, and cynicism. Not harmony. Not justice.
For justice to be served, an accused person must be allowed to present a complete defense. If he's barred from arguing that applying the letter of the law will not make common sense, an unjust verdict can easily result. Such arguments are presently denied to accused persons.
Amendment As critics have been implying that South Dakota's citizen jurors aren't bright enough to tell a good explanation from a bad one, and don't have enough common sense to deliver justice. Interestingly, these arrogant, unfounded slurs have come almost entirely from lawyers.
True, asking the legislature to improve a faulty law is an option — but only for those with time and money to burn. It's not much help to someone already being wrongly prosecuted. "A" will provide for those who need it most, when and where it counts.
In sum, Amendment A will reinforce our right as Americans to a fair trial. If ever accused of breaking a law that we feel is flawed, or wrongly applied, or carries too harsh a punishment, we should be able to say to in court. It just makes common sense.
— Proponent's Argument, South Dakota 2002 General Election
Question Pamphlet
Finally ratified there in 2010 thanks to the tireless work of www.fija.org and www.commonsensejustice.us, FIJA had a head start in Wyoming.
Opponents of juror rights were legion. Government officials and the ABA hated it, and their arguments stretched the limits of silliness. The state AG called FIJA "a goofy idea." A lobbyist for the Wyoming Trail Lawyers' Association asserted that "FIJA would allow juries to be arbitrary, unreasonable, vindictive, mean-spirited, ignorant, and unpatriotic. A jury could ignore treason. It could impose a trivial fine for murder." (As if juries impose sentences. Only judges can.) A rep from the Unified Justice System (the legislative-peddling arm of judges and prosecutors) said "This will clog up the system." Tim Barnett chimed in from the Wyoming Bar: "If FIJA passes, I could get arrested for driving while intoxicated and say, 'You can't convict me. I'm Irish. I have a God-given right to drive drunk.'" An AP story had hysterically claimed that "Advocates of FIJA want juries to be able to ignore the law" and that thousands of violent criminals would be set free. When nobody could provide even one example of this ever having happened, their silly agitation was exposed to all.
Several dozen criminal defense lawyers privately supported FIJA but would not go public because "The Bar would look for a way to punish me, and judges would punish my clients for years." The WTLA sent lawyers to meetings of many special-interest organizations, such as the Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Retailers' Association, Bankers' Association, Municipal League, Association of County Commissioners, Sheriffs' Association, State Attorneys' Association, Trial Lawyers' Association, and the Criminal Defense Lawyers' Association. Since every one of these organizations had a vested interest in law enforcement/prison/industrial complex, they all published resolutions opposing FIJA.
It always takes an enormous exertion just to ascertain what liberals are so damn upset about. Once you figure out what has propelled the tolerant crowd into frenzies of demonic rage, it invariably turns out to be a perfectly ordinary view held by many good-hearted Americans.
— Ann Coulter, Slander
Nevertheless, FIJA opponents were wary of too much public campaigning. They worried that advertising would backfire since voters tend to be suspicious of attorneys ("If the state bar opposes FIJA, then it must be good!"). They were right. FIJA advocates hammered on the fact that "only lawyers and government officials oppose FIJA."
Ted Nugent and Al "Grandpa Munster" Lewis graciously cut some radio spot ads, which ran on every station in Wyoming. The Wall Street Journal did a nice feature story, as did the New York Times. A well-known libertarian financial newsletter author kicked in $100,000 for the war chest.
Wyoming became the second government on earth to protect the rights of parents, jurors, homeowners, small businessmen, farmers, ranchers, gunowners, and civil court defendants.
Wyoming Special Election
April 2015
Constitutional Amendments A through G were ratified by the voters with an average approval of 71%. A return of real freedom had been offered to the people, and they eagerly took it. Most could not recall the time when elections added to their quality of life.
Political liberty is so rare in the history of the human race as to be regarded an aberration more than an achievement.
— Jeff Cooper, The Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip 2 (2001)
Wyoming
June 2015
On earth there is no heaven, but there are pieces of it.
— Jules Renard
The "Preston Experiment" was by all objective accounts wildly succeeding. There was a marked and steady decline in taxes, petty lawsuits, crime, and unemployment. New businesses sprung up almost overnight. Several large multinational corporations had begun relocating their American headquarters to the favorable climate of tax-free Wyoming. (Even though these corporate socialists were not advocates of a truly free market, tax-free was tax-free. They moved to Wyoming for the same reason their cleaning staff was hired from certain religious practitioners known for their honesty. Use 'em, but don't join 'em.) Even tourism increased by 40%, reflecting many Americans' desire to see for themselves if Wyoming should be their next home.
For many thousands, it was.
New York City, D.C., L.A., San Francisco, Aspen, etc.
Thomas Sowell, who is one of our favorite commentators, points out three things that make the collectivists uneasy. These are cars, guns, and home schooling, all of which grant to the individual a degree of independence of action which terrifies the champions of the super state. Cars, guns and home schooling reduce the need for the statism so prized by the socialists. They do not wish you freedom to move around. They do not wish you to be able to protect yourself. And they do not wish you to decide what your children should be taught. Such things reduce the power of the state over the citizen. (at 915)
— Jeff Cooper, The Gargantuan Gunsite Gossip 2 (2001)
The Liberazzi are beside themselves to explain the "phenomenon." They accuse Preston's staff of falsifying the statistics, but when independent researchers confirm the numbers, the Liberazzi retort that "all new brooms sweep clean" and that the whole thing is a fluke, an unnatural freak of politics, "a cheap card trick." Deep in their envious heart-of-hearts, they know better.
Moral indignation is a technique used to endow the idiot with dignity.
— McLuhan
A man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of the time he will pick himself up and continue on.
— Winston Churchill
Likening the Wyomingans to bacteria, the liberals make noises of overwhelming the state with the vast "T-cell" immigration of themselves. "We'll retake the state in the same way they stole it in 2014!" they exclaim. "This is America and they can't prevent us from moving there!"
Cheyenne, Wyoming
June 2015
Preston gets wind of this and convenes a meeting with his staff and others. "They're right, you know. It's a free country. We can't prevent them from moving here, nor can we evict them once they've arrived."
Heads nod in agreement.
"But we may, as the French would say, chasse-cousins. We may "chase away cousins" by making Wyomin
g so utterly unpalatable that they couldn't stand the place and don't bother coming!"
"Why not? New Jersey and Massachusetts did it to us!" quips Chief Justice Pollard. The room breaks up laughing.
"How do we accomplish that?" asks Attorney General Warner. "Simple," replies Preston with a sly grin.
"Jim, are you thinking...," asks Juliette with a growing smile.
"She knows me too well," Preston answers with mock resignation." Seeing the questioning looks about his office, the Governor smiles and explains, "Because of our cold climate, Wyoming has no roaches or fleas. A pest is a pest. It's all about creating the proper environment. So, what do liberals fear and hate the most?"
After a few seconds of pondering this riddle, the room begins chuckling as each person" sees the light." Preston then fanned the chuckles into roaring laughter as he describes what he had in mind.
To his personal secretary, Preston says, "Carol, I need to meet with Senator Haskins tomorrow morning. Tell her that I have an idea for a bill that the legislature should enjoy passing. Also, inform the Legislative Service Office that I will convene a special session for Monday 6 July."
"In the summer? Right after the weekend of the 4th? Are you certain, Governor?" asks his secretary.
"Carol, you're forgetting that Wyoming has an anniversary that week and there's already a celebration planned. Most of the legislators will be in Cheyenne on that Friday, anyway. Might as well put them to work while they're in town. Besides, they'll all get their per diems, so that'll help."
Cheyenne, Wyoming
Friday, 10 July 2015
The bill sails through a special session in just one week. Since there is concurrence on the language, the Joint Conference Committee is avoided. The bill is enrolled by the LSO and given a number, read by the Presiding Officers of both houses, signed in the presence of a quorum, and sent to Governor Preston. He signs it at once and presents it to the people precisely on the day of Wyoming's 125 year statehood anniversary.
The concept is elegantly simple, just as Preston said.
It worked like this: Taxation discourages the object, which affects personal habits. When personal habits are altered, people themselves are changed. Change a people and one changes a nation — all through taxation. A simple 357 member majority of the U.S. Congress can change an entire nation simply through taxation policy. Congress had learned this quite well from taxing the interest on personal savings, thus discouraging savings and encouraging hand-to-mouth consumption which shortened the time horizon of the electorate, not to mention destroying their self-reliance and ability to delay gratification. A proud, independent nation of hardy savers was transformed into a now-oriented, Gimme! flock of buzzards feeding on the public's rotting carcass. Since no citizen can be outside of the citizenry, America was, in effect, feeding on herself. Through taxation policy, we had been reduced to an indirect cannibalism.
Preston's idea is to use taxation policy, but in reverse.
Effective immediately, anybody openly wearing a functional and loaded sidearm in a store is exempt from paying the sales tax of that particular transaction. Since the legislature had planned to cut sales taxes anyway, this indirect method seems a good first step. With an expected further reduction in crime it is reasoned that the commensurately shrinking police force neatly matches the loss of sales tax revenue. Besides, it is the unarmed who need police protection, so let them pay for the cops.
Overnight, the entire state straps on their handguns and revolvers. 21st Century Wyoming is now more widely-armed than it had been even in the 19th Century. In fact, it was the most well-armed region on the planet as far as actual gun-bearing went.
Some business owners and managers, however, find the notion of armed customers abhorrent and make a fairly big stink. They put large "No Guns!" signs in their front windows, but immediately lose business. Also, their stores are favored by the dwindling population of criminals. So, by a brutal combination of sales loss and increased crime, these stores quickly reverse their gun-phobic policy or go out of business.
Washington, D.C.
Friday, 10 July 2015
As to the abuses I meet with, I number them among my honors. One cannot behave so as to obtain the esteem of the wise and the good without drawing on oneself at the same time the envy and malice of the foolish and wicked, and the latter is testimony of the former. The best men have always had their share of this treatment, the the more of it in proportion to their different and greater degree of merit. A man, therefore, has some reason to be ashamed of himself when he meets none of it.
— Benjamin Franklin, 1767
To be a liberal you have to be able to believe two contradictory things at the same time.
— Vin Suprynowicz, The Ballad of Carl Drega (2002), p. 669
Already chewing their elbows over Preston's 10 Points of February, the liberal Democrats went nova.
Legal authorities were heatedly consulted in the hopes of learning of some constitutional recourse through the Department of Justice (DOJ), but the preliminary consensus was that no violation of civil rights had occurred. The 50 states still enjoyed, surprisingly enough, wide latitude in their domestic taxation policies and it was opined that Wyoming's sales tax exemption for gun-bearers was not unconstitutional — especially when this issue was contrasted with some of the more outrageous provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. The Federal Government was the master of pursuing "public policy" through selective taxation and regulation, so to accuse Wyoming of taxation favoritism was like the ocean calling the pond "wet."
Except for the unconstitutional "school-zone" prohibition (which had been overturned by the 1991 Supreme Court case U.S. v. Lopez), there was no congressional ban on the intrastate bearing of arms, nor did such seem constitutionally possible. When it was suggested that the BATF enforce the school-zone ban, Attorney General Vorn exclaimed, "There's no point in shutting an empty barn after the horses ran off!"
President Connor tried to mollify the despair by offering, "Why not just let them all just wipe themselves out? Maybe they will come to their senses when blood up to their ankles is running in the streets!"
To D.C.'s stunned amazement, this did not occur.
Cheyenne Frontier Days
September 2015
For ten days Cheyenne is home to the largest rodeo on earth. Over 300,000 visitors from all 50 states enjoy professional displays of bronc riding, calf roping, and steer wrestling, as well as four parades.
Vegetarian and animal rights advocates from Colorado's front range drive up to protest the "cruel and inhuman treatment of animal citizens solely for the purpose of sport." They blanket pickup windshields with their flyers. James Preston, Jr. snags one and exclaims, "Hey, Dad! It's from Boulder! "
Life Isn't For Eating (LIFE)
So called "vegetarians" hide behind their proclaimed love for animals yet kill beautiful, helpless plants. This is like Axe Murderers for Gun Controlwhat hypocrites! Our organization LIFE has a slogan:
If meat is murder, then salad is slaughter!
Life is Life, and to consume Life for "food" is nothing less than Cosmic Cannibalism. (We were, until informed of its Nutrient citizenry, eating soil.) We must ban "harvesting" — which is nothing more than the wanton, systematic killing of plants for food. Many of these "vegetarians" even cultivate plots of carnage (which they call "gardens") in their own backyards! Cut down in their prime, plant butchers rip and shred Nature's most delicate and vulnerable of citizens, only to "toss" the dismembered bits in the air for their "salads." End the madness!
Think we're being hysterical? Well, have you ever noticed the violence inherent to the names of many "foods"? For example:
black-eyed peas
artichoke
crushed red pepper
chopped sirloin
mashed potatoes
bruised bananas
scrambled eggs
battered shrimp
We propose the immediate registration of all:
pruning shears
paring knives
hedge clippers
apple corers
lawnmowers
potato peelers
salad shredders, spinners, and tongs
(Some would say that registration of these "garden" and "kitchen" implements of death is but a stepping stone to their confiscation, but this is just not true. We merely want to know where they are.
There is much you can do, such as the boycotting of "popcorn." Take the moral high ground and refuse to heat our Kernel Brethren to 500° until they explode! For snacks! Orville Redenbacker is the Dr. Mengele of Corn — General Mills the Auschwitz. The caring substitute for "popcorn" are styrofoam packing "peanuts"beautifully inert — if you have the strength to lift them.
Before you prepare your dinner, look for LIFE's Seal of Inertness. Remember, start your day with a LIFE breakfast — a fresh, heaping bowl of steam! Mmmm, good!
Wyoming
October 2015
G.K. Chesterton is much more concerned that children are being deprived from developing riches of nobility. For Chesterton, all boys must play games — cops and robbers, Robin Hood, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and cowboys and indians. Boys must play at being the knight or the soldier in order to develop the noble virtues of courage, justice, discipline and self-sacrifice. If boys are not allowed to develop these virtues when they are young, they will not develop them later. To deprive children of bows and arrows is to form men and women without courage, conviction or commitment. For Chesterton, possessing bows and arrows, in fact, weaponry of all kinds, is not some sort of an eccentric, aberrant or deviant behavior, It is rooted in a most precious human attribute, the inspiration to act nobly. Chesterton admits that bows and arrows can be instruments of destruction, but the good they do is greater by far than their potential harm, because they are instruments by which children are naturally inclined to reach a higher human potential.
Molon Labe! Page 37