The outrages being perpetrated by arbitrary Authority upon the citizenry are made possible by several things but perhaps the thing most responsible for them is that there are people who think the outrageousness – and arbitrariness – will never be applied to them.
Therefore, it isn’t outrageous.
One of the most outrageous examples of this Wheel of Misfortune – spun by some of us, hoping someone else will hit “bankrupt” – are so-called Red Flag laws, which vitiate the laws which used to protect law-abiding gun owners.
On the basis of “someone” – it can be almost anyone – expressing “concern,” the gun owner who hasn’t done anything illegal is treated precisely as if he had.
He is forcibly deprived of his firearms – and perhaps more – summarily.
In some cases, murderously.
At least one man – Gary Willis, of Ferndale, Maryland – was shot to death in his own home about a year ago by armed government workers who paid him a visit to seize his legally owned guns – which no one even suggested Willis had used in an unlawful manner – on the basis of someone expressing . . . “concern” that he might.
It’s fundamentally the same business as being relieved by arbitrary Authority of “excessive” cash – the non-standard applied by armed government workers who routinely seize any amount of cash they find in in the possession of some hapless victim.
It could be $2,000 – or $2.
It doesn’t matter.
Whatever they say is “excessive” is.
It’s as loosey goosy as “concern.”
There is nothing specific in these fatwas – which are as arbitrary as any issued by a ranting ayatollah. And without specificity – clearcut, objective definitions that transcend someone’s opinions – and without due process, including the obligation of Authority to prove a specific transgression of law has occurred before punishing you for it – there is no law.
There is just the exercise of Authority.
Which is now being exercised against drivers in at least one state – Virginia – and probably more, soon.
The “DMV relies on information provided by licensed medical professionals, law enforcement, judges, relatives, concerned citizens and other reliable sources to help identity drivers who may be unable to safely operate a motor vehicle.”
Italics added to emphasize the outrageous.
A relative? How about an angry ex-wife or girlfriend? Someone who might not like you very much – like a neighbor whose “concern” is really about the lawn clippings you inadvertently shed on his driveway?
One call does it all!
Your doctor has been empowered to express “concern,” too.
If you’ve been to one lately, you may have been startled by odd questions that were never asked by doctors before – but which you’re now (or soon will be) under duress to answer – because it is understood your doctor has acquired Authority over you. Because he reports on you. Which he is being required to do – because he is now a de facto employee of the government via the government takeover of the doctoring business.
His duress becomes yours.
Questions about your state of mind – are you depressed? Feeling stressed?
Is everything ok at home? How’s work going?
If you decline to answer these questions, you may be checked off as “recalcitrant,” even unstable – which is sufficient to trigger . . . “concern.” And there goes your your license. Or your gun.
Maybe both.
Possibly, your life as well – if you object overmuch to their “concerns.”
As in gun (and asset) seizures, it is the burden of the defrocked driver to prove he isn’t unfit to be behind the wheel. His unfitness – like the “dangerousness” of the legal gun owner who hasn’t shot anyone – is presumed. The driver about whom “concern” has been expressed” must go begging to the DMV authorities – on his time and at his expense – and hope they will allow him to get back behind the wheel again.
Even though he’s violated no traffic laws, been convicted of nothing whatsoever.
This is all being done, we’re told, to protect society preemptively from supposedly dangerous or soon-to-be-dangerous people – people who might go on a shooting spree, for instance.
Dealers in arbitrarily illegal “drugs.”
Supposedly senile citizens who won’t give up the keys without a little pre-emptive . . . “help.”
But this preemption amounts to pre-crime, as in Minority Report – except this isn’t a sci fi movie.
In reality, we’re all being placed at the mercy of arbitrary Authority. Which by definition has power over anyone and everyone – and at any time.
But the people who support it don’t see it – or rather, don’t care about it – because they think it will never be applied to them.
Which is like thinking the sunset won’t lead to darkness in your neighborhood.
…
Got a question about cars – or anything else? Click on the “ask Eric” link and send ’em in!
If you like what you’ve found here please consider supporting EPautos.
We depend on you to keep the wheels turning!
Our donate button is here.
If you prefer not to use PayPal, our mailing address is:
EPautos
721 Hummingbird Lane SE
Copper Hill, VA 24079
PS: Get an EPautos magnet (pictured below) in return for a $20 or more one-time donation or a $10 or more monthly recurring donation. (Please be sure to tell us you want a sticker – and also, provide an address, so we know where to mail the thing!)
My latest eBook is also available for your favorite price – free! Click here. 
Today, I paid a visit to my new chiropractor.
Not one busy-body, do-gooder inquiry.
No, I did not pay cash. My wife, being an employee of the People’s Republic of Massachusetts, has taxpayer funded health insurance. Nonetheless, the only form I was asked to complete concerned pain levels, physical activity, physical limitations, and the like.
Like many here, I do not do allopathy. Chiropractic, however, is not allopathy. A chiropractor-healer did wonders for my wife. I persuaded her to try chiropractic instead of seeking another opinion from an orthopedic grifter. Take a wild fornicating guess what the first one recommended: SURGERY, surprise, surprise, surprise!
Hi Mike,
Excellent! I am self-rehabbing my left shoulder, which I suspect hurts (mostly at night) due to a combination of misalignment caused by posture/too much bench-pressing (and not enough rowing) and stress. If I went to an ortho, I have no doubt the recommend would be arthroscopic surgery – for $10,0000 or more. No thanks. I’ll self-treat… for free!
Hi Eric –
Yep, bench-pressing, even with enough rowing, will do that. Over-training, in general, will cause problems.
Perhaps we should be more like the big cats: lots of laying about, napping, lounging around in our stripes, interspersed with occasional bouts of intense exercise, and, if the hunting is good, gorging on plenty of animal protein.
It’s all in your permanent record.
“I’m a good student, Principal Skinner.” – Samantha Stanky
“Yeah, sure, and they told me I’d get a big parade when I got back from Nam. Instead they spat on me. I can still feel it searing. . . . So, let’s just see what the permanent record has to say, shall we? Hmm, no detention, fairly good attendance record, oh, I see you beat that bed wetting problem in the second grade.” – Principal Skinner
“That’s in there?” – Samantha Stanky
“Don’t worry, they’ll forget. . . . Just like they forgot about me in that tiger cage for eighteen agonizing months. Every night I wake up screaming! . . . Well, let’s meet your classmates!” – Principal Skinner
Of course even with paper records no one really “forgets” anything. Just that the cost of searching though all that paper is cost prohibitive. A lot of stuff was forgotten in the past, stuff that today is “remembered” in milliseconds. Look at what happened to Justice Kavanaugh. Everyone has a cringeworthy past. If your acquaintances decide to report you to the Stasi there’s not much can be done. Ultimately this will backfire horribly and forgiveness will become fashionable again. But until that happens we collectively learn the lesson the hard way.
I went to my annual “lady parts doctor” appointment and got several questions that have nothing to do with lady parts. It pissed me off, so we were off to the races. First, do I “feel safe” in my home. Ummm, none of your business? And if I say I don’t, what are YOU doing about it? Giving me a pamphlet?
Then he asked if I wear my seatbelt. So, what does this have to do with women’s reproductive health? Are vaginal injuries on the rise because women aren’t wearing their seatbelts?
I refused to answer the guns in the house question.
Then I proposed we jettison the part of the form that asks questions that are actually law enforcement type issues and not his area of expertise.
Not well received was that. I ended up changing docs.
From what I hear, it’s even worse for parents at the regular pediatric checkups.
Hi Amy,
Yup; same – and I’m male!
It doesn’t matter. “Health” is no longer a matter of your physical and physiological state. It is a matter of your personal state. Which is now a matter of public – read, government – “concern.”
eric, when you say it’s a matter of govt. concern, I believe you and if it’s true, and I believe it is, it’s just another way of saying corporations are the govt.
Just read about a school psychologist in Florida who wouldn’t sign a pledge to Israel and lost her job.
All of the data mining, the various and more coming red flag laws about everything is a fast tightening noose for the citizens of this country.
If you get some govt. handout, you have to surrender your guns. When the 1st Amendment is taken away by a state just as Florida has done, it’s only a matter of time before every state will have those same “laws”.
I tried to get the wife to move to Mexico where I have friends nearly 20 years ago and she wouldn’t. I should have gone on and let the chips fall where they may.
Hi Eight!
My friend Fred Reed urges me to flee to Mexico… while I still can. Probably, he’s smart – and right. But what the hell. Here I am and here I will stay. It may not be smart, but that’s long been a problem for me!
eric, don’t know if the wife had a stroke or a bad dream but yesterday morning she “found” me. I was in bed but she was sure the cops had drug me off and she was about to call the sheriff’s dept.
I told her “If I do disappear, hang out and wait till I call you or show up. The last thing you should do is call the law. Never, ever, call them for any reason.”
We get back to the 3 S’s.
Amy,
“Then he asked if I wear my seatbelt. So, what does this have to do with women’s reproductive health? Are vaginal injuries on the rise because women aren’t wearing their seatbelts?”
Depends on how the seatbelt is worn.
Under the right leg is a no no for us guys while driving.
At least for those of us who haven’t had the soon to be mandated orchiectomy.
By the way guys, the orchiectomy is one of the most economical ways to treat and prevent prostate cancer. And we know that some of the gals opt for mastectomies to prevent breast cancer.
Think of it as common sense cancer control.
Much like common sense gun control, taking away the breasts and testis that haven’t caused harm…
Those DUI checkpoints are going to take a bit longer in the future.
Have you been drinking tonight? Are those your real breasts? Please step out of the car.
A boobless, nutless utopia. For your safety of course. For your safety.
Just lie. You’re not under oath. Besides we get lied to every day, all day, by everyone else. Why should a form on a clipboard suddenly be answered truthfully?
Or better yet, just answer with snarky sarcasm.
“Do you consume alcohol?”
“I cook with wine, sometimes I even add it to the food.”
W. C. Fields
I just don’t go to doctors unless I am really sick or hurt. They don’t seem to ask stupid questions when you have pneumonia or a broken arm. Or maybe just a Montana thing ???
Besides, statistics show that people who go to doctors more often are less healthy – LOL
Anyway, if you go in for a “check up” then they put you on a bunch a prescriptions that will almost certainly make you less healthy in the long run. People can’t believe that I am 65 and not on any prescriptions. I hike, ride horses, mow grass, shovel snow, and constantly fix stuff around here.
Still, sometimes I think it would be fun to play games with them:
Doc: “Do you feel safe in your home?”
Me: “No, because Yellowstone could explode at any moment and incinerate our home with a pyroclastic flow, or bury us in thirty feet of ash.”
Or …
Me: “Yes, because I keep a loaded AK-47 beside my bed.”
I too fear for parents these days. Thankfully, my kids are now all adults. I am soooo glad to have gotten thru the child years. I advise all my friends who still have school-age children to have their children answer the questions in a manner that placates the inquisitor. If the question is asked about the presence of guns in the house, always answer in the negative. I was truly fearful of CPS do-gooders because of the rampant misconstruing of *any* testimony and then come knocking on my door with deputies standing behind them… You truly DO NOT want to say anything to them.
Going to the Dr. is now like going to court, b/c there is now a *gravity* associated with the responses that the Dr. receives. Personally, I am unsure what becomes a reportable event to the authorities. So for insurance, just provide answers that placate the inquisition. Hell, even in the future, I will just say that I do not drink alcohol. (How accurately can they tell from bloodwork?)
Tom,
“I was truly fearful of CPS do-gooders”
You ever wonder what the motivation is for these do-gooders?
Perhaps children have a value that most have never thought about.
“Italian police have arrested 18 people, including a mayor, social workers and psychologists for allegedly “brainwashing” children into believing their parents had abused them, in a scheme to take them away from their families and sell them to foster parents” https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/children-brainwash-electroshock-sell-foster-parents-italy-police-arrests-a8978891.html
I have noticed that many abused children end up dead after multiple visits by CPS.
I’ve also noticed that CPS immediately removes what I would call “well rounded” children from the homes of parents who are regularly found to be exceptionally good parents.
Living in a State that proudly passed it’s Red Flag ‘Law’. Florida’s legislature and Governor couldn’t wait to pass this OBVIOUSLY unconstitutional ‘law’ after the recent alleged school shooting EVEN THOUGH the fbi said they were watching the perp and failed to act. In no way would this ‘law’ have prevented the shooting. This is as tyrannical as it gets just short of absolute despotic abyss.
Today I read that our Republican Governor is in Israel signing a ‘law’ that makes it illegal fro citizens of Florida to speak unkindly of Jews or Israel nor join in any boycott of either. He also intends to remove the Civil War statue of a well regarded General and replace it with Black lady named Mary Mcleod.
America is no more. It’s gone replaced by a third world Amerika. The folks that destroyed it will be truly sorry someday as they will become targets with the rest of us.
Hey, Eric:
Brailsford, the tattooed freak cop who shot Daniel Shaver to death, was temporarily re-hired by his department so he could apply for a DISABILITY pension of $2500 a month at AGE 28 for — get this — “PTSD” from shooting a poor unarmed bastard to death!!! (You may recall that Brailsford had the words “YOU’RE FUCKED” engraved on his AR-15 rifle).
What a sweet gig — murder somebody in cold blood, get off scot-free, and get $2,500 a month from the taxpayers for the rest of your life starting at age 28!!!
If THAT doesn’t make you lose hope for this country, AND drive you barking mad… nothing will.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-48969432
Sad…. a compensated killer. Only in Amerika….
the cop is phillip brailsford of mesa arizona. this is another link with full video. Yes it is proof our country is over https://thefreethoughtproject.com/philip-brailsford-rehired-retires-pension/?fbclid=IwAR0BIx_iLGFp8YBBVnWamne9eclOxscB9KI2RNxAZMj4qMaTiNg7VmVQ3XU
Don’t care for the site. It has irritating video’s you cannot stop or hide that make it difficult to read,,, but I agree with what you say.
All you have to do is click on the X at the upper right. Heres the youtube version soon to be taken down https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=3&v=qYRRSdjdcbo
Went back to look,,, I’m getting old and may have missed the big ‘X’ There is no X at the upper right or anywhere,,, After about 20 seconds I get……”Due to a coordinated attack on independent media by the establishment, this website is at risk of shutting down. We need your help to survive, click below to see how you can make sure we stay around”……..
I saw the video right after it happened. I don’t want to watch it again as it sickens me that this can be done by the police without punishment. On a daily basis they (police) are becoming hated like the East German Stasi. I don’t think they really care…. they got all the money and all the guns.
Again,,, I agree with your assessment that for all practical purposes the country as it was, no longer exists and IMO will not exist in any form too much longer. From observing Europe (the model for this, especially Sweeden ) these last few years I doubt nothing much can be done about it as Caucasians seemingly have little taste for defending themselves apparently waiting for someone else to do it for them or simply don’t care.
I clicked on it, saw it was going to be the same I’d seen when it happened and closed it. It’s sickening and makes me ill to watch.
Well here is something, dear readers. If you see any clovers driving slowly or erratically, as they always do, you can report them. When they get visited by swat teams, they will come around to the viewpoint of agw abuse. This is called making the law work for you and against them. Put the shoe on the other side.
I went to the hospital with chest pains once. they did a blood draw and without my consent tested for all the possible illegal drugs. Negative of course I’m too old for that sh–. But still I wonder if they had found something. Police called? Pains went away fwiw. thank God.
Its way past time to water that tree of liberty!
This was naturally going to happen. Look at the long running swatting fad game streamers and other people have done. The fact a swat team can be sent in with such little evidence is disturbing.
I recall one incident where someone, irked at being defeated on Xbox, hacked into his opponent’s profile, found his address, and used an internet phone service to pretend he was calling from inside his opponent’s city. He pretended to be a terrified little kid hiding in the closet while his dad beat a sibling, then gave the police his opponent’s address. Bam, SWAT team.
Sore losers are a dime a dozen but some people take it just a little too far. You would have to have no heart or conscience whatsoever to pull something like that but I guess some kids these days are at that level.
“The fact a swat team can be sent in with such little evidence is disturbing.”
Swat Team kills dog in raid on a home, making the owners sit and watch their dog die….
Why the raid? They were unable to pay their gas bill.
They just received a $750,000 taxpayer settlement.
And here’s cops just doing what they normally seem to do these days, threaten to kill and beat people.
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/06/phoenix-police-threatens-couple-doll-theft.html
As long as the rogue cop doesn’t have any skin in the game and the onus is always on the taxpayer this has no chance of correcting. It’s gonna cost the taxpayers of Phoenix millions.