Larry Abraham on America's Shift Toward Socialism

Lies are eventually found out and destroyed, but truth remains forever. This is truth.

Excerpt from Call It Conspiracy, by Larry Abraham, 1985 (originally published in 1971)

There is an accurate political spectrum. Communism is, by definition, total government. If you have total government it makes little difference whether you call it Communism, Fascism, Socialism, Caesarism, or Pharaohism. It's all pretty much the same from the standpoint of the people who must live and suffer under it. If total government (by any pseudonyms) stands on the far Left, then by logic the far Right should represent anarchy, or no government.

Our Founding Fathers revolted against the near-total government of the English monarchy. But they knew that having no government at all would lead to chaos. So they set up a Constitutional Republic with a very limited government. They knew that men prospered in freedom. Although the free enterprise system is not mentioned specifically in the Constitution, it is the only one which can exist under a Constitutional Republic. All collectivist systems require power in government which the Constitution did not grant. Our Founding Fathers had no intention of allowing the government to become an instrument to steal the fruit of one man's labor and give it to another who had not earned it. Our government was to be one of severely limited powers. Thomas Jefferson said: “In questions of power then let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution.” Jefferson knew that if the government were not enslaved, people soon would be.

It was Jefferson's view that government governs best which governs least. Our forefathers established this country with the very least possible amount of government. Although they lived in an age before automobiles, electric lights and television, they understood human nature and its relation to political systems far better than most Americans do today. Times change, technology changes, but principles are eternal. Primarily, government was to provide for national defense and to establish a court system. But we have burst the chains that Jefferson spoke of and for many years now we have been moving leftward across the political spectrum toward collectivist total government. Every proposal by our political leaders (including some which are supposed to have the very opposite effect, such as Nixon's revenue sharing proposal) carries us further leftward to centralized government. This is not because socialism is inevitable. It is no more inevitable than Pharaohism. It is largely the result of careful planning and patient gradualism.

States Are Re-Affirming the Validity of the Crucial 10th Amendment

"Constitutional rights reasserted in growing resistance to Washington" by Chelsea Schilling

"Gov. Sarah Palin has signed a joint resolution declaring Alaska's sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution – and now 36 other states have introduced similar resolutions as part of a growing resistance to the federal government...

...The resolutions all address the Tenth Amendment that says: "powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people..."

To read the entire article, click here.

Paul Fiske on WFMZ

Our Founding Director, Paul Fiske, was featured on WFMZ following the recent Easton Tea Party! (You'll notice him at the end of the report talking about who is responsible)

LBCCS Community Picnic Review

From the Desk of the Founding Director:

We thank all of you who braved the inclement weather last Friday evening, and attended a very successful Annual Community Picnic, with many more to come in the years ahead. Twenty Two "brave souls" arrived, and we all had a "rousing" good time inside The Historic Biery House at Biery Point in Catasauqua. I wish to thank the women who prepared all the delicious food we consumed with gusto, and the Lathrop's guided tours of the House. Ryan Burgett our Chairman went out of his way (per usual) supplying us all with timely informational guides and CDs relating to our most important mission of bringing our fiscal and governmental policies back to sanity, before all is lost. Good conversation and total enjoyment was had by all, both Old Friends and New. We wish you all a safe and enjoyable rest of the Summer, and we will see you all in September. Periodically review this blog for on going education during the ensuing months, and announcements about the Fall programs.

Sincerely Yours in Freedom and Liberty,

Paul J. Fiske
Founding Director
paulfiske@gmail.com

LBCCS Topical Reading List:

The Constitution:
The Heritage Guide to the Constitution, by Edwin Meese
The Federalist Papers, by John Jay, James Madison, and Alexander Hamilton
The Making of America, by W. Cleon Skousen

Constitutional Politics:
The Revolution: A Manifesto, by Ron Paul

Economics/Federal Reserve:
Economics in One Lesson, by Henry Hazlitt
Whatever Happened to Penny Candy? by Richard Maybury
Gold, Peace, and Prosperity, by Ron Paul
The Case Against the Fed, by Murray Rothbard

Founding Fathers:
The 5000 Year Leap, by W. Cleon Skousen
The Real George Washington
The Real Thomas Jefferson
The Real Benjamin Franklin

Law:
The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat
Second Treatise of Civil Government, by John Locke
Whatever Happened to Justice? by Richard Maybury
Ancient Rome: How If Affects You Today, by Richard Maybury

Progressivism:
Liberal Fascism, by Jonah Goldberg
New Deal or Raw Deal?, by Burton W. Folsom, Jr.
The Forgotten Man, by Amity Schlaes
American Progressivism by Ronald J. Pestritto

The American Revolution:
Liberty! The American Revolution, by Thomas Fleming

Thanks For Your Order!

Thanks for your order! Your information has been recorded and all you will need to present at the seminar is your name to gain entrance. If you have any questions, please contact:

Ryan Burgett - Chairman, L.B.C.C.S.
484.553.0956
ryan_burgett@hotmail.com

"Life, Liberty, and Property Are Inseparable"

by Tom Mullen

"Life, liberty, and property were the central, inalienable rights that formed the foundation of the great experiment in self government called the United States of America. The founders of our country never broke apart this sacred triumvirate, because each one of these rights is inextricably bound to the other. No one of these three can exist without the other. Moreover, when all three are secured, it is almost impossible for injustice to exist. Wherever one does find injustice, one invariably finds a violation of one of these three basic rights at its root..."

To read the entire article, click here.

Jake Towne on Regaining Our Individual Rights

Our own Jake Towne had the opportunity to give a speech at the recent Easton Tea Party!

LBCCS Wishes You A Happy Independence Day!

I would like to wish you all a wonderful Independence Day as you celebrate with friends and family. More than two and a quarter centuries ago many of our founders signed the Declaration of Independence and proclaimed that tyranny and oppression of man's natural rights had no place in this great land. But though the document applied only to the thirteen colonies, its significance stretched across the entire face of the earth. Thomas Payne wrote:

The cause of America is, in a great measure, the cause of all mankind. Many circumstances have, and will arise, which are not local, but universal, and through which the principles of all lovers of mankind are affected, and in the event of which, their affections are interested. The laying a country desolate with fire and sword, declaring war against the natural rights of all mankind, and extirpating the defenders thereof from the face of the earth, is the concern of every man to whom nature hath given the power of feeling; of which class, regardless of party censure, is.

Later on, following the completion of our Constitution, James Madison remarked that our founders could have created a country with a form of government similar to those already in existence around the world at that time. But instead,

Happily for America, happily we trust for the whole human race, they pursued a new and more noble course. They accomplished a revolution which has no parallel in the annals of human society. They reared the fabrics of governments which have no model on the face of the globe. They formed the design of a great Confederacy, which it is incumbent on their successors to improve and perpetuate.

May we all on this 4th of July re-commit to educating ourselves on the Constitution and the founding of our incredible country. Only with that knowledge will we be able to "improve and perpetuate" our great union.

To read the entire text of the Declaration of Independence, visit:

http://www.campaignforliberty.com/pillars/declarationofindependence.php

To download the audio for free, visit:

http://www.learnoutloud.com/Free-Audio-Video/Politics/U.S.-Government/The-United-States-Declaration-of-Independence/19476
or
http://www.americanaphonic.com/?p=255


From your fellow partaker in the American Experiment,

Ryan Burgett
Chairman - L.B.C.C.S.
484-553-0956
ryan_burgett@hotmail.com

Excerpt from the "Second Treatise of Civil Government"

"The reason why men enter into society, is the preservation of their property; and the end why they chuse and authorize a legislative, is, that there may be laws made, and rules set, as guards and fences to the properties of all the members of the society, to limit the power, and moderate the dominion, of every part and member of the society: for since it can never be supposed to be the will of the society, that the legislative should have a power to destroy that which every one designs to secure, by entering into society, and for which the people submitted themselves to legislators of their own making; whenever the legislators endeavour to take away, and destroy the property of the people, or to reduce them to slavery under arbitrary power, they put themselves into a state of war with the people, who are thereupon absolved from any farther obedience, and are left to the common refuge, which God hath provided for all men, against force and violence."

Taken from the Second Treatise of Civil Government by John Locke, 1690.

"Accelerating Our Teaching with Technology"

From NCCS.net, July Newsletter

"An amazing thing has been happening in America since the last general election. I do not speak of the seemingly unending proposals which tear at the very foundations of our republic and which are designed to move this country hard to the left. This has been going on for decades. Even though there were a few warning voices, most Americans were not that concerned and apparently thought that this is the way things have to be in our modern age. But with the acceleration of these socialistic efforts, we are seeing our fellow Americans, even some of those who haven't been too concerned in the past, finally becoming very afraid at what is occurring. Apparently the speed at which this is all happening is revealing the true motives of those who want to permanently change America 's formula for freedom, prosperity, and peace..."

To read the entire newsletter, click here.