Topic: Religion and Government
"...and to the Republic for which it stands..." The Federal Trade Commission's recent attacks upon the dietary supplement/alternative medicine industry could threaten even the most basic Constitutional/Bill of Rights principles of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion--if it is allowed to go on; unnoticed, ignored or unopposed, it could set some of the most damaging-to-Liberty legal precedents to date!!!by Michael
(libertarian)
Saturday, January 17, 2009
More alarming than even the Constitutionally established branches of the Federal government trespassing well beyond their Constitutionally defined limits are recent reports of the actions of some of the various and many Federal bureaucratic, regulatory agencies that are beginning to enforce "regulations" apart from due process and, evidently therefore, beyond Constitutional oversight!
This story of what is currently going on between the FTC and the dietary supplement/alternative medicine industry is so absolutely outrageous that it is, to me, beyond words!!! I, personally, have had to let this simmer down within myself for a couple of days because my immediate outrage, after becoming aware of what's been happening, would have interfered with my ability to inform others of this situation objectively. And believe you me, you need to be informed of this, if you still have a shred of allegiance "...to the Republic..." within you!
In order to pre-establish some validity for this issue among Constitutionalists and for the original article upon which it is based, bear in mind that the article calls for:
" Support [of] Ron Paul's Health Freedom Protection Act, which will be reintroduced in the House this Spring. If passed, it would finally legalize factually true speech about dietary supplements, allowing health supplement companies to accurately describe the health benefits of the products they offer to the public."
...even though the FTC has targeted some 130 dietary supplement companies one of the key, most integral, elements of this issue involves, in particular, a religious organization that markets and sells dietary supplements:
"The FTC isn't challenging the facts of the statements. It is not the FTC's position that Daniel Chapter One [the religious organization] is making false statements [about the dietary supplements that they market] at all. Rather, the FTC's claim is that Daniel Chapter One is making true but illegal statements about dietary supplements." (Emphasis mine).
I have seen no more explicit an example to date of the difference to be found between what is legal and what is illegal and what is right and what is wrong than this!!!
Mike Adams, Editor of NaturalNews.com, has very well detailed the components of the issue to date in his article, Tyrannical FTC Threatens Christian Church with Imprisonment for Selling Dietary Supplements, which can be found at:
Now this is beyond a shadow of a doubt a real, legal, political and intellectual "brownshirt" pummeling being delivered to the dietary supplement industry, even though no physical abuse has (yet) occurred!!! (If any of the threatened "imprisonment" by the FTC comes to pass--well, yes, then it will have crossed the threshold and will have entered into the realm of "physical abuse"). And it is undeniably, Constitutionally, unimaginable, unsufferable and intolerable!!!
Now, to me, some of Mr. Adams' subsequent extrapolation of where this issue could eventually end up if left unchecked seem a bit extreme. But then again, do they really? I suppose they could be classified as being "extreme" if they had no historical precedents--unfortunately said historical precedents do indeed exist, as he has mentioned within the article!
"With the advantage of a historical perspective one would think that we could recognize those elements which are indicative of say, for example, a course of fascism and be able to accurately forecast the eventual outcome of a journey or quest undertaken according to the precepts of this particular course based on the advantage which a historical perspective affords, as Alexander Tyler recognized within the democracies of the ancient Greek and Roman city-states certain elements and the eventualities to which they almost invariably led. Historical perspective should indeed give us the ability to recognize a particular course and the luxury to even alter this course if and when we recognize and realize that the eventual outcome--which is all but inevitable--will not be a desirable one."
Imagine herein a geographical/geological "continental divide." Raindrops which fall on one side of this elevational divide will inexorably be drawn by gravity down the watersheds and into the Ocean of Exploitation and Oppression/Destruction. Raindrops which fall on the other side of this divide will flow down the opposing watersheds and into the Ocean of Liberty and Freedom/Renewal. We have innumerable historical examples of where the social-political-economic trends of where our human endeavors will lead! Why? Because we have a historically precedented, predictable and inherent Human Nature!
When we observe a now Global governance paradigm--despite and in spite of national sovereignties, religious beliefs and ethnic traditions and our Republic's Constitution--towards Elitism, Socialism and this being based in principle upon Atheism/Humanism and the concept of "social evolution" (i.e. a "survival of the fittest" scenario--and "they" [within and according to their own unadmitted and inherent human ignorance--according to their historically demonstrated flawed Human Nature--will accordingly]--define who is the "fittest" and who will survive) and this appearing in conjunction with a very real desire by the Global governance "powers that be" to enact policies of "population reduction"--how can we not see where this thing is heading given long and many historical precedents and--despite and in spite of technological advances--a basically, still unimproved Human Nature!!! Our current state of improved technological advancement will only augment the atrocities that our unimproved Human Nature has been (and is yet still) capable of demonstrating--according to historical precedents!!!
Even to this very day (of our present state of technological advancement) it continues to astound me that the very same flaws observed to still be extant within our current Human Nature were complained of and recorded by Aristotle on down through Thoreau and unto this present day!!!
Within contemplating this current issue between the FTC and the dietary supplement/alternative medicine industry I have, I believe, achieved somewhat of a personal, Constitutional realization and enlightenment--in fact, an epiphany! In order to achieve an altruistic definition between what is right and what is wrong and without invoking longstanding religious traditions (which had historically been usurped by governments and used for pretentious and ulterior motives--and even though they, individually, may or may not have held such beliefs within themselves) the Founders of our Constitution and of our Republic (within a pretext of a scholarly review of the historical precedents of our Human Nature) drafted the Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and the original Bill of Rights in an attempt to define a transcendental definition of what is right and what is wrong; and some of them hoped and some of them prayed, thereafter, that future generations would use these precepts and principles in order to govern themselves--and their inherent Human Nature--and subsequently to use them to define what is legal and what is illegal/i.e. what is right and what is wrong; and within all of this to use them to maintain their own personal Liberty and Freedom as well as the individual Liberty and Freedom of all others and thereby to exclude the potential(s) for the historically demonstrated tendency towards exploitation and oppression--according to our, past demonstrated, Human Nature...
Now, this FTC/dietary supplement/alternative medicine issue is no doubt being driven at the behest of the big Pharmaceutical corporations--the FTC, established to be a watchdog against "anti-competitive" practices, is currently being used to promote said "anti-competitive" practices!!! Can you say and spell, "Hegemony"!?! Or "Oligarchy," or "Mercantilism," or "Colonialism," or of which brand of dupe am I, or of all of the other reasons why I cannot get ahead--despite all of my honest and fair labors and intentions!?!
But, regrettably, there is a lot more to it than this. On the surface it has to do with Modern Medicine/Pharmaceuticals lobbying the Federal government to squelch any viable competition--i.e. financial Babylon spurring its political Beast to react in favor of its best/most profitable interests--(i.e. against preventative dietary supplements/alternative medicine/natural, traditional herbal remedies that are not "patentable" and therefore not "profitable")...
Herbal remedies and natural health supplements have been around for quite some many more a millennia prior to the advent of Modern Medicine and have a much more longstanding tradition of ethnic, religious and traditional content than does it--is Modern Medicine so superior to it that I should no longer have the right to be informed of it and to have the right to opt for it over and above Modern Medicinal practice!?!...
It would be ultimately ironic if we could use the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection against its own Bureau of Competition--wouldn't it...
Peel the onion for yet another layer...
From Bill Joy's, Why the Future Doesn't Need Us...
"THE NEW LUDDITE CHALLENGE
First let us postulate that the computer scientists succeed in developing intelligent machines that can do all things better than human beings can do them. In that case presumably all work will be done by vast, highly organized systems of machines and no human effort will be necessary. Either of two cases might occur. The machines might be permitted to make all of their own decisions without human oversight, or else human control over the machines might be retained.
If the machines are permitted to make all their own decisions, we can't make any conjectures as to the results, because it is impossible to guess how such machines might behave. We only point out that the fate of the human race would be at the mercy of the machines. It might be argued that the human race would never be foolish enough to hand over all the power to the machines. But we are suggesting neither that the human race would voluntarily turn power over to the machines nor that the machines would willfully seize power. What we do suggest is that the human race might easily permit itself to drift into a position of such dependence on the machines that it would have no practical choice but to accept all of the machines' decisions. As society and the problems that face it become more and more complex and machines become more and more intelligent, people will let machines make more of their decisions for them, simply because machine-made decisions will bring better results than man-made ones. Eventually a stage may be reached at which the decisions necessary to keep the system running will be so complex that human beings will be incapable of making them intelligently. At that stage the machines will be in effective control. People won't be able to just turn the machines off, because they will be so dependent on them that turning them off would amount to suicide.
On the other hand it is possible that human control over the machines may be retained. In that case the average man may have control over certain private machines of his own, such as his car or his personal computer, but control over large systems of machines will be in the hands of a tiny elite - just as it is today, but with two differences. Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite. Or, if the elite consists of soft-hearted liberals, they may decide to play the role of good shepherds to the rest of the human race. They will see to it that everyone's physical needs are satisfied, that all children are raised under psychologically hygienic conditions, that everyone has a wholesome hobby to keep him busy, and that anyone who may become dissatisfied undergoes "treatment" to cure his "problem." Of course, life will be so purposeless that people will have to be biologically or psychologically engineered either to remove their need for the power process or make them "sublimate" their drive for power into some harmless hobby. These engineered human beings may be happy in such a society, but they will most certainly not be free. They will have been reduced to the status of domestic animals."
1 1 The passage Kurzweil quotes is from Kaczynski's Unabomber Manifesto, which was published jointly, under duress, byThe New York Times and The Washington Post to attempt to bring his campaign of terror to an end. I agree with David Gelernter, who said about their decision:
"It was a tough call for the newspapers. To say yes would be giving in to terrorism, and for all they knew he was lying anyway. On the other hand, to say yes might stop the killing. There was also a chance that someone would read the tract and get a hunch about the author; and that is exactly what happened. The suspect's brother read it, and it rang a bell.
"I would have told them not to publish. I'm glad they didn't ask me. I guess."
(Drawing Life: Surviving the Unabomber. Free Press, 1997: 120.) "
...within Kaczynski's scenario(s), the role of Modern Medicine/Pharmaceuticals would be, potentially, ultimately useful and invaluable...
...peel the onion for yet another layer...
There has been and there is currently continuing a RealTime agenda by the Global governance "powers that be" for population reduction. The particular emphasis of the current FTC/dietary supplement/alternative medicine issue is being waged against the promotion of dietary supplement's/alternative medicine's anti-cancer remedies--my initial response/commentary to Mike Adams' article was:
"...This is an indicator of the present state of things--our future has been planned to be technological and pharmaceutical--there is no longer any respect for "to the Republic for which it stands" but rather instead to the New World Order/Global governance and its Humanistic/Atheistic doctrine of man as god(s) and the technology of man as supreme--and if [traditional, ethnic and religious] "natural remedies" pose a [legitimate] threat to their agenda of "population reduction"--well no wonder they are [so] opposed to them!!!..."
...peel the onion for yet another layer...
"Although at first outraged by the sheer concept of this egregious trespass upon Constitutionally guaranteed Liberty(s)--later I recalled to mind the prophecy(s) of the book of the Revelation, in particular: Rev. 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15 wherein, categorically, "sorceries" were [in the original Greek] originally "pharmakeia/pharmakeus/pharmakon/pharmakos"--even though the supernatural wrath of God is [being] at this future [point in] time being poured out upon the wicked, still, they would not repent of their "pharmaceuticals"..."
In conjunction with this, and the book of the Revelation, the church which existed at the Asia Minor city of Pergamos was commended therein, for standing steadfast in their faith, in the city wherein the Scripture says, "Satan's seat [throne] is,"--upon an extensive study, the only historically significant fact that I could find out about the ancient Asia Minor city of Pergamos was that it held within it a "museum" of the "state of the art" of the then current Greek/ Modern Medicine practice...
...peel the onion for yet one more layer...
Our future has been already planned for us. On the one hand by the Global governance "powers that be", and on the other hand by the Almighty, Creator God. The Global governance "powers that be" have planned for us a technological/pharmaceutical existence--regrettably.
Look here at how they have revised a childrens' Dictionary to reflect a more techno/intended society as opposed to a more natural/Agrarian World:
Honestly, I have been pressing my wife of 32+ years for over a decade now to officially document her Native American heritage in order that we, together, might press at some future point in time the ethnic/cultural genocide that would occur if and when they outlaw natural and herbal remedies...
...peel the onion for yet one more layer...
[As it is seemingly turning out]--No such luck. Atheistic/Humanistic precepts currently dictate that man is god and the technology of man is supreme--all other priorities are rescinded...
...peel the onion for yet one last layer...
Even God Almighty, the Creator, will admit to you and to me that you absolutely cannot legislate Righteousness!!! It is impossible! If it were possible, the Law of Moses would have enabled such--Righteousness--the ability/and the Freedom/to abide by what is right and what is wrong is only available via another route--i.e. the Faith on our part that He has already sacrificed Himself unto Death on our behalf [and that within this He has also subsequently been Resurrected back unto Life] that we might through Him, upon our part, attain unto such--and all we have to do is but to believe according to this, by Faith, in Him...
...the onion [excuse] is now gone...
In His Love,
Michael
The LAW OF NATURE Dictated by God Himself is Superior to any other. It is BINDING OVER ALL THE GLOBE, in ALL Countries and at ALL TIMES. No Human Laws are of any validity if contrary to this, and such of them as are valid derive all the Force and all the Authority mediately and immediately from this original.
Upon these Two FOUNDATIONS- The Law of NATURE and the Law of REVELATION depend all Human Laws. Human Laws are only Declaratory of and act in subordination to
DIVINE LAW.
William Blackstone--1723-1780
(This quote is on the wall in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court building-the oldest continuous court in America)
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What a bunch of mudslinging and noise making! Someone ought to sit down and do a little THINKING instead of all that HOLLERING!
The SUPPLEMENT business needs the government to go through it and establish some regulations. To call that "unconstitutional" is to fail to understand the many deficiencies and blindspots of a document that is nearly 300 years old! The "founders" didn't even know about telephones, airplanes, and microwave ovens, let alone the scams, distortions, lies, false claims, and undisclosed ingredients of many supplements, steroids, or medicinal teas.
For the health, safety, and welfare of the nation, this is an area that NEEDS to be regulated. There are BILLIONS of dollars spent every year by people who think they're going to cure cancer, lose weight without exercising, or look younger by rubbing some cream on their faces that may actually do more harm than good.
Michael must be SELLING some REJUVENATE TABLETS or some CANCERTINA VITAMINS, and is upset that the scam is finally up. Everyone hates to be investigated when their product can't measure up to its claims. The FREE MARKET can't police these scams, it only makes them proliferate.
Like the Savings and Loans, and the stock markets ~ deregulate them and the criminals come out of every crack they can find.
All you had to do is watch how fast the "prescription drug bill" ( can't think of the name,you know which one I'm talking about) went through congress. Easy to see who has power in Washington.
I had actually, originally, intended to put within the content of this article a comment on how that any and every industry had within it it’s own unavoidable and inherent potential for scams and fraudulent practice–no doubt the same with the dietary supplement/preventative/alternative medicine industry...
...but really, “the Savings and Loan” industry?!?–you show your age (as would have I)!...
...no, I would have to say that the key points herein are 1) about the “true but illegal statements” [how unConstitutional could you get within the realms of Freedom of Speech and Freedom of Religion!?!], and 2) the fact that mankind’s reliance, dependance and addiction to Pharmaceuticals outlasts the destruction of financial Babylon by the political Beast which it has originally placed into power in order to facilitate “population reduction” and also to placate the remaining population in their future prospect of advanced technological “uselessness”...
...and within the context of our current, Global, economic crisis/noncrisis we are served up with yet another host of choices between what is right and what is wrong; what is ethical and moral and what is not; when traditionally honored and respectable institutions like Bank of America and CitiCorp, GM, Chrysler, Ford and our Federal Reserve Board of the banking industry have scammed, defrauded and failed us via their self-enriching monetary scams and fraudulent practices–and then they go begging for bail-out billions!?! (in additiion to this)–how will we (individually) react and continue to act–does this give the individual such said license to act so fraudulently likewise?!?–not if the individual is mercifully and by His grace predisposed and predetermined to be of a more superior metal...
...by the way, I’m not “peddling” anything other than what I perceive to be the Truth of things [albeit made illegal], as I see them...
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