by Richard J. Maybury

An Uncle Eric Book

All men are created equal. No one gets any special privileges or exemptions from the law. If something is prohibited for you and me, it's prohibited for kings, dukes, presidents, minorities, majorities and everyone else.

It is strangely absurd to suppose that a million human beings collected together are not under the same moral laws which bind each of them separately.

Decisions in the past become precedents for later decisions. Precedent is very important because the fundamental nature of homosapiens doesn't change much; what was right yesterday remains right today. This method of evolving law on a case by case basis is called case law.

The body of precedents so produced became the law of common usage, the common law.

The two fundamental laws on which all major religions and philosophies agree are:

  1. Do all that you have agreed to do
    Basis of contract law

  2. Do not encroach on other persons or their property
    Basis of criminal law and tort law

In its early years, law was a private legal system completely independent of government. Law is a service provided by courts and a code of conduct.

An agreement must be voluntary. An agreement resulting from force or deception is not binding.

If early common law had no connection with government, a judge could not force it on a criminal.

If a judge instructed the offender to make restitution to the victim and the offender refused, the judge would use a procedure called outlawry. Under outlawry, the judge was saying to the perpetrator

We will not force the law onto you. You have decided to be outside the law, so be it. And since you do not accept the responsibilities of the law, neither shall you have it's protection. From now on, your legal status shall be no different from that of a rabbit or any other wild animal outside the law.

The description of this person who had decided to be an outlaw would be publicized, and anyone could hunt him down and enslave him, kill him, or perhaps cook and eat him like a rabbit. It was none of the court's business, the outlaw had made his choice.

There were not too many cases where judges found it necessary to use outlawry.

Imprisonment in the early days was rare, as it was under most common law systems. A person who sits rotting in a jail can't earn money to pay the debts he owes his victims, and his victims certainly don't want to pay higher taxes to support him.

The common law judges were very aware that law can involve force. The judges were trying to discover the principles that would guide them in the use of force. They wanted the force to be used sparingly and only against persons who had harmed someone.

How Do We Know It's Law?
     Origins of Common Law, Arthur R. Hogue

Ancient
No man can remember the beginning of it.

Continuous
The rights claimed under it have never been abandoned or interrupted.

Peaceable
Supported by the common consent of those using the custom

Reasonable
In the light of legal reason

Certain
In the sense of being ascertainable.

Compulsory
It is not left to the opinion of every man whether he will obey or not.

Consistent
For one custom cannot contradict another custom without producing an absurdity

Common Sense, by Thomas Paine

An agreement does not need to be in writing to be binding. Most contracts are unspoken or tacit.

If you walk into a grocery store to buy a candy bar, numerous tacit contracts are in force. The first is from the fact that the door is open. By leaving the door open, the owner is agreeing to allow you to come in as long as you don't do any harm. He hasn't said this to you directly, it's understood and it's binding.

The next contract concerns the candy. You are permitted to pick it up and examine it but not damage it or move it to another location. The owner has not said this to you but it's understood, or customary and it's binding.

You decide to buy the candy and take it to the register. You lay it down on the counter and the clerk rings it up. You give the money to the clerk, pick up the candy and leave the store.

All this has happened without a word spoken, but a complex agreement has been executed, and it's binding. The store owner has guaranteed that the candy is what the wrapper says it is. It's sugar, not salt; almonds not peanuts; and it won't poison you.

On your side of this tacit agreement, you are guaranteeing that the money you hand over is the type and amount that the owner would reasonably expect. The quarters are genuine US coins, not foreign coins, or slugs or anything else of lesser value.

Most contracts are unspoken and can be very complex, containing numerous guarantees you don't even think about.

Fraud -- Black's Law Dictionary
An intentional perversion of truth for the purpose of inducing another in reliance upon it to part with some valuable thing belonging to him or to surrender a legal right. A false representation of a matter of fact whether by words or by conduct, by false or misleading allegations, or by concealment of that which should have been disclosed, which deceives and is intended to deceive another so that he shall act upon it to his legal injury. Any kind of artifice employed by one person to deceive another.

Agreement -- Black's Law Dictionary
A concord of understanding and intention between two or more parties with respect to the effect upon their relative rights, or benefits, with the view of contracting an obligation, a mutual obligation.

The natural liberty of man is to be free from any superior power on Earth, and not to be under the will or legislative authority of man, but only to have the law of nature for his rule.

The natural rights of human beings are these: first, a right to life, second to liberty, and third to property; together with the right to support and defend them in the best manner they can.

No arbitrary regulation, no act of the legislature, can add anything to the capital (wealth) of the country; it can only force it into artificial channels.

The more laws you have, the less justice you have.

Political law, on the other hand, is an enactment process where the political environment changes everyday. Political law is shallow. Under political law, the frequent changing of right and wrong is considerd good. Running for reelection, lawmakers proudly boast of the number of new laws they have enacted and how many more ways people can be incarcerated.

The laws that we are supposed to be fully aware of and abide by are so complex that there is an entire profession dedicated to understanding them. One that takes 8 years to master.

Political law derives from the concept that if the majority votes for it, it must be ethical.

In short, we now live in a world where it is assumed that politicians have the divine power to make up law; they have become dieties.

It is estimated that each year brings 100,000 new laws and ignorance of the law is no excuse still applies.

Section 99A Standard box for farm produce

Blasphemy

Profanity

The body of federal law alone is now over 165,000 pages and takes over 27 feet of shelf space. It contains an estimated 300,000 laws. If you are caught breaking one, ignorance of the law is no excuse.

In a typical year, the federal government makes up 3,000 to 4,000 new laws. On an average day, every American unwittingly commits three felonies.

The human law model is riddled with lunacy, meglomania and corruption.

Some federal laws are 10-200 pages long and are passed without ever being read by lawmakers.

Before voting for any law, a lawmaker should sign a statement saying:

  • he had read the law
  • he understood the law
  • he had provided a way to finance the law and its enforcement

It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law so much as for the right.

Americans have a tendency to use law for any problem. No one really knows how many lawyers we have, but a study showed that the United States has five percent of the world's population, but seventy-five percent of the world's lawyers.

Year Number of Filings
1950 44,454
1960 59,284
1970 87,321
1980 168,789
1990 217,879
2000 263,049

Source: Statistical Abstract of the United States

It is essential to the idea of a law that it be attended with a sanction; or in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience. If there is no penalty annexed to disobedience, the resolutions or commands which pretend to be laws, will in fact amount to nothing more than advice or recommendations.

In America today, law becomes the first resort. Americans have decided; why use a peaceful handshake to solve a problem when you can use a (government) blackjack.

Any right granted to you by a government can be retracted by that government. The US Constitution created the US government, so it's Bill of Rights are rights we gave ourselves and did not derive from the US government.

Courts today do not seek justice. They merely enforce political law. The courts have no concept of justice, no notion of right or wrong - except whatever the law says.

Political power (police powers) corrupts not only the morals but also the judgement.

Do not encroach on other persons or their property Given this second law, political law becomes important when you consider what constitutes a person?

  • How old should the fetus be?
  • How brain damaged should a person be to pull the plug?
  • Is intelligence a definition of a person. What if a person is so retarded that a dog is more intelligent?
  • If a chimpanzee is more intelligent than a 2 year old child, who's closer to being a person?
  • How smart is smart enough?

In 1946, political law was exposed for the barbarism that it is. At the Nuremberg trials, the Nazi claimed that they were within their own political laws, but the justices stated that there was a higher law and executed the Nazis.

During World War II, millions were sent to their death in the US, the Soviet Union, Japan, and Germany because it was assumed that there was no law higher than the government's law.

Ever since Nuremberg, governments have done their best to bury the significance of the Nuremberg decision and have largely suceeded.

If you read the US Constitution, you will find no reference to the concept of democracy. The founders did not want democracy but they did seek liberty (free from the constraints of government).

Liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others.

Democracy is two wolves and a sheep voting to decide what's for lunch.

No power on earth has the right to take our property from us without our consent.

Political law is not neutral, it is primarily a system for creating privileges. We no longer have a concept of justice. We have only do onto others before they do it onto you. Everyone is scrambling for control of the government blackjack.

The ninth amendment to the US Constitution states:
The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

Where do other rights come from?

If once they (the people) become inattentive to the public affairs, you and I, and Congress and Assemblies, Judges and Governors, shall all become wolves.

Jefferson knew how political power affects a person, and he knew that no human could be immune. The blackjack can be very seductive.

Political power is the privilege of using brute force on persons who have not harmed anyone. This privilege is what sets governments apart from all other institutions.

We all have the right to use force in self-defense, but political power is the use of force against the peaceful. The most common example is taxes. When officials collect taxes from John Q. Citizen they are saying, Buy everything we are selling, or men with guns will haul you away to prison.

John Q. Citizen is being threatened with force. Government is the only instituton permitted to do this. No church, charity, business or other private organization can force John to purchase its good and services, or force him to obey its commands - he can always walk away.

In one way or another, most government laws are backed by force, by the blackjack. The force is always carefully disguised, but it is in the background waiting to be used if you do not obey - the mailed fist in the velvet glove. Mao Tse-Tung admitted Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.

Power is known to be intoxicating, and intoxicating and liable to abuse.

Who do you know that would not be corrupted by this privilege?

Power is the only drug not controlled by the FDA.

Those who have it think they are special. Rules that apply to others do not apply to them. They think they can do what the rest of us mortals can't. They actually begin to think that they have superior DNA. In fact, those who exercise raw power generally have the IQ of a feather duster.

It's evil. One of the age old problems with political power is that a person who will accept it cannot be trusted with it.

It is said that power corrupts, but actually, it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

Power, by it's nature, is abuse. Power cannot be abused.

Political power is the game of playing God. It changes a person and makes him different from the rest of us. He begins to believe he has some kind of right to interfere in the lives of others. He may even believe he has the right to choose who lives and who dies.

Politicians tell us that they are doing it for us, but they are really doing it to us.

The only prize much cared for by the powerful is power.


Historians and anhtropologists have now located many examples of peaceful communities that had gangs of barbarians living nearby. Imagine one of our more violent gangs riding into town on horses, instead of motorcycles or cars.

These barbarians were lazy and had little interest in work. Every few weeks they would ride into town, steal food, clothing, and whatever else they could carry, then ride back out. They would live off this stolen loot until it was gone, then ride back in and raid the town again.

This would go on for many years until....

One night as the barbarians were sitting around the campfire planning their next attack, one complained, "You know, all this riding in and out of town fighting with people is beginning to feel like work. It isn't fun anymore. There's got to be a better way."

Another lamented, "You're right, in the last raid I lost an ear and two more fingers. I'm running out of parts".

This sorrowful discussion would continue until someone exclaimed. "I've got it! Let's ride into town and stay! We'll put up a building in the middle of the town and call it City Hall or State Capital or some such thing, and we'll use it as a hangout. We'll take baths and shave and dress up in fine clothes like respectable businessmen. Then, we'll levy something we call a tax".

"We'll tell the people - we'll call them taxpayers - that as long as they pay the tax regularly, exactly as we tell them with the right forms and everything, we won't punish them. We'll start the tax low so they won't feel it's worth fighting over, and each year we'll raise it a bit until we're taking a sizable part of their incomes".

Another barbarian suggested, "Yes, and we can use some of that tax money to provide a few services, maybe streets, schools and courts, so that the people will feel they're getting something for their money".

And another added the final touches. "There are other gangs in the area. When they see how docile our taxpayers have become, they'll try to ride in and takeover. They'll be shearing our sheep. We'll need to provide police and an army to protect what is ours. The taxpayers will love it, they'll think we're doing it for them".


Governments do not collect taxes to provide services. They provide services as an excuse to collect taxes. A tax is a substitute for a raid.

But government is good, isn't it. Bureaucracies exist to solve problems for us, don't they?

High members of the royal court are, first and foremost, defenders of the swamp. The bureaucrat's first objective, of course, is preservation of his job - provided by the big government system at taxpayer's expense. Whether real world problems get solved or not is of secondary importance. It doesn't take much cynicism, in fact, to see that the bureaucrats have a vested interest in not having problems solved. If the problem did not exist (or had not been invented), there would be no reason for the bureaucrat to have a job.

Government is not reason; it is not eloquence; it is force. Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.

In the United States a citizen cannot rely on the plain meaning of the statute or what passes for it. He must retain a lawyer to parse it's legislative history and judicial evolution. So many forms of social and economic activity have now been criminalized that the dicretionary power of federal and state authorities to pick and choose targets for prosecution has made enforcement utterly arbitrary.

Legislators often find it convenient to be vague and let the courts figure it out. One legislator tells his colleagues, "I admit this bill is too complicated to understand. We'll just have to pass it to find out what it means."

Checks and balances in the US Constitution were to keep the government from being efficient so that no matter who got control they would be unable to do much damage. Infighting woul keep the government weak.

Whenever you have an efficient government you have a dictatorship. I am not a friend to a very energetic government, It is always oppressive. Government is a necessary evil, but an evil nevertheless.

Since 1821, the population of the United States has increased 30-fold while the Federal government has increased 390 fold.

If there is one thing that government loves above all else, it is a crisis. Crisis provides the opportunity to write laws, create programs, increase taxes, spend money, expand the bureaucracy, impose regulations, extend control - in short, justify more government.

The US Constitution and Declaration of Independence should be prefixed with a statement that says that all power is originally vested in, and consequently derived from the people.

That government is instituted, and ought to be exercised for the benefit of the people; which consists in the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the right of acquiring and using property, and generally of pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.

That the people have an indubitable, unalienable, and indefeasible right to reform or change their government (violently if necessary), whenever it be found adverse or inadequate to the purposes of its institution.

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