History Archive

Declaration of Independence

Posted July 4, 2013 By Landis V

Start a tradition. Read the Declaration of Independence this year, and on each anniversary. Read it with your kids, your families, your friends. And think about what it means for a small group to have taken a stand for freedom, liberty, and the inalienable rights of all men. Encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same, and perhaps eventually cowardice and treachery will have no place remaining in which to hide, for fallacy and equivocation wither under the bright light of the truth. Ask from whence these truths come, remember those who have stood and sacrificed that they may persist, and reflect upon their paramount importance. For without these few simple truths, you have nothing and no claim to anything. Happy Independence Day.

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Property rights – allodial or fee simple?

Posted December 1, 2011 By Landis V

The proper right of ownership of land or other real property is something I’ve wrestled with for some time, and will probably continue to do so in the future. I certainly won’t solve it tonight.

Essentially, possession of property exists in one of two states: allodial title or fee simple. What’s the difference? To paraphrase, fee simple grants absolute ownership of property, except as “limited by the four basic government powers of taxation, eminent domain, police power, and escheat”. Allodial title grants absolute ownership of property, but for the decision of the sovereign. Hobbes would argue that these two are essentially the same, as the decision of the sovereign is law, and that as such, the sovereign has reign to at any time to exercise the same government powers which limit fee simple ownership (see Leviathan, audio and Project Gutenberg links at bottom of article).

Fee simple bothers me, because that for which one has already paid or has taken by some reasonable force (I will not sidetrack on what might be a reasonable use of force right now, suffice to say I believe such exists), should not be subject to loss due to one’s inability to contribute or perhaps temporary hardship. Your ownership should be absolute to the extent that you require no access to common services and infrastructure, and that you are able to provide completely for your own welfare within the confines of your own property. Difficult in any case, I’m not sure whether it’s possible or not.

This is in direct conflict with my belief that the primary, and almost sole (again, will not diverge here) purpose of government is the defense of the property of its jurisdiction, and that the contribution to such defense is the responsibility of all property holders under the sovereign. Perhaps it would be reasonable that those who do not pay are subject, then, to the loss of defense of their property from within. That is to say, the right or worthiness of the individual to hold said property in lieu of remittance for sovereign defense of ownership then falls to the community – the peers, if you will – of the owner. They then have a decision to allow the propertyholder to continue his allodial title, and perhaps even to provide defense for said title of their own volition in the event of other internal or external attack on right to hold, or to take – by force or by lack of protection – the property as their own, and to take over responsibility for payment of its defense to the sovereign.

A related idea that I have considered is that a man should be free to offer for sale to another the fruits of his labor at his own discretion – specifically, this would be counter to the provisions of the Civil Rights movement. Not to advocate that discrimination based upon any arbitrary characteristic is reasonable, indeed it’s generally a stupid precept. However, at least in our current society, there are certain members whose presence is generally not desired within certain communities, and I have considered at some length whether it would be reasonable for merchants to be able to refuse goods and services to those they consider undesirable, such that it would be an impediment to the undesirable’s ability to remain within a region where their presence was not desired. If there were sufficient merchants who collectively agreed that a person or persons’ presence was unwanted, it would provide strong incentive for that individual to either find more accommodating residence. Alternatively, I cannot find fault in violent uprising from one who is oppressed in order to take what is required to provide for himself or his family.

Now I have wandered much farther from the topic of property rights than I had intended, but I’ve at least shifted some of these thoughts and ideas to copy. These are simply theories, and always evolving, but it gives a reference for me to reflect upon in the future and see how they may have evolved.

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6/21

Posted June 21, 2011 By Landis V

http://books.google.com/books/about/A_study_of_history.html?id=FBh462QXBgoC

http://www.poetryloverspage.com/poets/kipling/dane_geld.html

Wickett Twitter Widget or Jetpack for WP.

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12/28

Posted December 28, 2009 By Landis V

Turn On, Tune In, Veg Out – Neal Stephenson

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/dieselciviltrust/iODX/~3/AXoFJ17VS50/301805841
Maybe the US doesn’t have it right, but it looks like non-Nationalized healthcare works pretty well for Mexico.  Need to dig deeper into exactly what is included in all the costs, specifically infrastructure.

NYSE:DDR
Research

http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thesimpledollar/~3/c0QSI2RVLJ0/
“Little Book” reviews of Jason Zweig’s books.

http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/12/santa_claus_tec.html?cid=nl_IW_daily_2009-12-29_h
Santa Claus, Technology Propagandist

http://www.kancoll.org/books/andreas_ne/state/state-p1.html
Andreas’ History of the State of Nebraska.  Ran across this page while looking for the source of “equality before the law” motto and its supposed originator, Mr. Isaac Wiles, representative in the 2nd Legislature ( from http://nebraskaccess.ne.gov/writingareportonnebraska.asp).

http://it.slashdot.org/story/09/12/28/1931256/GSM-Decryption-Published
Your phone calls, decrypted.  This is actually “a good thing”.  Now cellular operators have real, demonstrable proof that their algorithm is not secure.  It opens them to liability, which they don’t like, and makes the cost of doing nothing potentially greater than the cost of fixing the problem.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE54E4EZ20090515
Need to read it, but I suspect it’s reminiscent of the administration’s plan to emulate the costs and risks involved in EU socialist healthcare ventures.

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