Even paranoid schizophrenics have enemies

Many of us in the liberty movement have heard "conspiracy theories" about FEMA detention camps scattered across the country, facilities that look like prisons, although they are currently unoccupied. Stories about military installations that are being set up to hold large numbers of dissenting Americans, us "wing nuts" who believe the Constitution is being deliberately subverted by those in power, that George Soros is spending billions of his own money to move America into socialism. As Nancy Pelosi said (when asked if the Obamacare bill was Constitutional), "Are you serious?"

Pretty amusing, isn't it. These bible-toting, Ron Paul supporting, red-necked gun lovers who hear black helicopters in the night and think John McCain might have been the subject of a little Communist brain-washing during his stay as an involuntary guest of North Vietnam. (Not that the North Vietnamese would have had any interest in trying to subvert a lowly naval officer who was the son of a well-placed admiral in the United States Navy.)

No, old John McCain comes from firmer, tougher antecedents than that. He would never come back and play the John Kerry game, calling his fellow servicemen "baby killers" or criminals who killed Vietnamese for the thrill of it all. He would never enter politics and then ally himself with "moderate progressives", excuse me, independent liberals like Joe Liebermann to sponsor legislation like:

S. 3081:

Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010

Legislation that gives our government the ability to detain and imprison any citizen for an indefinite period of time, without a lawyer, without a trial, without informing anyone of said detention, including family, friends, or even any other agency of the government. Think "rendition" - of anyone, merely because Homeland Security, or the President or one of the President's men (a czar?) decided to label you an "Enemy of the State". Habeus corpus out the window. No recourse for the poor SOB that was arrested with or without cause.

Oops. Actually, he did. This man whom a number of Republicans and conservatives (there is a difference, you know) were trying to elect as our President. Of course, the Narcissist-in-Chief that was elected is probably doing this anyway, without the bill having been passed. After all, he has justified assassinating American citizens in foreign countries without even a military tribunal as a war criminal. Death By Drone.

I have spoken of McCain as a "Manchurian Candidate", wondering aloud about the possibility that his world view, his love for our Constitutional Republic, might have suffered a little tweaking while in North Vietnam as a POW. To many people, that is a cruel, paranoid and baseless thought. It demeans a man who suffered as a POW having been captured by the enemy while fighting for the South Vietnamese with our military. After all, he was captured, imprisoned, held without a lawyer or a trial for an indefinite period of time, without informing anyone of said detention, including family, friends, or even any other agency of our government. Gosh, who would want to have to suffer that? I'm sure John McCain would never want that kind of cruel situation to befall another human being.

Oops. Actually he does. That is why he sponsored

S. 3081:

Enemy Belligerent Interrogation, Detention, and Prosecution Act of 2010

So. Obviously my paranoia knows no bounds. Nonetheless, McCain just as obviously learned nothing in that POW prison. Or he simply doesn't think the common man, a citizen, deserves to be treated in a gentler fashion than he was when a guest of the North Vietnamese.

Driving through Southern Nevada, north of Las Vegas, my wife and I observed two facilities on the west side of the highway. One was a brand-new, apparently unoccupied facility that looked like a large prison. It held quite a few large buildings that looked to be residential cell blocks. There were guard towers and a large quantity of concertina wire surrounding the place. We drove past too fast to read the name, but I think I saw something stating "Correctional Facility" (Southern Nevada? Can't recall.) It looked big enough to house a substantial portion of Las Vegas. Or maybe most of Carson City. There were only about three or four vehicles in the parking lot, and although the facility appeared to be complete, not still in construction, it did not seem to have any activity ongoing at that time.

Not very many miles north of that we saw what appeared to be another correctional facility, this time more the size of a large county jail, although bigger than the one I used to book prisoners into in San Diego. Now, my old eyes aren't what they used to be, but this one didn't seem to be in operation either, although it looked like construction had been completed here as well.

Next, we came across a military base - Air Force, I think - on the east side of the highway. In the northwest corner of the immediate area enclosed by wire, we saw a lot of earth-moving equipment clearing about twenty acres that someone had started to stake out for construction. Having worked a bit of residential construction in my time (including a large condo development on the banks of the Willamette River in Selwood, Oregon, a suburb of Portland) it seemed that the work might have been set up for a number of large buildings, regular in shape, looking more residential than commercial, more like barracks than hangars.

OK. This is where I tell you about the squadron of black, unmarked helicopters that swooped down and forced us off of the road. Or the alien mother ship that scooped us up and subjected my old English bulldog Beasely to an anal probe. Actually, we continued on and spent the night in Reno. But the thought did cross my mind (although my sweet bride actually brought it up first) that perhaps there was something to the stories of FEMA detention centers. I know the folks who evacuated New Orleans after Katrina probably needed, deserved to be surrounded by concertina wire when they were rescued from a fate wetter than death, but I still got shivers thinking of being "behind the wire", as our Northern Irish friends might say. Then I came across: Text of H.R. 645: National Emergency Centers Establishment Act (http://www.govtrack.us/congress/billtext.xpd?bill=h111-645) This bill sounds like it wants to set up a bunch of FEMA centers. Not for detention, oh, no. Just to help out folks having a bit of difficulty due to natural disasters, or maybe civil unrest.

Besides, the FDA is definitely going to need a place to incarcerate all of us with private gardens on our private property who violate: FDA Food Safety Modernization Act S.510

Where you won't even be able to give away the fruit of your labor, let alone sell it on the roadside or at your local food co-op. Like I used to do with my fertile, free-range brown eggs from my 37 Rhode Island Red chickens. Monsanto has already driven many farmers out of business over the genetically modified seed they sell that it is against the law to save, after you have grown it. They have restricted competition and commerce in the agricultural industry. Along with Tyson and a number of other giant food corporations, the FDA wants to be able to control our food supply. This bill is so loosely written that it does indeed allow the FDA to control what you do with the produce from your own garden. There have already been quite a few SWAT-style raids on small raw milk producers and other small farmers (Google "raw milk raids", if you don't believe me), although you don't hear about the same happening to the large corporations when their chicken has salmonella or their hamburger has E-coli. Oh, they get caught, and some of the tainted food is disposed of (most going into your pet's food), but they aren't raided and arrested like you or I would be. And have been.

It's about control. They already control whether or not you can use public transportation to get anywhere. Sure, you can get irradiated and sexually groped and still get on an airplane (if your name - or one just like it - hasn't been mistakenly placed on the No-Fly list.) When the government controls the food, your ability to see a doctor or use a hospital, if they control your energy and how much water you use (to flush, for now, but to drink, later or use to water that garden they don't want you to have), you might as well give up. Or fight back. At that point, all of us bible-toting, red-necked, Ron Paul-supporting gun lovers might start to look a little more reasonable to you. You might even want to get to know a few of us. You might even want to borrow a gun.

Folks, I'm trying to make a point here. There are laws written by Congress, and regulations from the Alphabet agencies, and executive orders from our Presidents that control our lives and rob us of our liberty that seem too outrageous to believe, but you had best believe it. A little research and a few minutes spent connecting the dots, and you may begin to see a picture. A picture you might not want to see, but one you had better see before it is too late. If it isn't already.

[Postscript: The Southern Nevada Detention Center is supposedly simply undergoing "renovations" now, and can only hold about 1100 inmates. So, Caesar's Palace in Vegas could probably fill it all by itself. But 1100 bible-toting, gun-loving, Ron Paul supporters wouldn't be hard to come by. And there looked to be room for an awful lot of tents, if it came to that. Room for all you raw-mlk Yuppies, too ;-) Check out the photo of this facility up above. ]