Lies the government told you by Andrew Napolitano (big screen ebook reader .TXT) 📕

Bioterrorism and a Slew

of Scary-Sounding Influenzas

After 9/11 and the anthrax letter scare, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it wanted some model legislation regarding how states should react to bioterrorism attacks or other “pandemic” situations. The Model State Emergency Health Powers Act was drafted for the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) by academics at the Center for Law and the Public’s Health at Georgetown and Johns Hopkins Universities and released on October 23rd 2001.35 The recommended legislation gives the government a great amount of power in “emergency” situations. It can quarantine a town and the people inside of it, and take their property (including civilian-owned guns).36

The so-called model is yet another device to usurp the civil liberties of Americans. In a Heritage Foundation lecture, Sue Blevins, President of the Institute for Health Freedom, an advocacy group for letting the free market regulate the delivery of health care, critiqued the model act:

Although this model legislation was recommended as a means to help states protect citizens against bioterrorist attacks and deal with national defense issues, the draft bill goes much, much further. It calls for giving state public health officials broad, new police powers—all in the name of controlling epidemics of infectious diseases during public health emergencies.37

This expansion of the police power could mean almost any amount of power could be allocated to state governments if the state adopts the act, even the power to empower a militia in the name of health regulation, so fundamental constitutional rights are definitely at risk.

In a statement issued by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the group stated that the model act “turns governors into dictators.”38 After many criticisms were levied, a new model code was written a few months later. This new version contained a few provisions that caused the act to impinge less on civil rights, yet mostly it just removed the inflammatory language of the original draft while keeping most of the substance. The model provisions still allowed for the government to destroy the property of citizens without compensation as long as the government “reasonably suspects” that the items may endanger public health.39 It also still stated that the public health authority can be enforced at gunpoint by “organized militia.”40

According to the group that drafted the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act (MSEHPA), “44 states and the District of Columbia have introduced a total of 171 bills or resolutions that include provisions from or closely related to MSEHPA” as of July 2006.41 So, the government’s infringement on our constitutional rights is a very real threat. This is an especially real risk given the number of “pandemics” that have appeared recently. My guess is that you have never even heard of these infringements.

In 2003, when the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) virus was making headlines and scaring people all over the world, the Centers for Disease Control recommended the quarantine of people who fell ill of the disease.42 The CDC’s Web site also states that if ship or airline passengers who possibly have SARS refuse to be isolated, “many levels of government (federal, state, and local) have the authority to compel the isolation of sick persons. . . .”43 SARS also prompted places like Buffalo, New York City, and the State of Minnesota to come up with plans to quarantine victims of an outbreak or bioterrorist attack. They even set the ground rules for a legal appeals process for those who did not want to be quarantined.44

In his book, How Patriotic Is the Patriot Act? the philosopher Amitai Etzioni discussed the relationship between bioterrorism and civil liberties: “There is a danger that without such public persuasion and a reframing of the debate—if the adjustment of law and policy will continue to take place under panic, especially following a major attack—public authorities will overcorrect as we have seen in other areas.”45 Since Anthrax in 2001 and SARS in 2003, there have been Bird Flu and most recently Swine Flu. The government has blown these viruses out of proportion, releasing dire warnings, recommendations, and cancelling classes at public schools. The media then take a cue from the government and sensationalize the coverage of these issues with fear-inducing language. Some of the coverage has been so over-the-top you would think the world is coming to an end, when really, the swine flu’s effect seems quite similar to the normal strains of influenza that people commonly get in the winter months, and Bird Flu never materialized as a major pandemic.

Americans need to learn how to deal with the fears that the government and media are constantly trying to monger, allegedly for our own protection. Otherwise, we allow vital rights to get swept under the rug. Americans need to calm their hysterical tendencies and do it quickly. In late June 2009, Congressman Ron Paul (R-TX), a physician, warned that nearly $8 billion of taxpayers’ money will be spent to fight Swine Flu. He also noted that the government’s interference with the Swine Flu “could result in mandatory vaccinations for no discernable reason other than to enrich the pharmaceutical companies that make the vaccine,”46 and to give the impression that the government is protecting us. The scary thing is that the predictions of this foreboding statement are entirely feasible because of the Model State Emergency Health Powers Act.

The RICO Laws Are Meant to Keep Us Safe

from Mobsters

We’ve all seen depictions of mobsters: The Godfather, The Sopranos, we see them on television and read about them in newspapers. There’s always an air of mystery and intrigue surrounding the mob, and people always fear the unknown. The federal RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations) statute was created and passed with the intention to combat organized crime, something that has always been sensationalized by the public. Yet, although RICO was meant to remedy mob crimes, government prosecutors and other lawyers later began to realize that the general language used in RICO could be used to prosecute almost anything. RICO is