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Everybody is breaking the law without even knowing

Ross Talbott
Out on a Limb
Ross Talbott
GPI-TalbottRoss-CMNM-mug

One thing we people of long-term experience are continually dumbfounded by is the amount of change our area has experienced in the last few years.

The New Castle Founders Day Celebration highlighted some of those changes.

A major feature of that conclave was honoring the Jolley family.



It’s really neat when a community has some foundational people who helped guide our growth with the example of integrity, hard work, reliability and contribution to general good.

Life was simpler back then, and we definitely enjoyed more freedoms.



I guess the interstate is a great convenience, but it sure changed our lives.

In fact, I believe that we have pretty much lost the concepts of freedom and personal responsibility.

Every facet of our lives has been encroached upon by so many laws and regulations that I bet everyone is breaking some law or laws that they don’t even realize exists.

Our whole legal system operates under either common law or maritime law, and very few know which.

If you wind up in court you may not realize which legal system you are being judged by.

I’m not sure that the judge himself knows.

That’s a complex system, but the tsunamis we are being subjected to are administrative laws.

We certainly realize the complexity of modern society and all the relational contacts that were not a problem in the past.

Reviewing the local history of the Jolley family made me realize what a different life we have now and the amount of rules and so-called laws that we are now constrained by.

Back then they could drive their team and wagon into the forest, harvest some logs and build a house and barn.

Now you can’t even paint your house or build a deck without approval of the homeowners association or the county building inspector.

Administrative power supposedly began in 1887 with the creation of the Interstate Commerce Commission.

This group then began making rules (or laws) to manage and enforce the method and operation of commerce.

The governments at national, state, county and city levels have created a plethora of agencies and commissions to supposedly manage and control our culture.

There is Road and Bridge, building inspector, zoning, BLM, Forest Service, IRS and many, many other agencies and authorities that make and enforce rules and regulations.

This is administrative law.

You can’t even shoot fireworks without a license and training.

You can’t plant a tree, start a business or anything else without proper government approval.

You must have a driver’s license, a proof of insurance card, a valid license plate, a concealed carry permit, a retail sales license, licensed scales, a tag on your dog, Forest Service permit, a Social Security number, a valid address and the list goes on endlessly.

We are controlled in what we eat, what we wear, what we smoke and what we drink.

We are fined if we don’t have health insurance.

We’re even told what kind of grocery bags we can use.

I seriously doubt that any other country on earth has controls and rules as stringent as ours.

By the way, it’s OK to be vulgar or incestuous in your language but just don’t use the word black or Islam.

No public display of Christian symbols is acceptable.

Our ancestors fled to this newly discovered continent to escape the intense rule of dictators and kings.

Rulers bound their subjects by proclamations and decrees.

Our once free society is now bound by administrative law.

Not only do all these agencies and commissions complicate our lives and compromise our freedoms but they put us under a heavy financial burden.

It takes a huge amount of taxes, permits and fees to support all these agencies.

The plethora of laws also puts an incredible load on our courts and legal systems (which you pay for) but it drags down the economy.

The history of the Jolley family brought back memories that I cherish.

I have only scratched the surface. Maybe it’s too late for a solution.

Give us freefrom.

“Out On A Limb” appears on the first Tuesday of the month. Ross L. Talbott lives in New Castle, where he is a business owner.


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