Let's face it. This isn't about games anymore.

Well, this seems to be my week for politics, so I might as well get this over with.




Thomas Jefferson was not happy with a single American revolution. In fact, with regards to people's freedom over their own government, Jefferson said, "God forbid we should ever be twenty years without such a rebellion." He was not talking about a revolution of ideas, a gradual growth of ideas, or even Mao Tse Tung's "permanent revolution." Jefferson was talking about a violent overthrow of a government by its own people every two decades. The argument was that no government should exist long enough to calcify its powers and threaten the very people it claims to represent. He wrote many times about the importance of an individuals right to protect himself, and protect his family, from his own government. This thinking is at the heart of the second amendment. It's not about having a ready militia. It's not about having a trained army. It's about the rights of the individual to protect himself from the government which overreaches its authority.

A few days ago, I heard of a private corporation called Blackwater. They have been contracted by our Department of Homeland Security, and ordered to forcibly evict anyone left in New Orleans. They have been given authority to use lethal force, and openly display M-16's. This means that, if you managed to survive the hurricane, if you managed to scrape together enough water and food to keep your family alive, if you managed to hold off looters with the threat of using your firearms against them, the US government will still require you to turn your land over to the anarchy of the street, and they will shoot you if they cannot otherwise convince you. Once again, we see the inexcusable argument that a man can be killed to prevent killings. In this situation, your right to bear arms has been removed without proclamation, without fanfare, without even a second thought.

Hey, remember when eminent domain (the government asserting control over an individual's home) was a long drawn out court process? Ah, those were the days. Now a private organization can just drive down the street , pulling people out of their homes, and shooting those that resist. Well, the government may not have mobilized in time to help with the disaster, but they sure are there for the rights abuse and crowd control.

So here we have a situation where the government has told people to get out of their homes. Some people said no, so mercenaries were deployed to remove them from their homes, and the government stated that "only law enforcment officials" will be allowed to carry guns. I can't think of a better analogy to our own revolution than this.

To continue with Jefferson, "And what country can preserve its liberties if its rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon, and pacify them. The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."