Category Archives: Natural Rights

The Civil Liberties Implosion That Is the WuFlu Response

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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The government response to the WuFlu in this nation’s most urban states—those without significant rural balance—is a major civil liberties implosion.

Nothing has better illustrated the failure of government in general than the response of various urban states to the WuFlu debacle. And, with the riots in many of those same states over a dreadful injustice with which they are only connected as an excuse, we’re seeing an implosion of civil liberties such as we’ve not since Woodrow Wilson was President and used World war I as an excuse. The two issues combined and in quick succession, in fact, may be setting us back to pre-revolutionary times. Urban state governors are destroying civil liberties at a frantic pace and there is not nearly enough pushback, which suggests we are no longer a free people even in mind and spirit.

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Freedom Is What It’s All About and We’re Losing It!

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Vic Furman - American PrideVictor Furman
Upstate New York Landowner, Shale Gas Activist

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Victor Furman, candidate for a seat in the New York State General Assembly, talks about freedom this Memorial day and how we are gradually losing it.

C-!30 going down the strip,
Airborne Daddy going to take a little trip.
If my shoot don’t open wide,
I will be a part of the country side.
Tell my Ma’ma I did my best,
Tell My Ma’ma I lie in rest…

This is part of a military cadence we sang in Basic Training over 48 years ago and I can, with pride, remember every cadence, ache and pain my body felt in those eight long weeks at Fort Dix, New Jersey, training for the most protested war I can remember to date. But, today is not about me or my sacrifice. Rather, I am writing to honor those who made the greatest sacrifice—life itself—for the rest of us.

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Milton Friedman and His Timeless Insights on Energy and Freedom

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energy futuresRobert Bradley, Jr.
Founder and CEO of the Institute for Energy Research
Principal, MasterResource: A Free-Market Energy Blog..

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Milton Friedman was a great gift to those valuing freedom, liberty and economic common sense. He was a superb thinker and his insights on energy invaluable.

We celebrated, on July 31st, the 107th anniversary of the birth of economist Milton Friedman(1912–2006). Primarily known for his work on monetary economics, Friedman was a keen observer of energy economics and public policy whose insight remains valid today.

Early on, Friedman understood how major energy regulation was sponsored by an industry segment. “Few U.S. industries sing the praises of free enterprise more loudly than the oil industry,” he stated in 1967. “Yet, few industries rely so heavily on special government favors.”

Friedman was referring to oil-demand proration in the major oil states (excepting California), as well as federal oil-import limits, two complementary programs that governed from the 1930s through the 1960s. It was this political bias that contributed to the backlash against oil and natural gas in the 1970s that still haunts the industry today.

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Tax-Exempt Foundations, America’s Aristocracy, Threaten All Our Rights

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natural gas nowTom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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Tax-exempt foundations, the vehicles used by America’s aristocracy to exercise undue influence over our public policy, threaten our Constitutional rights.

Some 93 years ago President Calvin Coolidge, a distant relative, made a speech that captured the essence our Constitution and the Declaration of Independence that undergirds it. His Philadelphia speech on the occasion of the 150th Independence Day also explains what our nation rejected with both documents, that is to say an American aristocracy or ruling class. Yet, today, we see a ruling class that acts through tax-exempt foundations to everywhere undermine the rights of the common man in an attempt to impose its own special interest agendas.

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Independence Day Is No Time for Stupid Carbon Guilt Trips

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energy futuresRobert Bradley, Jr.
Founder and CEO of the Institute for Energy Research
Principal, MasterResource: A Free-Market Energy Blog..

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Independence Day is a day to reflect on American freedom and greatness, but some of authoritarian persuasion want to make it a day to atone for carbon guilt.

Fourth of July, the national celebration of combustion, presents an opportunity for atonement…. Maybe an Independence Day meal of pan-fried potatoes and grilled peaches seems un-American. But the tradition of backyard grilling isn’t exactly Jeffersonian in pedigree.

Brian Palmer, “Fire Up the Grill, Not the Atmosphere.” New York Times, June 29, 2011.

That was the New York Times then. Here is the latest:

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Take Notice DRBC: “Sue Me” Approach to the Takings Clause Is Untenable.

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natural gas nowTom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

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The U.S. Supreme Court has issued an opinion making it easier to go to Federal court for relief under the Takings Clause. New York and the DRBC take notice.

Yesterday, I included a blurb about the new Supreme Court decision on takings in my weekly best picks short stories post. Numerous people have sent me links to news articles about the decision, realizing how important it must be. They are correct. It is very important and I need to say more about it. It’s also very interesting that the case involves a controversy in nearby Scott Township, Lackakwanna County (the Montdale area), a client with whom I worked many years ago.

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H.B. 827 Draws Phony Attack from Delaware Riverkeeper Stooge?

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Tom Shepstone
Natural Gas NOW

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H.B. 827, Rep Jonathan Fritz’s bill to compensate DRBC landowners for their huge losses from the taking that would result from a fracking ban, is attacked.

Former English teacher and now Rep. Wendy Ullman is from Bucks County, Pennsylvania where the average household income in 2017 was $108,848 compared to $64,598 in Wayne County where Rep. Jonathan Fritz and I live. That’s a 68% difference but she’s determined to ignore it in her opposition to Fritz’s H.B. 827. It appears she’s a stooge for the Delaware PovertyKeeper, though, so economic fairness isn’t on the agenda, if a recent opinion piece supposedly written by her is any indication. Rather, the agenda is anti-growth and strategic parkification on behalf of the gentry class financiers of the Delaware PovertyKeeper.

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Jordan Yeager and Environmental Rights Amendment Abuse Flame Out

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Tom Shepstone
Shepstone Management Company, Inc.

 

Jordan Yeager, and the Environmental Rights Amendment he’s apparently financed to promote, just completely flamed out with the Office of Attorney General.

Radical attorney Jordan Yeager, who frequently represents the Delaware Povertykeeper and other anti-gas shills for the Heniz Endowments and William Penn Foundation, just went down in flames on his favorite cause; promoting the Pennsylvania Environmental Rights Amendment. Once again, as happened with Todd Township, Huntingdon County, the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s office stepped in to lay down the law regarding the Amendment.

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The Green New Deal Has Dangerous Authoritarian Roots

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energy futuresRobert Bradley, Jr.
Founder and CEO of the Institute for Energy Research

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The Green New Deal is not only fantasy, but also dangerous politicization of what should be serious issues, contaminating everything with authoritarianism.

The Green New Deal (GND) has brought the specter of full-blown government central planning into full view. But far from hedging, the Progressive Left has doubled down by declaring war on market capitalism, not just oil and natural gas.

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