In response to a comment on my Ticker related to the Richmond Tea Party and their "demanded" refunding of the donation they made to the city I think this poster's hypocritical response and my riposte deserves its own entry, filed under Liberty.

So because TP didn't ramp up the agitation and decided to not be completely radical they don't deserve KD's respect?

Here comes ad-hominen and more cheap shots. Gonna burn a cross on my front lawn next?

Just wondering, you know.

After all, I did just give up my Rights not an hour ago. I drove a car. I consented to giving up my right to travel and reduced it to a privilege; I hold a driver license and have "mandatory" insurance, both of which are infringements on my right (bestowed by God, thus mine and unalienable, no matter what some government claims) to transport my personal meat sack using the common means of the day without any damn permits.

But see, here's the difference: That I'm a pussy and am not willing to go to jail today (or die in a hail of bullets) does NOT mean that because I'm a pussy I declare that you must be one too!

That's the difference. I recognize that I voluntarily surrendered my right to travel in that singular instance. I may choose not to surrender that right tomorrow, but today I did surrender it. I did so voluntarily, but in doing so I didn't lose that right, because I can't "lose" an unalienable right.

I can decide not to enforce it, I can try to enforce it and fail, but I cannot lose it as it is inherently mine and always will be mine, irrespective of what decisions I make or what some government official claims, right up until the moment I draw my last breath.

That you don't understand this and that the Richmond Tea Party doesn't understand this is a travesty. It means neither of you read The Federalist and Anti-Federalist nor did you actually read and comprehend The Declaration and The Constitution. It means you have no respect for the essence of being a citizen in a Constitutional Republic. It means that you believe that your decision to bow to expediency and the jackboot of a government official somehow compels others to do so as well, which is the antithesis of liberty and is a direct and personal attack on Sam Adams and the rest of the founders who were willing to sacrifice everything -- including their lives -- so you and I could be free men and women.

People who exploit the memory of great men but are agents of the very thing that those great men risked dying for are the worst sort of hypocrites.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is my polite way of putting it.