Thursday, December 17, 2020

Panic is always bad …

… Viral Panic - Law & Liberty. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)
Are lockdowns legal? I cannot be alone in my surprise at how many “emergency powers” governors, mayors, and appointed governmental executives like Directors of Public Health have over us. If all a governor has to do is to close down, say, gun stores is to declare an emergency and then use emergency powers from his own declaration, then we should all be concerned about such power being left unchallenged. The legislatures, boards of supervisors, or city councils, should stand against actions of executive tyranny, but they have remained silent with a handful of exceptions or have been even more extreme than the executives whose power they should temper. The courts exist to thwart excessive governmental power, but sadly as is the norm in the United States, some judges uphold the Constitution while others play the role of both executives and legislatures, but not jurists. That being said, there does thankfully finally seem to be a trend toward courts being more respectful of the rights of the individual particularly with respect to the dicta of governors


But many Americans have become timorous, credulous, and servile. And many do not seem to understand that fear of death is not the same as love of life. 


From the online etymology dictionary: Panic — 'from Greek panikon, literally "pertaining to Pan," the god of woods and fields, who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots. In the sense of "panic, fright" the Greek word is short for panikon deima "panic fright," from neuter of Panikos "of Pan."'

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