Recently, pirates have been in the news a lot. Large commercial ships have been taken over by pirates, and their crews held hostage.

Most folks find these acts of piracy wrong and offensive. The idea of taking other people’s belongings and freedom is bad, real bad. In fact if you were on a ship that was attacked and taken over by pirates, I daresay you would think of piracy in harsher terms than these.

Yet if elected officials in America, congress for instance, votes to take the property or limit the freedom of Americans, there is little reported public outcry.

Law, according to Webster’s, is described as “a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation”. 

In other words, virtually every American law that is enacted is by definition a restriction or elimination of freedom for some or all Americans. The only exceptions are those laws that repeal other laws.

While I understand the need to balance freedom with some rules to keep society civil, there is a lot evidence that things have gone too far. Way too far.

One thing to keep in mind is that when a government takes freedom or property from some individual or group, it takes freedom from all of us!

How so, you may ask? Let’s say congress passes a law that says a person’s home and land can be taken from him or her when a town or state government official decides that property would benefit other people more by being a strip mall instead of a home. Think this is far fetched? Nope, it’s reality in America now.

If you’re one of the home owners that this has happened to, you’ve experienced one form of American piracy. If not, I hope some politically connected developer, doesn’t have their eyes on your home.

Well that’s only one example, what’s the big deal? Here’s just a few other examples of lost American freedom. You have to use the toilet congress rules you’re permitted to buy, even if it uses more water from multiple flushes and gets clogged or looks pug-ugly.

Coming soon, you can only buy the light bulb congress allows you to buy– even if the mercury could poison your children if one drops and breaks and will present disposal problems when it burns out. Not to mention with dimmer bulbs your eyes could be more strained. Oh and at five times the cost of a conventional bulb... you get the idea.

With numerous other examples, the question is are you O.K. with trading your freedom for something some think of as a benefit? Or are you outraged that taking freedom and property is rampant in America today and that the result is nearly the same piracy. There’s one difference though. The pirates on the high seas are honest and open about what they are doing– they’re taking your property and freedom at gun point. Congress is quietly taking it at pen point. Avast their acts mateys!