Carnival of Liberty VII

The Carnival of Liberty's seventh round is now up, hosted at Eric's Grumbles Before the Grave.

Quincy had, by far, the most provoking submission: the New London residents who were forced to sell their houses are now being charged back rent. It's not just adding insult to injury. This travesty of justice is based on the idea that the New London government seized the homes of Susette Kelo and others. Since the homeowners ultimately lost, New London could legally claim that it owned the properties from the original date the homes were condemned. Thus it wants to charge them rent.

I previously blogged about the awful Kelo decision here. It still makes me cry to see how ever facet of this case fulfills every phrase of Bastiat's opening to The Law:

The law perverted! And the police powers of the state perverted along with it! The law, I say, not only turned from its proper purpose but made to follow an entirely contrary purpose! The law become the weapon of every kind of greed! Instead of checking crime, the law itself guilty of the evils it is supposed to punish!

If this is true, it is a serious fact, and moral duty requires me to call the attention of my fellow-citizens to it.

We have the same moral duty. Tell everyone you can: family, friends, neighbors, even strangers. This is tyranny of the worst kind, because it is pernicious encroachment, yet silent enough that few take notice.