Like most everything the Government does, eminent domain is abused. I was once selected for
The jury pool at the county level for a trial involving a family farm resisting the county government’s attempt to “take” the bulk of their farm for a sewer project at way less than market rates for the acreage. When the attorneys asked if anyone had problems with eminent domain, I raised my hand. Inevitably, one of them asked me the nature of my objection. The moment I mentioned the word “theft” in relation to subjective value and cost of relocation, I was interrupted and told I was excused.
The seizure of private property by the state whether by legal or extralegal means, is authoritarian and immoral. Spiteful mutants destroyed Rhodesia-Zimbabwe and caused a famine. The same thing is on the road to happening in South Africa as the ANC gradually seizes land from white Afrikaner farmers. Respect to those like the Rooftop Koreans and the McCloskeys in St. Louis for standing up to the powers that be to defend their property. I agree with that 100%. Every man has the right to self-defense on his own property. That is how you fight extralegal attempts to take one's land. But it's the legal means of doing so that is much harder to deal with. For example, last year in New Jersey the state government tried to use eminent domain laws to seize a two-century-old family farm from its owners Brad and Andy Henry. For 175 years, the Henry family had lived on and cultivated that land and now the state of New Jersey using the power of the state, intended to wipe out all that, so they could build slum housing. It was only due to a massive public backlash and all the attention it got from the American people, that the Henry family farm was saved and the state of New Jersey backed down. But without widespread public support, one has no recourse to fight back against the state if they want to take your land and your private property. Case in point, Wentworth Woodhouse in England. If there was a family who embodied noblesse oblige it was one of England's oldest families the Fitzwilliams. The name and the estate went back to the days of the Norman Conquest.
The Woodworth estate was found to be rich in coal. The Fitzwilliams decided to exploit these resources very differently than most wealthy landowners did. Instead of selling off their coal fields to some ruthless Scot industrialist, they decided to develop the fields themselves. They hired a local workforce to mine the coal, and they received good wages and the mines were built to the best safety standards of the day in every way. The mines were equipped with pumps, fans, proper ventilation, and lighting. The Fitzwilliams also did everything they could to take care of the worker's families. They built good schools for the worker's children and churches for the adults. They built housing for the workers that was nationally renowned for being spacious, clean, comfortable, and provided at a fair cost to the workers. The families were also given small plots of land on which they could grow vegetables or raise livestock. As a result, the family had some of the best-run and profitable mines in the country. The profits they earned allowed them to build the fabulous Wentworth Woodhouse which had 300 rooms and a 180-acre park. It stood for two centuries without incident and both the Earls, and the workers were happy with the arrangement they had there. But that all came to an end with the election of Clement Attlee as Prime Minister and the rise of the postwar Labour government in 1945. The Attlee government ordered the mines on the Wentworth Woodhouse estate was ordered nationalized and sent its hatchet man Manny Shinwell to ensure the job was done.
The government essentially destroyed the estate by demanding the valueless coal that ran under the estate's park be mined as well. This was pretty much just an act of spite and class warfare. They uprooted ancient trees, destroyed a beautiful drive of pink shale, razed 100 acres of parkland, and piled a mound of debris 50 feet high right in front of the family's living quarters. The Churchill government also did things like this during World War II in the name of the war effort. It needed space for units, personnel, and certain high-profile public officials and school children to who needed to be gotten out of dangerous area. So, they seized the country homes for which England was famous by force. Nearly all were neglected by the government. They fell apart from rot, dry rot, mold, and the like. The British Army tore Eggington Hall apart leaving the taps on the sinks running, the ceilings collapsed, and the building had to demolished. The British Army also destroyed the country estates at Blickling and Lyme as well as the whole village at Tyneham in Dorset was taken over including the big house the Bond family had owned for generations. Woburn Abbey, Wilton House, Culverthorpe, Netley Park, etc. the list goes on and on. At Blickling, the grounds were covered in Nissen huts and the troops stationed there broke the windows and doors. At Lyme, the grounds were cut up by RAF Lorries. At Compton Verney, the balustrading of the Adam Bridge was knocked off by the Army. Woburn Abbey was left so neglected by the Army that parts of it had to be completely destroyed. When the family finally got it back and worked to save the rest of it, they were fined for doing so without permission. At Culverthorpe and Netley Park, undisciplined soldiers smashed windows, cracked painted ceilings and destroyed gilt-framed mirrors for the fun of it. Why did the soldiers do these things? Because they had never lived in such houses and didn’t understand their value.
What else can one say other than this history is tragic? THIS is why we need a strong counter-elite as Will has proposed! A counter-elite would stand up for the American people, protect the United States Constitution and be a check on tyranny. What can we do to reign in government tyranny? Where do we go from here? What can we learn from the story of Wentworth Woodhouse and other beautiful English country houses destroyed by the British government? I’ve got some ideas. First off, Kelo v. New London (2005) should be overturned by the United States Supreme Court. All 50 states should pass constitutional amendments limiting the eminent domain powers of the state. The Private Property Rights Protection Act should be passed by the U.S. Congress and made a federal law. The British government should also pass just such a law. Judges strongly dedicated to private property rights should be appointed to the local, state and federal bench. Taxes on the lower and middle classes should be slashed as should taxes on businesses. We should abolish many taxes altogether as we just have too many to pay period. Rolling back regulations and reforming zoning laws would help as well. The British government and the British Army should issue a joint official apology to the descendants of the owners of these estates and pay them massive reparations. Wealthy families should immediately begin construction on new, beautiful country estates that would be built all across the English countryside. In South Africa, the ANC will be voted out of office and the Democratic Party will be elected. Land reform will be changed to be through compensation ONLY! All land taken from white Afrikaner farmers will revert to the original owner or will be sold off to a qualified farmer who’d be willing to take it. All ANC cronies who took farms will be rounded up and arrested. A government program will be started to mentor and train black farmers. The EFF will be banned and Julius Malema arrested and prosecuted for inciting racial hatred. The song “Kill the Boer” will be banned. The South African government will officially apologize to white farmers and any who wish to return will be admitted and given their land back. They will be paid reparations by the government. The farm patrols will return and the South African police and military will assist them. Those responsible for farm murders will be arrested and tried by the ICC at The Hague.
Like most everything the Government does, eminent domain is abused. I was once selected for
The jury pool at the county level for a trial involving a family farm resisting the county government’s attempt to “take” the bulk of their farm for a sewer project at way less than market rates for the acreage. When the attorneys asked if anyone had problems with eminent domain, I raised my hand. Inevitably, one of them asked me the nature of my objection. The moment I mentioned the word “theft” in relation to subjective value and cost of relocation, I was interrupted and told I was excused.
Infuriating. I detest eminent domain
As always, here is some recommended reading for Will and his audience:
* Meltdown: The Classic Free-Market Analysis of the 2008 Financial Crisis by Thomas E. Woods, Jr.
* End the Fed by Ron Paul
* The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Great Depression and the New Deal by Robert P. Murphy Ph.D.
* The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Bible by Robert J. Hutchinson
* The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Civil War by H.W. Crocker III
* The Forgotten Depression: 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself by James Grant
* America's Great Depression by Murray N. Rothbard & Paul Johnson
* The Progressive Era by Murray N. Rothbard
* Hitler's Revolution by Richard Tedor
* Hitler Democrat by Leon Degrelle
The seizure of private property by the state whether by legal or extralegal means, is authoritarian and immoral. Spiteful mutants destroyed Rhodesia-Zimbabwe and caused a famine. The same thing is on the road to happening in South Africa as the ANC gradually seizes land from white Afrikaner farmers. Respect to those like the Rooftop Koreans and the McCloskeys in St. Louis for standing up to the powers that be to defend their property. I agree with that 100%. Every man has the right to self-defense on his own property. That is how you fight extralegal attempts to take one's land. But it's the legal means of doing so that is much harder to deal with. For example, last year in New Jersey the state government tried to use eminent domain laws to seize a two-century-old family farm from its owners Brad and Andy Henry. For 175 years, the Henry family had lived on and cultivated that land and now the state of New Jersey using the power of the state, intended to wipe out all that, so they could build slum housing. It was only due to a massive public backlash and all the attention it got from the American people, that the Henry family farm was saved and the state of New Jersey backed down. But without widespread public support, one has no recourse to fight back against the state if they want to take your land and your private property. Case in point, Wentworth Woodhouse in England. If there was a family who embodied noblesse oblige it was one of England's oldest families the Fitzwilliams. The name and the estate went back to the days of the Norman Conquest.
The Woodworth estate was found to be rich in coal. The Fitzwilliams decided to exploit these resources very differently than most wealthy landowners did. Instead of selling off their coal fields to some ruthless Scot industrialist, they decided to develop the fields themselves. They hired a local workforce to mine the coal, and they received good wages and the mines were built to the best safety standards of the day in every way. The mines were equipped with pumps, fans, proper ventilation, and lighting. The Fitzwilliams also did everything they could to take care of the worker's families. They built good schools for the worker's children and churches for the adults. They built housing for the workers that was nationally renowned for being spacious, clean, comfortable, and provided at a fair cost to the workers. The families were also given small plots of land on which they could grow vegetables or raise livestock. As a result, the family had some of the best-run and profitable mines in the country. The profits they earned allowed them to build the fabulous Wentworth Woodhouse which had 300 rooms and a 180-acre park. It stood for two centuries without incident and both the Earls, and the workers were happy with the arrangement they had there. But that all came to an end with the election of Clement Attlee as Prime Minister and the rise of the postwar Labour government in 1945. The Attlee government ordered the mines on the Wentworth Woodhouse estate was ordered nationalized and sent its hatchet man Manny Shinwell to ensure the job was done.
The government essentially destroyed the estate by demanding the valueless coal that ran under the estate's park be mined as well. This was pretty much just an act of spite and class warfare. They uprooted ancient trees, destroyed a beautiful drive of pink shale, razed 100 acres of parkland, and piled a mound of debris 50 feet high right in front of the family's living quarters. The Churchill government also did things like this during World War II in the name of the war effort. It needed space for units, personnel, and certain high-profile public officials and school children to who needed to be gotten out of dangerous area. So, they seized the country homes for which England was famous by force. Nearly all were neglected by the government. They fell apart from rot, dry rot, mold, and the like. The British Army tore Eggington Hall apart leaving the taps on the sinks running, the ceilings collapsed, and the building had to demolished. The British Army also destroyed the country estates at Blickling and Lyme as well as the whole village at Tyneham in Dorset was taken over including the big house the Bond family had owned for generations. Woburn Abbey, Wilton House, Culverthorpe, Netley Park, etc. the list goes on and on. At Blickling, the grounds were covered in Nissen huts and the troops stationed there broke the windows and doors. At Lyme, the grounds were cut up by RAF Lorries. At Compton Verney, the balustrading of the Adam Bridge was knocked off by the Army. Woburn Abbey was left so neglected by the Army that parts of it had to be completely destroyed. When the family finally got it back and worked to save the rest of it, they were fined for doing so without permission. At Culverthorpe and Netley Park, undisciplined soldiers smashed windows, cracked painted ceilings and destroyed gilt-framed mirrors for the fun of it. Why did the soldiers do these things? Because they had never lived in such houses and didn’t understand their value.
What else can one say other than this history is tragic? THIS is why we need a strong counter-elite as Will has proposed! A counter-elite would stand up for the American people, protect the United States Constitution and be a check on tyranny. What can we do to reign in government tyranny? Where do we go from here? What can we learn from the story of Wentworth Woodhouse and other beautiful English country houses destroyed by the British government? I’ve got some ideas. First off, Kelo v. New London (2005) should be overturned by the United States Supreme Court. All 50 states should pass constitutional amendments limiting the eminent domain powers of the state. The Private Property Rights Protection Act should be passed by the U.S. Congress and made a federal law. The British government should also pass just such a law. Judges strongly dedicated to private property rights should be appointed to the local, state and federal bench. Taxes on the lower and middle classes should be slashed as should taxes on businesses. We should abolish many taxes altogether as we just have too many to pay period. Rolling back regulations and reforming zoning laws would help as well. The British government and the British Army should issue a joint official apology to the descendants of the owners of these estates and pay them massive reparations. Wealthy families should immediately begin construction on new, beautiful country estates that would be built all across the English countryside. In South Africa, the ANC will be voted out of office and the Democratic Party will be elected. Land reform will be changed to be through compensation ONLY! All land taken from white Afrikaner farmers will revert to the original owner or will be sold off to a qualified farmer who’d be willing to take it. All ANC cronies who took farms will be rounded up and arrested. A government program will be started to mentor and train black farmers. The EFF will be banned and Julius Malema arrested and prosecuted for inciting racial hatred. The song “Kill the Boer” will be banned. The South African government will officially apologize to white farmers and any who wish to return will be admitted and given their land back. They will be paid reparations by the government. The farm patrols will return and the South African police and military will assist them. Those responsible for farm murders will be arrested and tried by the ICC at The Hague.