This Is The Way Freedom Ends. Not With A Bang…But A Whimper.

Y'all have no idea how much I love a good flea market.  Garage sales?  They completely rock.  And don't even get me started on eBay and Craig's List.

On a side note, I also happen to adore that notion called FREEDOM.  I find that to be most awesome of all, so you can imagine my disgust when I read this particular article.

Like a lot of other stealth legislation pimped out by a bunch of jackwagons in robes, "tucked into the Supreme Court's agenda this fall is a little-known case that could upend your ability to resell everything from your grandmother's antique furniture to your iPhone 4."

There's this neato thing called Kirsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, which is the "first-sale doctrine in copyright law, which allows you to buy and then sell things like electronics, books, artwork and furniture, as well as CDs and DVDs, without getting permission from the copyright holder of those products."

In other words, you get to live in a free America.  You remember what that's like, don't you, folks?

Now, that doctrine is being challenged for products made abroad, meaning that the Supreme Court gets to decide, through an appellate court ruling, whether or not you're going to have to ask for freakin' PERMISSION to sell certain items that were made in places like China, Japan or Europe, to name a few.  And we all know how awesomely fair and mindful of our constitutional rights the Supreme Court is (excuse me while I wipe my tears of laughter).

"It could be your personal electronic devices or the family jewels that have been passed down from your great-grandparents who immigrated from Spain.  It could be a book that was written by an American writer but printed and bound overseas, or an Italian painter's artwork."

Oh. My. God.

Of course, you'd have to ask permission and/or ante up financially if the Supreme Court decides to bend you over again and strip you of your ability to actually own your own crap and then decide to sell it to buy, you know, a tank of GAS or something. Because of course you don't need the cash for yourself.  Someone else needs it.  Didn't you know?  That stuff isn't YOURS.

Ebay and CraigsList?  Yeah.  They'd be hit HARD.  And even public libraries would have to bend over, as they hold books that are from foreign publishers.  Basically, it's a huge cloosterfooken, and our freedom would be right smack in the middle of it.  

What I'd like to know is how many overpaid government workers would they hire to monitor things such as yard sales, bake sales (that flour you used is from Denmark, you FELON), consignment stores, and the like?  Or maybe they'd decide to streamline the headcount there and just put up Big-Brother cameras on every street of every American nook and cranny town, city, and state.  Yeah – it may be easier to just watch us 24/7 so they can control every aspect of our lives.  Even better.  

Aw yeah. This is the way your freedom ends….not with a bang, but a whimper.  A pathetic, free-market-hating whimper in the form of an intrusive government and nine puppet-masters who have absolutely no regard for you whatsoever.

Just what our Founding Fathers intended.  Riiiiiiiiight.