Independence, Liberty, Freedom, Private Property

Yesterday my family joined two other families for a Fourth of July picnic. While some were swinging, some testing their skills at stilts, others tossing frisbees, and others seeing how high they could climb on the playground some of the less energetic adults were discussing politics. We got onto the subject of property and discovered the following:

• if you own a rental, the government tells you you must rent without discriminating based on character
• if you own a rental in which your tenants commit a certain kind of crime (the result of that lack of good character), your property may be forfeit
• you have to pay taxes on your property to keep your property
• if at any time the government feels it would generate more revenue to confiscate your property and sell it to someone else, they will give you a "fair market compensation" and take your property
• in my city there are restrictions on water usage, including the fact that we are forbidden to use our dish or bath water to water our plants, or to catch the rain off our roof. Apparently the city jealously owns the water that goes down our drains.

We wonder if soon there will be no-knock warrants to inspect our drains. This is on the way to being possible because in my state,

• you can be pulled over to see if you are wearing your seatbelt in your car, which is required by law
• And you are required to have insurance for said car
• To drive which you need to have a government-issued license (that you paid for)

The comment was made,

And what are we celebrating today?

To God be all glory.