Anything you say will be used against you, but not in a court of law

There is, I think, a fine line between freedom of speech and public endangerment. No doubt the civil authorities in the United States bent toward the public endangerment side when they hauled Brandon J. Raub off to John Randolph Medical Center Saturday for a psychiatric evaluation.

I suppose Raub’s commentary on FaceBook could be construed in some context as public endangerment, but really how far away from a police state are we now anyway?  Raub, a Marine Corps veteran, certainly has a right to his opinion of the state of the state, so to speak. He is far from the first or last person to voice concerns about what the government did, does, or is about to do.

We have learned over the years, of course, that the U.S. government is completely trustworthy. Do you need me to cite the examples? How about we start with Richard Milhous Nixon? Sure, there are a lot of things that the government does that smack of situational ethics, or maybe just doing what they want to do despite laws, ethics, or even to some extent morals. The government per se is not above doing things that may seem reprehensible to those of us lowly citizens who hunker down in our homes and hope that no one has said anything that might invite a visit from the FBI or the super-Cops out of DC.

I suppose the recent incidents in Colorado, and even before that the shooting of Gabrielle Giffords, puts the Feds on edge a bit. But hauling someone off because of statements on FaceBook? FaceBook is a place where everyone airs their complaints. Take a look; most of the stuff out there is malarkey.

That’s not to say that Raub isn’t serious. But the likelihood of him starting an American Spring is pretty low. One of the great things about America is that we have freedom of speech. Raub fought for it; and all of you veterans out there ought to support it. We put in time serving our country to preserve someone’s right to say what they think, whether that be burning the flag or popping off on FaceBook.

And now, no one wants to take credit for hauling Raub off to John Randolph. The Chesterfield PD admits to transporting him, but they say it was at the request of the super-cops, FBI and Secret Service. But those groups don’t seem to want to get involved.

So maybe it’s just a tad bit of overreaction on the part of these do-gooders, trying to keep us safe from FaceBook comments. And if that’s the case, I guess they need to start cracking down on the bullies on FB too.  After all, bullies have arguably resulted in more deaths than someone blowing off steam about our government.

Talk is talk. And perhaps some of it requires due diligence in terms of tracking people. I am not saying Raub should have been ignored. Not by any means, it takes a bit of chutzpah to post anarchic commentary.  But what did the man do?

Nothing.

The response at most should have been to monitor him. Maybe try to find out what the dude is all about. But locking him up in the Looney bin is a bit much. Those tactics are straight out of Soviet Russia and other quasi dictatorships. You know, places like Iran where any potential uprising or potential leaders are squashed like the bugs they are.

It’s stuff like this that makes people wonder about where our country is heading.  As the ship of state tacks more and more to the socialist side, is it really surprising that the Feds would crack down on someone calling for an American Spring?