link to a Fox News article on this:
Fed Raid Targets Guitars Made From Endangered Trees | FoxNews.com
Fed Raid Targets Guitars Made From Endangered Trees | FoxNews.com
Gibson is thumbing their nose at the Feds and starting up production again.
IF it is clearly an old guitar wouldn't it be obvious that it is old enough to be grandfathered in? I've seen many vintage guitars.. It is obvious they are vintage.. Not to mention if it's a good brand most of them have the year printed on them somewhere.
I think that is the rub with seizure. The onus is on you to prove that it isn't illegal. This is what gives us the names of court cases listed in the article.
"United States of America v. Ebony Wood in Various Forms"
Actually, U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service.
But Federal footsoldiers nonetheless.
We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force.— Ayn Rand
Did you really think we want those laws observed? said Dr. Ferris. We want them to be broken. You'd better get it straight that it's not a bunch of boy scouts you're up against... We're after power and we mean it... There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that's the system, Mr. Reardon, that's the game, and once you understand it, you'll be
much easier to deal with. ('Atlas Shrugged' 1957) {WMail Issue #23}
I wonder how much of our tax dollars are spent to net a $250 fine.
Almost 500,000 people are directly employed by Federal and State Prisons.
Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) - State and Federal prison facility characteristics
Number of facilities – Source – Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 2005
From June 30, 2000 to December 30, 2005 – The number of state and federal correctional facilities increased from 1,668 to 1,821— an increase of 9%.
Private facilities accounted for nearly all of the increase during these five years (from 264 to 415).
Federally operated facilities increased by 21% (from 84 to 102).
State-operated facilities increased by 9% (from 1,584 to 1,719).
The number of minimum security increased by 155 and maximum security facilities increase by 40.
This just scratches the surface. If you add all the secondary industries AND employees that support the US Prison System, it could easily top 2,000,000.
That is the low hanging fruit. They will keep ratcheting down on us until we are either locked up or acting like the good robots they want us to be.
The frog may not be able to jump out of the pan in time.
btw: Ayn Rand was getting warmer. Animal Farm. 1984. Have a nice day.
Better than have some of those creeps running the streets.
Great interview from their CEO that I found on the www.DailyPaul.com website.
http://youtu.be/O_-taqM5Sk0
It also sounds as if they're trying to enforce a foreign law in the US!
Gibson has no judge or jury to appeal to. They haven't even been charged. They are just ordered to stop production and that they better not ship anything out of the factory.