The crackdown on illegal wood begins!

Rand Simberg linked a post I wrote last month about the federal criminalization of wood, and I thought I should thank him here rather than in the post itself — which Glenn Reynolds linked yesterday, but which is so old that regular readers might miss updates on it. Simberg added a great point which I think should be noted, and renoted — by the Powers That Shouldn’t Be:

Throw all the bastards out. One of the elements in the Republicans’ new contract with America has to address these outrageously long, unread bills.

When I wrote the post (“Where were you when wood became a felony?” — a long diatribe against yet another grotesque unconstitutional overreaching by the feds), little did I know that there would soon be a federal raid on the Gibson Guitar company. The name “Gibson” is legendary in rock music — so much so that this raid is more than just an attack on an important and cherished American industry. The attack (on what the Justice Department thugs would probably call “Big Guitar”) is an attack on freedom itself — little different from raiding rock bands and seizing their guitars.
The feds raided Gibson looking for undocumented wood.
Not aliens.
Wood.
Just think about it. Look around you. How many things in the spaces surrounding you are made of wood? How many objects? Think of what a malicious prosecutor like Mike Nifong in a federal roid rage could do with such a “law.” I don’t think it is any exaggeration to say that this may be the greatest law enforcement harassment tool ever devised.
“Is that a gun in your pocket or are you concealing illegal handles made from undocumented wood?”
What I can’t figure out is whether the greater crime is the passage of this monstrosity or the fact that its existence was so cleverly concealed — as a small part of yet another humongous “act” — that it went unreported.
We are not represented, we are ruled.


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5 responses to “The crackdown on illegal wood begins!”

  1. chuckR Avatar
    chuckR

    Things will be ever so much better when all wood products require a strict chain of custody, the lowly house framing stud as well as the Circassian walnut shotgun stock blank.

  2. SteveBrooklineMA Avatar
    SteveBrooklineMA

    Interesting delay between your original post and this new attention! Was the Gibson raid due to this new law or was it existing law?

  3. Marzo Avatar

    “Are all the books you own printed on paper made of properly documented wood”?

  4. […] whatever stain or dye had been used on whatever wood the tossing forks were made of. Is the wood legal? Damned if I know. But what if the bastards who rule us are somehow forcing the bastards who make […]

  5. […] If anyone can explain, I’m all ears. Sorry, but saying that the drug issue is a matter of morality while stopping pollution (or guaranteeing health care) is not — these are not persuasive. If the “right and wrong” trumps constitutional considerations, then anything goes. Including Homeland Security seizing chocolate eggs from travelers to protect our children from tiny toys inside. Or protecting trees in foreign countries by making wood a federal felony and raiding American guitar companies. […]