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So I haven't written much about my employment situation since last summer, when I ranted and raved about the joys of self employment. In the time since that song-inspiring post I have recanted my words and taken on a full-time developer position with a former client of mine. Without getting into all the potentially boring legal details, the Institute for Justice is a non-profit, public interest law firm headquartered in our nation's capital. They basically sue the government at the local, state, and federal level on behalf of individuals in need of protection, primarily in the areas of property rights, first amendment, school choice, and economic liberty issues. They're probably most well known for arguing the historic Kelo v. New London case in front of the Supreme Court. At this point I'm sure I've lost half of my audience who didn't make it much past "boring legal details." To the other two readers, I wanted to share the latest project I've been working on at IJ. Less than two weeks from now, June 23, is the three-year anniversary of that Supreme Court decision, which came back in favor of the city of New London government. That decision basically laid the groundwork got what today allows the government to take any private property it wishes and transfer ownership to another private party for their own profit. People are generally aware of the term eminent domain, which most people understand to mean that the government can take your property to build roads, bridges, etc. But this Supreme Court decision basically expanded that governmental power to include the right to take private property if it is believed the land could be "better used" by another party. And "better used" can simply mean a business that will generate more taxes. I hope you agree that this is clear violation of the intent of the constitution and, frankly, just isn't right. To get to the point, IJ has declared Monday, June 23 Kelo Day and is asking for help in raising awareness for this issue. We are hoping to get 10,000 individuals, representing each of the 10,000 documented abuses of eminent domain that have occurred during the five-year period surrounding the Kelo case, to made any contribution to the Institute for Justice's property rights campaign. We're going for volume of donations here, not necessarily big-buck donations. Even a $1 donation gets us one voice closer to our 10,000-participant goal. If you're up for it, head over to http://www.ij.org/KeloDay and pledge your support. Oh, and I built that pledge form, by the way. Pretty great, huh?
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