End the War on Freedom | Ramblings of an Agorist Wizard

Quote

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 30 Sep 2018 19:42:11 GMT <== Quote ==>

"The Gettysburg speech was at once the shortest and the most famous oration in American history... the highest emotion reduced to a few poetical phrases. Lincoln himself never even remotely approached it. It is genuinely stupendous. But let us not forget that it is poetry, not logic; beauty, not sense. Think of the argument in it. Put it into the cold words of everyday. The doctrine is simply this: that the Union soldiers who died at Gettysburg sacrificed their lives to the cause of self-determination -- that government of the people, by the people, for the people, should not perish from the earth. It is difficult to imagine anything more untrue. The Union soldiers in the battle actually fought against self-determination; it was the Confederates who fought for the right of their people to govern themselves."

-- H.L. Mencken

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The New York Times is Hiring Techies

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 07 Sep 2018 14:28:28 GMT <== Humor ==>

Found this hidden ad at the top of the HTML source for this New York Times article:


<html lang="en" itemId="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/05/opinion/trump-white-house-anonymous-resistance.html"...
  <head>
    <!--
         0000000                         000        0000000
       111111111      11111111100          000      111111111
       00000        111111111111111111      00000      000000
       000        1111111111111111111111111100000         000
       000        1111       1111111111111111100          000
       000         11       0     1111111100              000
       000          1      00             1               000
       000               00      00       1               000
       000             000    00000       1               000
    00000            0000  00000000       1                00000
  11111            000 00    000000      000                 11111
    00000          0000      000000     00000              00000
       000        10000      000000      000              0000
       000        00000      000000       1               000
       000        000000     10000        1     0         000
       000        1000000 00              1    00         000
       000         1111111                1 0000          000
       000          1111111100           000000           000
       0000          111111111111111110000000            0000
       111111111        111111111111100000          111111111
         0000000              00000000              0000000
  
      NYTimes.com: All the code that's fit to printf()
      We're hiring: https://nytimes.wd5.myworkdayjobs.com/Tech
   -->

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Quote

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 02 Sep 2018 06:50:57 GMT <== Quote ==>

"Once you leave the matrix, once you realize that taxation and registration/licensing fees are theft, that arrest for drug 'crimes' is kidnapping, that the state is a giant, criminal extortion and counterfeiting racket, there's no going back. Take the red pill today." -- Bill St. Clair

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Wolverines

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 31 Aug 2018 11:58:07 GMT <== Politics ==>

A blog reader clued me in to a chapter of Mike Vanderboegh's book, Absolved, that I had missed, since it wasn't in Codrea's index. I added it, and named it Chapter X: Wolverines.

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MamaLiberty, RIP

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 18 Jul 2018 13:56:05 GMT <== Personal ==>

I heard yesterday, on Gab, from a Wyoming neighbor of MamaLiberty, that she passed, succumbing to the cancer that she told us was quickly progressing.

I wept. Then I went out for a walk, to breathe. When I passed the local flower shop, I knew what to do. I plan to press those flowers when they start to fade, and frame them as a reminder of an old lady who I never met in person, but who I love more than I knew.

Mama Liberty walked her talk.

Rest in Peace, sister.

Posts at ClaireWolfe.com, TMM, Claire's Cabal (members only). I expect Nathan Barton to post at The Price of Liberty very soon now.

MamaLiberty, RIP

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GOV 2018 Vermont Candidate Report

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 15 Jul 2018 13:37:10 GMT <== Politics ==>

Gun Owners of Vermont has published their 2018 Vermont Candidate Report, rating each candidate running for election in November on their stance on guns. For us one-issue voters, it makes the choices very simple.

I saved a copy here.

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Thank You Jacob at Wideners

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 06 Jun 2018 19:57:12 GMT <== Webmaster stuff ==>

I received an email reporting on a broken link on this site. I get these fairly often. They're mostly nonsense about some ancient blog post, which I keep broken for historical accuracy. But this one was about a link in the sidebar of every page, with the John Lott quote. So I fixed it.

Thanks to Jacob from Widener's Reloading & Shooting Supply.

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thementalmilitia.com server upgrade

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 29 Apr 2018 14:54:17 GMT <== Webmaster stuff ==>

I upgraded the Ubuntu on https://secure.thementalmilitia.com to 16.04, and it all went off without a hitch, but the forums showed a blank page.

This was due to SMF using a deprecated and as of PHP 7.0 defunct PHP API for MySql databases. I found a compatibility patch, and that fixed the problem.

The forums are now working under Ubuntu 16.04.

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Server Updated to Ubuntu 16.04LTS

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 27 Apr 2018 12:52:26 GMT <== Webmaster stuff ==>

With the release of Ubuntu 18.04LTS, I have upgraded the server for this web site to Ubuntu 16.04LTS. I feel no need to follow the bleeding edge for a stable operating system, but 14.04 will only be supported for another year, so it was time to go to 16.04.

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Joke

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 02 Apr 2018 18:58:14 GMT <== Humor ==>

"I'm a decimated comic. With a real comic, every pun hits the mark. With me, only one pun in ten did." -- Bill St. Clair

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Quotes

The Atlanta Declaration

Every man, woman, and responsible child has an unalienable individual, civil, Constitutional, and human right to obtain, own, and carry, openly or concealed, any weapon -- rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- any time, any place, without asking anyone's permission.

-- L. Neil Smith

Reread that pesky first clause of the Second Amendment. It doesn't say what any of us thought it said. What it says is that infringing the right of the people to keep and bear arms is treason. What else do you call an act that endangers "the security of a free state"? And if it's treason, then it's punishable by death. I suggest due process, speedy trials, and public hangings.

-- L. Neil Smith

A Penalty Clause for the Bill of Rights

Any official, appointed or elected, at any level of government, who attempts, through legislative act or other means, to nullify, evade, or avoid the provisions of the first ten amendments to this Constitution, or of the Thirteenth Amendment, shall be summarily removed from office, and, upon conviction, deprived of all pay and benefits including pension, and sentenced to imprisonment for life.

-- L. Neil Smith

Based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, and some of its own empirical work, the panel couldn't identify a single gun control regulation that reduced violent crime, suicide or accidents.

-- John Lott, commenting on the National Academy of Sciences report on gun control laws.

Who is a libertarian?

Zero Aggression Principle ("Zap")

"A libertarian is a person who believes that no one has the right, under any circumstances, to initiate force against another human being, or to advocate or delegate its initiation. Those who act consistently with this principle are libertarians, whether they realize it or not. Those who fail to act consistently with it are not libertarians, regardless of what they may claim."

-- L. Neil Smith

(Formerly called the "Non-Aggression Principle", or "NAP")

Why Did It Have to be... Guns?

Make no mistake: all politicians -- even those ostensibly on the side of guns and gun ownership -- hate the issue and anyone, like me, who insists on bringing it up. They hate it because it's an X-ray machine. It's a Vulcan mind-meld. It's the ultimate test to which any politician -- or political philosophy -- can be put.

If a politician isn't perfectly comfortable with the idea of his average constituent, any man, woman, or responsible child, walking into a hardware store and paying cash -- for any rifle, shotgun, handgun, machinegun, anything -- without producing ID or signing one scrap of paper, he isn't your friend no matter what he tells you.

If he isn't genuinely enthusiastic about his average constituent stuffing that weapon into a purse or pocket or tucking it under a coat and walking home without asking anybody's permission, he's a four-flusher, no matter what he claims.

What his attitude -- toward your ownership and use of weapons -- conveys is his real attitude about you. And if he doesn't trust you, then why in the name of John Moses Browning should you trust him?

-- L. Neil Smith

Concise

"Tell me," I was once asked, "What do you think about gun control? Give me the short answer." To which I replied, "If you try to take our firearms we will kill you."

-- Mike Vanderboegh

Also from The Atlanta Declaration:

... like going to the bathroom, breathing, eating, sleeping, or making love, it turns out that self-defense is a bodily function one cannot safely or effectively delegate to a second party.

-- L. Neil Smith

This does not mean that "Marijuana should be available by prescription." It means that morphine sulfate should be available in five pound bags at the supermarket for a couple of bucks, like sugar... but probably in a different aisle, to avoid confusion.

-- Vin Suprynowicz

If you refuse to pay unjust taxes, your property will be confiscated. If you attempt to defend your property, you will be arrested. If you resist arrest, you will be clubbed. If you defend yourself against clubbing, you will be shot dead. These procedures are known as the Rule of Law.

-- Edward Abbey

The state can only survive as long as a majority is programmed to believe that theft isn't wrong if it's called taxation or asset forfeiture or eminent domain, that assault and kidnapping isn't wrong if it's called arrest, that mass murder isn't wrong if it's called war.

-- Bill St. Clair