000511.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 11 May 2000 12:00:00 GMT <== Politics ==>

Tripping Over Joy

What is the difference
Between your experience of Existence
And that of a saint?

The saint knows
That the spiritual path
Is a sublime chess game with God

And that the Beloved
Has just made such a Fantastic Move

That the saint is now continually
Tripping over Joy
And bursting out in Laughter
And saying, "I Surrender!"

Whereas, my dear,
I am afraid you still think

You have a thousand serious moves.

I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz - Daniel Ladinsky

Holman W. Jenkins at Business World and John Markoff at the New York Times via Cryptome - Cyber Anarchy Wins, Stop Worrying: Napster, Metallica, Gnutella, Freenet. Copyright is becoming impossible to protect. [grabbe]

J.D. Tucille at CivilLiberty.About.com - Drug warriors target free speech: J.D. covers the "Methamphetamine Anti-Proliferation Act", which I have waxed eloquent about in the past. In case you missed it, this bill makes it a 10-year federal felony to distribute instructions for manufacturing a controlled substance. If this bill passes, the following sentence will be a crime: "Get some cannabis seeds, dig a hole in the ground, put the seeds in the hole, cover them up, make sure they get enough water until grown, dry the buds, crumble some up, smoke it." [market]

Robin Miller at SlashDot - Microsoft Asks Slashdot To Remove Readers' Posts: Microsoft has taken umbridge with some SlashDot posts concerning its ""Microsoft Authorization Data Specification v. 1.0 for Microsoft Windows 2000 Operating Systems" They sent a letter claiming copyright infringement under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Slashdot responded saying they're consulting their attorneys but are not inclined to censor their content. [/.]

Ian Fried and Jim Hu at CNET - Microsoft wants to censor some open-source postings: CNET's take on this story. [script]

"Effectively, once something goes on to the Internet, the genie is out of the bottle, and stuffing (it) back in is next to impossible," he [Daniel R. Harris of Brobeck Phlegr & Harrison] said.

AltaVista has opened raging.com, a search engine without all the portal stuff. Looks amazingly similar to Google. ["/."]

Joel of Joel on Software says:

Despite the fact that raging search, an AltaVista spinoff, is a blatant ripoff of Google in every way, it still produces pathetic search results. (Compare the result of searching for President Clinton on raging and google and you'll see what I mean.)

By Curt Bolding at Sierra Times - Realistic Self-Defense and the Armed Citizen, Part II: Officer Bolding talks about self-defense when you don't have a gun. Appearance, combat mindset, martial arts training, run away, knife, pepper spray, big dog, cell phone, gun. [sierra]

The most important quality to have, by far, is a combat mindset. If you don't read any of the rest of this article, read this. If you're going to successfully defend yourself you must have the right mental attitude for survival. First you need to know what the law expects of you and how much force you're allowed to use in defense of your person... Next you need to know how to properly articulate yourself. This is absolutely necessary because when the fight's over, you'll probably find yourself talking to a cop who's trying to figure out what's happened here...
The combat mindset is your tool for staying alive and in one piece. You must be ready, willing and able to inflict severe physical harm to an assailant at any time. Your attitude must be that once this mope crosses the line, you then attack with full force and take him out. You do not "defend." Get that word out of your mental vocabulary. What you want to do is wait for this guy to hang himself by crossing over the line. What is this line? Well, it's like the kid in the schoolyard who challenges another. He draws a line in the sand and says to the other kid, "step over that line." If the other kid does it, he gets walloped. This is the same thing, but it's an imaginary, symbolic line. Incidentally, I use this same concept to teach the combat mindset to veteran police officers...
...
I hate having people ask me the best way to defend themselves and have to tell them something like "take a martial arts class," even though I'm a firm believer in it. The fact is that not everybody has the time, the money, or the physical ability to become a competent martial artist, although you should at least try it out if you can. Another fact is that with proper training, anybody can become competent with a firearm. I would be willing to bet that if we interview all the anti-Bill of Rights activists, we'll find that the vast, overwhelming majority have never been victims of violent crime. The right of the people to keep and bear arms has been infringed enough, and we must continue that fight in order to better ensure not only our own survival, but that of the people who disagree with us.

Sarah Thompson at Sierra Times - Not Rational Anymore: Contrary to popular belief, the NRA does NOT defend the second amendment. Most of its members do, but the NRA's primary goal is making money by playing on its members fears. [sierra]

The NRA needs gun control. So the NRA perpetuates gun control. They support anti-gun politicians, and when those anti-gun politicians propose more gun control, the NRA sends out more letters screaming for help, and another few million dollars roll in. What a scam!

Add comment Edit post Add post

Comments (1):

Last week, Mr. Bolding was

Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 18 Feb 2008 19:51:50 GMT

Last week, Mr. Bolding was arrested in his hometown of St. Joseph, Illinois on domestic battery charges. He was suspended from the University of Illinois police department.

Edit comment

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
000508.html
computing
4 March, 2000
000501.html
000429.html
000427.html
000426.html
000424.html
000420.html
000419.html

Navigation

History

Quotes

Government doesn't work. Never did. Never will. Can't. But there are lots of good people. Love them.

-- Bill St. Clair

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