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Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 12:19:04 GMT

I left work last night to come home, and had travelled about 5 miles when I noticed that the slight shimmy I had been experiencing while braking or turning a corner at high speed had gotten worse. So much worse that I decided I probably should not drive the other 35 miles home. So I headed back to the office, on the back roads. I got within a couple of miles of the office when it got so bad that I decided I shoudn't go any further, so I pulled over into a business parking lot. 1/4 mile away was another business with someone inside who let me use the phone (sometimes you wish you had a cell phone). I called my wife, Karla, and asked her for the AAA number (my card was nowhere to be found) and to come to Albany to pick me up. Then I called AAA and went back to my car to wait for the tow truck. While I was waiting, my boss, Maynard, drove by in his Expedition with a kayak on top, and I waved him down (my kufi helped him recognize me while driving by at 40mph). We called Karla on his cell phone and told her that I would rent a car to get home. The tow truck came and dropped my car at the Honda dealer a mile from where I work. Maynard took me to the airport and left when I told him that Avis had a car available. The Avis person told me that DMV's computer rejected my driver's license, it has been expired for a month. I called Karla, and she drove the hour to the airport with two sleeping kids, and picked me up. Whew.

I've put 180,000 miles on my 1993 Honda Civic Sedan, and this is its first breakdown. Great car!

{@God Works Better than Drugs} is a letter I wrote to the editor of Time magazine.

Where is God's Perfection? is a beautiful story that my Mom sent me. Thank you, Mom.

Today's Irony from Brian Fitzgerald:

From Jerry Pournelle: A bill introduced in January by Jim Saxton, H.R.3548:

Title: To redesignate the mud dump site located approximately 6 miles east of Sandy Hook, New Jersey, and known as the "Historic Area Remediation Site", as the "Albert Gore, Jr., Mud Dump Site".

The Drug War And Columbia: Deny And Escalate: The senate appropriations committee has passed the house's huge appropriations bill for drug war aid to Columbia, but there were some small improvements and also some dissension in the ranks.

It's ironic how tough-minded conservatives who swear by the laws of supply and demand on economic issues suddenly start proclaiming that rain will surely follow the drug-war rain dance no matter how many times it doesn't.

Bill Adair at the St. Petersburg Times - No 1 stands out more: A very nice article about Ron Paul, "Dr. No", the only libertarian in the U.S. House of Representatives. One of the good guys. [mind]

To Dr. No, the federal government is more trouble than it's worth. He once wrote: "The government perpetually takes our money, lies to us and makes our lives worse." ...
"An armed society," he wrote, "is indeed a polite society." ...
In an interview last week in his Capitol Hill office, Paul said he was especially troubled by the growing tendency of federal agents to wear ski masks to conceal their identity during violent raids.
"When I grew up, we were taught the policeman was your friend," he said. ...
"Killing a live, human fetus is an act of violence," he said. "Life is precious."

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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