000617.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 17 Jun 2000 12:00:00 GMT

There are four shaiks at the Abode this weekend. I'll be hanging out with them today and tomorrow, in sha' allah.

Harry Browne at WorldNetDaily - Learning from Peter McWilliams: A nice article about what we can learn from the life of Peter McWilliams.

As Steve Kubby has said, Peter died of an overdose of government.

Peter's response to someone who asked him why he didn't blow away some of the drug warriors:

My enemy is ignorance, not individuals. It is winning the war of ideas -- through fact, logic, persuasion and, yes, humor -- that brings about lasting change.
What we are facing today in America is not an evil dictator like Hitler, who is the head of a snake and whose removal will kill the snake -- but overgrown bureaucracies like the Drug War, which is more like an anthill. No matter how many individual ants you kill one at a time, the colony goes on.
Any idiot with a gun can kill. It takes clever perseverance to make lasting change.
As has been proven time and again, to alter the government in this country does not take violence, but education. My job is to get the country back into believing and living under the supreme law of the Constitution, not to kill those who are leading the country astray.
I support the high road of truth, facts, debate, and education even if I'm not able to walk that road much longer and even if lies, deception, repression, and ignorance are the direct cause of my death.

Paul Zimmerman at Sierra Times - Peter McWilliams: American Hero Murdered by Feds: A eulogy. Outlines the history of Peter's arrest and murder. Points to Peter's Basic facts for the press page. Peter was not arrested for smoking cannabis. He was arrested for embarrassing the DEA. He was arrested for speaking out in a way that people could not ignore. I pulled the angry section below. The article as a whole does not have an angry tone. [sierra]

Peter McWilliams died at home awaiting his sentencing. He was found dead in his bathroom. He'd choked to death on his own vomit. He died because the feds denied him the only medication that controlled his nausea and vomiting. They killed him as surely as if they'd cut his throat.
Judge King, I'll never forget what you did to Peter. Gen. McCaffery, I'll never forget what you did to Peter. There were many more feds who were accessories to the murder of Peter McWilliams and I say this to all of them: I won't forget and I won't forgive.
How many more lives will the feds take before we say enough is enough?
How many more Ruby Ridges, Wacos and Peter McWilliams before we drown in the blood of the martyred? God forgive us for standing around while the innocent die and suffer.

Richard Cowan at Marijuana News - The Murder of Peter McWilliams -- An Indictment, Not an Obituary:

There will be an autopsy, but whatever the immediate cause of death may have been, he was murdered by the United States Government as surely as if they shot him. Indeed, it would have been much more humane if they had just put a bullet in his head. No one should have to go through what he suffered at the hands of his country.
When I learned of his death yesterday, I was too angry to write about it. Even now, this is being written more in anger than in sorrow. Peter is where they can't hurt him anymore, but his murderers are still at large, and if there is anything that Peter would want, it would be for us to continue to speak the truth to power, to tyranny.
...
If an individual did what the federal government did to Peter McWilliams, deliberately deprive him of medicine that would save his life, that person would be indicted for murder. And this was murder. Moreover, it was premeditated, and a part of a pattern of the criminal abuse of power. Consider the evidence.

Doc Searls - Kill Fair: Doc's response to Dave Winer's How to Settle the Microsoft Case. A nice piece except that he ends by dissing the concept of property. I'll admit that I don't know if ownership of bits makes sense, but ownership of atoms definitely does.

Dave, on the other hand, goes with the statist dogma that a monopoly can exist without government support. It can't. If you don't like Microsoft's business practices, don't buy their products and don't buy their stock. Encourage your friends to do the same. It's that simple. We don't need no steenking government. [script]

Jon E. Dougherty at WorldNetDaily - Father's Day '50 Million Round March': Father's day is tomorrow, and Americans will be sending millions of rounds down-range. I'm hanging out with Shaikhs today and tomorrow, so I won't be shooting. [wnd]

Lizette Alvarez and Jeri Clausing at the New York Times - Electronic-Signature Bill Is Approved by the Senate : Klinton has said he will sign this bill, probably with a pen. [wnd]

Captain Dan Shoemaker - Demonstration of Freedom: Dan planned to walk through Galesburg and Monmouth today wearing his militia uniform and carrying weapons. He planned to be peaceful unless force was initiated against him, in which case he would fight to the death. This article explains his planned demonstration. Sierra Times says that he was arrested yesterday, but other militia members will carry out the demonstration. It is not known whether they will be armed. My guess is that they won't be as effective as he would have been, because the following has likely not happenned to them:

In November, 1999, something of a personal nature happened to Captain Dan Shoemaker which caused him to lose his fear of death. He understands that now is the time to take back our freedom.

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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