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Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 12:19:26 GMT

I watched {@Bicentennial Man} last night on a rented video. Robin Williams plays an android who becomes human over the course of a 200 year life. Touching, hilarious at times. Explores what it means to be human. Worth 3 bucks and 2 hours.

I heard this in a preview to the movie:

When my kids got upset, I'd give them a stick and ask 'em to break it. Of course, they could. Then I'd tie some sticks in a bundle, and ask then to break that. Of course, they couldn't. Then I'd say, "those sticks, that's family."

From the Offshore Insider:

A fine is a tax for doing wrong. A tax is a fine for doing well.

John Taylor didn't print my Hate Crimes in New York piece in this week's The Libertarian Enterprise. Just a good excuse for me to point at my copy again, hehe. Anyway, here are my favorites from this week's issue:

Letter from Rick Trentham -
Therefore, I hit upon the idea of setting up a tax free foundation, perhaps even a number of them, which we can call it the "Just Rewards Foundation" for now, which would take public donations and offer it up as standing cash rewards for any information leading to the arrest and conviction of any elected or appointed official on any felony.
This idea takes advantage of the most prominent fact about corrupt cops and politicians, which is that they are corrupt. Based on the notion there's no honor among thieves, it strikes at the main thing that holds the "Blue Wall of Silence" and its political counterpart together by making them afraid to trust one another. The idea is to create a major chilling effect on the activities of corrupt officials by creating a situation where they cannot trust anyone around them to enlist them in any kind of criminal scheme for fear their partner, or one of their aides, or staffers, or secretaries, or even their wife or kids, are spying on them to turn them in, or that maybe the person approaching them is merely setting them up for the reward.
... If the ATF agents there were willing to let other agents walk into an "ambush" over a $200 tax matter, it would be interesting to see what might happen if someone offered up, say, $10 million to encourage someone to rat out the others...

David Neilson - The Biggest Con: Most of the laws that get through congress nowadays are unconstitutional on their face. That's why Dr. Paul votes against most of them. Mr. Neilson suggests that we need massive civil disobedience. He suggests a million gun owners marching armed in the streets. Sounds like a good idea to me. I often imagine what it would be like to live in a world where anyone who wanted could legally carry a concealed weapon. I imagine walking down the street, being mugged, and the mugger finding himself looking down the muzzles of 25 guns. Now that's security! Why would we need police in such a society?
The Thin Blue Hood: when the police stopped thinking of themselves as "peace officers" and became "law enforcement officers" they switched from our friends to yet another street gang.
End the gang violence, everyone. I just want to go home.

Patrick L. Lilly - What It Means: the police in Colorado Springs have asked the city council for permission to use asset forfieture for more than the war on some drugs. They may get away with it because people aren't telling them how blatantly unconstitutional and downright criminal their proposed policy is.
George L. O'Brien - The LP And The Lie: labels as a lie Harry Browne's contention that he can raise enough money to make a difference in the presidential race.

J.J. Johnson at Sierra Times - Before the Next Raid... Yet another federally licensed gun dealer has been raided out west. Why haven't we begun shooting yet? My answer is that most of us don't want to believe that it's gotten as bad as it has. Either that or we haven't seen the wolf at our own door or our neighbor's door. I certainly haven't. My only contact with the death of liberty in America is through stories I read on the web. That and the fact that half my hard-earned money is stolen before I see it. That and the fact that I see occasional state police roadblocks. They have always waved me through, but it bothers me that they're there at all. How long before one of them asks me for something I won't give? They killed Peter McWilliams, as close to a hero as anyone has ever been for me. I'm at a loss for how to solve the problem except to let my friends know about it. Speaking violently seems to turn most of them off. Acting violently is likely to turn me off. Maybe I need to learn from Peter that we're fighting an ant hill here. Killing individuals won't fix it. Only reason and care can fix it. I don't know. Enough of my rant. Read J.J.'s article. He makes some important points. If you have personally experienced leviathan's minions, send your story his way: mynews@sierratimes.com. [sierra]

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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