000821.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 21 Aug 2000 12:00:00 GMT

[lunch-time update at end]

Jeremy Sapienza at LewRockwell.com - End Women's Suffrage Now! If Klinton's administration is responsible for our current economic growth, then women's suffrage must be responsible for the depression, the world wars, and the cold war. Really a piece about the tyranny of the majority. [lew]

So when I am asked whether I think women should vote, I must say no. But the logical extension of my thinking is that no one should have the right to vote away the rights of others. Property is not safe when any common deadbeat can vote it out from under the owner. If we must have a country run by suffrage, it should be limited to property owners. At least they wouldn't undermine the principles that made this country great to begin with.

Teapot is a Java OS for embedded systems, e.g. PDAs. It's memory footprint is 1.3MB. Development is done via an emulator that runs on Linux. It includes a clean-room implementation of the Personal Java 3.0 API. There is a 80486 demo that boots from a 1.3 meg floppy. I downloaded it, but haven't tried it yet. [/.]

Jon Tillman - The New Linux Myth Dispeller: the truth about a long list of myths about Linux. [/.]

Stefanie Olsen at CNET via Marijuana News - European start-up banking on the need for weed: A new marijuana delivery service is starting up in Amsterdam. iToke will allow people to order weed via their WAP-enabled cell phones. They plan to begin deliveries on September first. They're already selling T-shirts, and polo and oxford shirts with the iToke logo. Their proposed business is illegal even in Holland, but the authorities may decide to look the other way. [mjn]

Shadow Conventions 2000 - Tuesday and Wednesday Video Highlights: There are highlights from the rest of the LA Shadow convention, but I'm interested in the speeches on the war on freedom (er... drugs). This page starts with some poverty speeches. The drug war speeches start with clip #5, Arianna Huffington. Deborah Small tells us to "just say no to the war on drugs". Gov. Gary Johnson says to legalize marijuana (for adults) and concentrate on harm reduction for other drugs. This will likely reduce drug use. Use Holland, the only country in the world with a rational drug policy, as a model. Heidi Moore tells us how well methadone worked for her husband until the judge refused to allow him to continue it and he died of a heroin overdose, leaving their 3 children without a father. About methodone, she said, "It gives adicts back their life." Dave Purchase asks why people think it's their business to tell him what to do. "It is their fear that drives them to control us." Ethan Nedelman says, "There is no good reason in ethics, science, or morality... for sayng that some people deserve to be... punished on the basis of what they put into their bodies." Rep. John Conyers mentions California's proposition 36 (which replaces incarceration with treatment). He will introduce legislation that returns sentencing discretion to judges and that takes non-violent drug offenders out of the prison system. Tim Robbins asked the families of drug war criminals to stand for a moment of silence. Bill Maher reminds us that though alcohol causes 300,000 deaths a year, pot has never killed anyone. "How about zero tolerance for injustice." Jesse Jackson talks about the jail for profit industry. 80% of the 2,000,000 inmates are in for non-violent drug charges. "When the poor are caught with drugs it is called crime. When the rich are caught, it's called youthful indiscretion. We demand one set of rules."

There's a new article in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:

Sanctifying the expansion of federal power is a review of James Bovards latest book. So much to read, so little time. It focuses on Klinton's reign, but Vin doesn't think that Bush will likely be much better.
with the pending September release of Bovard's latest book, "feeling your pain": The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power in the Clinton-Gore Years ($26.95 from St. Martin's Press) I believe we are finally seeing the emergence of a mature and fully formed Jim Bovard, no longer content to merely shine a light into the rat warren and expect his readers to reach their own conclusions. Rather, the author now seems fully emotionally invested in exposing and rooting out the way the fast-talkers and scalawags have preyed upon the charitable instincts of a good and generous American people to -- finally -- loot us, disarm us, and even begin to kill us in our homes.

Angus Glashier appears to be promoting the tyranny of the majority today (look for "Why compromise works") in his response to Jonathan Taylor's Libertarian Enterprise article. Angus, America is not a democracy. It is a constitutional republic that uses democratic means to make decisions in the tiny domain over which government is given reign. The problem is that the government now routinely ignores its jurisdiction. As libertarians, our job is to vigilently enforce the boundaries of that jurisdiction. Yes, we need to compromise on decision making within those boundaries, but allowing the boundaries to grow has caused our current socialist slavery. On that issue we must never compromise.

I'd rather be ruled by a government who needs my vote to stay in power, than be ruled by a corporation which I have no control over whatsoever.

The reason the market works so well is that a corporation DOES need your vote, in the form of buying its products. Its survival depends on your vote. The only regulation the market needs is criminal penalties for violence, theft, and fraud, and civil penalties for breech of contract.

"ozone is a transaction-based, object-oriented database management system completely implemented in Java and distributed under an open-source license. The main goal of the ozone project is to evolve a technology that allows developers to build pure object-oriented, pure Java database applications. ozone contains a W3C-DOM implementation that allows you to use ozone as an XML repository." Version 1.0 will include a graphical admin tool and better documentation. Other than that, it's done. [meat]

bob lonsberry - Lieberman Is Not Alone in Being Faithful: Mr. lonsberry wishes that Joe Lieberman would stop wearing his religion on his sleeve. He has no bone to pick with religious people, he are one, but he wants Mr. Lieberman to start talking policy.

It has been said that the selection of Senator Lieberman as the Democratic vice presidential nominee has been a blow against intolerance.
Well, let's hope Joe Lieberman can break down the barriers of intolerance in this country.
Not against the Jews in particular, but against the religious in general.

Russell Madden at Laissez Faire City Times - You Are a Criminal: Young Girls and Lemonade Stands: Concerning the case of Rachel Caine, a nine-year-old girl whose lemonade stand was shut down by Florida code enforcement. The story is old. Mr. Madden's take on it is why I point here. He goes on to remind us that we are all criminals. There are so many laws, that everyone has broken at least one of them. The real criminals are the lawmakers. [grabbe]

We can all rest secure in our beds now knowing that one more lawbreaker has felt the heavy hand of the State early on in her criminal career. Why, no doubt this righteous intervention has halted Rachel's long, slow slide into depravity. After all, no one should question the fact that selling lemonade -- and water! -- is merely a "gateway" business to more serious wrong-doing. Without being aware of the dire necessity for obtaining the critical state-mandated licenses, fees, safety precautions, and equipment to conduct her business, Rachel might one day have degenerated into other forms of evasion. Why, she might even have founded a giant software company that surreptitiously sought to conduct peaceful commerce with her customers without paying appropriate obeisance to her masters in the East.
...
The one principle, of course, that should undergird and inform any and all morally valid laws is: no one may initiate direct or indirect force/coercion against another person.
All the rest is window-dressing, implementation, and arguing over borderline cases.
...
Government -- at any level -- should first and foremost exist and act to protect our rights.
Any other action it seeks to undertake that violates our rights is, well, criminal.

Bureau of the Public Debt - The Public Debt To the Penny: this is a page that I found on grabbe's page a while back. We're actually doing better than before. This year appears to include a number of significant payoffs. Still, during Klinton's reign (from September 1992 to the present), the public debt has increased from $4.06 trillion to $5.67 trillion, an increase of $1.61 trillion. Over the last 9 months, it's stayed just about even.

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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