000823.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 23 Aug 2000 12:00:00 GMT

From Time magazine, August 21, 2000, p. 13:

"Never, in times so complex and chaotic as these, have we faced two contenders who are so boring and insipid." -- Fidel Castro on George W. Bush and Al Gore

{@Stayin Alive} is a story sent around by a co-worker about why you shouldn't flip off a female in traffic.

Harry Browne's Campaign Journal - Part Twenty-Seven, August 7 - 13: I don't know how he keeps up the pace. Harry does phone interviews while he's traveling from one personal appearance to another. Guess that's life on the campaign trail.

When we get back to the hotel, I have a final interview of the day with Steve Lavelli at WBZ, the big talk station in Boston. He is a congenial interviewer and we get along well. Once again, gun rights come up.
He says that whenever he mentions Libertarians to someone, it seems the person says something like, "Those are the people who don't believe in rules and think you should be able to own your own tank if you want." I say, "That's not true. We do believe in rules. We insist that when you drive your tank, you always stay on the right side of the road."

Tilde at ZDTV - Breakin' the Law: more on the DeCSS decision against 2600. They've been forbidden to even link to sites containing the DeCSS code. Tilde asks if she's an outlaw for telling you where you can find a link.

Here's another point brought up in the testimony. Although it is illegal to make a molotov cocktail or LSD, it is completely legal to publish the recipe for them. I hate to correlate DeCSS with something as harmful as a pipe bomb, but what's the difference? What is DeCSS but a recipe or an instruction manual? The difference is that a pipe bomb can only kill someone, whereas DeCSS could potentially cause the Motion Picture Association to (horror of horrors!) lose money.
And by the way, if you head by 2600, you'll notice that it has a link to Go.com, which is owned by Disney, which happens to be a member of the MPAA. Type in "DeCSS", and three out of the first four hits all lead to the code Disney would so like to squelch. Perhaps it should name itself in its next lawsuit.

Randy J. Lindower at Sierra Times - Police State in the Making? Another warning about the United Nations Millennium Summit in September.

Clinton wants 700 new ATF agents to help enforce the ever-increasing number of unconstitutional gun control laws. This is in addition to the 83,000 Federal police already on the government payroll. If Congress authorizes this funding (which it more than likely will), then they too will be in contempt of the Constitution. This because the power to establish police forces is reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment. There is absolutely no constitutional provision for a federal police force. In fact the constitution recognizes only three Federal crimes, that being counterfeiting, treason, and piracy on the high seas. All other police power is reserved to the states.

Addiction Is a Choice by Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D. was reviewed in the September 2000 issue of Liberty magazine. The central tenet of the book is that addiction is a conscious choice, not an uncontrollable urge. This jives well with my own experience. I didn't order it.

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
000822.html
000821.html
000819.html
000817.html
000816.html
000815.html
000814.html
000812.html
000811.html
000810.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