000903.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 28 May 2001 12:20:14 GMT

I spent a few hours yesterday reading about the Java Secure Sockets Extension (JSSE). I want to enable SSL connections to the Jetty web server. I downloaded and ran the examples for Protekt, which is already hooked up to Jetty. Protekt is NOT free, and doesn't come with source. Later this weekend I plan to try the JSSE examples and hook it up to Jetty. JSSE is harder to install, but installation forces you to learn about all the things you'll need to know to actually use it.

Vin Suprynowicz at the Las Vegas Review Journal - Privacy of the jury room finally upheld: Charges against Laura Kriho were finally dropped on August 4. Ms. Kriho was fined for discussing the possible sentence for a marijuana case against the judges instructions while sequestered on a jury. FIJA has a page of articles on Ms. Kriho's case. Their press release on the dropping of charges is here. Vin also updates us on the Postal Service's regulations requiring mail to privately owned PO boxes to be labelled "PMB". They've changed their tune, likely due to massive protests.

The Kriho case spotlights the evolving species of tyranny under which our courts, through voir dire questioning and judges' "instructions to convict," are gradually turning juries into little more than trained government dogs, balancing on their hind legs in their tutus and yipping on command.
In fact -- even if they no longer choose to tell us -- jurors have an irreversible right and duty to vote their conscience irrespective of the statutory law or the judge's "instructions," a right and duty established through 1,000 years of Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence, and enshrined in no fewer than three articles of the Bill of Rights. If this is not true, ask the judge to come with you into the jury room and supervise your deliberations. You will find he cannot.

A new article in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:

Is USDA an 'out-of-control muenster'? - The USDA recently released 15 pages of regulations on the grading of Swiss Cheese, including the average size of the holes necessary to acheive a "Grade A" rating. Vin thinks the USDA is beyond reform. "Abolish it," he says. I agree. In spades.

David Tuller at Salon - Striking down medical marijuana: commentary on the Supreme Court's recent preliminary decision, and a nice interview with San Francisco District Attorney Terence Hallinan. He has seen with his own eyes the unmistakable evidence that cannabis has medical properties, hence should not be a schedule 1 controlled substance. [unknown]

What about critics who argue that medical marijuana is just a stalking horse for attempts to legalize it completely?
I don't see it that way. You could say that of any prescribed drug. Medical marijuana is about making marijuana available to people who have legitimate medical conditions that a doctor says are alleviated by use of marijuana. The concern is that the clubs don't just dispense it to people to make money or for recreational purposes, but that they're doing it on the basis of a doctor's recommendations. I try my best to encourage them to run the clubs carefully, and most of them do run it pretty strictly. They're not a bunch of hippies smoking marijuana. Anytime I have been in one of those clubs, there's no question in my mind that those are sick people.

Michael Z. Williamson at KeepAndBearArms.com - Bumper Stickers that Offend: $2 each. Hehe. [kaba]

THE BILL OF RIGHTS WENT TOO FAR. THEY SHOULD HAVE STOPPED WITH "CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW."
THE CONSTITUTION HAS ITS FLAWS, BUT IT'S A DAMN SIGHT BETTER THAN WHAT WE'VE GOT NOW!
WARNING! DRIVER CARRIES NO MORE THAN $20 WORTH OF AMMUNITION
PEOPLE ARE MORE VIOLENTLY OPPOSED TO FUR THAN LEATHER BECAUSE IT'S EASIER TO HARASS RICH WOMEN THAN MOTORCYCLE GANGS

Alan Korwin at KeepAndBearArms.com - The Liberty Poll: A new list of questions for politicians. Mr. Korwin asks us to send it to our local newspapers. There's a more in-depth version here, at bloomfieldpress.com.

5 - Can you name any current areas of government operations that are outside the authority delegated to government?
6 - Can you name areas where government might serve the public interest, but where it has no authority to act? If not, is it still accurate to say we have "government of limited powers"? Does this matter?
...
8 - With regard to jury trials, should judges be required to inform jurors that they have the power, in the sanctity of the jury room, to decide whether a law in question is just, or constitutional? Should schools teach this?
...
The Liberty Poll was developed by attorney Michael P. Anthony, author Alan Korwin and syndicated columnist Vin Suprynowicz.

Wayne Ericksen at KeepAndBearArms.com - Gun Lock Turn In: The Maryland Citizens Defense League will be collecting gun locks at the Takoma Park Folk Festival. Good idea. They can pass laws requiring us to buy them, but they can't make us use them. [kaba]

So, come one, come all, bring your hated and unneeded gun locks to Takoma Park on September 10th, and we will take them to be smelted into ingots for manufacture of new firearms to be raffled off at a later date. A receipt will be given for each lock which is good for one chance in the raffle.
Turning the vile instruments of government control, our shackles, back into swords. Has a nice ring to it, wouldn't you say?

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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