000914.html

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 14 Sep 2000 12:00:00 GMT

From my old high-school buddy now living in Laramie, Wyoming:

Never underestimate the power of stupid people working together in large numbers.

Thanks to Sean Hackbarth for the get well wishes. Enjoy John Taylor Gatto's newest book, Sean. I haven't read any of Mr. Gatto's books, but he makes occasional appearances in The Sun, and I enjoy every one. [mind]

My energy is better today, but I still have a sore throat and low fever. Ate two extra strength Tylenol before bed. Very nice. I rarely take pain killers, so this was a luxury. I'm seeing what it's like to be vertical for a while before I decide whether to go in to work.

Jonathan Amos at BBC News - Arthur C Clarke demands cold fusion rethink: Sir Clarke thinks we should take a more serious look at cold fusion. He thinks that the results from some of the folks who've been tinkering with it since its discovery in 1989 have seen results that need explaining. [latte]

Sir Arthur also said he believed we were entering the Carbon Age. He prophesised that the discovery of molecules like C60 - the soccer ball-shaped cage of carbon atoms - would lead to extraordinary new materials.
"We will soon have materials a hundred times stronger than any metal and perhaps weighing no more than ordinary plastics," he said.
"Their impact on every aspect of life will be enormous: buildings that are kilometres high, and land, sea and air vehicles that are only a fraction of their present weight."

Declan McCullagh and Nicholas Morehead at Wired - Reno Talks Tough on Piracy: Now she wants to crack down on organized criminals pirating software. She's comparing this to drug trafficking, money laundering, and gun-running, none of which are crimes in my book. I'm still undecided on the intellectual property stuff, though Galambos may convince me. Still, as a practical matter, you can't stop the copying of bits, so why bother. Honest people are gonna pay for them. Most of the ones who are willing to buy from pirates wouldn't pay the real price anyway. Unlike with atoms, where piracy involves taking something from someone who now no longer has it, copying bits doesn't take them from anyone. The free software guys have the right idea. Sell consulting. Sell support. The bits are gonna be free whether you like it or not. [faisal]

Dana Blankenhorm at ClickZ Network - Intent and the Web: a perspective on Judge Kaplan's ruling that I haven't seen before. "Under the rule of intent, speech that is otherwise legal can be declared illegal if a judge looks inside your mind and doesn't like what he or she sees." Attacking hackers is easy because they won't bring first amendment lawyers to bear on the problem and declare DMCA and NETA unconstitutional. NETA is the No Electronic Theft Act (H.R.2265, 105th congress). Today is the first I've heard of it, in two places. It was signed into law in December of 1997 after passing both houses of congress on a voice vote. This one doesn't seem nearly as bad as DMCA to me. Contrary to the quote below, I don't see anywhere there a 3 year sentence for having a single MP3 file on your disk; it requires 10 copies to become a felony. Under NETA, that one copy IS a misdemeanor, however, up to 1 year in jail. The copying also has to be proved to be "willful", whatever that means. It probably means in effect that if you plead innocent, it was willful. [faisal]

Hollywood's lobbyists anticipated what the Internet might do to copyright, however, and pushed for NETA and the DMCA. Under NETA, you can be held in jail for up to three years if your computer holds an "illegal" Britney Spears MP3 file (and since her publisher hasn't issued any legal ones, this means any Spears MP3). Under the DMCA, writing or distributing any software injurious to copyright becomes actionable in civil court and so, under Kaplan's test, does reporting on it if you support the software author.
...
Together NETA and the DMCA placed the stiffest straightjacket on free speech since the heyday of Joe McCarthy and the House UnAmerican Activities Committee (HUAC). The difference is that while the HUAC "exposed" Communists (or fellow travelers) and used the pressure of hearings to keep them from working, the idea of "illegal software" has been written into our law.

Marcus Kabel of Reuters via Yahoo News - Wen Ho Lee Freed Amid Apologies From Judge: I saw this on the telly last night. They got him to plead guilty to one felony charge and dropped all the rest. The judge blasted the prosecutor, and apologized to Mr. Lee for holding him in solitary confinement. The outstanding question is that since Mr. Lee didn't pass these secrets to the Chinese, who did? Personally, I think the questioning should begin with algore. He allegedly took their money. He probably knows where to start in finding out who clinched the other side of the deal. [faisal]

Joel Miller at WorldNetDaily - Subtracting the Fourth Amendment, part II: A good piece on the drug war exceptions to the fourth amendment. Retells the story of the murder by police of Donald Scott. We've gotta start prosecuting police for assault and murder when they act without a properly obtained search warrant. I don't care if they're looking for Jack the Ripper. Out of control police are way worse than no police. [picks]

Like many lessons taught by our founding fathers, however, "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures," is something we have forgotten in this drug-war induced haze in which we live.
...
The frightening aspect here is that in the 15 years between 1980 to 1995, the number of federal search warrants granted on the basis of evidence from unidentified informants skyrocketed from 24 percent to 71 percent. It doesn't take Sherlock Holmes to figure out that any number of these unidentified informants could be entirely fictional. Of 50 judges in Alabama, Georgia and Tennessee, notes James Bovard, not one had ever required an officer to produce an informant. For all we know these officers could be moonlighting as creative writing instructors teaching classes on short fiction.
...
"Nothing," once said Milton Friedman, "scares me about the notion of drugs being legal. ... What scares me is the notion of continuing on the path we're on now, which will destroy our free society."

Well, I seem to be staying vertical without horrible consequences. It's time to get in the car for my hour's drive to work.

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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