End the War on Freedom

Well, fancy giving money to the government
Might as well put it down the drain
Fancy giving money to the government
Nobody will ever see the stuff again
Well, they've no idea what money's for
Ten to one they'll start another war
I've heard of a lot of silly things, but Lord
Fancy giving money to the government!

Sir Alan Patrick Herbert

Amber Kronberg - Saturday, March 10, 2001: A really nice piece on tolerance. I second her opinion. If you don't like what you read here, don't come back. [amber]

Reuters via Marijuana News - We Are Winning! Switzerland to Surpass the Dutch and Allow Not Only Use and Sales -- But Also Cultivation. Major Impact On Germany and the Rest of Europe: On Friday, the Swiss government endorsed a draft law that instructs police to ignore the growing, selling, and use of small amounts of cannabis. Very good news. Richard Cowan thinks that we probably won't see any hint of this story in the mainstream press, even though they'll all get it on their Reuters newswire. [mjn]

Bryan Caplan at George Mason University - Assorted Writings on Political Theory: lots of anarchist writings including an Anarchist Theory FAQ. These will give me something to chew on for a while. Includes a picture of Lysander Spooner and an absolutely horrid background that makes it almost impossible to read. Fortunately, the background is only on the index page, not on the articles themselves.

Unspeakably Stupid Stories - # 11: School of Psychedelics: one man's story of a day on acid at a high school in the seventies. Hehe. [randomonium]

democrats.com - Decoding Bushspeak: The Start of a Republican-to-English Dictionary: a crock, but a very funny crock. [brianf]

Wayne Laugesen at CCOPS - The Thin Blurry Line; When Cops And Soldiers Are One-And-The-Same: an article that appeared in the March 1999 issue of Soldier of Fortune magazine. Still as relevant as ever. Police are supposed to respond to citizen requests and assume that everyone involved is innocent until proven guilty. Soldiers are characterized by a poster I saw in the seventies: "Join the Marines, travel to exotic lands, meet interesting people and kill them." A policeman's job is to preserve the peace. A soldier's job is to kill the enemy. Well, it used to be that way. [ccops]

"Once the military is used for local police activity, however minor initially, the march toward martial law with centralized police using military troops as an adjunct force becomes irresistible," said Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, addressing the United States Congress.

History is replete with stories of governments and societies toppling in the wake of martial law. When the Mexican Govern-ment ignored the Mexican Constitution in the 1830s and used military to enforce civil law in Texas, the Texas settlers would have no part of it. Their objection and resistance to military policing led to the Battle of San Jacinto. Military law in the colonies led to a similar result, and an oppressed citizenry overthrew its government. The reign of Hitler began with a mixing of police and military roles.

...

In the old days, suspected crimes at Ruby Ridge and the Waco compound would have been local problems for a county mountie to solve.

...

In the Sesame Street world, a policeman would have knocked on the door at Mount Carmel and handcuffed Mr. Koresh for the welfare of the children and society. Mr. Koresh would have been charged with a crime, tried and imprisoned if found guilty. Under militarization, federal police identified a target (Mount Carmel) and an enemy (Koresh and his adult followers) and planned a strategic attack -- a small-scale imitation of military soldiers protecting American sovereignty from a foreign enemy. When it was over, most who were part of the enemy group died, and the attack was akin to a military success. Had it been an actual military function, on foreign turf, there would have been ticker tape parades.

...

"There's an unsettling trend among police to view demonstrations as crime scenes," says [Attorney Dennis] Blewitt. "Police are beginning to view crowds of demonstrators as enemies of the state, to be controlled, rather than groups of people exercising their constitutional right of demonstration the police should be working to uphold."

Richard Perron at Frugal Squirrel - The Survival Bible: Looks very practical.

Dwight Moore at the Albany Times-Union - Estate tax is robbery by another name: Well said:

A mortician who pilfers the valuables (wedding rings, jewelry, etc.) of a corpse before burying the body is called a felon. Another person who pilfers the bank accounts of that same person after they have been buried is called -- a Democrat.

Stop the looting. End the death tax.

David Bronner at Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps - Letter to the Drug Czar: This is a couple of years old, but still relevant, unfortunately. Dr. Bronner's had just started using hemp oil in their soaps. Mr. Bronner sent a sample of the newly formulated peppermint pure castile liquid, which contains hemp oil, and an edition of happi magazine, a cosmetics industry rag. Apparently hemp oil was all the rage back in the summer of 1999. Mr. Bronner expected to use about 4000 gallons of hemp oil in the next twelve months, and asked McCaffrey to make it possible for him to have a domestic supply. Their Social Responsibility page extols the virtues of hemp, including lots of links. I'll include a quote of what I always remember from the Peppermint Soap Label (PDF):

For we're ALL-ONE OR NONE! ALL-ONE! "listen children eternal father eternally one!" EXCEPTIONS ETERNALLY? ABSOLUTE NONE!

...

So, help teach the whole Human race, the Moral ABC's All-One-God-Faith, lightning-like, for we're All-One or none! All-One!!

HempEmbargo.com has info about the DEA's proposed rules to stop any amount of THC from entering the human body except via government approved drug treatment. This will decimate the hemp industry. Includes the text of the proposed regulations. I had forgotten about this latest bit of treachery on the part of the DEA. May they roast in the hell of their own making (the only kind there is). A colation of hemp product companies sent a letter to the DEA on 16 February, 29 pages of reasoned analysis. Haven't they figured out yet that reasoning with a drug warrior is like reasoning with a rabid dog? The only way to reason with a rabid dog is via a bullet to the head. Unfortunately, it ain't that easy here. Still, talking directly to the drug warriors is a waste of time, unless like me you just like playing with their minds. We've got to convince a mass of the population that the drug warriors are dangerous criminals, that they must be shunned. Don't sell them anything. Don't rent them hotel rooms. Don't give them directions. Don't tell them anything about anyone. This tactic is working fairly well in the west against federal agents there.

There's a new issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, Ides of Millennium:

• Lessons Learned by Minority Mike - sound-bites on MIke's 51st birthday. Happy birthday, Mike!

  Lincoln didn't free the slaves, he created them. We are their descendants.

  I am not ashamed of my tour in Viet Nam. I am ashamed that I believed in the government that sent me there. I learned from it though, and, should they come for my son, I'll personally see that he gets to Canada. For this I am saddened.

• Letter from Roy J. Tellason - Some evidence that Microsoft is amassing a database of illegally installed software. The ax will probably fall by 2005, meaning that by then you'll be arrested any time you install something illegally. Big Brother is watching.
• Letter from E.J. Totty: Big Brother is listening, too:

  Not mentioned here, but of significant interest, in that it was discussed on the net back around 1994 or so, is that all new telephones which are made by AT&T or any of its subsidiaries, have been made to allow phone conversations be eves dropped even with the phone on the hook. The necessary circuitry was mandated -- if I recall correctly -- by a proposed federal law, to be a part of all new phones, so as to allow the feds to tap any phone at will and listen-in to room conversations, without the phone even ringing. Whether that was signed into law remains to be seen, but AT&T took the measure of making sure its phones were already in 'conformance' to the proposed law.

Lindsay Perigo's Politically Incorrect Show - 1 March 2001: a letter from a citizen to the minister of police after said minister expressed his horror that some citizens were using the internet to gamble. Mr. Perigo gave the writer the Free Radical Award.

Java 3DFly Through is a demo application from Sun for Java 3D. I haven't tried it yet, but probably will soon. [cafe]

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