Lever Action
Peter Barrett at LewRockwell.com - Gov. Davis Promises To Enact Physics Regulations - Now that Kalifornia has repealed the laws of economics, they're moving on to physics. Hehe. [lew]
From The Federalist:
"The reason that the Ten Commandments are short and clear is that they were handed down direct, and not through several committees." --Dan Bennett
Also from The Federalist:
"Kennesaw has the lowest crime rate of any city our size in the country." --Mayor Leonard ChurchYou may recall that in 1982, this Georgia town's City Council unanimously passed a law requiring heads of households to possess a firearm to "protect the safety, security and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants." Former City Councilman J. O. Stephenson says that back when the ordinance was passed, "People all over the country said there would be shootings in the street and violence in homes. Of course, that wasn't the case." However, since the ordinance became law, crime has declined 89% in Kennesaw while only declining 10% statewide. According to Robert Jones, president of the Kennesaw Historical Society, "After it initially dropped, it has stayed at the same low level for the past 16 years."
From a list of movie quotes in The Federalist:
"I apologize for the intelligence of my remarks, Sir Thomas. I had forgotten that you were a member of Parliament." --George Sanders in "The Picture of Dorian Gray"
David Butterfield at Politechbot - Humorless Mastercard lawyers threaten rec.humor.funny newsgroup - two years ago rec.humor.funny published an off-color satire of the Mastercard "priceless" ads. Now Mastercard's lawyers are attempting to censor them. Mr. Butterfield sent them an appropriate response. I found the satire hilarious, though I must warn you that it uses the Columbine tragedy in a manner that some would find disgusting. Hence, to see it, you'll have to follow the link in the story.
Lindsay Perigo's Politically Incorrect Show - 9 April 2001 - Mr. Perigo give's God a good talking to. Hehe.
"What the hell have you been playing at?" I would demand. "You get bored one day, start this whole gig off, don't like the way it shapes up even though you know in advance how it'll turn out - so you go & drown everybody & start over. After a while you're still not satisfied, so you send someone down to give us the message again - & you have the poor beggar slung up on a bit of wood for his troubles. Jesus, God, you don't half like seeing people suffer, do you? All those earthquakes & exploding volcanoes & avalanches & floods; all those nasty viruses & plagues - bet you got a hell of a kick from all that, huh? ..."
From kaba:
"That all men are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and free money when unemployed, and free medical care, and a free house with a yard for the kids, and free public transportation, and free education, and a guaranteed well-paying job, and cheap cable TV, and a pension that keeps abreast of inflation, and a steak every Friday, and free basketball hoops, and a new car." -- The Declation of Independence, Liberal Edition.
Charlie Reese at the Orlando Sentinel - Sadly, McVeigh is a typical American in many respects - Timothy McVeigh will soon die for doing the same thing that U.S. government agents do all the time. For some reason, their killings are considered "collateral damage", but his is called an atrocity. My take: what McVeigh did in Oklahoma City was horrible. He should die for it. What federal agents did in Waco and Ruby Ridge was also horrible. They should die for it. As I have said before, I will not let Waco rest until every federal agent on the ground that April 19th and everyone in every chain of command (FBI, BATF, Delta Force, ...), including Janet Reno and William Jefferson Clinton, is tried for crimes against humanity, and until each one found guilty by a jury of twelve is executed, preferably by firing squad. There's no statute of limitations on murder.
I have visited with McVeigh's mother and seen pictures of McVeigh as a boy and as a young soldier. He is, whether we wish to admit it or not, a typical American in many respects. He has absorbed the lessons of modern America.
What are those lessons?
First and foremost, that violence is an acceptable way to settle a dispute. Look how many times the American government has resorted to violence -- in Lebanon, in Libya, in Panama, in Grenada, in Somalia, in Iraq, in Sudan, in Afghanistan, in Yugoslavia. And in Waco, Texas, and Ruby Ridge, Idaho. In every single instance, the deaths of innocent people were dismissed as "collateral damage."
Yet in all those instances, Americans did not profess to be shocked, nor did they refer in hushed, horrified tones to the callousness of the government. In most cases, they cheered the violence. They, too, dismissed the dead children, the dead mothers, the dead fathers as "collateral damage." The U.S. government has killed a million times more civilians than Tim McVeigh, its decorated soldier. And soon it will kill him.
Jim Peron at Laissez Faire City Times - Panic Attack: The Green Scare; Part 2: Dioxin, Death and Deception - explores the hoax of dioxin's carcinogenic risk for humans. It may even be an anti-carcinogen.
There have been no known human deaths due to exposure to dioxin. The health effects of dioxin exposure have been rather limited and seem reversible. The most common problem with high dioxin exposure is a skin condition known as chloracne. Other reported problems have been short-term malaise, sleeplessness, headaches, irritability and nausea.
Michael Chapman at Laissez Faire City Times - Bush and the GOP: They're All Socialists Now - Used to be the GOP railed against socialist programs. Not any more. Now the only difference between the elephants and the donkeys is in the details of how they redistribute our stolen money. [grabbe]
The latest welfare plan cheered by conservative politicians is Bush's Office of Faith-based and Community Initiatives. Yes, some Christian conservative lobbyists have criticized the plan because it might corrupt charities with federal rules. But their remarks miss the point: Bush's initiative is a welfare program and should be opposed as such. Whether the plan will "work" doesn't matter. It is unconstitutional and anti-liberty. Conservatives have no business backing forced charity anymore than they do supporting forced education (public school), forced health care (Medicare and Medicaid) or forced savings (Social Security).
Ed Lewis at KeepAndBearArms.com - Using the tools we have while we still have them - all public officials take an oath of office swearing to uphold the constitution of their jurisdiction. Citizens can use abrogation of this oath as a legal recourse for impeachment. [kaba]
Michael Z. Williamson at KeepAndBearArms.com - It's amazing what one has to believe to believe in gun control... a growing list of things the Brady Bunch appear to believe. [kaba]
That the "right of the people peaceably to assemble," the "right of the people to be secure in their homes," "the enumeration herein of certain rights shall not be construed to disparage others retained by the people," "The powers not delegated herein are reserved to the states respectively, and to the people," refer to individuals, but "the right of the people to keep and bear arms" refers to the states.
That the ready availability of guns today, with only a few government forms, waiting periods, checks, infringements, ID, and fingerprinting, is responsible for all the school shootings, compared to the lack of school shootings in the 1950's and 1960's, which was caused by the awkward availability of guns at any hardware store, gas station, and by mail order.
That private citizens making private sales of private property is a "loophole."
That the same people who build illegal high-tech drug labs for less than $30,000 won't build illegal low-tech gun shops for less than $10,000.
That an 18 year old can handle a machinegun and die defending another nation's oil reserves, thereby being a hero, but an 18 year old who tries to defend his or her child with a gun belongs in jail.
That .50 caliber weapons must be banned in case Americans use them to shoot holes in the armored cars that the government doesn't own and isn't going to send against them.
There's a new article in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:
- "School crisis measures need to stress local input" - The Nevada state legislature is considering a bill to establish emergency response plans in its schools. They're saying they will empower local decisions about the plan, but doing the opposite. Vin reminds them of Israel's solution to this problem.
J. Orlin Grabbe at Laissez Faire City Times - The DSA Flaw in OpenPGP - An explanation and code illustrating the security flaw found recently by two Czech mathematicians. In order to exploit it you need to modify someone's private key file and intercept a signed message from them. Then you need to restore the private key file before someone notices the bad signatures generated by the imposter. [grabbe]
