Cato on Waco

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 12 Apr 2001 12:00:00 GMT

Someone Should Start Laughing

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

How are you?

I have a thousand brilliant lies
For the question:

What is God?

If you think that the Truth can be known
From words,

If you think that the Sun and the Ocean

Can pass through that tiny opening
Called a mouth,

O someone should start laughing!

Someone should start wildly Laughing --
Now!

(I Heard God Laughing - renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

An interesting response to the Chinese [pournelle]:

How many kilotons of apology did you want? -- Jerry Pournelle

Dr. Pournelle also has an amusing photo (58K) that he thinks beats his quote above. Hehe.

Hack the Planet has a new logo, thanks to Wes'es brother Scott.

Daniel Kagan of UPI via Virtual New York - Cato Blasts Danforth Waco Report - Concerning a Cato Institute report on Waco, No Confidence: An Unofficial Account of the Waco Incident by Timothy Lynch. I'm glad that Cato is keeping this alive. Everyone is making noise about the Oklahoma City bombing. How come the press ignores Waco? [unknown]

More seriously, he [Lynch] says, fbi agents exhibited a gross disregard for human life when they indiscriminately fired "ferret" rounds at the Davidian residence and used tanks to ram its walls. "Since at least one child was struck by a ferret round, second-degree murder charges may be appropriate," Lynch writes.

Mr. Lynch'es report includes a detailed timeline of events. Then he goes on the identify crimes committed at Waco using only publically available evidence. These crimes include:

assault, battery, and attempted theft by atf agents against Don Mulloney, a TV cameraman
lying to a federal official by atf agents against Texas Rangers deputized as u.s. marshals (a felony)
second degree murder or at least reckless endangerment for indiscriminate firing of ferret rounds into the building
second degree murder or at least reckless endangerment for driving tanks through the building walls
murder and reckless endangerment for firing from helicopters into the building
murder for firing on the Branch Davidians fleeing the fire
obstruction of justice by the fbi for withholding evidence

Mr. Lynch'es conclusion:

Because numerous crimes at Waco have gone unpunished, the people serving in our federal police agencies may well come to the conclusion that it is permissible to recklessly endanger the lives of innocent people, lie to newspapers, obstruct congressional subpoenas, and give misleading testimony in our courtrooms. If such activity becomes more common than it is today, those agencies will surely become lawless and unaccountable. The only way to counter that danger is for the American people to distrust government officials, limit their powers, and demand accountability. In 1997 fbi director Louis Freeh told Congress, "We are potentially the most dangerous agency in the country if we are not scrutinized carefully." The carnage at Waco is grisly testament to that.

Rabbi R. Mermelstein at Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership - Redefining Hypocrisy and Chutzpah - JPFO was all set to hold a Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, event at the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Granada Hills, in a suburb of North Los Angeles. They chose this site because it was where a white supremecist fired 60 or 70 rounds into a room full of children back in August of 1999. They were going to use the day to stress the importance of armed resistance to crazies. They had a signed contract and had paid the rent and obtained liability insurance. The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles then cancelled the event. JPFO requests that you "convey your warm and fuzzy sentiments" to them, via snail mail or telephone since they have no email address. [jpfo]

Chutzpah, or peerless audacity, was once jokingly defined as a child who murders his parents while they sleep and then throws himself on the court's mercy since he is an orphan. The Jewish Federation of Los Angeles has outdone that joke by light years. Only this isn't a joke.

I used the note field on the pledge page, along with a pledge of one cent (it wouldn't accept zero) to send them this message:

It was a really bad idea to deny Rabbi Mermelstein's Yom HaShoah event at the North Valley Jewish Community Center, especially after a contract had been signed and money had been paid. Supporting the Million Mortified Moms instead of rational self-defense is a sure path to a new American holocaust.

John Reynolds at Etherzone - Facing Down Red China for Dummies; from the "How Do You Do That?" Book Series - a good reminder that China is NOT our friend, not even close. The rest of his article is fairly typical statist tough guy rhetoric, pretty ludicrous from the perspective of an anarchist like me, but if you're gonna believe in government, this seems like a reasonable way to let the commies know we mean business. America is going downhill, but is still a far sight freer than China.

The Soviet Union is no more. But the Russians are alive and well, and the former Communist elite in that country still have their hands on the levers of power, as witnessed by former KGB agent Vladimir Putin who just happens to be President of Russia. Remember that wounded bears are the most dangerous.
Red China however, is still a 100 percent Communist nation, with state control over the economy, the press, the exercise of religion, freedom of expression, and all of the freedoms that we take for granted in America. Red China is a fascist state, with an abominable record on human rights, and their behavior shows little sign of that changing substantially. The leadership of Red China is composed of old men who still embrace the theories of Marx and Lenin, and they recognize that they alone are the holders of the ideological torch which has brought about the deaths of millions upon millions of innocent men, women and children since the day that Communism first took reared it's despicable head in 1917. They have no intention of permitting any kind of Chinese "perestroika" or "glasnost" to take place.

Connectix Virtual PC for Windows allows you to run multiple operating systems on a single machine at the same time. They don't say whether it'll run Linux, as does VMWare. I couldn't find a price on their web site. [wes]

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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