2001 a Space Odyssey: NYC and Philly

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 07 May 2001 12:00:00 GMT

Early reports from Dana Beal are that the pigs used lots of pepper spray and arrested lots of people at the NYC Million Marijuana March. Apparently most of the violence happenned late in the day. I could find no report at the New York Times or the New York Post. The Village Voice will probably have a story in their next issue, if they behave as they have in previous years.

Dr. Julian Heicklen reported (via email) that things were much different in Philadelphia. They had about 50 protesters there. Dr. Heicklen gave his speech and then smoked a marijuana cigarette. Police, led by a plain clothes officer, arrived at that point, and told the organizer, Emily, that they had no problem with the event, but would stand off to the side in case passers-by caused a problem. He asked Emily to let him know if there were such a problem.

My take: Philadelphia sends peace officers to the event to preserve order. New York sends narco-terrorist pigs to hassle the protesters. Bravo, Philadelphia. Heil Rudy.

New York Daily News via mapinc - 30 Busted at Rally to Smoke Pot - a good account of the New York march. Glad at least one of the NYC papers covered it.

Julian Heicklen - Million Marijuana Speech - the text of the speech that Dr. Heicklen gave in Philadelphia on May 5, 2001.

Prohibitionists oppose re-legalization of marijuana because they think it will send the wrong message. They are wrong. Keeping marijuana illegal sends the wrong message. It is wrong to trample on the Bill of Rights. It is wrong to lie to our children about the danger of drugs. It is disgusting that the government pushes drugs on minors by fostering a black market. It is against God's commandment for children to inform on their parents. It is unconscionable to torture sick people by denying them medicine. It is immoral to arrest people for owning a vegetable. It is a sin against God to take babies away from their mothers.
We are involved in a struggle for the soul of America. The most fundamental of all human rights is the right to your own body. The issue is not marijuana. Marijuana is the messenger, not the message. The issue is whether we will live in freedom or under tyranny. I say choose freedom. The lighted marijuana weed is the torch of freedom. Now I am going to light that torch.

Vin Suprynowicz at the Las Vegas Review Journal - Getting the Drug War that you paid for - Vin reminds us that the latest murder of innocents in the war on freedom, er... some drugs, is just that, the latest murder. There were plenty before it. There will be plenty after it. If you support the war on some drugs, you condone these murders.

Unless you're in favor of legalizing all drugs, right now, then watching Roni Bowers and her baby choke and scream and die in some distant muddy jungle river is exactly what you asked for, what you pay your taxes for, and what you ought to have to watch on videotape every night before you go to sleep.

...

Legalize it. Either that, or stop complaining, and start looking over your shoulder. Because it's your Drug War ... and you could be next.

There's a new issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, Fascopsism.

Letters to the Editor - a few on the supreme court seatbelt law decision. Bill Westmiller says that the cop arrested the lady because she refused to sign the ticket, and that was the issue here. Bill Butson warns us that this will add more fuel to the fire of citizen discontent with the police. Three letters mention that formerly totalitarian Russia is now the free-market leader in space flight. They were willing to sell a trip to the space station to the highest bidder, whereas n.a.s.a fought it tooth and nail. Tom Wright recommends renaming n.a.s.a to n.a.s.s.a., the 'national administration of soviet socialist aerospace'.
What The ??? by Lowell Potter - Mr. Potter lets off some steam about Robert Downey, the murders in Peru, etc. Conclusion: Just say NO to the govvies. Profanity spoken here.
We've become the Soviet f**king Union!

The sad and largely unnoticed truth in our modern world is that the Grand Experiment, ... the land of the free and the home of the brave, the United States of America with liberty and justice for all, ... has followed the likes of penny candy, nickel cigars, sound money, and heroic sports figures down the one way path to total extinction. The Constitution and the Bill of Rights are just a joke to current public officeholders, obsolete laws blithely tossed on the scrap heap, no sooner than the official swears his allegiance to them. The true allegiance of public figures is paid to filthy lucre, opinion polls, and perpetual reelection.

Modern times find us in a de facto United Socialist States of America, where a hungry passel of mini-state bureaucracies orbit slavishly about a huge mega-state, seeking morsels and scraps emanating from the giant's gaping maw ... and, by God, don't you little people get in the way or you'll be crushed!

WJLA TV via Yahoo News - Students Silenced While Singing National Anthem - student winners of a patriotic essay contest were visiting the Washington monument when they spontaneously burst into singing the national anthem. A crowd gathered. When they were almost finished, a national park service ranger told them to stop. "... according to a federal regulation, any time a group of 26 people or more gathers at a national monument and attracts an audience, it is considered a demonstration, which requires a permit." The park service has since apologized. Sounds to me like a good dose of reality for these kids. [unknown]

The Guardian Unlimited Observer - The McVeigh letters: Why I bombed Oklahoma - Timothy McVeigh's reasons for bombing the Murrah building. [unknown]

Al Thompson at Sierra Times - FTB Agents Point Guns At Unarmed Workers - a report of treasonous activities by the Kalifornia Franchise Tax Board against a business for refusal to withhold taxes. [unknown]

Just as one would expect from Nazi Germany during World War II, California tax "authorities" (Franchise Tax Board) drew their weapons and held them on innocent workers' heads at NTD Electronics of Huntington Beach, California, on May 2rd, 2001. NTD is owned by George and Trina Jesson. The workers were then held at gunpoint and were not allowed to leave or use the bathroom for an extended period of time. Mrs. Jesson also had a gun held to her head. Apparently, a lady who is 4' 9" who weighs only 90 lbs. is somehow a threat to them.

Joel Spolsky - What is the Work of Dogs in this Country? Joel skewers the "dot coma" madness, reminds us that we have lots to be thankful for in America, and tells us why we should remember to eat our own dog food before shipping a product.

Janos is the Java-oriented Active Network Operating System, an open source Java VM "oriented to executing untrusted Java bytecode". [wes]

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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