Dr. No Does It Again

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 16 May 2001 12:00:00 GMT

From The Federalist:

In dealing with the State, we ought to remember that its institutions are not aboriginal, though they existed before we were born: that they are not superior to the citizen: that every one of them was once the act of a single man: every law and usage was a man's expedient to meet a particular case: that they all are imitable, all alterable; we may make as good; we may make better. --Ralph Waldo Emerson

And:

Lot of folks can't understand why we have an oil shortage in the USA. The reason for this is purely geographical. The oil is in Alaska, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, Wyoming, etc. -- and the dipsticks are in Washington, D.C.

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - The Deepening United Nations Quagmire - Ron Paul continues to push for defunding the commU.N.ists.

The UN unquestionably intends to exert more and more control over both our foreign and domestic policy. The UN wants to tax us, involve us in wars, determine our labor, environmental, and gun policies, and subject us to the jurisdiction of its courts. We cannot ignore this threat to our national sovereignty any longer. Congress must be held accountable whenever it unconstitutionally cedes more of its authority and our freedom to global bureaucrats.

H.R.1762, the "Second Amendment Protection Act of 2001", was introduced by Ron Paul on May 8. If you like to bug your congress critter, urge him/her to cosponsor this bill. It's a good start in ridding the federal code of unconstitutional gun laws. The two major parts of this bill are repeal of Public Law 103-159: H.R.1025, aka the Brady Bill, and repeal of Title XI of Public Law 103-322: H.R.3355 (click on the link and search for "title xi"), the 1994 "assault weapons" ban.

This is the first time I've looked up a public law on Thomas, so I'll relate the experience. There's a link to Public Laws by Law Number on the Thomas home page. This link will change with each new congress, so it's best to get it from the home page. You can find public laws since 1973. Before that, you probably need to find a book in a library. The laws are numbered with the congress number before the dash and the law number within that congress after the dash. There is a page for each congress number. It links to pages each of which contains a range of law numbers. The entry for each law links to the bill summary page, back on terra cognita.

For example, to look up the Brady Bill, public law 103-159, go to the Thomas home page, click on Public Laws By Law Number, Select congress number 103, the digits before the dash in the law number, click on the link for laws 103-151 - 103-200, and find number 159 in the list.

New York's republican governor, George Pataki, has turned into a statist liberal of late. I saw him on Bryant Gumbel's show yesterday morning while walking on the treadmill at the health club. I sent the following to the editor of the Albany Times Union:

A Message for Governor Pataki

George, I heard you on morning television touting the wonders of your new cell-phone prohibition law. George, this law is bunk. The state has no right to say anything about what I do in my car. If I drive unsafely for any reason, fine, pull me over. But some people drive better with their knee while talking on the phone and eating a hamburger than others do in silence with both hands planted firmly on the wheel. One size does not fit all.

This law is almost as stupid as calling an increase in marijuana penalties "reform".

But what really takes the cake is your push for sensible gun confiscation laws. Yeah, I know we're not there yet. But admit it George, that's what your new buddies Hillary and Chuckie really want. Read your history, George. Gun confiscation leads to genocide. It can happen here.

You, sir, are no longer serving the people who elected you. Hope you weren't planning on another term as governor. You've blown that chance big time.

Brad Edmonds at LewRockwell.com - Why You Need Guns: The Bottom Line - Mr. Edmonds backs up my genocide claim with hard numbers. [market]

And governments around the world proved throughout the 20th century that once the citizenry is disarmed, the governments might simply kill, en masse, to get what they want. Here are a few reminders:

1915-1917, Turkey, over 1 million Armenians
1929-1953, USSR, 20 million who didn't agree with the government
1933-1945, Germany, 13 million Jews and others
1949-1976, China, 20 million who didn't agree with the government
1955-today, The Sudan, 2 million mostly Christians
1960-1981, Guatemala, 100,000 Maya
1971-1979, Uganda, 300,000 Christians and political rivals
1975-1979, Cambodia, 1 million educated persons
What all these holocausts have in common is that they began after the victims' guns were taken away.

John J. Yova-Pagoda of the Thomas Paine Project at the Albany Times Union - War on drugs to blame for deaths of innocents - good letter on the recent drug-induced murders in Peru.

Make no mistake about it, our war on drugs is solely responsible for adding the names of 35-year-old Veronica Bowers and 7-month-old Charity Bowers to the long list of collateral damage that has resulted from another unholy crusade to legislate morality. It is the same policy that has decimated our individual liberties contained in the Bill of Rights and produced a prison-industrial complex that is second to none now that our incarcerated population exceeds the gulags of the evil empire.

Bill Masters at the Denver Post - Time to change strategies - The Libertarian sherriff of San Meguel County (Telluride), Colorado, reports on the latest "collateral damage" in the war on freedom, er... some drugs. [market]

We shouldn't be surprised that this occurred. Mad as hell maybe, but not surprised. After all, we are in a war, a war on drugs. And during times of war innocent people get in the way.

...

We shut off the cocaine supply, then some people start cooking meth in their homes. We stop the meth and many will get high on Ecstasy, booze, the doctor's pills or whatever. Controlling the drug supply is like holding water in a fist, it just leaks out and goes on to something else.

Marihemp is an interesting looking place.

Declan McCullagh at Wired - Online Cincy Cop Threats Probed - Proff daddy's assassination politics threats at the Ohio Valley IMC hit Wired.

Libertarian Party Press Release - Supreme Court on medical marijuana: AIDS & cancer patients can drop dead - I haven't linked to a story about it until now, but you've probably heard that the supremes have declared that nobody's opinion but congress'es matters on cannabis. Someone really needs to challenge the constitutionality of all federal drug laws. I don't think that's ever been ruled on.

There is already legislation to overturn this Supreme Court ruling. The bill, HR 1344 (The States' Right to Medical Marijuana Act) was filed by U.S. Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), and would change federal law to allow doctors to prescribe medical marijuana if the state allows it, without the threat of federal prosecution. The bill would also reclassify marijuana as a Schedule II drug under federal law, which would formally acknowledge the drug's potential "medical utility."

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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