Orange and Electric Blue

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 23 Jun 2001 12:00:00 GMT

Mismatched Newlyweds

Like

A pair

Of mismatched newlyweds,

One of whom still feels very insecure,

I keep turning to God

Saying,

"Kiss

Me."

(The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, translations by Daniel Ladinsky)

I found this guy yesterday morning in the dish rack. He didn't appear dead at the time, only sleeping. I saw him breathe. I asked Zotz (a Baker House comrade) what breed he is. She responded without even looking at the picture that he's probably a ctenucha moth, likely Ctenucha virginiensis. Looks like it to me from other pictures on the web. He's a little smaller than a quarter. The macro mode on my FujiFilm MX-1700 does an OK, but not stellar, job of getting closer. This one is also a bit blurry because I don't have a tripod, and I had to turn off the flash to see his electric-blue body. With the flash it appeared black. I took flash pictures of his top and bottom. Click on the image below for a larger version.

Richard Stenger at CNN - Total solar eclipse awes onlookers in Africa - Good still photos and a boring video of yesterday's solar spectacle.

I installed Suse Linux 6.4 under VMWare last night. It's an old version, but a ready-to-run disk image came with the CDs I got when I paid for VMWare, so I tried it. I wanna see KDE 2.x. Gotta get a newer Linux. brianf has the newest RedHat 7.x. Time to nudge him to make me a copy... It still amazes me to see Linux running in a Window on my Windoze 2000 system. And it's more responsive than the "native" apps. Hehe.

From The Federalist:

"Government programs to help families led to regulations that broke them apart and destroyed them. Government programs to help people become more sufficient led to rules that destroyed their incentives to work. Government attempts to help children have so damaged the family structure that millions of children no longer live in families where mothers and fathers can work together as God intended for their true welfare. But let us leave aside the undeniable fact that secular government assistance has meant material harm to millions. The real problem has not been that misguided people have mishandled government power. The real problem is that the work of God cannot be accomplished where the motive of serving God is systematically forbidden. But this has been the case in helping programs that have been scoured free of the name of God according to the corrupt notion of separation of government and morality." -- Alan Keyes

and:

"In the past quarter century, activists have gone from predicting an Ice Age because of 'greenhouse gases' to climate-changing global 'warming' caused by the exact same gasses. Go figure." -- Washington Times

Sideshow Toy - Month Python and the Holy Grail 12" Figures - $150 for a set of five. [brad]

These 12" figures are based on the characters from the Monty Python comedy 'The Holy Grail.' They have over 20 points of articulation and come with themed accessories which include chainmail outfits, shields and weapons. These figures contain sharp points and small parts and are recommended for ages 5 and up.

There's a new article in The Libertarian series by Vin Suprynowicz:

Where all the presidents are above average - Nevada "University and Community College System Chancellor Jane Nichols last week recommended the regents award 'merit' pay increases to every eligible college president in the system." Vin opines that college presidents in Nevada are like children in Lake Wobegone.

H.R. 1146 - The American Sovereignty Restoration Act of 2001: Summary - A short description of why we need Ron Paul's H.R.1146, which withdraws America from the United Nations and kicks them out of New York City. Includes a link to a treatise by Herbert W. Titus, which I did not read.

The Charter of the United Nations is commonly assumed to be a treaty. It is not. Instead, the Charter of the United Nations is a constitution. As such, it is illegitimate, having created a supranational government, deriving its powers not from the consent of the governed (the people of the United States and peoples of other member nations) but from the consent of the peoples' government officials who have no authority to bind either the American people nor any other nation's people to any terms of the Charter of the United Nations.

The same could be said about the United States Constitution. I don't remember agreeing to it, do you? Though I believe we'd be better off with no government whatsoever, I would be willing to settle for a government that stayed strictly within the bounds of the U.S. constitution, interpreted literally. This means that they would have no right to say anything whatsoever about anything not explicitly allowed. 99% of the U.S. code would be thrown out as unconstitional. "No law" and "shall not be infringed" in the first and second amendments, respectively, mean exactly what they say. There is no room for interpretation.

Tibor R. Machan at Laissez Faire City Times - Democratic Frustrations - why property works better than democracy. Remember, kids, democracy is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to eat for dinner.

Russell Madden at Laissez Faire City Times - Of Parasites and Hosts: Repairman Jack is Back - a review of F. Paul Wilson's novel, Hosts, available from Gauntlet Press.

"How could I not [get involved]? If he'd [the purse snatcher] taken off the other way I wouldn't have run after him, but he was passing right in front of us. To let him sail by would be . . . like . . ." He seemed to be searching for words. "It would make me into an accomplice — an accomplice in rolling a little old lady. Uh-uh." (p. 181)

In other words, if every person simply dealt with the problems directly in front of him, there would be no need for broad "social" solutions and innumerable laws and regulations stealing our money and forcing us down mandated pathways. If every person accepted responsibility for his own life and, as it were, picked up the litter in his own yard, there would be no need for anti-littering laws.

...

". . . I'm not PC and I'm not liberal — I'm not conservative or Democrat or Republican either. I operate on one principle: you own your own life, and that means you're free to do anything you want with that life so long as you don't interfere with other people's freedom to live their lives. It means you own your own body and you can do anything you want — pierce it, fill it with drugs, set it on fire — your call. Same with sex. As long as there's no force involved it's none of my business how you get off. I don't have to approve of it because it's not my life, it's yours. I don't have to understand, either . . . ." (p. 151)

JBuilder 5 is available for purchase from Borland. $3,000 for enterprise, $1,000 for professional, $100 for personal. You can't yet download the free version, but that will likely come soon. I haven't used JBuilder in a long time. I now edit code with Emacs and compile with Ant.

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Previous Posts:
Where all the presidents are above average
Fourth issue of "P.A." is in the mail
Summer Solstice, 2001
FreeAmp Rocks!
Budget-cutting as political drama
The Melonheaded Snipe
High court OKs after-hours religious club
The saga of The Moose's Tooth
Peter McWilliams: American Hero
Legalize Heroin

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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