Oink for Liberty
Television - a medium. So called because it is neither rare nor well-done. -- Ernie Kovaks
Alwin Hawkins at ViewFromTheHeart - The Space Between - Mr. Hawkins comments today about his relationship with alcohol, and concludes that he is not an addict. I hope he's correct. I, on the other hand, have definite addictive tendencies. Fortunately, I've burned out my attraction to most of the things I once needed. But I still eat too much sugar, and I still have to go cold turkey on coffee a few times a year. I'm currently in the one or two cups a day phase. This part is not too bad. In a month or two, I'll be having one or two cups in the morning and another one or two in the afternoon. That will be unsustainable, and I'll go cold turkey and start the cycle again. All-in-all, it seems to be working for me, but my wife doesn't like it. I often get ornery during coffee withdrawal. Babuji wrote that a person needs two attachments to remain incarnate, one physical and one mental. His attachments were his hookah and his mission. I'm nowhere near down to just two attachments, but it's nice to know that you can't get rid of all of them and stay alive.
Tim Doulin at The Columbus Dispatch - Man's journal ruled obscene - write in your journal, go to jail. It appears that Brian Dalton's writing was extremely deranged, but it was a work of fiction and was never shown to anyone else until his probation officer found it "in a routine search" of his home. So now they've imprisoned him for ten years. I have a little fantasy of my own. I think that each person involved in jailing Mr. Dalton should be locked naked in a small room with a hungry tiger. I'm not serious, of course, but that's how angry I am about this. [unknown]
One man hungers. A nation prays. As America watches - While the rest of us were watching fireworks and pontificating on current events, Bob Schulz and Roland Croteau have been in a trailer near the Washington Monument, fasting. Mr. Schulz began his fast on July first. I don't know when Mr. Croteua joined him. Mr Schulz intends that the fast "will continue until he dies or until IRS Commissioner Charles O. Rossotti delivers to him a list of the government's experts who will meet in a public forum on September 18, 2001, at the National Press Club in Washington DC, with tax law researchers from the tax honesty movement, to argue against the conclusions of those researchers." Guess what? The federal income tax is unlawful, for many reasons. And the people who administer it refuse to discuss it. Daily status reports on the fast are here. [sasny]
L. Neil Smith - The Fifth of July - L. Neil reminds us of simpler times not too long ago, when setting off firecrackers caused no socialists to wet themselves. I, too, remember those times. When a kid could walk or ride his bike to the local fireworks stand, buy a bunch of black cats, and blow things up in the back yard. And nobody thought there was anything odd about it. Kids nowadays aren't allowed to do much of anything, except waste twelve years of their lives in government indoctrination centers. And now they've started on the adults. L. Neil calls for a symbolic place to begin to take back our liberties: the repeal of all laws against the possession and use of fireworks. He tells about a custom called "anvil shooting" complete with a link to pictures and instructions. These excerpts don't do the essay justice. Click above. Read. Enjoy. [ken]
Every year, the sorry suckups on radio and TV inform us that this year (as opposed to last year and possibly next year, once the facts have been officially made up and released) X number of miscreants were arrested for illegal possession and deployment of 14th century Asian technology. Sometimes the number of arrests is higher than last year, and we receive a collective tongue-lashing. Other times, the number they've been ordered to use is smaller, and they condescendingly praise us for humbly kneeling to gratefully accept the Clintonian insertion.
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In an era when small, helpless schoolchildren are routinely bludgeoned by their principal and teachers, tear-gassed, wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and bellychained, and frogmarched off to the Bastille in a Black Maria for having drawn pictures of knives on paper, I know that all of this must seem insane to the bleeding-heart, bedwetting, afraid-of-every-known-phenomenon socialists who call themselves liberals and stumbled onto this website by some terrible accident. But while you're here, let me tell you more about those times.
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These laws must be repealed, nullified, or otherwise disposed of. But don't look for any help from Republicans. The only thing that conservatives can be trusted to do, once liberals have shoved their metaphorical umbrella up our collective posterior, is to open it for them.
To solve this and a thousand other American problems permanently, however, it would be best to rely upon Cato the Elder's policy toward Carthage: the public schools must be razed to the ground, so that not one stone is left standing on another, and salt sown on the ruins.
L. Neil Smith - The Mitzvah Movie - A screenplay of The Mitzvah has been completed, and an independent film producer has been found to turn it into a movie. Now all they need is $2,000,000. They're looking for investors and contributors.
Garry Reed, The Loose Cannon Libertarian - Is the Supreme Court All Thumbs? - Mr. Reed thought the Supreme Court was supposed overturn unconstitutional laws, not rubberstamp tyranical behavior. I though so too, once upon a time.
So what can libertarians do? For starters, we do what freedom-lovers have always done. Civil disobedience. People helped slaves escape to freedom in spite of the fugitive slave laws. Jurors refuse to convict defendants who break stupid laws. Witnesses turn deaf and dumb when cops come looking for violators of victimless crimes.Unfortunately, this is the last article we'll see by Mr. Reed at NewsGuy (from his article announcement email):
Now for that bad news I mentioned at the top. The Loose Cannon Libertarian has fired its last salvo. The muzzle has been spiked. Newsguy.com has decided to cancel their entire stable of writers and go in a different direction. So the current article now online at their site will be the last. It will remain until 7/15/01, along with the archived articles, then disappear forever. Unless, of course, any of you out there know of anyone in the market for an experienced libertarian columnist. I had so much fun doing this that I've been writing articles faster than Newsguy could post them. I have eight articles already written with nowhere to go. Thank you all for your great support. I hope to see you again somewhere on the barricades!
Bob Murphy at anti-state.com - Reese Redux - Mr. Murphy comments, from his anarchist perspective, on Charley Reese's recent article, I believe in freedom but not libertarians. [lew]
As a final preliminary, let me once again stress that it is not Reese whom I hate—he's got balls for openly supporting the Confederacy. I just hate his occasionally bullshit stances and the haughtiness that often comes with age, whereby anyone who disagrees with him must be either ignorant or immoral. But enough small talk...on to the rematch.
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In his first sentence, Reese acknowledges that you can have rights without a government; the only issue is, whether those rights will be enforced in the absence of it. (E.g. a dude getting mugged has not forfeited his rights, but merely had them violated.) Clearly, if everyone were a nice guy like me, everyone's rights would be respected with no threat of third-party punishment. But Reese is certainly correct that some such threat is necessary to keep people in line. I haven't the space to do so here, but plenty of sensible arguments for stateless provision of police and judicial services have been advocated. (Some of the best are in Murray Rothbard's For a New Liberty and Linda and Morris Tannehill's The Market for Liberty. Why don't you stop surfing the Net for once and go read a book?)
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In theory, there is no way to justify the State. In practice, there has never been a State that didn't eventually oppress its people. Only by ignoring logic and history can one advocate government. Now, once we get to that lovely, stateless society, we can argue about duty to neighbors and family. But first things first. Let's abolish the greatest threat to civil society: government.
Jeff Elkins at LewRockwell.com - Charley Reese: Paleo-libertarian - Mr. Reese claims that he's a conservative, not a libertarian. Mr. Elkins thinks otherwise. Charley plans to retire from the Orlando Sentinel. Fortunately, he also plans to continue writing columns in syndication, and apparently LewRockwell.com will run them. Yay! [lew]
"My loyalties and responsibilities to family, friends, God and country have always restricted my own freedom. I have never minded that." Charley says.
That pretty much defines what is required to live in a society of free men. A certain amount of restriction on personal liberty serves as a lubricant for the social contract. No restrictions whatsoever leads to a breakdown of social order, too many restrictions leads to the society of the anthill, regimented beyond belief — in a word, socialism. Sadly, that's where we're headed, in large part thanks to post-WWII "conservatives" like Jonah Goldberg and others of his ilk.
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Charley Reese, I say God Bless. You've made me think and taught me lessons for over thirty years. You were oftentimes the lone voice for liberty at a very liberal newspaper — that can't have been an easy task. I hope you enjoy your cigars in the peace and comfort of your home office and produce many millions of words to delight your friends and confound your enemies.
Washington Times - Utah town passes anti-U.N. declaration - This is about half-way down the page. La Verkin, Utah passed a resolution forbidding the display of commU.N.ist insignia on city property or spending city money in support of their socialist causes. Neighboring Virgin, Utah is expected to vote on a similar resolution on July 19. Hey, let's declare the entire United States a United Nations free zone.
Betsy Pisik at the Washington Times - Gun rights activists protest arms talks - The commU.N.ists have been getting letters from American gun owners. They are back pedaling on the purpose of next week's global gun control conference saying that it will not address domestic gun control. Yeah. Right. [sasny]
DC Rally: 10,000 Gather to Demand Marijuana Legalization in the Nation's Capital, Police Crackdown Thwarted - A report on the Fourth of July protest in D.C. They talked, they marched, they scared the riot police away.
"That really pissed me off," [Kevin] Zeese told DRCNet. "While there is certainly a role for police at any public gathering, the use of a SWAT team is a manifestation of a police state. It is also an attempt to intimidate a political gathering," he said. "In fact, the use of the SWAT team almost resulted in an unintended consequence -- turning a peaceful crowd into an unruly mob. But when we stood up to those SWAT team folks, they left, which shows that we will not be intimidated."
MASS CANN - Freedom Rally 2001 - September 15, 2001 - They're looking for volunteers for many activities including the following. I'm tempted to volunteer for "Oinking".
Police observers: This task is best filled by lawyers and law students, but non-lawyers and others can help take note of police conduct.
Videographers: Will need to bring video cams and tape to record police activity may be teamed with Police Observers.
Oinking: Will be provided pig nose mask. Will be trained in identifying undercover police and how to shadow them and warn attendees of their presence.
Greeters: Greet attendees outside the gates created by the police barriers. Greeters will need to speak loudly "You do not have to permit the police to look in or touch your bags" while handing out palm cards or matches and asking people to please join MASS CANN.
Walter S. Mossberg at the Wall Street Journal - Microsoft Cracks Down On Sharing Windows XP - this is likely the article that Will Cate talked about on Thursday. In order to run Windows XP, you need to register on-line. Microsoft puts your machine's signature in their database. You need a separate installation CD for each machine. If you change the machine too much, Windows XP stops working. Then you have to beg Microsoft to enable it again. This is gonna blow up in Microsoft's face, IMHO. [script]
