End the War on Freedom

Chris Hiers - Billy Clinton and the Enchanted Cigarbox - Cartoon commentary on the rapist-formerly-in-chief's new book. Heeheeheeheeheeheeheeheehee. No permanent link available. You will soon need to "click here to see another traditional cartoon".

Happy 37th birthday to Dave Polaschek!

In the September 2001 issue of Liberty magazine, pp. 12-13, R.W. Bradford talks about the Klamath Basin crisis finally reaching the mainstream press. A whole valley of farmers were denied their livlihoods supposedly to save a population of suckerfish.

Today, viewers and readers are finding out how Washington, D.C. politicians enjoy what appears to be their many idle hours, and how they keep their constituents from learning about their enjoyments. And these audiences are finally learning something about the hitherto unknown consequences of the Endangered Species Act and its ability to be manipulated by dishonest scientists. They are hearing how every distinct population of fish is treated as a separate "species" in the name of conservation, so that Oregon alone has hundreds or thousands of species of salmon. And they are learning that government officials consider it worth destroying farms to save a fish so bony that it isn't worth eating and can be easily reintroduced in Klamath Lake if by some chance it manages to die off there. (I remember a recipe for cooking suckerfish from my childhood in Michigan: Build a campfire of dry maple. Nail the (dead) suckerfish to a board, and when the fire burns itself down to coals, set the board about six inches above the coals. Cook for 45 minutes. Remove the fish from the board. Eat the board.)

Back on May 24, I wrote a letter to the principal of Estero High School in Florida about the arrest of a high school senior for having a kitchen knife in her car. Last week I received a letter from someone claiming to be a friend of hers. Below is that letter (indented) and my reply. I sent it to the return address that came with the message, but AOL bounced it as a non-existent recipient, so the writer, identified only as "Wildcat", won't see it unless (s)he looks here.

Subject: In regards to your writing
To: bill@billstclair.com

Mr StClair,

I know it is a little late to be writing this to you but I just came across the letter you wrote to Estero High School principal Fred Bode in May. Well I am a friend of Lindsay Brown, and a graduate of the Estero High class of 2001. I want you to know that people I never once felt unsafe at Estero, of all the public schools in southwest florida ours was a step above (make that 3 or 4 steps above). Mr Bode was a caring and LOVING man who worked along side the student body to make our school a better place, he would spend time after school to help us with academic pep rallies to enhance school spirit. You might not know this but our football team went to State a few years ago, well Fred Bode never missed a game. He cares about the students so it hurt every senior when we heard and read things like what you wrote. Mr Bode told us (only the seniors) about the death threats he had recieved at 3am and about how he could barely go out in public, he shared this with us and it hurt, watching a man who had helped us for 4 years, he was now helpless.

I'm sorry to hear that Mr. Bode's actions brought so much grief to him and others. Hopefully he has learned from this not to behave in such a fascist manner. His previous behavior and his kindness has absolutely nothing to do with the issue. Nor do your feelings about it. He behaved horribly, and it was right for him to suffer the consequences. Death threats at 3am were way out of line, but my letter was not. Zero tolerance laws that make it a crime to possess a kitchen knife on school property are an abomination. Anyone who supports such insanity deserves strong feedback.

I'm glad that you felt safe at Estero High School. It is my belief that most schools are safe and that there is absolutely no reason for any of the zero tolerance policies. I've read of a grade school kid being taken to the police station in handcuffs because he drew a picture of a gun. This is unconscionable behavior on the part of all the adults involved. There have been a handful of school shootings in America. Tragedies all. But part of living in a large society. Ten times as many kids die in car accidents traveling to/from school as are killed by crazy people with guns/knives/hands. Unfortunately, neither is 100% preventable. Life is dangerous. You are going to die. Get used to it. Embrace it. As I said in my letter, if you think our school children need protection then do it, protect them, with extreme prejudice. But with the possible exception of some inner-city schools, it's rarely necessary.

I weigh 230 pounds and lift weights. My body could be classified as a deadly weapon. One thing is missing, however. I'm a teddy bear. I have no intention of harming anyone, unless they initiate force against me, my family, or my property. The same is true of anyone else at an American school. The weapons they carry are of no consequence. Their intention is all important. Armed people with good intentions and good training enhance school safety. People who would disarm the victims are more dangerous than the crazies.

What you may not know is that a few sophomores had been arrested for the same thing a few months earlier and had been given the same punishment, how could he treat linds any different? I understand where he was coming from.

He should have received strong feedback for the earlier occasion as well. His behavior was wrong. Period. Zero-tolerance rules are wrong. Period.

Now me and Linds are still friends, we will be starting Florida Gulf Coast University in a week and we are both very excited. What you dont understand is that Linds only wanted it over but comments like yours made it even more painful to her. Everywhere the senior class was there were reporters sticking a microphone in our faces. It hurt everyone including Lindsay. I hope that now you have the whole story and will no longer write things before you know where the people actually in the situation are coming from. I hope that me, an eighteen year old college freshman could have taught you something. Thank you for your time.

Wildcat

Good luck to you and to Lindsay. And God bless.

-Bill St. Clair
bill@billstclair.com

The Libertarian Enterprise has a new issue: "Manson Lamps". Articles I liked:

• Letter from Tom Wright - a novel idea on voting. Count the no-shows as a vote against changing the status-quo or for none-of-the-above. If less than half of all registered voters vote for a proposal, it does not pass. If less than half vote for a candidate, the office remains vacant. No matter how many actually show up on election day. And this, with more in the letter (click):

  I have always understood that non-initiation of force means you don't start a fight, but you can prevent it, stop it, or finish it. So do I assault someone walking down the street because I think they look odd? No. What if they are armed? No. What if they are swinging a gun or blade around? Maybe.
  
  What if they are pointing that weapon at someone? Yes. They have initiated force. You do not need to wait for the first drop of blood to be shed, or the first blow to be struck, before acting. That is the fantasy of some loony Hollywood screen writer having fantasies about Gary Cooper. You also do not stand by and watch just because it is not you or your family that is being assaulted.

• Letter from Bill Bunn - Mr. Bunn takes offense at the definition of a libertarian that appears on the top of every TLE issue. I guess he's not L. Neil's type of libertarian. Too bad. I repeat that definition here; it's worth repeating again and again.

  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

• Letter from Harry Browne - Mr. Browne compliments L. Neil Smith and Aaron Zelman on their article entitled "A Blueprint for Ending Gun Control", which appears again in this of TLE (JPFO printed it last week, and I reviewed it on Thursday). He agrees with them completely that all existing gun laws should be repealed. He says that the American Liberty Foundation will start airing a series of three gun ads before the end of the year.
• I Digress ... or How I Avoid Speaking on the Libertarian Position on the Second Amendment by John Sebastian - Wonderful! His second amendment argument is very similar to where I've come to on the war on some drugs. The usual arguments are specious. It matters not what the constitution's framers meant or wrote about the second amendment. It matters not that more guns equals less crime. "Shall not be infringed" is the strongest language in the entire constitution. Its meaning is obvious to anyone who can read. I have a right to my own life. Hence, I have the right to defend myself. How harmful drugs are makes no difference. My body is my property. Hence, noone may mandate what I may or may not ingest. Mr. Sebasitian goes on to remind us of the twentieth century's democides (murder by government), including a chart comparing democides to Charles Manson weekends. His conclusion:

  So let me apologize if I have not addressed the subject of the Second Amendment, or the libertarian opinion on it. That there is a right to keep and bear arms seems so self-apparent that it seems almost specious to argue so. Further it just seems tragic to be talking about whether private individuals should be allowed arms, when the evidence of history demands that the question should be: Should anyone who acts as an agent of government be allowed to?

• American Fascism: Part II - I Can See You by Keith Shugarts - The Supreme Court's lax interpretation of the fourth amendment (and that's being nice, more like pissing on it) is conspiring with the onrush of technology to completely rob us of our privacy.

Kate Zernike and Melody Petersen at the New York Times via Yahoo News - Schools' Backing of Behavior Drugs Comes Under Fire - some states are passing laws forbidding schools from suggesting psychotropic drugs, e.g. Ritalin. In these states, only a doctor may now suggest these drugs to parents. Very good news. Kuro5hin discussion here. I especially liked this comment from Signal 11, including: [kuro5hin]

I think that ADD/ADHD is a confirmation of what many of us have suspected of psychology - that there is no disease. There is a problem, however, in that we are trying to drug boys up to turn them into girls. The incidence rate for ADHD is something like 5-10x higher for boys than girls. If this was a real disease, a neurological disease, then it wouldn't be linked to the Y chromosome - nobody has dared to say intelligence is linked to gender, but here we have a disease very obviously contradicting our best understanding of the human brain... yet few notice that fact.

ADD/ADHD, IMO, is an excuse for society to pathologize boyhood. In this politically correct era, the youthful energy of boys is often looked on as bad. It wouldn't be so "bad" if there was a war to fight, but right now, it's politically a bad time to be a boy with a lot of energy. I think that this "disease" is the direct result of political circumstance...

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