End the War on Freedom

MSNBC - Four-legged friends help you heal - I saw this story this morning while walking on the treadmill at the club. It showed pictures of dogs spreading joy to hospital patients. I was listening to Jarreau, my favorite of Al Jarreau's albums. His music always gets me dewey eyed anyway, but coupled with this story, the tears were running fast and loose. Yes!

The Libertarian Enterprise has a new issue, "Locke Laid, Gary Gabs". Articles I liked:

• Letter from Patrick L. Lilly - takes NPR to task for parroting the party line on how the drug war must be working since so many have been imprisoned because of it. The truth of course is that the majority of those imprisoned are there for mere possession of cannabis, a nearly harmless vegetable.

  For instance, Attorney General Ashcroft claims that the astronomical increase in Americans put in prison under draconian federal drug prohibition statutes and mandatody sentencing policies somehow proves that drug prohibition, and the insane drug war against the American people, are "working". On the contrary, all they prove is that when you enact laws calling for the imprisonment of huge numbers of people, you get huge numbers of people in prison. In gloating about how his minions are "taking 'drug traffickers' off the street", he completely (and deliberately) ignores the long-since-proven fact that every time prohibition enforcement takes a "drug trafficker" off the street and consigns him/her to prison, it simply creates a new, and even more lucrative, business opportunity for someone else, who promptly shows up to fill the void. Of course, with each round of this sort of substitution, the type of people who show up to take advantage of the economic opportunities created gets more and more seamy and more violent, but Mr. Ashcroft apparently doesn't mind this, regarding it as another proof of his "success".
  
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  Certainly it does not take the proverbial "rocket scientist" to realize that "studies" like this are released, and publicized, by federal government agencies because they are facing a rising tide of public dissatisfaction with their drug war against the American people, and a growing awareness that that war certainly is not "working", in the sense of accomplishing any of the goals which supposedly justify it: reducing crime, "protecting children", reducing (let alone eliminating) the irresponsible or dangerous use of truly harmful drugs, or any of the others. Furthermore, those same members of the public are beginning to wake up to the fact that the prosecution of the drug war is taking a severe toll on our civil liberties, a toll which is nowhere near topping out. So, they issue a continual stream of propaganda vehicles, such as this report, designed to foster the impression that, despite the abundant evidence contained in every day's newspapers, the drug war is "working" after all, and that, somehow, the ever-increasing prison population is actually making the average American "safer". The drug war has never accomplished these goals, is not now accomplishing these goals, and never will accomplish these goals, because it is not really designed or intended to accomplish these goals. The only goals which the drug war has ever accomplished, is now accomplishing, or ever will accomplish, are the goals for which it really was designed and intended: the unlimited expansion of police power in America, the destruction of Constitutional limits on government action in America, and the conversion of the American republic into a shameless and full-blown police state.

• Letter from Stephen Carville - a very good description of the proper way to deal with the ownership of weapons of mass destruction. If someone points a gun at you, your family, or your dog, you are justified in killing him. If someone possesses a nuclear weapon close enough to you such that its explosion would kill you, your family, or your dog, you are also justified in killing him. No matter which funny hat or fancy uniform he's wearing or how many people voted for him.
• Letter from Bob Lallier - a good description of why fraud counts as initiation of force.
• Letter from John Sebastian - there were a number of letters in this issue about John Locke's The Scientific Case Against Evolution in last issue. This was the most interesting. Mr. Sebastian reminds us that evolution is not the issue between people who argue for or against it. The real issue is political power. Bravo, Mr. Sebasian.
• Letter from Derk Benner - one man's experience of random vandalization of his truck and the police non-response. Gee, I haven't tried shooting buckshot into those commU.N.ist targets. Good idea.

  So, what can I say? Have I learned my lesson? Yes! I'm now saving up to get a pair of shotguns to store around the house, fully loaded with buckshot! I will never again, even on an emotional level, assume that having a police department guarantees me any level of personal protection that I haven't provided for myself.

• The Condit Interview by David M. Brown - a wierd take-off on the Connie Chung interview of Gary Condit.
• American Fascism - Part 3: Because We Told You So by Keith Shugarts - How a plethora of laws have are "usurping the ideals of personal ownership, the freedom to learn, and the acceptance of risk."

  It is the interpretability of the Constitution itself and the existance of a majoritarian democracy that allows the legislature to usurp the sovereign ownership of ourselves and denies those inalienable rights - life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (or property - from Locke) - that the Declaration of Independence puts forth.

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