GNU Smalltalk

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 01 Nov 2001 11:43:10 GMT <== Politics ==>

By all means marry; if you get a good wife, you'll be happy. If you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. -- Socrates

From wood s lot:

War is God's way of teaching Americans geography. -- Ambrose Bierce

and:

Just as the War Against Drugs would make some kind of sense if they honestly called it a War Against Some Drugs, I regard Dubya's current Kampf as a War Against Some Terrorists. I may remain wed to that horrid heresy until he bombs CIA headquarters in Langley. -- Robert Anton Wilson

brianf answered my question from Wednesday about Phil Lesh & Friends. I'm tempted to go to the concert in Albany on November 15, but $37.50 is a bit pricey for my blood.

I had never been to a Gratefull Dead concert but can vouch that a Phil Lesh and Friends concert I went to at SPAC was a wonderful experience from both the performance and social environment perspectives. It was a hug shared by several thousand people. Incredible.

An Ode to America is an uplifting story I received via office email, purported to be an editorial from a Romanian newspaper. Though I rant and rave about the sins of the American government, the American spirit of freedom is alive and well. Blessed Be!

Daniel Solnit - Having difficulty telling the good guys from the bad guys? - I received this on Dana Beal's Million Marijuana March mailing list. Terrorists aren't much different from the U.S. government. And he doesn't even mention the b.a.t.f. or the d.e.a., Amerika's two biggest domestic terrorist organizations.

Bernard Continelli at the Albany (NY) Times Union - Time for voters to give boot to both major parties - boot the republicrats. If you must vote, and I strongly suggest that you don't, vote for the Liberal, Independence, Green, Conservative, Constitution and Libertarian parties.

hillct at Slashdot - Gilmore Commission Recommends Secret 'Cyber Court' - another secret court, this one proposed by Virginia governor James S. Gilmore III. [/.]

Declan McCullagh at Wired - Governor Calls for 'Cyber Court' - McCullagh's skinny on the latest fascist trial balloon. [wired]

David Coursey at ZDNet News - Why the RIAA owes us all an apology - The Recording Industry Association of America attempted to lump music copiers in with terrorists. Shame on them. [newsforge]

Libertarian Party Press Release - There's only one way to protect the U.S. against anthrax terrorist attacks - I said this on September 12. It's worth repeating again and again. To stop the terrorists, remove U.S. troops from the rest of the world. In peace time, eliminate the standing army. Operate the peace time military with just enough people to keep the equipment working plus reservists who are ready to go active duty when necessary. Keep the citizen militia armed and ready by removing laws that discourage it and encouraging everyone to be active in their local militia. I won't hold my breath...

Alice Cherbonnier at the Baltimore Chronicle and Sentinel - Republican-controlled Carlyle Group poses serious Ethical Questions for Bush Presidents, but Baltimore Sun ignores it - The Carlyle Group invests in defense contractors. Hence, its investors profit from war. Who are its investors? GW's dad and Osama bin Laden. Makes ya think, eh? [brianf]

Lew Rockwell at LewRockwell.com - We Can't Win This Way - the U.S. government will never win the war on terrorism by waging war or any other centralized non-solution. Only liberty can end terrorism. [lew]

Because the proven perpetrators in September 11 are all dead, the objective of the US government is to kill Osama bin Laden and punish governments that support him. But does anyone really believe that this is going to take care of the problem? Bin Laden doesn't control people like puppets. Those acting on his behalf have free will. Even if they didn't, there will be other bin Ladens, and they will multiply exponentially.

I am not counseling despair, just realism. The immediate response comes: "well, we have to do something!" Yes, we do. That something is to recognize that coercion and bombings are not going to work, and instead try freedom and peace, starting with free trade with Iraq.

freedomofpress.tripod.com - Bush Vows to Rid the World of Evil - Look, up in the sky. It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a tush. Not bird nor plane nor even tush, it's just little ol' me, underBush. Hehe. [lew]

Vin Suprynowicz at KeepAndBearArms.com - High court ducks roadblock issue - the fourth amendment has been further shredded with the supremes' latest refusal to hear on appeal. Papieren bitte. [kaba]

In a free country, spotting a policeman alongside the road should produce a feeling of reassurance that "the man" is there to protect us from wrongdoers, not guilty worries about whether we've just been spotted using a cell phone, or failing to cinch up our seatbelts, or that we're about to be nailed for any number of ways in which our "papers" might be out of order.

(Does the computer show we've paid our property taxes? Our child support? Ducked jury duty? Whether the officer should humiliate us by forcing us to unload our legally owned firearms ... seizing them if we're caught carrying one with a serial number not properly listed on our "permit"? What do you suppose they'll be able to program into that computer next year? Tax liens? Delinquent student loans? Results of our last doctor's exam?)

GNU Smalltalk "is a free implementation of the Smalltalk-80 language." One day I'll have to play with Smalltalk. [meat]

Add comment Edit post Add post

Previous Posts:
Blackie Collins, Kelly Wordens, ASP
Most Unusual
The d.e.a. Must Die
Cram It, Clown!
Real Airplane Security
Kill Da Wabbit!
Donating Blood in the Age of AIDS
The American Zone
Heimatsicherheitsdienst
A half-hearted kind of war

Navigation

History

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