Breath of Fire

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 22 Oct 2001 12:00:00 GMT

As predicted, I finished Jeff Head's Dragon's Fury: Breath of Fire. Now I have to wait six months for the next volume. An action novel that I couldn't put down. Not much character development here, but plenty of in-depth knowledge of military armaments and lots and lots of firefights. I pray that the picture he paints here remains fictional. World War III is not a future any sane person wants to see.

From my Dad:

Q: Have you heard the joke about world war three?
A: No, how's it go?
Q: Knock knock.
A: Who's there?

Concerned Citizens Opposed to Police States - Don't be a Jihad Joe - to slow and reverse America's slide into a police state, you and I must resist, actively. [jpfo]

No one has THE answer to ending tyranny. But there is AN answer -- a big, important one that you can immediately practice in your own life, without having to wait for your congressman or anybody else to act.

Problem is, it's an answer almost no one wants to hear: RESIST. The ultimate responsibility of everyone who truly loves freedom is to LIVE freedom. That means to resist bad laws. That means to refuse to enforce or in any other way help implement police-state policies.

We must refuse to obey, refuse to submit to the searches or to conduct them, refuse to take a national ID card or to program the database for it or install the scanners used to track cardholders. We must refuse to be disarmed or to disarm innocent others.

Caroline E. Mayer at the Washington Post - Air Rifles In Line of Fire From Safety Chief: Outgoing Chairman Seeking a Recall - Ann Brown is pushing for a forced recall of Daisy air rifles. Because two boys shot what they thought was an unloaded rifle at each other, the rifles are unsafe. Not! This case should have been laughed out of court. Yes, it's sad that a kid with improper firearms training hurt another kid. But the fault here lies with the kids' parents for not impressing on them that every gun is always loaded, no matter how many times you've checked otherwise. You don't ever let the muzzle cover another person, unless your intention is to kill that person. In some states, it is a felony offence to point a gun at another person. As it should be. [geneice]

The recall proposal was prompted by a private lawsuit against Daisy by the family of a Pennsylvania boy who was permanently disabled in May 1999 after his best friend accidentally shot him in the head with a Daisy 856 model -- two days after the injured boy received the gun for his 16th birthday.

The company's marketing material warns that the model is not a toy and should be used only by those age 16 or older.

Daisy settled the suit earlier this year for $18 million, according to news reports.

Last year the boy's lawyer, Shanin Specter, urged the CPSC to investigate the gun. "There is a propensity for BBs to become lodged in the magazine without the user knowing it," he said.

That's what happened to Tucker Mahoney and his friend, the lawyer said. They thought the gun was empty, shook it, heard no BBs and eventually fired at each other.

The Libertarian Enterprise has a new issue, "I Hear America Dying". I didn't finish reading it yet. Articles I liked so far:

Letter from David M. Brown - James Robbins penned an article for the Objectivist Center explaining why a National ID would be a good idea. Mr. Brown begs to differ as do I.
What really bothers me is that I have found the perfect solution to the problem of security on airplanes, but it has yet to be implemented, even though, as I write, this is Day 32 of the crisis. Handcuff all passengers as they take their seats and don't remove the handcuffs until the plane has landed. That way, there will be no need for anybody to be armed, the pilot or anybody else. I am sure Robbins will endorse this, as it will enhance security. Sure, there are risks to this approach, but let's just make sure there are checks and balances too.
Letter from Grier Ellis - National ID, electronic voting.
It's time that we faced up to the fact that it's a dangerous world, and no amount of child-proofing can change that fact. Government and the police can't protect us (and, in fact, are not legally liable for their failure to do so); they just come along and take names after the fact. Self-ownership requires that we must defend ourselves. It wouldn't be so easy to hijack a plane that *I* were on if there weren't 20,000+ unconstitutional (what part of "shall not be infringed" is unclear?) victim disarmament (gun control) laws on the books.
Don't Let It Happen - A new graphic image by Scott Bieser. On the mark.
Will We Let the Real America Die? by L. Neil Smith - All L. Neil wants is to be proud of his country. What he's felt is shame.
In the end, however, as in the beginning, I am an individualist. It's more than just an ideological stance, it's the way I look at the world. I began to feel better when I realized that there are -- and always have been -- two separate and distinct Americas: my America, the America of Thomas Paine, the Declaration of Independence, and the Bill of Rights; and another America, the America of Alexander Hamilton and his rapacious, bloodthirsty, cannibalistic descendants to whom power is more important than money or sex or food or any moral, ethical, or legal principle ever known to humankind, and who will do anything -- absolutely anything -- to obtain, enhance, and consolidate it.

...

Osama bin Laden is the Lee Harvey Oswald of our time. Nobody has ever offered any real proof he "did it". It doesn't matter whether he did or not. What's important is that the deed got done, supplying the Bush junta with everything it needs -- an excuse it's been impatiently awaiting for a decade -- to carry out what might be called a "security coup" and declare a phony war whose only purpose is to destroy what little Lincoln, Wilson, Roosevelt, and Johnson left of the Bill of Rights. Let me put this bluntly: if it continues, it's the end of America.

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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