Breath of Fire
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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
Previous Posts:
Time to lead by example
High court ducks roadblock issue
Anthrax, Anthrax, Everywhere
Supreme National Security Council
All applications approved!
Antiwar News Service
They could hardly wait
Yes, we're at war ... against sick Americans
No time for panic spending
Security is important, but so is oversight