Habeas Corpus

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 01 Nov 2001 11:43:24 GMT

From The Federalist:

War is an ugly thing but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feelings which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. -- John Stuart Mill

and this reader comment:

Dan Rather assured us today that in spite of the anthrax case in his office, CBS would put on a 'first class' newscast this evening. So I watched the beginning of the CBS News but Mr. Rather was still the anchor.

Kevin Tuma - Pork - cartoon commentary on Congress' response to 911.

John McCabe at loony dot org - Manhattan - Part II - Mr. McCabe visits ground zero and relates his experience. [loony]

Monde has started a new blog, The Rattler, for discussion of the post-911 Amerikan police state. anodyne will return to drug-related news. [anodyne]

wtc-photo-big.jpg is a 15 megabyte image of the World Trade Center site from above. It's 9372x9372 pixels. It crashed Opera. Microsoft Photo Editor complained that it was too big IE, however, was able to handle it, though I don't see any scale-to-page option on its print dialog, so I didn't try to print it. [mumble]

I read the rest of The Libertarian Enterprise's new issue:

Will We Let the Real America Die? by L. Neil Smith - if you didn't read this yesterday, read it now.
It begins with a universal nationwide insistence on Bill of Rights enforcement. It continues in the creation of a genuine Bill of Rights culture. It ends in only one of two ways, the happier of the two being an enlightened culture in which the events of September 11 could never have happened because none of the potential victims were helpless. Or harmless.

The unhappier of the ways will ultimately make Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia look like civilized bastions of decency and freedom by comparison.

...

It's indisputable that nothing -- absolutely nothing -- that Bush has done since September 11 is a truly appropriate response to what happened. He and his, in fact, have avoided things that must be done. Things like arming airline passengers and mandating national Vermont Carry. If they resent or deny what I've said here about them, let them reply with acts of good faith: let them put an end to the idiotic war on drugs and nullify every gun law in the county. Nothing less will suffice.
Habeas Corpus by John Hoffman - a fictional account of the coming death of Habeas Corpus at the hands of the Amerikan gestapo, er... Homeland Security Agency. There was one thing missing from Mr. Hoffman's story. At the end, the judge should have removed a revolver from his robes and shot the nazi in the back. That will be the only proper way to deal with these fascists.
A Foolish War - Part One: The War of 'We' by Keith Shugarts - another war, another opportunity for those who claim to speak for the "we" to steal more individual liberties from you and me.
The same aggression that the collective looses upon these broadly defined terrorists is also used against the I and Me as suggested by Robert LeFevre in his essay Aggression is Wrong when he says, "Governments, by their nature are invariably agencies of aggression. This is our excuse for having them; they can be employed against the 'other fellow' to compel him to provide the money for our schemes, to compel him to do or not to do in accordance with our wishes."
Luftwaffe to the Rescue by Jeff Elkins - due to the emasculation of the military by the rapist-no-longer-in-chief, GW decided that he needed to ask NATO for help with U.S. internal security. Really bad idea. Really bad idea.
Good Cop, Bad Cop by Sean Gruber - I have been guilty of saying that not all cops are bad. Mr. Gruber slaps my hand. It was once the case that police were there to preserve and defend. No longer. Their purpose now is to discover and invent violations of laws with no right to exist. Hence, anyone who dons the uniform is now a criminal. Takes my essay The Lie of Cannabis Prohibition one step further. That's Mr. Gruber's thesis. I still think there are lots of generally good guys in uniform who are doing their best in the terrible situation created by our legislators. But then, I haven't been arrested, yet.
Owning a weapon, any weapon is NOT a crime. Putting potentially harmful substances into your own body, is NOT a crime. Leaving your "legal guardians" home before you are of "legal" age to do so, is NOT a crime. Having consensual sexual relations with your seventeen-year-old girlfriend at the age of nineteen, is NOT a crime. Yet the government, as it is called, prohibits all of these things and punishes those that do these things, and this IS the only crime in the matter. And "law" enforcement officers commit these criminal acts.

Robert A. Waters at KeepAndBearArms.com - When Order Breaks Down - during the LA riots, armed citizens protected their businesses from looters. After September 11, many formerly unarmed citizens realized that they, too, might one day soon need to do likewise. [kaba]

Bill White at Pravda via Sierra Times - Gun Groups See Steady Bleed into Militias; Domestic Unrest Still Growing in United States - good overview of the U.S. pro-gun and militia movements from an unusual source. Comment from Lazarus Long: [sierra]

If someone had told me ten years ago that I'd be giving more credence to a report published in Pravda than to reports published in the New York Times, I'd have recomended they seek professional help.

Brothers & Sisters, we are living in interesting times...

The Lindesmith Center Drug Policy Foundation - Stop John Walters - A letter to fax to your senators opposing the nomination of John Walters as the new drug czar. The libertarian party is supporting this effort according to an email I received, though it hasn't yet hit their web site. The Case Against John Walters has more details of why you should oppose Mr. Walters. Of course you know that I think the war on freedom, er... some drugs, should be ended completely. This means that cannabis should be available in bulk in the health food store and all the prescription drug laws should go. All drugs should be available over the counter. [lp]

LibertyPetitions.com - Permanent Ban on Internet Taxes - The ban an internet taxation ran out on Sunday. This petition urges senators to pass S.777, the "Internet Tax Nondiscrimination Act". The house has already passed this legislation. If the senate passes it, the internet will be off-limits for taxation (until the bastards vote the other way, that is). LibertyPetitions also has petitions supporting Ron Paul's Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001, which would arm pilots, and his Second Amendment Protection Act, which repeals the Brady bill. Links to these other petitions are along the left-hand side of the page. [geneice]

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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