Knives

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 01 Dec 2001 12:20:52 GMT

russmo.com - Afghan Factions - cartoon commentary on the war in Afghanistan. Hohohohoho.

russmo.com - Homeland Security - cartoon commentary on our new gestapo. Hehe. [grabbe]

Jim Davidson at Project: Safe Skies - when did we move? - glorious essay covering the nazi responses to 9/11, especially airport "security".

I'm going to continue focusing on accumulating wealth, paying off all my debts, and creating the means for myself and others to get off this planet. While I don't especially regret that the civilization founded on the shifting sands of expedience seems to be falling, I see no reason to add to the weight that is going to fall on the culpable and innocent alike.

In other words, my response to all this Nazi nonsense is to go about my business. At some point, it may be that the security apparatus interferes with me more directly, or targets someone close to me. Should that situation arise, I'll take appropriate action as I see fit.

Phil Elmore - Understanding Knives - good article on knives as tools and weapons and the utter absurdity of laws banning particular types or lengths of knives. His Everything Else page has lots of links concerning knives and other things. The quote below reminds me of the crazy new airplane "security" rules. A key or a pen is as good a weapon as most of the things they have disallowed, but there's no way they could get away with banning either of those.

According to the United States Justice Department, the most common knife used to hurt human beings in this country is the common kitchen knife. This is perfectly understandable; the first thing people seem to do in domestic disputes is run to the kitchen for a carving or paring knife. For that matter, the most common implement used by muggers and carjackers isn't even a knife; it's the screwdriver, which is, after all, a deadly stabbing tool. It is completely and totally impractical to ban screwdrivers and kitchen knives -- so banning other knives does nothing to prevent crime, while (again) preventing people from carrying properly designed and constructed self defense weapons.

The KnifeCenter has mail-order knives from a huge selection of manufacturers. Buck, CRKT, Cold Steel, Gerber, Leatherman, Spyderco, Timberline. Just to mention a few that jump out to this non-officianado. I ordered a Columbia River Steve Ryan Model Seven Design Combo Edge knife and a Photon Micro-Light white LED flashlight.

Gun Owners of America - Armed Pilots Provision Adopted as Part of Airline Security Bill - Under certain conditions, pilots will now be allowed to fly armed. Very good news. [firearmnews]

Jeff Johnson at CNS News - Pilots May 'Shut Down System' If They Can't Carry Guns - as well they should. [firearmnews]

Capt. Bob Giuda, a former Marine Corps pilot and FBI agent, is now a pilot with United Airlines. Two of the United pilots killed on September 11 were his personal friends. He says the debate over arming pilots should end with the acknowledgement of one undeniable fact.

"The precursor to everything that happened that day, was the murder of eight pilots," he said. "Had any one of them had guns, it is very likely that, in that particular aircraft, the outcome could, and probably would have been dramatically different."

Captain Robert J. Giuda at GOA - A Resolution - the text of a resolution by Council 52 of the Airline Pilots Association stating that they may refuse to fly if denied the right to fly armed after completing an f.b.i. course of firearms instruction.

The Libertarian Enterprise has a new issue, "Turkeys Up!". Articles I liked:

Letter from Keith Shugarts - why the feds don't want to allow individuals to colonize space. They'll be beyond the fedgov's power up there.
Letter from Jim Davidson - more on commercial colonization of space.
World War Two was a fight over which form of state socialism would triumph. The Moon race was a fight over which form of state socialism would plant a flag on the Moon first. In both cases, the fact that "our side" won does nothing to forward our individual liberty.
Rethinking America's Mid-east Policies by Gail Jarvis - Ms. Jarvis thinks that the U.S. should stop supporting Israel. She's probably right.
Those Gallant Young Men of Space Command: Part One by Keith Shugarts - How an anti-ballistic missile defense system could be used to prevent commercial use of space.
Our good General-King George III wishes to place in space and upon our soil a series of contraptions that will protect the sacred soil of the United States and those countries that cravenly seek shelter under the benevolent umbrella of this missile defense shield. Whilst this may mean profit for those companies that have applied themselves liberally with sealant and mortar to the teat of the government behemoth, it could mean a dark day for the eventual commercialization of space and the freedom of the individuals of Earth.
Government Interventions Mask Fault, Forestall Reform by Vin Suprynowicz - Repeat after me. The market works better than government edict.
We can't know what airline security would look like in this country if we didn't have government interventions every step along the way, from federal smoking bans to purposely misrepresented FAA security directives (no, they don't really require that you "show a photo ID" - they even provide a procedure for handling passengers who won't or can't, specifically barring the airlines from refusing them passage ... or at least they did up through Sept. 11) to a requirement that airlines contract for their one-size-fits-all "security" with airports which are usually, themselves, litigation-proof agencies of local municipal government.

Would some airlines choose to charge higher fares, thus covering the cost of a guarantee of three armed crewmen or undercover air marshals on every flight -- while proudly advertising only citizens with FBI security clearances are allowed to service their planes?

Would other airlines experiment by simply declaring: "Trying to disarm passengers hasn't worked -- so we're actually cutting prices by the amount we used to spend on useless and humiliating passenger pat-downs, instead encouraging all active duty and retired military and police to bring their service weapons on board and help us 'arm our skies against terrorism' "?

Askemos "is an autonomous, distributed operating system on top of peer to peer networks that significantly raises the level of abstraction in comparison with today's operating systems. It can also be understood as an XML object database with stored procedures in XSLT. Askemos features a virtual machine at the document level, an access control system modelled after general key systems, persistent processes, and implicit parallelism." Looks worth reading about. All I've done so far is skim a few of its web pages. [meat]

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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