The Grand Deception
From the Gun Guy's Pro-Gun Firearms News Page:
New bumper sticker: DRIVER ONLY CARRIES $20 WORTH OF AMMUNITION
Richard Blunt at Backwoods Home Magazine - Chocolate: Food for the Gods - about chocolate, the secret of making never-fail fudge. Yum.
The Internet Hunting Society has a great page of rifle manufacturer links. They also have knife & sword links.
The Violence Policy Center has a nice Firearms Industry Resource Guide. It contains, for each of a sizeable number of American Arms manufacturers, the number of each type of firearm that they manufactured in a few different years. Many of the pages also include an ad from the company containing a picture of one of their products. I think VPC's intention is to denigrate these companies, but it ends up being a pretty good index.
The Week Online with DRCNet - SSDP Plans National Day of Action on Hemp Food Ban - there will be hemp foods for the sampling outside of many d.e.a. offices on December 4. Sounds like fun, but this will have exactly zero effect on the d.e.a. fascists. The only thing any of them can understand is blood gushing out of their soon-to-be-cold bodies.
Jeremy Sapienza at anti-state.com - Toward a Non-Academic Theory of Interest - Mr. Sapienza explains why interest, even so-called "usary" interest, is a good thing. [anti-state]
Sue Fox at The LA Times - Mi Casa No Es Su Casa - many immigrant landlords in the People's Republic of Kalifornia are refusing to rent to anyone not of their ethnicity. This article of course touts the socialist party line that there's something wrong with this practice. I, on the other hand, salute them. It's their property. They may rent or not rent to whomever they please for whatever reason they please. The law is an ass. [lew]
Christy Karras of AP via Yahoo News - Police Refuse to Cooperate With Feds - Portland police are refusing to help the feds in questioning 5,000 Middle Eastern immigrants. It's against the law, they say. Good for them. They should back up their defense of the law with their service weapons, aimed squarely at any fed who attempts to defy them. [market]
AP via The Fresno Bee - National Guard to inspect vehicles at airports - LAX has opened up some parking structures closed since 9/11. Price of entry: all vehicles are subject to search by National Guard soldiers, at the request of the f.a.a. [market]
Thomas Sowell at TownHall.com - Drugs and politics - why we should resist the urge to override patents on medicine because of an emergency. If we don't allow drug companies to recover their research costs, the research will stop. What Mr. Sowell doesn't mention is that the costs would be much less if we eliminated all the government costs from the equation. Get rid of the f.d.a. and the prescription drug laws, and drugs would all be cheaper. [mind]
Al Vick at Online Journal - Safeguarding our freedom - American's freedoms are a gift of the creator. They are not granted nor may they be taken away by government. [unknown]
Secondly, it is important that all citizens of the United States be vigilant in protecting their Bill of Rights; for while these rights might sometimes be a stumbling block for over-zealous law enforcement officials, they are the only protection we have against potential dictators and those who would oppress us. If we cannot as a people honor the documents that guarantee the continuance of our inalienable rights,, and if we no longer have the heart or the courage to hold our leaders accountable when they violate those rights, then we will surely tumble into tyranny; no matter what noble cause those freedoms are being cast aside for.
Dan Kennedy at The Boston Phoenix - Taking liberties: A Phoenix roundtable on freedom in the age of terrorism - Mr. Kennedy talks with Donald Stern, Harvey Silvergate, and Ralph Ranalli. [unknown]
Well, to quote the old Lily Tomlin line, "No matter how cynical you become, it's never enough to keep up." Because several days after the roundtable took place, President Bush announced that he would establish military tribunals -- the first since World War II -- to try noncitizens accused of terrorism. Bush's decision raises the specter of executions possibly taking place on the basis of secret evidence, with no right of appeal. For anyone concerned about the state of civil liberties in this country, the conversation grows more ominous by the day.
...
Ranalli: The FBI is simply not fixable. What you have is this huge, bloated agency that does 100 different things, and because of the scandals that we've seen recently -- from Ruby Ridge to Waco to Wen Ho Lee to the lab scandal to the FBI informants -- it just shows that it doesn't do any of them well anymore.
The FBI now is an agency that operates in a lot of different arenas under a lot of different rules. Right now, with this USA Patriot Act and this new executive order by Ashcroft to eavesdrop on prisoners, you're seeing a further blurring of the lines. We need to make those lines clearer. What I really think we should do is break up the FBI into maybe three or four smaller FBIs.
Stern: We can call one ATF, we can call another one DEA, we can call another one IRS.
...
Ranalli: In the immediate aftermath of September 11, I remember being struck by a pre-September 11 video of a top bin Laden associate saying -- really, bragging -- about how easy something like September 11 would be. And the tone of his words was that we were somehow weak, or we're stupid. But I remember thinking to myself that this guy just doesn't get it. We choose to live that way. We choose to live in a way that's inherently insecure. This is really a battle for a way of life, for a way of thinking. And in defending that, I think we'll always be reminded of the need to protect principle as well as protect ourselves.
Edward Griffin at Reality Zone - The Grand Deception; A Second Look at the War on Terrorism - glorious essay from a patriot, written on September 14. Why they did it. Terrorist tactics. Who is the real enemy behind the suicidal maniacs? (to be answered in Chapter 4). 1984. Thirteen predictions. What can be done? This is chapter one of a book Mr. Griffin is writing entitled, The Freedom Manifesto. [grabbe]
Although I may be critical of our politicians and their policies; I want it clearly understood at the outset that I totally support our men and women who will be sent into combat as a result of those policies. When we find ourselves in a shooting war, regardless of how we got into it, at that point we have no choice. We must put all that we have into the fight. But, the other side of that coin is that we must fight to win. Our goal must be victory, not stalemate -- and we should achieve it as quickly as possible to minimize casualties on both sides. That does not mean fighting a protracted conflict in which something other than victory is the goal. That is what our politicians forced us to do in Korea and Vietnam and Desert Storm and the Balkan War. After the fighting was over, the tyrannical regimes were still there. We left them in place. Some of them are now supporting the terrorists who have attacked us.
In the days ahead, we must be clear on the difference between loyalty and patriotism. The spirit of loyalty compels us to support and defend our country even when she is wrong. That is necessary in time of war, but patriotism is a higher ideal. It compels us, not only to defend our country when she is wrong, but also to do everything within our power to bring her back to the side of right.
...
There are those who may say that I am anti-government, but that is not true. I am not anti-government; I am anti-corrupt government. I will do everything possible to defend my government from those who would violate their oaths of office, tear apart the Constitution, or use their positions of trust to oppress our people. To oppose corruption in government is the highest obligation of patriotism.
...
If you roam around the globe shooting and bombing people, and aligning yourself politically with others who do the same, you cannot expect your victims to like you very much. Some may even be willing to die for revenge.
...
In the meantime, we are told that we are fighting terrorism. But terrorism is not the enemy. It is a strategy of the enemy. That is like saying the enemy is hand-to-hand combat or air raids or missile attacks or espionage. Since terrorism is not the enemy, a war on terrorism cannot be won. It is doomed to drag on forever -- just like the war on drugs and the war against crime. It might as well be a war against sin.
...
Behold the Grand Deception: The action is in the reaction. The war on terrorism is a war on freedom.
Joseph Sobran at LewRockwell.com - The Lesser Evil - Mr. Sobran is willing to compromise on the constitution. I'm with him. It ain't perfect, but if we could keep the buffoons in Washington within its proscribed limits, we'd be a lot better off than we are now. [lew]
These gents (all right, there are a few ladies among them) think an oath of office is something to be taken as lightly as, say, a wedding vow. They probably felt a deeper sense of obligation when they took their college fraternity pledges. Only one member of Congress seems to read the Constitution and vote against proposed laws on grounds that they lack constitutional authorization: the Texas Republican Ron Paul. And he's considered a bit of a crank even by his own party. Whenever I read that the House has approved something by a 434-to-1 vote, I check to see if the 1 is Ron Paul. It usually is.
L. Neil Smith at Project: Safe Skies - THE AMERICAN ZONE IS HERE! - L. Neil's new book, The American Zone shipped from the publisher on November 14. It should arrive in book stores soon. You can pre-order from Amazon via the book title link. Send e-mail to L. Neil if you'd like an autographed copy. How a free society would deal with a terrorist attack.
Carl Bussjaeger at Samizdat - Arm Passengers for Safe Skies - I may have linked to this before, but it's worth re-reading.
Here's a new scenario: Passengers boarding a plane are not subjected to magnetic, radar, and chemical scans, nor anally probed. Unannoyed by intrusion, and undelayed by pointless "security", they board their flight on time. The plane takes off. And a couple of hijackers stand up and announce their intent to divert the craft for the greater glory of Zool or some other nitwit idea.
Said announcement is immediately followed by approximately 100 firearms safeties being clicked off, as all the other passengers and flight crew object to the interruption of their own plans, out-gunned by a ratio of 50 to 1, the hijackers choose between surrender or being mopped off the bulkheads after being hit with several hundred rounds of frangible (ie- fairly harmless to the aircraft) ammunition.
Assuming the FAA gets out of the business of making aircraft easy targets, the cockpit door should locked and well-lined with bullet- resistant kevlar. The worst case scenario would then allow the hijackers to kill or injure only as many passengers as they have rounds in their magazines. And they'd still be dead, and their suicidal mission failed.
