David Thomas, RIP

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 10 Jan 2002 13:00:00 GMT

From The Federalist:

We seem not to have learned a basic lesson of history: Capitalism harnesses human self interest; socialism exhausts itself trying to kill it. -- Linda Bowles

and:

Politicians are wonderful people as long as they stay away from things they don't understand, such as working for a living. -- P.J. O'Rourke

and:

Don Rumsfeld said the Navy is building a high security jail in Guantanamo Bay for al Qaeda detainees. It has four guard towers and barbed wire. Cuba's building codes require that the facility look like all the other buildings in the neighborhood. -- Argus Hamilton

Stuart Elliott at The New York Times - After Founder Dies, Wendy's Ponders New Ways to Pitch - R. David Thomas, the founder of the Wendy's chain of fast-food restaurants, died on Tuesday. Now the management has to decide how to do their marketing without him. [joel]

Liquid Privacy, Ltd "is an asset intermediary which bridges the anonymous cyber economy and the traditional banking system. Our first service will be an offshore anonymous Visa debit card linked to a Digital Monetary Trust (DMT) account, thus allowing convenient point-of- sale access to your DMT funds. This service will be available during Q1 2002." Mr. Grabbe's private money system is becoming real. How long before the governments of the world shut him down? [grabbe]

San Francisco Chronicle - On the Public's Right to Know: The day Ashcroft censored Freedom of Information - The Freedom of Information Act is no more, effectively, thanks to our goose-stepping attorney general. [grabbe]

Tom Ambrose at WorldNetDaily - Just say 'no' to air travel! - Mr. Ambrose refuses to fly. He encourages you to join his boycott. [geneice]

I really used to enjoy flying. But not any longer. Why?

Because young girls are being frisked and having to lower their pants in public by sleazy security screeners.

Because documented lying and cover-ups by the federal government in previous air disasters -- especially TWA Flight 800 -- and other terrorist incidents have continued unabated.

Because passengers and pilots are unable to carry firearms for protection.

Paul Sperry at WorldNetDaily - Know your rights at airport checkpoints - what airport security screeners may and may not do according to FAA rules. [geneice]

If you feel you've been violated by screeners, you can report inappropriate procedures to the security company's checkpoint security supervisor or the ground security coordinator assigned to that screening station.

Don't take it beyond that. Interfering with or assaulting a screener is a federal crime. Assault is broadly defined as any harmful or offensive contact, or an apprehension by the other person that such contact is imminent. Under the new Aviation and Transportation Security Act, it carries a penalty of up to 10 years in prison, a fine, or both.

Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily - I sent mother-in-law packing - Didn't kick her out. Much better, but more frightening to the hoplophobes in the audience. [geneice]

Now some of you are going to squeal in disbelief: "You mean you allow guns around your children?"

You bet. And as soon as they are physically able to do so, we teach them how to shoot, too. Guns can be great equalizers even for little people.

I can't believe how squeamish Americans have become about guns. It's time for a total re- education on the matter of firearms.

It wasn't that long ago that kids carried their firearms to school so they could belong to gun clubs and participate in competitive shooting. Now, schools are gun-free zones. Are kids any safer in schools? No way. They are at greater risk.

Gun Owners of America - FAA Request for Comments: Arming Pilots - The FAA is requesting comments on arming pilots, providing non-lethal weapons for cockpit and flight deck crewmembers, and provision of emergency services on commercial air flights. The article contains a snail mail address and a link to a d.o.t. web form for submitting documents. [picks]

Leapers carries scopes, mounts, bags, parts, and tools for military style rifles. They also have Airsoft guns, knives & swords, and collectible action figures. Many of their products are available from Cheaper Than Dirt. Added to my Arms Manufacturers page. I can't speak for the quality of their products. I just found them on the web. They appear to be mostly made in China. Of course, Leupold makes much better scopes; you get what you pay for.

Centurion Systems - Tactical Sniper Scopes - A selection of rifle scopes from Springfield Armory, Trijicon, Leupold, Aimpoint, EO Tech, Bushnell.

ATN, American Network Technologies Corp., makes a number of rifle scopes for both day- and night-time use.

Joel Spolsky - Fire and Motion - why it's OK to get just a little done every day. That's all most people do. Why you don't need to respond to every move your competition makes. As long as you're moving forward. [joel]

When I was an Israeli paratrooper a general stopped by to give us a little speech about strategy. In infantry battles, he told us, there is only one strategy: Fire and Motion. You move towards the enemy while firing your weapon. The firing forces him to keep his head down so he can't fire at you. (That's what the soldiers mean when they shout "cover me." It means, "fire at our enemy so he has to duck and can't fire at me while I run across this street, here." It works.) The motion allows you to conquer territory and get closer to your enemy, where your shots are much more likely to hit their target. If you're not moving, the enemy gets to decide what happens, which is not a good thing. If you're not firing, the enemy will fire at you, pinning you down.
I remembered this for a long time. I noticed how almost every kind of military strategy, from air force dogfights to large scale naval maneuvers, is based on the idea of Fire and Motion. It took me another fifteen years to realize that the principle of Fire and Motion is how you get things done in life. You have to move forward a little bit, every day. It doesn't matter if your code is lame and buggy and nobody wants it. If you are moving forward, writing code and fixing bugs constantly, time is on your side. Watch out when your competition fires at you. Do they just want to force you to keep busy reacting to their volleys, so you can't move forward?

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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