My Airport "Security" Dream
I don't know what all the fuss is about. Every state in America already has a concealed weapons permit. It's called the 2nd Amendment. -- Jim Houck, Creative Director, Citizens of America
Steve Benson at The Arizona Republic - Stripped Bare - cartoon commentary on the draping by John Ashcroft of the Spirit of Justice. Hehe. [kaba]
I had a dream at the end of my meditation this morning. I was about to
board an airplane. One of the security drones asked if he could search
me. I asked if he had a warrant and when he didn't answer I told him
that he couldn't. He stared at me as if he didn't know what to do. I
told him that searching someone without a warrant is a felony. He
stared at me some more. Then he held out his hand and jerked his head
in the direction of the jetway. I gave him my ticket and boarded the
airplane.
Unlike some folks, I consider dreams to be neither prophetic nor
prescriptive. They are, however, a good indication of my subconscious
worries and desires. I'm glad that my freedom-loving attitude has sunk
this deeply into my subconscious. I wish that everyone would refuse to
be searched at airport checkpoints.
J. Orlin Grabbe - Coming Soon: DMT Digital Bearer Certificates - Wow! [grabbe]
A DMT Digital Bearer Certificate is an email text message representing currency or other value withdrawn from a DMT/ALTA account. Each certificate is encrypted by a passphrase.
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Why Is There So Much Money in Politics? - Dr. Paul agrees with me that the solution for the "campaign finance" problem is to radically shrink the federal budget by returning government to its constitutional limits.
I agree with him [a very prominent Senator] that a big problem exists. Special interest money has a huge influence in Washington, and it has a tremendous effect on both foreign and domestic policy. Yet we ought to be asking ourselves why corporations and interest groups are willing to give politicians millions of dollars in the first place. Obviously their motives are not altruistic. Simply put, they do it because the stakes are so high. They know government controls virtually every aspect of our economy and our lives, and that they must influence government to protect their interests. Our federal government, which was intended to operate as a very limited constitutional republic, has instead become a virtually socialist leviathan that redistributes trillions of dollars. We can hardly be surprised when countless special interests fight for the money. The only true solution to the campaign money problem is a return to a proper constitutional government that does not control the economy. Big government and big campaign money go hand-in-hand.
Ron Paul at The Liberty Committee - About Us - Dr. Paul asks you to join the Liberty Committee in fighting the socialists who are attempting to eradicate individual liberty in America. Membership is free, though you may donate money if you wish. When you join you will receive their email alerts.
Only last month legislation was quickly moving through the House Committee on International Relations that would have accelerated the transformation of the United States military into the standing army of the United Nations -- a long-sought goal of the world socialists. As a member of the committee, I strongly opposed the legislation as did thousands of freedom lovers throughout the country who told their U.S. representative "the US military is NOT the UN's military." The legislation was changed. Battle won.
Jeff Cooper's Commentaries - February 2002: Winter - Some more gems from the guru.
Recently an anecdote was passed around involving the teaching of marksmanship at a summer camp. A critic suggested to the operator of this activity that the teaching of marksmanship might be considered "irresponsible." The proper answer here, in my opinion, is that not teaching marksmanship to an adolescent would be irresponsible.
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We notice a tendency in the press, especially the British press, to regard "democratic" and "good" as equivalent words. This is not good thinking. A political institution may be good and not democratic, as with the Hapsburg Empire, or it can be democratic but not good, like the French Revolution. Democracy, which is simply majority rule, is a means to an end, but not an end in itself. Note that the word never appears in either the Declaration of Independence or the United States Constitution.
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It has long been our dogma that stopping power is an essential element of the defensive triad, and this remains true as ever. However, the purpose of defensive combat is to stop one's adversary, and a 22 rimfire hit in the tear duct will stop any fight of which we have knowledge. Thus we do not push the 22 pistol as a defensive sidearm, but we do insist that perfect placement with the 22 is decisive. There is a place for the miniature 22 pistol, as long as it is well crafted and easy to use. It appears that most defensive confrontations are terminated solely by the display of a firearm. This cannot be proven, but the mass of street experience suggests that it is true. Nobody wants to get shot with any sort of pistol, which brings us around to the first principle of gun fighting, which is "Have a gun!"
Kyle Lohmeier at The Texas Mercury - Sticking to My Guns - touches on lots of "gun control" issues, including a rather long-winded derivation of the fact that if (hand) guns are outlawed, only outlaws will have (hand) guns. [kaba]
Readers have seen me lambaste, lampoon, chide, insult, deride, and otherwise bitch out loud about gun control advocates in this nation. In fact, I've done so on such a frequent basis one might suspect that doing so is my favorite thing on Earth. It really isn't. This piece was intended to be the Last Pro-Gun Column. It likely won't be, because the anti-gun forces are so good at making me madder than hell, but that's the idea. It should be the Last, because the argument, from any logical, objective and rational standpoint, is already over and I've won.
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...The only difference between explaining science to seven-year-olds and debunking anti-gunners is that seven-year-olds, upon seeing scientific evidence, won't argue an interpretation of that evidence that is not only wholly incorrect, but also patently absurd. Doing just that in the face of overwhelming evidence, however, is the stock-and-trade of gun control advocates.
Todd Brendan Fahey at disinformation - The bell tolls for freerepublic.com - It appears likely that Free Republic will have to close its doors if ruled against in a lawsuit that will start next Monday, 11 February. If it is true that the owner, Jim Robinson, has started deleting posts he finds objectionable, I'll say, "good riddance." [kaba]
Posters last month, attempting to bring to light nefarious events relative to the CIA's MK-Ultra mind control experiments, and also the galling push of certain members of the Bush cabinet to usher in a National ID card, were rebuffed wholesale by Mr. Robinson. Threads were pulled summarily, and those posting the articles saw their accounts banned instantly. Mr. Robinson offered the following explanations:Lots of grumbling lately about deleted posts. Well, my friends, the simple truth is the game has changed. We are now at war. We have been attacked by a vicious cold-blooded force of international terrorists who want to destroy our nation, our freedom and our way of life. There is no doubt about this. Knowing this, I am alarmed to read some of the stuff that has been posted to FR in the last few days. This is not the time to raise doubts about our leaders. This is not the time to raise conspiracy theories. This is not the time to second guess our intelligence agencies. This is war. This is survival of our way of life. We must unite behind our Commander-in-chief and do all we possibly can to support him and our war efforts. We do not have a choice in this matter.
Libertarian Party Press Release - Super Bowl anti-drug/terrorist ads were dishonest 'Super Bowloney' - the war on freedom, er... some drugs, is responsible for funneling huge amounts of money into the hands of terrorists. The o.n.d.c.p. Super Bowl ads claiming the opposite were the usual drug war lies. Not to mention being a waste of our stolen tax money. But you knew that.
"The War on Drugs is a price support system for terrorists and drug pushers," he [Ron Crickenberger] said. "It turns ordinary, cheap plants like marijuana and poppies into fantastically lucrative black market products. Without the War on Drugs, the financial engine that fuels terrorist organizations would sputter to a halt."
Rachael Anne Fajardo at Strike the Root - The Airport Adventure - an 18-year-old's experience of airport "security". [safeskies]
My aunt and uncle brought me to the Tyler airport (again) on Saturday (the fifth) afternoon. The airport is extremely tiny. There is one "gate." You go through the security check, a member of the National Guard checks your boarding pass and I.D., and then you go outside and get on the teeny-tiny puddle-jumper. That particular flight, six people were traveling from Tyler to Dallas. Considering the size of the airport, they are extremely overstaffed, especially since they use the National Guard guys as extra hands. Basically, this means every passenger is thoroughly searched.
I was the last person to go through the metal detector, savoring every last second to hug my aunt and uncle good-bye. The woman had me turn on my laptop for her, and then she opened my backpack. She handed my purse (which was inside the backpack) to a woman next to her. The first woman flipped through my journal and another book, and looked into every section of my bag. The woman who had my purse had me open my camera and cell phone, and she went through every pocket of my purse and every fold in my wallet. Then the Tyler airport personnel had the most exciting moment of their post 9/11 lives--a canister of pepper spray was found dangling from my key chain.
Brad Edmonds at Laissez Faire City Times - A Contractarian Perspective on 9-11 - if our society were properly constructed, based on consensual contracts instead of monopolized governmentforce, not only would 9/11 likely have never happenned, but we would have dealt with it in a much more effective manner.
In a libertarian society, adults wouldn't have the legal ability to force each other to do things they don't want to do (except in the case of predators, who might be fined or otherwise punished for their crimes). People would still bind themselves to certain behaviors and promises, but only in the form of voluntarily-entered contracts. In this way, contracts would form the bulk of "law," as well as constitute what would serve as foreign policy. An interesting exercise: Imagine how 9/11 might have played out in such a society.
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And what of the future? As to airline security, the libertarian press has called for complete deregulation -- get the FAA out of the airline security business and allow airlines to secure their own private property. If airlines had been in charge of their own security, it's unlikely the 9/11 hijackings would have been attempted in the first place. Individuals and private organizations know already that there is inherent danger in guaranteeing a captive, disarmed audience, as the FAA has done, and as the government has done with our compulsory schools.
Paul Graham - On Lisp - Mr. Graham's book about Lisp programming techniques is out of print, so he's providing it for free download, in PostScript or PDF form. From his quotes page: [wes]
Greenspun's Tenth Rule of Programming: any sufficiently complicated C or Fortran program contains an ad hoc informally-specified bug-ridden slow implementation of half of Common Lisp. -- Phil Greenspun
Including Common Lisp. -- Robert Morris
