No More 9/11: Arm the Pilots!

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 28 Mar 2002 13:00:00 GMT

Garner at The Washington Times - Airport Security - cartoon commentary on reports that lots of knives and guns got through in recent security checks. Hehe. [sierra]

From Doctors for Sensible Gun Laws:

You do not examine legislation in light of the benefits it will convey if properly administered, but in light of the wrongs it would do and the harms it would cause if improperly administered. -- Lyndon B. Johnson

David Codrea at KeepAndBearArms.com - Inform the Pilots: An Open Letter to Mineta and Ridge - Arm the pilots. Arm the passengers.

As long as I have your ear, please indulge me in one further question: Because you have declared airports and aircraft "Second Amendment-free/Terrorist Empowerment Zones," will you now accept responsibility for crew and passenger safety? By responsibility, I mean fiscal liability for failure to perform a duty -- will you issue a legally enforceable guarantee acknowledging that, by denying individuals the means of defense and assuming all authority for providing security, a legally recognized "special relationship" will exist between the federal government, the carriers and the flying public?

...

Your prompt response to my specific questions will be appreciated -- and shared. In the absence of an affirmative reply to these concerns, may we count on you to lead by example, and limit your security details' arms to stun guns?

Declan McCullagh at Wired - Anti-Copy Bill Slams Coders - the ramifications of Fritz Hollings latest excrement will likely cause a Million Geek March on Washington once geeks figure it out. [unknown]

Richard Forno at infowarrior.org - Operation ENDURING VALENTI - more on the new bill from the "senator from Disney". Mr. Forno got one thing wrong, he forgot about the grandfather clause, but I like his style. [unknown]

Perhaps we should call this group of Emmy-Award winners the "American Techniban" movement, given their fanatical views on technology, evolution, and society.

...

This is the latest episode in a two decade-old argument made by the entertainment industry. From the early days of the VCR, to cassette tape recorders, floppy disks, computers, and now the Internet, the Hollywood moguls continually belief that emerging technology spells doom for their profits and ability to deliver 'quality content' to the American public. According to some reports, in 2001, videocassette rental and sales totaled about $11 billion and exceeded box office receipts by over $2 billion. Ironically, the VCR is the same device once referred to by Jack Valenti as the 'Boston Strangler' that would decimate the film industry. Funny that both he and the American film industry are still around and profiting beyond the Dreams of Avarice.

...

According to some reports, America's domestic spending on computing technology is over $600 billion a year, while Hollywood generates a measly $35 billion to the national economy. CBDTPA would effectively compell a huge, dynamic industry - comprised of large and small companies, individuals, and academic researchers - to redefine itself simply to preserve the obsolete business models of the American entertainment industry.

Jeremy Bowers at Jerf.org - The CBDTPA Is Immune to Criticism - a good exposition of the absurdity of the new bill from the senator from Disney. [picks]

Dave Winer's DaveNet - Eisner made over $700 million in 5 years - Eisner's new legislation is the pot calling the kettle black.

In fact he's is dangerously out on a limb, but I doubt if he sees it. Napster wasn't a narrow thing. There were tens of millions of users. It was a cultural phenomenon, bigger than anything Hollywood has ever manufactured. People know what nirvana looks like, we got a great demo, and that's what we want.

Business is simple, but Eisner makes it sound complex. Find a way to give the people what they want and you stay in business. Try to turn the clock back, and become a memory. They had a good thing going for a long time. The users got snookered into giving him all the money and none to the creative people. That's over. Imho, Eisner and his ilk were the pirates.

DarkerIRC "is a Java applet which provides IRC client functionality. It was written with the idea of it to be highly configurable (through the param tags) and still easy to install and maintain." haven't tried it. [meat]

CrossOver Office "allows you to install your favorite Windows productivity applications in Linux, without needing a Microsoft Operating System license. It includes an easy-to-use, single-click interface, which makes installing a Windows application simple and fast. Once installed, your application will integrate directly with your GNOME or KDE environment." Haven't tried it. [meat]

SMYLE "(Storage that Makes Your Life Easier) is a hierachical/relational database written in and for Java. Smyle is seamlessly integrated with Java and not an alien artifact like SQL." Looks like a good idea, but I haven't tried it. [meat]

RSS Viewer "is a Java-based ticker application. It uses JAXP to parse RSS-sites (RDF site summary). It is easy to use and easy to configure. It has 2 different views: a browser-like view with graphics and search-boxes, and a simple ticker-view which saves place on your desktop." I got it to work after playing with it a while. I think it'll work just by double-clicking the jar file if you've got JDK 1.4 installed as your default Java VM. The browser link works once you configure it. Missing is any parsing of the HTML. I'll stick with Feedreader. [meat]

Tina Gasperson at NewsForge - MS Office Runs on Linux Now - a review of CrossOver Office, the new $54.95 utility that allows you to run Microsoft Office in Linux. [newsforge]

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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