Have a Nice Police State!
He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty, he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. -- Thomas Paineand:
Liberty is the only thing you cannot have unless you are willing to give it to others. -- Wllllam Allen White
russmo.com - Presidential War Games - cartoon commentary on the war on "terrorism". Hehe.
Dwayne Powell at Creators Syndicate - Colin and Moses - cartoon commentary on Colin Powell's visit to the Middle East. My title. Hehe. [sierra]
The Onion - Nevada to Phase Out Laws Altogether - OK, so it's a joke. We can dream, can't we? [bluebutton]
Claire Wolfe at Roadhouse Sierra - Have a nice police state! - image control for the new airport security police state, designed by, who else, Disney. Membership required. Get one today. [sierra]
Welcome to the kinder , gentler police state. The compassionate conservative's police state.
You probably think I'm kidding.
Well, maybe. Just a tad. But if John ("Mr. Shoot First and Blame the Corpses Later") McGaw, has his way, the coming American police state is going to be a really, really friendly police state. Cheerful, likable, efficient, public- relations oriented, and all-in-all just the darnedest, nicest police state whose jackboot has ever landed on your face.
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Disney designing police checkpoints? Isn't that like having Mickey Mouse stage rallies at Nuremberg?
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Do they think that if an ATF agent carved smiley faces instead of notches in the butt of his gun that the dead of Waco wouldn't have been victims of a police state raid? Do they think that if guards in the gulag had handed out gift certificates for a free bowl of borscht at Boris's Cafe, the Siberian exiles would have been free as little birdies? Do they think that if the Nazis had smiled more, the Jews wouldn't have minded so terribly much being gassed?
Thomas L. Knapp at Rational Review - Everything in Moderation - Libertarians are often characterized as extremists. In reality, it's the conventional political parties that are populated by extremists. Libertarians are the political spectrum's only moderates. Right on, brother Tom!
If I were to tell you that I believed I had a right to come into your home, rummage through your medicine cabinet, confiscate the medications which did not meet with my approval and imprison you for having possessed them, you'd label me as an extremist, most probably of the terrorist sort. And you'd be spot-on right.
Slap a fify-cent label on that activity, however -- for the sake of argument, I'll call myself the "Office of National Drug Control Policy" or the "Drug Enforcement Agency" or even the "Food and Drug Administration" -- and suddenly my activities take on a patina of legitimacy, even normalcy (at least as long as it is your neighbor's medicine cabinet and not yours, of course).
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Apply this to your pet issue. Gay marriage? Who but an extremist would claim the "right" to determine the consensual living arrangements of a couple? Guns? Who but an extremist would claim the "right" to disarm law-abiding victims and leave them defenseless against violent criminals (and government extremists)? Taxes? I don't know about you, brother, but we have a name for people who steal -- thieves. And another name for people who claim to have a "right" to do so and tell us that we're better off for having allowed them to: "nuts." Or, if you will, "extremists."
The extent to which we accept armed bands of thugs circulating among us and dictating our modes of living, while simultaneously extorting funds from their victims to finance enforcement of their tin-horn edicts, is the extent to which we have incorporated extremism into our worldview.
R. Lee Wrights at Rational Review - The Sanity of Self-Defense - ain't nobody gonna defend you but yourself. A gun is the most effective way to do it. Get one. Pray you never need it. Use it if you have to.
Now, while I was busy learning life's lessons the hard way about everything from facing down bullies intent on relieving me of my milk money to dealing with thugs that were determined to do me harm, my father was teaching me something else. Dad was tutoring me in the means by which I could protect myself. He taught me the importance of the ability to meet force with force while avoiding force whenever humanly possible. He taught me to use my wits instead of weapons when it was appropriate, but made sure I knew how to use a weapon when left with no other alternative. Dad also taught me that an unmolested firearm, even fully loaded, is harmless. Ah, there's the rub.
It is this simple fact that trumpets the safety of firearms. Guns do not kill people! They are not animate with the ability to remove themselves from their hiding places and discharging without external manipulation. The truth is people kill people. Sometimes they use guns; sometimes they use blades; sometimes they use baseball bats; and sometimes they use their hands. The fact remains that more gun legislation, leading to stricter gun registration, does not and will not stop the killing. People were killing each other long before the first black-powder device was invented (remember, Cain killed Abel with a rock); and, they will continue to kill each other even if you were able to remove every firearm from the face of the planet. It is insane to disarm ourselves only to be left at the mercy of criminals who are no more troubled by the State's new laws than they were with the old ones.
So, given the generally accepted facts that police and government cannot protect us, coupled with the reality that more laws just give criminals more to ignore, why is it considered, by some, an unstable stance to champion the right of every individual to defend themselves, by any means at their disposal, should the need arise? Why would anyone try to turn the sanity of self-defense into apparent fanatical advocacy for the return of "old West shoot-outs?" Fear is a very effective tool, that's why.
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As I have said before many times, "Enough is enough! Buy a gun, the life you save will probably be your own or that of someone you love."
Alan Bock at Antiwar.com - Arrogance of Empire - Have ordinary Americans bought into the notion of a U.S. empire? Mr. Bock and I both hope not. [trt-ny]
For all the complex ties of history, sympathy and aid that exist, Israel is a separate nation, not a province of the United States. Whether or not you approve of the notion of independent, sovereign nation-states -- and I'm inclined to be critical of the concept and to hope the era of the nation-state that began to flower with a vengeance in the 16th century is drawing to a close -- that is the current reigning myth of international relations.
The only way it would be likely that a President of the United States could simply issue orders to another national leader would be if he were the Emperor of the World. To be sure, the United States is the dominant power in a largely unipolar world, accounting for roughly 40 percent of all the "defense" spending in the world. But for all that the president is still not quite in a position to bark orders and expect the leaders of other countries to snap to.
Tom Bridgeland at Project: Safe Skies - Safe Skies letter campaign-Travel Agents - Mr. Bridgeland penned a letter to travel agents telling them the benefits to them of allowing airlines to choose whether to permit armed passengers on their flights. [safeskies]
If your business is hurting due to loss of flying customers, you should consider petitioning your representatives in Congress, and the FAA, to allow airline companies to make the decision whether to permit armed passengers or not. Some will and some won't, and your clients can choose which they prefer. That is the true American way. Let people choose the risk they wish to take for themselves. I know which choice I will make given the chance!
Dan Harrie at the Salt Lake Tribune - Felon Argues For Gun Rights - I agree with him. Even former felons have the right to defend themselves. If we're not willing to allow former felons to defend their lives, then we should execute them or keep them locked up. Have they "paid their debt to society" or not? Same goes for laws refusing licenses to former felons (not that anyone should require a license to do anything). The proper way to control violent felons is for their intended victims to kill them at the scene of the intended crime. [firearmnews]
Gun Owners of America - Instant Registration Check Threatens Gun Owners' Rights - why the National Instant Check System (NICS), created by the Brady Bill, is a really bad idea. It doesn't stop criminals, and it enables registration of firearms, which has historically, even here in the U.S. of A., led to confiscation. [firearmnews]
Jack Bryar at NewsForge - Open Source advocates may find opposing Hollings bill makes for strange bedfellows - the excrement from the senator from Disney is looking very unlikely to pass. Good. [newsforge]
Declan McCullagh at Wired - Pols Roasted Over Pet Pork - the "peckerwoods" over at Citizens Against Government Waste have released their annual roundup of profligate pork spending, much to the dismay of the roasted congress critters. Oink. [wired]
Jim March at KeepAndBearArms.com - Tactical PR In The RKBA Wars: A rebuttal to two recent KABA articles - in defense of the NRA's "It Can't Happen Here" video and Charleton Heston's remarks on "assault weapons". [kaba]
Angel Shamaya at KeepAndBearArms.com - Tactical PR Failed: Continuing the Debate on NRA's Gun Prohibitionism - Angel's rebuttal to Mr. March'es NRA defense. [kaba]
Libertarian Party Press Releases - New copyright protection bill would turn government into entertainment 'rent-a-cop' - The LP's view of the excrement from the senator from Disney.
"While the federal government may have a legitimate role in protecting copyrighted material, that role does not extend to acting as a technology rent-a-cop to protect the profits of huge entertainment corporations like Disney, Sony, and DreamWorks."
Rich Karlgaard at Forbes - Perpetual Motion Lives - "Andy Grove giveth, Bill Gates taketh away." On the continual increase in computer speed and storage capacity and the accompanying increase in software conplexity and content size. [leor]
