Armed and Dangerous

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sat, 18 May 2002 12:00:00 GMT

From brad, a list of analogies in high school essays:

Her eyes were like two brown circles with big black dots in the center. -- Russell Beland, Springfield
Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever. -- Unknown
He was as tall as a six-foot-three-inch tree. -- Jack Bross, Chevy Chase
She had a deep, throaty, genuine laugh, like that sound a dog makes just before it throws up. -- Susan Reese, Arlington
It was an American tradition, like fathers chasing kids around with power tools. -- Brian Broadus, Charlottesville

loony.org - Suzuki knows who said it - an updated version of a joke I've seen before. Hehe. [loony]

Armed and Dangerous is Eric Raymond's new blogspot weblog. [mind]

Eric S. Raymond's experimental weblog for all the time I don't spend being an open-source advocate.

Steve Wolfram's A New Kind of Science arrived yesterday. It's packed with illustrations of celular automata. 1196 pages plus a long very-tiny-type index. The book proper ends at page 846. The rest is smaller-type notes. The Principle of Computational Equivalence appears on page 715. I look forward to reading and cogitating. Conclusion (p. 846):

Looking at the progress of science over the course of history one might assume that it would only be a matter of time before everything would somehow be predicted by science. But the Priciple of Computational Equivalence--and the phenomenon of computational irreducibility--now shows that this will never happen.

There will always be details that can be reduced further--and that will allow science to continue to show progress. But we now know that there are some fundamental boundaries to science and knowledge

And indeed in the end the Principle of Computational Equivalence encapsulates both the ultimate power and the ultimate weakness of science. For it implies that all the wonders of our universe can in effect be captured by simple rules, yet it shows that there can be no way to know all the consequences of these rules, except in effect just to watch and see how they unfold.

Jerry Pournelle - Thursday, May 16, 2002 (moves here next week) - Jerry saw the new Star Wars film at midnight on Thursday. He has a few crowd pictures. I'll probably take my family to see it tomorrow afternoon. [pournelle]

The movie is likely to be a big success. People will go see it. You should go see it.

But when you do, relax and enjoy it: don't try to make sense of the plot or anything else. The dialogue is ridiculous. There is not one competent military commander on either side. Both sides have so much power that there is no reason why one side has not destroyed the other before the picture ever starts. There's another opportunity to end the war as the movie opens (another pound of TNT in the opening scene and there is no movie). The assassins have enormous power and use none of it: thoroughly incompetent they are. Silly people the Jedi are, with the partial exception of Yoda who at least knows not to show up for a gunfight without some guns. The other Jedi always bring a knife to a gunfight.

...

I could go on, proving this is the silliest movie I have seen in years, but that's pointless. You don't go see a Lucas film for the logic.

Ginny Paseman at Sierra Times - The Trial of Brian and Ruth Christine - a detailed look at the injustice meted out by the state of Oregon to two God-loving parents. [sierra]

They say 'Justice is blind' ...It's also heartless. The trial of Brian and Ruth Christine is over, and it's hard to get back to life as normal, after witnessing the proceedings of this past week. I can't begin to give an account of every single witness. I can only hit on some of the high points. And I'm not going to go into the part when six year old Bethany Christine was forced to testify against her own parents, and when asked by the Defense, "who told you to say what you did", she pointed to the prosecutor, saying, "He did". I'm just going to tell about a few of the witnesses and my own impressions of the proceedings.

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Previous Posts:
Slow News Day
Mad Ogre
A Declaration of Civil Disobedience
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Anti-Gravity and Science Redefined
Return of the Son of Ashcroft's Second Amendment
Ashcroft's Second Amendment Some More
Ashcroft's Second Amendment
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Atrocities In American Airports

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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