Let's Roll!
When Dr Johnson described patriotism as the last refuge of the scoundrel, he ignored the enormous possibilities of the word Reform. -- US Senator Roscoe Conkling
Hijacked - cartoon commentary on the politically correct response of a pilot on learning that his plane has been hijacked. Hehe. [kaba]
I finished The Ballad of Carl Drega by Vin Suprynowicz. Read the last few chapters during commercials in The Shawshank Redemption, shown on CBS last night. Good film. Here's an excerpt from the "Practical Politics" chapter, pp. 673-674. Vin is writing to someone who recommended including addresses to write to at the end of his columns.
The problem is that we have gone far past the point when letters will do any good. You are merely providing the phrases they will test out in their "focus groups" and feed back to you. All that will do any good now (short of violent revolution or secession, which I do not endorse) is a much more active and widespread application of the principles of civil disobedience or resistance. For that to happen, people's anger and outrage have to build... not be vented in fruitless mouthings, about as effective as kicking your stalled car.
So, please don't write any letters. Instead, get mad. And then figure out some way--hopefully a way that will not put you, your family, or even the evil bureaucrats and tyrants themselves in the way of real bodily harm (yet)--to disobey, to monkey-wrench, to flout, to resist.
Vin Suprynowicz at The Libertarian Enterprise - He Spoke for a Nation - a memorium to Todd Beamer, Jeremy Glick, Thomas Burnett Jr. and Mark Bingham. American war heroes. [kaba]
Surely they've earned their medals and their flags -- and surely those who follow in their footsteps should no longer be disarmed by their own government -- do you think?
Joyce Lee Malcolm at The Boston Globe - Targeting the Myth of England's Gun Control - good article on how England's laws denying their citizens the right to self defense have made the country more dangerous. [trt-ny]
In August 1999, Tony Martin, a 55-year-old Norfolk farmer living alone in a shabby farmhouse, awakened to the sound of breaking glass as two professional burglars burst into his home. He had been robbed six times before but, like 70 percent of rural English villages, his had no police presence. He sneaked downstairs with a shotgun and shot at the intruders. Martin received life in prison for killing one burglar, 10 years for wounding the second, and 12 months for having an illegal shotgun.
...
This is a cautionary tale. America's founders, like their English forebears, regarded personal security as one of the three great and primary rights of mankind. That was their main reason for including a right for individuals to be armed. Everyone doesn't need to avail himself of that right. It is a dangerous right. But leaving personal protection to the police is also dangerous.
Michael Gilson De Lemos at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - The Freedom Balance Sheet: Answers to Government Junkies - Mr. De Lemos reminds us that critical thought must be checked against facts. That's why profit is a good thing. It keeps companies firmly grounded in fact. He compares America of 1900 with Amerika today. The balance sheet is decidedly in the red. [smith2004]
Bob Wallace at LewRockwell.com - Grandma Beats Up Airport Security Guards - I believe this is fiction, but I sure wish it weren't. [lew]
James Jennings at The Clarksdale (MS) Press Register via MAPInc - Roadblocks and Helicopters Part of Crackdown on Crime - Clarksdale police chief Steve Bingham's nazis "set up road blocks throughout the area targeting drug and gun violators." Four arrests were made. No report of any dead goons. Drat. [kaba]
He hinted there will be more road blocks in the future, as well as other "surprises" coming up. "We're through playing now," Bingham warned. "We mean business."
NearlyFreeSpeech.net provides web hosting for $1.00 per gigabyte of bandwidth plus $0.01/MB/month of disk space. They support Unix CGI scripts. They do NOT provide domain name services or email. Their privacy policy looks good. They are a commercial business. I hope their business model works. I know nothing more about them. I do not plan to switch. [pedantic misfit]
