No Answers = No Taxes
Clymer Tools Reemers has a good database of cartridge dimensions. For example, you can use it to tell the small differences between .308 Winchester and 7.62mm Nato. [ar15.com]
egunz.com is a new site with a firearms discussion forum. They intend to implement an auction section as well. Register to win a Ruger 10/22.
Harry Browne at World Net Daily - Let's just scrap the Bill of Rights - the final burning of the Bill or Rights in the name of security.
In early 2001, the only part of the Constitution that still provided any protection for us was the Bill of Rights. Even with outrages such as asset forfeiture and no-knock warrants, most accused Americans still enjoyed the ability to confront witnesses against them, a right to a speedy trial by jury, and protection from cruel and unusual punishment.
But no more. Apparently, the Bill of Rights is a luxury Americans can no longer afford.
At least that's the way George Bush, Dick Cheney and John Ashcroft see it.
They've locked up Jose Padilla and thrown away the key. No attorney, no charges against him, no trial, no plans for a trial.
L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - "Now You Have A Choice!" - Mr. Smith responds to Mr. Graves' hatred of gunnies in last week's TLE. The problem with converting gunnies to libertarianism is that they're stubborn. Once you convince them, however, they'll support you to the death. Druggies tend to be limp-minded liberals with no principles. They'll say they support you today, but stab you in the back tomorrow.
It's working, but there are no shortcuts. The humbling fact is that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and John Ashcroft are manufacturing more allies for us than we could ever have done on our own.
Carl Bussjaeger at The Libertarian Enterprise - Fear-mongering Bureau of Incompetence - he forgot to call them dickheads. Oh well, nobody's perfect. [tle]
And they're using this bogus dirty bomb plot (read the news carefully - the feds never actually claim that Padilla did anything whatsoever to implement any act of violence in this little brouhaha) as a scare tactic to justify more criminal intrusion into the lives of honest Americans.
Their new message: Watch out! Anyone may be a terrorist; even the guy next door. Let us protect you.
Which I must admit is consistent with US JBT General Ashcroft's assertion that anyone who criticizes the fit of his jackboots is a terrorist.
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Digression: Show of hands. How many of you still think the Constitution is good for anything but toilet paper?
Jeff Elkins at The Libertarian Enterprise - The Scare Scam - More on Jose Padilla's denial of civil rights by the department of injustice, which, BTW, is a federal felony. [tle]
Why Ashcroft is in Moscow, I don't know, but it might well be to receive some police state training from past masters, although I think he's doing pretty good without it.
Padilla is being held by the Defense Department as an "enemy combatant," which under the Bush/Ashcroft rules of "justice" allows him to be held indefinitely and questioned without an attorney present. Which happens to be a clear violation of the 6th Amendment of the Constitution, not that it matters any more, except perhaps to historians.
Bob Wallace at The Libertarian Enterprise - Love Your Neighbor As Yourself - the golden rule is really just an expression of the fact that capitalism promotes win-win outcomes. [tle]
Peoples' attempt to get around these laws appear to be based on the idea of the Zero-Sum Game. Everything is a pie. If you get a bigger slice of the pie, then I have to get a smaller one. If you have more money, I have less. Everything is supposedly finite. If I don't get what I can, then you will. Socialism is based on the finite pie. Capitalism is based on growing the pie.
Jackney Sneeb's book, There's No Government Like No Government: The Non-Voter's Manifesto, will be published in early July. You can read a page of it at the link.
Andrew Schneider at The St. Louis Post-Dispatch - Home Depot stops doing business with federal government - good for them. [smith2004]
Bob Schulz at We The People - Schulz's Letter to the IRS: No Answers = No Taxes - Bob Schulz sent this letter to the IRS, refusing to pay his taxes for 2001, 2002, and all future years. Bravo, Mr. Schulz. Anyone care to guess how long it will the nazis them to jail him? [trt-ny]
William Anderson at The Ludwig von Mises Institute - The Mafia State - some thoughts on the death of John Gotti, whose wealth was made possible by the government.
This is not to excuse the murder and mayhem that mafiosoi inflicted upon each other, but it needs to be pointed out that violence always accompanies markets that the state has declared illegal. As mentioned earlier, during Prohibition, gangsters like Al Capone were in charge of producing and distributing alcoholic beverages. Today, the producers and distributors generally are mild-mannered and law abiding, and their activities are not accompanied by violence, at least on their part. Or, as one libertarian friend put it to me, one does not see drivers of beer trucks shooting at each other.
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Like Gotti, the state takes the lives of individuals. Unlike Gotti, it is rare that a representative of government who has killed someone, even if that killing is not in self- defense, ever faces justice for that homicide. From the government agents at Waco to the Air Force pilot who fired a missile into a Serbian passenger train and killed 24 innocent men, women, and children, these people either are praised as heroes or excused for causing "collateral damage."
