Second Amendment Newspeak
Aaron Zelman and Claire Wolfe at JPFO - Second-Amendment Setup: What They Say Isn't What You Get - Schumer and Ashcroft both say that the second amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, but they both work hard at restricting that right into oblivion. GW's Project Safe Neighborhoods is bad mojo. Newspeak reigns supreme. [jpfo]
The Clinton administration was ruthless about passing laws, but lax about enforcing them. It takes a law-and-order Republican administration -- enthusiastically backed by organizations like the National Rifle Association -- to carry out the Democrats' dirty work.
This is what Margaret Thatcher described at the "ratcheting process," in which a "left-wing" government pushes through policies that were previously intolerable to the people, and a "right-wing" government then enforces policies it once ardently opposed after those policies have become business-as-usual.
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In another portion of his statement to the NRA, Ashcroft gave, as an example of "compelling state interests," the authority to forbid convicted felons from owning firearms. But again, government mission creep makes even this reasonable- sounding authority far more dangerous than it appears. When felons were first forbidden to own firearms, a person usually had to commit terrible, violent criminal deeds to become a felon. Now you can make an error on EPA or IRS paperwork and be forbidden forever to own firearms -- without the slightest suspicion that you are a threat to anyone.
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If we are foolish enough to keep paying attention to what they say, rather than what they do, their cynical misuse of our trust and the English language will have no limit. And neither will the injustice they can impose.
Richard Poe - Spirit of 9-11 Stops Mass Murder in New York - a couple of unarmed waitresses stopped a rascist lunatic who had shot one man, taken 16 hostages, and started spraying them with kerosene saying that, "White people are going to burn tonight." Yet New York's cops still claim that citizens should not be armed. [trt-ny]
Our women face death unarmed and unprotected, forced to fight criminals with their bare hands. That they're tough enough to take it is a credit to our women -- but a shame to every New Yorker, cop or civilian, who presumes to call himself a man.
L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - Twenty-Three Skiddoo! - In defense of the SUV. Ends with an idea that he didn't say about how to handle folks who want to tax it into oblivion. [tle]
Speaking of fossil fuel, however, it's time we got a few points straight, right now and forever. First, once I've paid for the stuff, it's mine, and nobody's frigging business how much I use or how I use it. What else is it for, anyway? It doesn't do anybody a bit of good when it stays in the ground. Once it's been extracted and refined, you can't drink it or bathe in it, and it makes extremely poor suntan lotion.
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They whine that petroleum is irreplaceable, a finite resource -- "resource" being a word they use when they're making off with somebody else's property. If you ask me, the sooner we use it up, the sooner we can get on to other things. I rather fancy the idea of a nuclear SUV, myself.
They don't really need to worry, in any case. Silverfoot Junior is busy right now, acquiring more "resources" for them in central Asia. That's what his "War on Terror" is all about. That's all it's about, war on the terror he and his buddies feel when they wake in the middle of the night, hearts pounding, limbs shaking, leaking sweat from every pore, for fear of losing all their ill-gotten wealth and illegitimate power.
The Libertarian Enterprise - Letters from Pamela B. Maltzman, Sam, William Blair, L. Neil Smith, Joe Johnson, and Scott Graves - More gunny vs. druggy argument. I liked Joe Johnson's offerring. Mr. Johnson is a gunny who was formerly a drug warrior, but saw the light.
Vin Suprynowicz at The Libertarian Enterprise - Picking the Deepest Pocket: Ohio's High Court Allows Liability Lottery to Proceed - commentary on the Ohio Supreme Court's 4-3 decision to allow Cincinatti's lawsuit against gun manufacturers to proceed. [tle]
Patrick K Martin at The Libertarian Enterprise - The List - why Mr. Martin is proud he's gotten on the government's "list". Why you should get on it, too. [tle]
Jeff Elkins at The Libertarian Enterprise - Playing PADI Cake With Liberty - The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) gave its entire membership list to the FBI. So if you learned SCUBA diving from them, expect a knock at your door.
L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - Ugh! - good examples of why giving a sports team an Indian name honors those named, not the other way round. [tle]
Well then, how about the animal kingdom? Why are there no Laredo Leaches, Salem Slugs, Boston Box Elder Bugs, or Atlanta AIDS Virus? Again, it's because investors tend to name their teams after creatures that are majestic or commendably fierce. Eagles became a team symbol, not because, as Robert Heinlein once pointed out, "They eat carrion, never pick on anything their own size, and will soon be extinct", but because of the thousands of years of mythology behind them and the way they look, soaring in the sky. Sharks get honored, not because they're one of the most disgusting organisms ever to evolve, and have a brain the size of a withered peanut, but because they're ferocious and implacable.
So what does it mean, when a sports team is named, for example, the Atlanta Braves or the Cleveland Indians, and certain individuals -- falsely claiming to be "native Americans" (there are no native Americans, ask Folsom Man -- oops, you can't; the Indians killed and ate him), and to represent the group being honored -- pretend to be insulted?
