Adirondack Weekend

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 01 Jul 2002 12:00:00 GMT

From The Federalist:

Since I was a small boy, two states have been added to our country, and two words have been added to the Pledge of Allegiance: Under God. Wouldn't it be a pity if someone said that is a prayer, and that would be eliminated from schools, too? -- Red Skelton concluding his TV show commentary presciently explaining the Pledge of Allegiance, January 14, 1969

Scott Bieser at The Libertarian Enterprise - Looking Fat - cartoon commentary on Herr GW. Hehe.

I took the family to the Adirondocks for the weekend. We left early Saturday morning, drove four hours to the town of Saranac Lake, picked up a rental canoe, met my boss and his friend, registered, put in at an inlet to Middle Saranac Lake, rowed to and across the lake to a flooded penninsula, set up camp, ate, slept, ate, took down camp, rowed back, repacked the car, returned the canoe, stopped at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, and drove home. Then Christopher and I rushed off the the theater to see Minority Report. Good film if a bit wierd. Two hours and forty minutes. "Everybody Runs." A vision of the future I hope to avoid: retinal eye scans everywhere, cars automatically driven to their destination, tracked by the authorities. People arrested and put in stasis for murders they have not yet committed because of the visions taken from the brains of three people claimed to be able to foresee the future.

bad_dad_brad at The Firing Line - Banning assault rifles - Bah! - a response to a query as to whether the AR180B will be legal in The People's Republic of Kalifornia. Copied in its entirety:

Banning assault rifles - Bah! A rifle is a rifle. A gun is a gun. A knife is a knife.

Lincoln was assasinated with a derringer. Garfield and McKinley with revolvers (as I recall). F. D. Roosevelt almost with a revolver. J. Kennedy was wacked with a rusty Italian bolt Mauser action hunting rifle adapted for combat and cheaply scoped. M. L. King was slayed with a Browning pump hunting rifle (one shot-one kill). R. Kennedy and almost Reagan with a .22 cheap but effective revolver.

Ammusing isn't it? Any semi-automatic rifle is the same, whether it has a pistol grip, wood or plastic furniture. A .223 Mini-14 in any config from Ruger in close quarters is as deadly and realible a weapon as any AR-15, AK, or AR-180B (just ask the FBI about 1987). Big feeling politics is all those stupid laws are about.

Want to clear a room, use a Winchester Defender in 12GA, or for that matter 20GA. Want to assasinate someone from a distance, a Rem 700 in any caliber .223 and above with a good scope will do the job.

Can you imagine, in Illinois, they still ban switchblades because of some stupid 50's blackboard jungle movie that scared some housewives, yet today's legal one hand opening knives are much more quick and deadly than any cheap Italian POS brittle switchblade.

Go figure.

From an office memo from American Airlines. Your stolen tax dollars being squandered:

Screening of Liquids

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued guidance to their screening vendors and employees regarding the screening of liquids and foods through security checkpoints. Although American Airlines is not responsible for the enforcement of the beverage policy, it will be helpful to make everyone aware of the requirement and to provide information in the interest of customer service.

Highlights of the liquid and food screening guidance:

No screener may request that a passenger drink from any container of liquid as a clearance procedure.
All liquids and foods that are allowed through the screening checkpoint must be in either an unopened factory sealed container or a sealable/spill-proof container (e.g. screw top bottle, baby bottle with nipple, tupperware, etc.).
Each container must be subject to x-ray.

L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - July Forth! - America's woes at the command of the "Boot On Your Neck" (BOYN) party. And a new idea to fix it. "VOTE FOR NO IMCUMBENTS", except Ron Paul. [tle]

I don't know whether you've noticed it or not, but everybody who was pretending to be in charge of America the day before September 11, 2001, is still pretending to be in charge. The difference is that they have more money to play with, and a hell of a lot more power over our lives.

If this were a decent civilization, of course, the President, the Vice President, the entire Cabinet, and every military officer above the rank of lieutenant colonel (or its bureaucratic equivalent) would have cut their bellies, hanged themselves, or taken a single cartridge and their Webley revolvers into an adjacent room and done the decent thing. We Americans would have had an entirely new government to kick around.

...

The parties do the nominating, so there's never anything like a free election, and we respond exactly like halfwitted cattle who think they get to choose which farmer milks and butcher them, and that this somehow makes it acceptable.

...

We used to say, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" Today, I ask you, what if they gave an election, and everybody came -- but nobody voted for anybody who was already in office?

I'll report tomorrow on more articles in this week's issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, "S'Allez Forth!", in sha' allah.

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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