They Didn't Attack Switzerland

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 03 Jul 2002 12:00:00 GMT

russmo.com - Federal Risk Factor - cartoon commentary on the recent rash of forest fires. Hehe.

Catherine Milner in London The Sydney Morning Herald - Tate's tinned art leaves bad smell - $61,000 for a can of merda d'artista. Shit by any other name...

Bill Walker at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - They Didn't Attack Switzerland - how come do you suppose? Because Switzerland behaves how America should behave.

The features of the Swiss system for keeping the peace are simple. They mind their own business, and they have very strict gun control. By which they mean that every Swiss male must have a gun, except for those who have to carry a missile launcher also. Females are not subject to universal military training, but if you go to a Swiss rifle range there are always girls blasting away. So the Swiss can muster an official army somewhere around ten percent of their population, but the number of people who would actually start shooting if Switzerland were invaded is quite a bit higher, somewhere close to 100 percent of those able to pick up a gun. Plus, as a final defense, the Swiss have rigged the vaults of their banks for self destruction. Any dictator attacking Switzerland will find the gold in his numbered bank account buried in rubble hundreds of meters under a mountain. It is known that Hitler had a numbered account...

Switzerland has also provided for defense of the lives of its civilian population against nuclear terrorism. Realizing after World War Two that nuclear weapons in the hands of power-mad idiots posed a public health threat, the Swiss started a nationwide shelter-building program in 1960. By 1991, there was enough shelter space in Switzerland to protect everyone in their home or apartment, and also enough at their workplace and school. A Swiss child is generally never more than a few minutes from a fallout shelter with an air filter.

The entire Swiss shelter program was accomplished for somewhere on the order of 35 dollars per year per capita. I believe those are 1990 dollars, but it doesn't matter. The US spends vastly more every year to achieve a military only capable of intervening in non-nuclear-armed Third World nations. We have no defense for our children at all. The combined US armed forces are incapable of shooting down a single ballistic missile, or even intercepting a single low-flying propeller plane. Nor are there any bunkers with filtered air supplies for the inhabitants of our glass cities or crackerbox suburbs. The only civil defense in the US is for the President and the bureaucrats under Iron Mountain. Everyone else is nuclear fodder, except for those provident few (such as the Mormons) who built their own shelters to protect their families.

Ed Quillen at The Denver Post via Sierra Times' Sagebrush Saloon - A terrorist manifesto? - how Ashcroft et al would respond to the Declaration of Independence were it passed around today. [sierra]

Pressed for details, Hanover said that the originators of the document had "pledged their lives," which indicated a self-destructive willingness to die for their cause, as well as "their fortunes," which FBI analysts interpret as "signifying that they are people of some means, or else they would be talking about something other than their fortunes."

...

Displaying portions of the document on a screen, Ashcroft pointed out that "in this place, where a good American would say "endowed by God,' the author or authors of this terrorist manifesto says "endowed by their Creator.' And toward the end, they say they have a "Reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence,' rather than following the official American motto of "In God We trust.' "

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - What Does the First Amendment Really Mean? - the ninth district court got it bass ackwards.

The judges who made this unfortunate ruling simply do not understand the First amendment. It does not bar religious expression in public settings or anywhere else. In fact, it expressly prohibits federal interference in the free expression of religion. Far from mandating strict secularism in schools, it instead bars the federal government from prohibiting the pledge of allegiance, school prayer, or any other religious expression. The politicians and judges pushing the removal of religion from public life are violating the First amendment, not upholding it.

Patti Bond at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution - Big Orange goes red, white, blue: Home Depot decides to do business with the feds - they apparently found a way to avoid some of the reporting requirements that were irking them. Or they just caved under pressure. [unknown]

Rense.com - 80-Yr Old Great Grandma Strip-Searched By Airport Security - disgusting. [grabbe]

New Scientist - Semen acts as an anti-depressant - so make love with only your wife and use a diaphram, not a condom. If she's feeling bitchy, she really does just need to get laid. [lew]

Susan Callaway at Sierra Times - Sierra Times Review of The Ballad Of Carl Drega, by Vin Suprynowicz - Get it today. [sierra]

So many good books... so little time. This one is worth the time.

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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