Mourn on the Fourth of July

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Thu, 04 Jul 2002 12:00:00 GMT

Tom Knapp at Rational Review - Mourn on the Fourth of July: A National Day of Protest - Today we protest the destruction by government of our inalienable rights. Wear a black armband. Turn your website black. Demand the restoration of your liberties, all ten amendments to the constitution, literally interpreted, rabidly enforced.

From David Carr at Libertarian Samizdata:

4th of July

Happy Birthday to you.......

Happy Birthday to you........

Happy Birthday, dear America.....

Happy Birthday to youuuuuuuuuuu.......

From The Federalist:

"...[W]e live in a great and free country only because our forefathers were willing to wage war rather than accept the peace that spells destruction. -- Teddy Roosevelt

and:

If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under. -- Ronald Reagan

and:

Revisiting the Revolutionary War is a bracing reminder that the fate of a continent, and the shape of the modern world, turned on the free choices of remarkably few Americans defying an empire. -- George Will

and:

Where liberty dwells, there is my country. -- Benjamin Franklin

and:

To say the court's ruling [that the Pledge of Allegiance is unconstitutional] is outrageous is like saying the sinking of the Titanic was unfortunate or that the events of September 11th were unpleasant. With their ruling, these two judges have effectively turned in their judicial robes and become court jesters. -- Malcolm Wallop

From the Robarms: VEPR forum:

...It does not say "shall not be infringed, unless the weapon in question is really scary." They're SUPPOSED to be scary. The occupants of Washington City are supposed to go to bed every night, wondering if anything they've done today will get them what it got Charles the First in 1649, or Louis XVI in 1793. -- Vin Suprynowicz

From kaba:

In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other. -- Voltaire

Robinson Armament makes/distributes semi-auto rifles in a number of different calibers. They've been buying a full page ad in Shotgun News for a while now. Prices are about $1600 for their American-made M96 (.223 & 7.62x39[?]) and $550-$600 for their Russian/American VEPR (7.62x39, 5.45x39, .223, .308). The 7.62x39 caliber rifles take AK mags. The M96 .223 takes M-16 mags. Added to my Arms Manufacturers page. My first AK may well be the VEPR K 7.62x39mm carbine, though I probably won't buy one for a while. m96.org covers the M96. The Guns Network has a Robarms: VEPR forum moderated by Alex Robinson, the company's namesake and designer. According to this thread, Robinson Arms is working on a new .308 that will take FAL magazines. It will be priced comparably to an M1A.

The .308 we're working on is not AK, AR, FAL, M14, or G3 based. It is a completely new design. We have only begun preliminary design but it looks good. We are getting very quick at turining new stuff around. Yet, until something is tested, I hate to say too much. It will be set up for FAL magazines because they are the cheapest.

Michael Cooper at The New York Times - Cigarettes Up to $7 a Pack With New Tax - expect a black market to blossom in the Big Apple. Actually, it's probably already there; they only raised the tax by eight cents. [trt-ny]

Jim Lesczynski, a former Libertarian Party candidate for City Council, testified that the tax would lead to the creation of a new black market, with illegal cigarette dealers getting into shootouts and terrorist groups like Hamas turning to cigarette smuggling to finance their activities. He told the mayor that he would be distributing free cigarettes around the city to protest the new tax. And he pointed to the portrait of Thomas Jefferson on the wall behind the mayor.

"I note with a little bit of irony," Mr. Lesczynski said, "that you're signing this bill below the picture of a gentleman farmer from Virginia who was a fan of tobacco, and not a fan of excessive taxation."

The mayor told Mr. Lesczynski not to give any free cigarettes to minors. As for the founding father, the mayor said, "the gentleman behind me, up on the picture, lived in a period where we did not have medical evidence of just what smoking does."

...

Richard Lipsky, a lobbyist for the owners of small delis, bodega owners and convenience stores, predicted in an interview that many neighborhood stores would not survive the higher tax as many smokers would buy their cigarettes over the Internet, from Indian reservations, from adjoining states or from smugglers.

Butler Shaffer at LewRockwell.com - July 4, 2002: Americans Celebrate Dependence Day! - it's called "Independence Day", but the spirit of the American Revolution is all but dead in Amerika today. How the Declaration of Independence would be received by today's media and government "officials". [geneice]

The thinking of such people as Jefferson, Sam and John Adams, John Hancock, and Franklin rarely informs political discussions anymore. These were genuine renaissance men -- an architect, a publisher as well as scientist and inventor, farmers, men of commerce, writers, philosophers -- whose visions far exceeded the crassness with which we are more familiar in Washington: the Johnsons, Nixons, and Bushes, along with their hirelings: the Kissingers, Albrights, McNamaras, Renos, Rumsfelds, and Ashcrofts. We have gone from men who believed in the supremacy and inviolability of the individual, to those who believe that human beings have no intrinsic worth, save as resources to be exploited on behalf of the power interests of a corporate-state leviathan.

...

The Declaration's appeal to the sovereignty of each individual has become weaker over the decades, as most of us accept the propriety of others exercising authority over our lives. We increasingly accept the proposition that we are not to be trusted with any genuine power over our lives and that, for our "own good," the state must act on our behalf. Even such limited power as is found in firecrackers, sparklers, and Roman candles, are deemed too "dangerous" to our well-being and so, on July 4th, we allow the government, with its fireworks displays, to celebrate our "liberty" and "independence" for us!

Dick Freely at No Treason Blog - Do Something - yes! [notreasonblog]

Park illegally. Smoke a joint. Drain a swamp. Sell something for cash. Buy something for cash. Don't report income. Submit false census data. Buy an unregistered gun. Sell an unregistered gun. Don't license your dog or cat. Piss on your own front lawn. Praise Jesus in front of a Planned Parenthood clinic. Praise free speech on any campus. Ice a terminally-ill relative who begs to die. Marry the person you love without getting a marriage certificate. Blow up a cactus. Chainsaw a really old tree on your property. Encrypt anything. Tune your car so that it sucks gas and kicks ass. Find a Saturday Night Special Assault Rifle and load it with Cop Killer Bullets, then use it to pop an endangered bunny twixt his soft, fuzzy ears. Fuck somebody who wants to fuck you in a nasty, illegal way. Peel out at a red light. Bet on something with someone. Write an email using the terms "auto sear" and "detonator". Burn something without a permit. Drive uninsured while talking on your cellphone. Hoard bullets and good pornography. Light a Marlboro in the mall.

God damn it, stop reading and moaning, go out and fucking do something outside the cattle car-shaped box.

L. Neil Smith at Roadhouse Sierra - Is Th-Th-That a Knife? - you bet your ass it is. Membership required. Get one today. [sierra]

Most people don't know that Asians use chopsticks because the Mongols, practicing "knife control", limited their Chinese subjects to one such kitchen implement per neighborhood or village. Food had to be cut up in advance because no one was allowed a tool to do it at the table. This is where we're headed unless we put the brakes on right now. The cure for the horrible condition we find ourselves in is going to be long, difficult, and painful. It begins with a highly pointed answer to the woman who self-righteously demands, "Is th-th-that a knife?"

David Codrea at KeepAndBearArms.com - The Armed Pilot: A Cautionary Tale - a graphic depiction of why pilots (and passengers, though he didn't say that) need to be armed. Now. [kaba]

Bruce Tober at NewsForge - Zimmermann to Network Associates: Sell PGP back to me, or open-source it - they're not cooperating. Bummer.

David H. Freedman at Business 2.0 - Are Holograms Finally for Real? - Ford is using them to display "prototypes" of their automobile designs. Slashdot comments here. [/.]

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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