What Freedoms Are Left?

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 07 Jul 2002 12:00:00 GMT

Danziger - The Globalization Pledge - Oh my! [sierra]

Billy Beck - Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness - a photographic example of the classic phrase. Hehe.

Billy Beck - "Too Late For a Political Solution?" - Back in 1996, Mr. Beck agreed with a poster to a militia board that it was too late for a political solution, but he had another option to civil war.

At this point, there is no way for me to proceed without taking a stand: I am certain that the essential political, and thus cultural, dispute is between those who believe that people are the subjects of government, and that it is good for a government to manage the affairs of its subjects, and those who hold that their lives are not subject to the management of government.

...

I see a course lying between your two alternatives. That course is massive, passive, civil disobedience.

I am convinced that sufficient numbers of rational individuals could focus the essential dispute of our times by simply, and peacefully, rejecting the claims of government.

Stop paying taxes of every kind. Stop voting. Burn drivers' licenses, social security cards, marriage licenses, business licenses, and every other document which attaches the sanction of government to one's own private affairs. Cease, immediately, the obedience to every article of posited law which our "representatives" scribble across our days and years. Conduct one's affairs according to the right, regardless of the "law".

I am fully aware of the implications of such a course.

My Henry Lever Youth Model .22 does a fine job cycling Aguila Colibri. Still can't believe how quiet that stuff is. Just a little puff of air.

Doreen Miller at Rense.com - Tragedy In America - High Treason: In The US Government - hang 'em all: every congress critter who voted for this abomination and King George, who signed it into law. [grabbe]

Q: Just who is a terrorist?

A: Anyone (non-U.S. citizen or U.S. citizen alike) Attorney General Ashcroft designates as one.

Q: On what evidence can Ashcroft designate someone as a terrorist?

A: Mere suspicion and hearsay.

Q: What legal rights and Constitutional protections does someone detained on the grounds of being a suspected terrorist have?

A: Next to none.

It may be difficult for some hard-core, patriotic Americans to believe the veracity of the preceding question and answer series, but the answers to the questions are based upon the implications and dangerous ramifications of the USA PATRIOT Act (USAPA) that was passed last October by so-called congressional representatives who never bothered to even read or debate it.

...

In light of the egregious evisceration of the Bill of Rights that this law undertakes, those who blindly supported and signed this blatantly unconstitutional act into law should be collectively condemned and charged for high treason to the Constitution and the people of the United States of America.

Warren Tilson at anti-state.com - Drug Legalization Brings Misery (Satire) - after we deregulate guns and drugs, what'll happen to the cops who used to prosecute these "crimes"? They'll be down and out, that's what. Good. As I said over a year ago, they, and the politicians who make the drug war laws they enforce, are criminals, guilty of assault and kidnapping. [anti-state]

Charles Moore at The Telegraph - A free country - "Liberty or death," says The Telegraph this week. [lew]

The Daily Telegraph does not support the doctrinaire libertarian argument which states that freedom is the only good. Clearly, all states have a need for order, and the price of one person's freedom can be too high for somebody else. But we do believe that there should always be a presumption in favour of freedom.

The burden should not be on people to prove why they should be allowed to do something, but on the authorities to prove why they shouldn't. Thus, why shouldn't people be free to hunt, or smoke cannabis, or build an extension to their house, or travel without an identity card, or read pornography on the internet, or adopt children? There may be reasons to prevent any or all of these things, but the restrictors should be the ones who have to make their case.

...

Today, The Daily Telegraph starts its "A Free Country" campaign. Week by week, and in major individual investigations, we shall examine how freedom is being taken away, whether by Westminster or Whitehall or Brussels or any other authority. We shall try to annoy the control freaks, whether they are Right, Left or Centre, and we shall welcome allies for freedom from all quarters. The Conservative leadership contestants hardly breathe a word about freedom. The Labour Government's Queen's Speech is a shopping list of attacks on our liberties. There's plenty to do. Libertad o muerte!

Graham Lawton at AlterNet.org - The Great Open Source Giveaway - the open source concept is starting to spill out into non-software areas, e.g. opencola, a soft drink with the recipe available on-line. Well, not quite. The URL in the article doesn't work, and opencola.com sells a collaborative search engine, not an open source soft drink. Aptly, the article is printed under the Design Science copyleft, not copyright. [leor]

The new issue of The Libertarian Enterprise, "What Freedoms Are Left?", is up. Articles I liked:

The Kabinet of Georg Busch by L Neil Smith - why we should strongly oppose the creation of a department of homeland security. Instead, let's dismantle the other unconstitutional departments and let American's take care of themselves.
Americans soon learned who it was they really needed protection from, as hundreds, perhaps thousands, of mostly Moslem individuals -- some of whom were American citizens, and many more of whom had lived peacefully and productively in the United States for decades -- were illegally abducted and detained in a secret gulag, incommunicado, out of reach of their terrified families, and without the benefit of legal representation.

Through it all, Attorney General Ashcroft kept muttering about how "the bureaucracy" was obstructing him, when what he clearly meant was the Bill of Rights, which, indeed, was written specifically to blunt the ambitions and machinations of power-hungry authoritarians like Ashcroft.

...

This administration has very good reason not to wish any aspect of September 11 discussed without its supervision, for it was government that created this mess in the first place. Although a small number of violent criminals hijacked four airliners and flew three of them into buildings, killing thousands, it could never have happened if the government had pursued a rational foreign policy and refrained at home from routinely disobeying the highest law of the land -- the first ten amendments to the US Constitution -- commonly known as the Bill of Rights.

To put a finer point on it, if the United States government had not insisted, for the past 150 years, on interfering, often violently, in the affairs of other nations, no one in the world would have had a reason to hijack those planes and use them the way they were used. And if the Second Amendment right of every individual -- including airline passengers -- to own and carry weapons had been observed and enforced, no one would have been able to hijack those planes even if they had a reason.

That's all it would have taken: a non-interventionist foreign policy and enforcement of the Bill of Rights, particularly the Second Amendment.
Neil, You Were Right by Angel Shamaya - Angel declares his independence from the Republican Party.
W's re-election will fail in 2004 -- but he won't lose to a Libertarian, and that's why I have to say I was wrong and you were right. Where I once thought Bush's destined insolence toward the liberties to which he translucently espoused loyalty would have gun owners and liberty advocates rush to go Third Party, I now understand that most people who believed W was the Second Coming are perfectly willing to dimple a chad on his behalf again even while admitting, with substantial and incriminating evidence, that he's got horns and a tail.
A Rose by any Other Name... by Jeff Elkins - renaming the Department of Homeland Security won't change its Nazi nature.
Whose Constitution? by Carl Bussjaeger - If Dummernya is gonna talk about the constitution, he should be held to it. That means prison time, at the very least.

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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