Government Accountability?

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Tue, 16 Jul 2002 12:00:00 GMT

From a sig at The Firing Line:

God gave you a soul.
Your parents, a body.
Your country, a rifle.

Keep all of them clean.

From kaba:

I'm not a member of any organized political party. I'm a Democrat. -- Will Rogers

"...[When I was an atheist] my argument against God was that the universe seemed cruel and unjust. But how had I got this idea of just and unjust? A man does not call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line. What was I comparing this universe with when I called it unjust? If the whole show was bad and senseless from A to Z, so to speak, why did I, who was supposed to be part of the show, find myself in such violent reaction against it? ... Thus in the very act of trying to prove that God did not exist -- in other words, that the whole of reality was senseless -- I found I was forced to assume that one part of reality -- namely my idea of justice -- was full of sense. Consequently atheism turns out to be too simple. If the whole universe has no meaning, we should never have found out that it has no meaning. -- C.S. Lewis

and:

We've gone astray from first principles. We've lost sight of the rule that individual freedom and ingenuity are at the very core of everything that we've accomplished. Government's first duty is to protect the people, not run their lives. -- Ronald Reagan

From Chuck Muth's News & Views:

Lost in all the outrage over the corporate accounting scandals is one fact politicians do not like to acknowledge: The auditing problems at American companies cannot rival the bookkeeping shambles of the world's largest enterprise - the U.S. government. Exaggerated earnings, disguised liabilities, off-budget shenanigans - they are all there in the government's ledgers on a scale even the biggest companies could not dream of matching. -- Martin Crutsinger

Christians for the cloning of Jesus - hehe. [smith2004]

Greetings friends, we live in an imperfect world. a world full of sin. everywhere you look you can see the effects of the devil; war, famine, poverty, violence, government corruption, pornography on television, the list goes on and on. Armageddon is surely on its way. The second coming of Christ is our only hope. Friends, we can't sit back and wait for Jesus. He has given us the power to bring him to us. after all, God helps those who help themselves.

L. Neil Smith - TheEnd.jpg - Neil's brother rolled his Sheriff's car in a high speed chase. In this picture he deals responsibly with the situation. Hahahahaha. [smith2004]

Samizdata has moved to www.samizdata.net/blog/ and switched from Blogger to Movable Type. Updated my links page. [samizdata]

Garry Reed, The Loose Cannon Libertarian - Antitrust Heresy - more on the Microsoft "anti-trust" suit. Mr. Reed is no Microsoft lover, but he realizes that if we let the government get away with skewering Microsoft, we're next.

Here's the underlying medieval logic that goes into the abstruse concept of "unfair business practices." If your company sells products for less than its competitors, you're guilty of trying to run them out of business. If you sell for more than your competitors, you're gouging the public. If you sell for the same price as your competitors, you're guilty of collusion, complicity, conspiracy, deception, price-fixing, racketeering, causing a plague of boils and molesting puppies. Heresies all.

What about charges of monopoly? The government isn't concerned about monopolies unless it's not one of their own monopolies. Private monopolies are heresies. Government monopolies are "fair." I don't recall any Justice Department antitrust suits against the first class postal monopoly or the Amtrak monopoly or the various state lottery monopolies. "Monopoly," like "fair," is whatever the power elites decide it is.

Gregory Kane at SunSpot - Arundel grand jury identifies real culprits in FBI shooting - neglect to follow conflicting police orders, expect to be shot. Seems to me that we get closer every day to a country where the only proper response to seeing a man in uniform is to shoot to kill. Wish it weren't so. [smith2004]

We should be grateful to White and the grand jury for clarifying this matter. Now we know that when we venture from the safety of our homes onto our streets and highways, the folks charged with protecting us may now kill us if we don't raise our hands. The fact that they give conflicting orders will be considered our fault, not theirs.

Bill Walker at Laissez Faire Electronic Times - It Ain't Rocket Science Anymore: Thirty-three Years After Neil Armstrong - NASA had a working nuclear-powered rocket back in 1965, but it was scrapped along with most of the rest of the US space program. We have the technology to colonize at least the solar system. If government would get out of the way, individuals would do it. [smith2004]

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - What About Government Accountability? - echoes of some recent political cartoons. The government pot is calling the corporate kettle black.

Accounting scandals dominated the headlines last week, and publicity-hungry politicians from both the House and Senate enjoyed acting self-righteous while grilling WorldCom executives. However, the message that Congress will clamp down on corporate accounting practices rings hollow with at least one journalist. Neil Cavuto from Fox News recently offered a very important question that desperately needs to be asked of Congress: "Who the heck are YOU to judge? Given the incredible fiscal mismanagement that pervades the federal government, Congress is "throwing stones from a very big glass house," as Mr. Cavuto puts it. It's refreshing to hear Mr. Cavuto point out the hypocrisy of politicians standing in judgment of executives whose misdeeds pale in comparison to their own reckless spending.

Charley Reese - Learn To Say "POB"! - Mr. Reese is giving up the internet. If you want to reach him, you'll have to write his address on a letter, put a stamp on it, and drop it in a mailbox: "CER, POB 2446, 32802".

Captain Robert "Munch" Lambert at KeepAndBearArms.com - "Fox 1...Splash One Airliner": A Technical Look at Shooting Down an Airliner - a graphic description of shooting down an airliner with a missile from a jet fighter. Read this and then tell me you'd rather pilots remain unarmed. [kaba]

Declain McCullagh's Politech - House votes 385-3 for wiretaps, life sent. for malicious hackers - life in prison for malicious computer hacking. Wiretaps without a warrant. Only Ron Paul and 2 others voted against this monstrosity. Hopefully the senate will have more sense. [smith2004]

Robert A. Waters at Sierra Times - Fighting back: Fast-forward to the future - three news stories where crazed animals were stopped with a handgun and how the stories would read in a disarmed world. [sierra]

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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