PGP is Back!

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Wed, 21 Aug 2002 12:00:00 GMT

The Sun in Drag

You are the Sun in drag.

You are God hiding from yourself.

Remove all the "mine" - that is the veil.

Why ever worry about

Anything?

Listen to what your friend Hafiz

Knows for certain:

The appearance of this world

Is a Magi's brilliant trick, though its affairs are

Nothing into nothing.

You are a divine elephant with amnesia

Trying to live in an ant

Hole.

Sweetheart, O sweetheart

You are God in

Drag!

(The Gift: Poems by Hafiz, translations by Daniel Ladinsky)

Mike Shelton at The Orange County Register - Meanwhile, back at the ranch... - cartoon commentary on GW's new war on Saddam in light of the old war on Osama. Hahahaha.

russmo.com - Justifying War - cartoon commentary on GW's "evidence" that we must take out Saddam. Hehe.

Albany (NY) Times Union Editorial - The law of the diners - applauds two diners for choosing to be smoke-free and disses the legislature for not making this a law.

Two months ago, the Legislature had a chance to do what's best for public health. Additional restrictions on smoking were under consideration, and should have gone so far as to include a ban on smoking in all restaurants and bars. What's on the books now, requiring all restaurants that seat more than 50 people to have separate smoking and non-smoking sections, isn't sufficient. A law requiring special ventilation systems for smoking sections wouldn't have been sufficient, either.

I wrote the following letter to the editor:

The August 21 edition contained an editorial applauding two Albany-area diners for going smoke-free and complaining that the legislature should have mandated this by law.

Private property isn't popular anymore. Government taxes and mandates have turned property ownership into more like rental from the state. That's just wrong.

Private property owners have the right to make any rules they want about the use of their property. That means that restaurant owners may forbid smoking if they want, or require it, or do what they did for years, at customer request, before there were any smoking laws: establish separate smoking and non-smoking sections. The owners of the two diners may have been acting in the public interest. More likely they were listening to the market and attempting to improve their bottom lines. Good.

Mandating any smoking policy by law points a government gun at every restaurant owner. How dare you propose that. Let the market work its magic. It always works better than government guns.

elibertytools.com is the American Liberty Foundation's store. They have six-packs of videotapes containing their three pro-gun commercials ($17.99 for six tapes), The Fatal Flaws of Big Government Audio ($17.95 for two CDs), The "Intruder" TV ad T-Shirt ($17.76), and a booklet: How to Persuade Your Friends & Family Guns Save Lives & Reduce Crime ($4.49 or one cent with the order of two or more T-shirts).

The Jackson's at Liberty Round Table - my brother and the deputy - a true story, sadly. [smith2004]

Scott had parked the truck about a quarter mile from where he was working, and was up in a tree with a chain saw when he suddenly realized that a sheriff's deputy (hereafter known as Rocket Scientist #1) was standing under the tree pointing a gun at him.

"Put your hands up!!" called the Rocket Scientist.

Scott assessed the situation and replied, "I intend to cooperate, sir, but if I do that the chain saw will land on your head and I will fall out of the tree. What do you want me to do?"

The deputy thought about that a minute, then had Scott lower the chain saw to him on a rope. Scott climbed down a minute later and the deputy temporarily lost sight of him behind a boulder at the foot of the tree, while Scott called out, "I'm still here! I'm not going anywhere..."

Sky News - Gadaffi To Head Human Rights Body - the commU.N.ists pick a fox to guard the hen-house. [trt-ny]

Libyan terrorists were responsible for the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which killed 270 people, and Gadaffi's regime has been criticised for violence against its own people.

...

Gadaffi's one-year term begins next March.

Andrew Orlowski at The Register - PGP is back! - Network Associates has agreed to sell Pretty Good Privacy to pgp.com. From pgp.com's Letter from the CTO (Jon Callas), some good news: [grabbe]

First of all continuity - you will be glad to hear that we will publish source code. This is very important to us. It's very important to our investors, too. They understand that one of the main reasons people trust PGP is that its source is available. Our forthcoming source release will be for PGP 8.

...

There will also be a freeware release of PGP 8. As always, you'll be able to use PGP free for non-commercial use. However, if you use PGP for commercial purposes -- which means that you're using it for something that makes you money -- then please buy it.

Charley Reese - A Bad Idea - why we shouldn't celebrate the anniversary of the World Trade Center and Pentagon bombings. [trt-ny]

Dennis Grover at Sierra Times - Americans: The Endangered Species - The Nevada Committee for full Statehood and Mr. Grover are making a documentary on private property rights and land use issues. They are requesting pre-orders to speed up the completion of this project. [sierra]

This work in its entirety will become a valuable tool to educate the public about the planned destruction of American private property rights. It will visibly demonstrate and validate that this destructive movement (by "controlling factions," using the emotions of the American people by "protecting our environment and animals") is totally bogus because the true agenda has become obvious. The "procedures" used and non-answer explanations by the various government agencies will be exhibited and exposed.

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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