More Zero Tolerance Follies

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Fri, 23 Aug 2002 12:00:00 GMT

From anodyne:

"The legitimate powers of government extend to such acts only as are injurious to others." -- Thomas Jefferson

From brad:

Alex Singleton at Liberty Log - Andrew Neil on Iraq and The Case for War - Mr. Singleton attempts to convince libertarians that war with Iraq is justified. He pointed me at his (shared) blog via email. I sent the following response:

Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 13:22:10 -0400
To: Alex Singleton <alex@alexsingleton.com>
From: "Bill St. Clair" <bill@billstclair.com>
Subject: Re: Liberty Log puts forward pro-war line
Cc: bill@billstclair.com

At 04:44 PM 8/22/2002 +0100, you wrote:

Over the past week, I have been putting forward a libertarian defence of the war against Iraq. If you haven't seen it, you might like to tune into:

http://www.libertylog.com/

Hmm... Iraq is training terrorists, so we should go to war to cause a regime change. Last I looked, the U.S. government ran the School of the Americas (AKA the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation). As far as I can tell, that organization basically trains terrorists. Should someone go to war with us to cause a regime change?

I don't go with the argument that their government has no legitimacy either. No government is legitimate, unless it is contractually agreed to by all parties (http://www.lysanderspooner.org/notreason.htm). Even if I were to agree that a government like the U.S., where it is nominally possible to vote the bastards out, is legitimate, our only difference from Iraq is that our government leash is longer (http://64.46.100.6/~themille/EndAuthority/leash1.jpg). Stray outside the bounds set forth by our masters, and you will be eliminated.

War is the health of the state. Don't support it. Ever.

-Bill

L. Neil Smith at The Libertarian Enterprise - Remarks To The Fifth Annual Convention Of The Mars Society - a speech Neil gave on August 10. How to prevent future cataclysmic meteor hits on Earth while making lots of space pioneers filthy rich. [tle]

So recently, as a sort of personal thought experiment -- and by the authority vested in me as the author of 22 science fiction novels -- I have taken it upon myself to devise a three-legged program for the purpose of preventing "extinction-level" events. And this program (by some strange coincidence) requires a massive human presence in space. My part will be to write an "epic" novel about the program called Ceres, and a popular nonfiction book called Destroyer of Worlds.

The first "leg" on which the program stands is a permanently manned optical and radio observatory on the far side of the Moon. (In my forthcoming novel Ceres, it will be called the "Gary Larson Far Side Observatory.) An unmanned "satellite" facility at the Langrange Point on the opposite side of the earth will provide range-finding parallax.

Of course, somebody will have to run the McDonald's and the liquor store and the gunshop and the Wal-Mart that Lunar astronomers will need.

Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Does Government Run the Economy? - Of course not. If it did, we'd have lines to buy bread. Which is where we're headed if we don't stop the socialist mostrosity that the U.S. government has become. This article is the source of the quote from The Federalist that I included yesterday.

So what exactly would critics have the President do to "fix" the economy? Presumably they believe he should propose some new laws and regulations, thereby protecting us from greedy CEOs and the risks of the free market. The belief is that government brings about economic prosperity, and that the current economic malaise represents a failure by government to act. In other words, the government somehow caused the economy to sour through inattention and neglect.

Notice that while our economic problems are always blamed on corporations, greed, capitalism, or a mysterious "business cycle," the solutions are always presumed to come from government. When the economy falters, the public clamors for the government to do something- and when the economy does well, politicians take credit for the good times caused by their sound economic policies. This reflects the pervasive attitude in America that government should "run" the economy.

Camille Paglia at AndrewSullivan.com - Camille Returns - Mr. Sullivan asked Ms. Paglia about something she said about the Palestinians in October 2000, and she sent him an answer. Mr. Sullivan also posted on July 31 The Camille Paglia IMterview. Yay!

I resigned from Salon.com last year to focus on my book projects and lectures. For example, a lecture I gave on multiculturalism and education at Santa Clara University in May 2001 was published last fall by Arion. This fall Arion will publish a lecture I gave at Yale University in March on American religion in the 1960s.

I'd been writing for Salon for six years since their inaugural issue in 1995. If I could have written for them every week, I would have. They were very generous in letting me go down to a triweekly schedule, but finally it just became impossible.

Timothy Lynch at National Review - Remember Ruby Ridge - Wednesday was the tenth anniversary of the killing by ferals of Sammy Weaver and his dog. Shortly thereafter, Lon Horiuchi murdered Vicki Weaver with a shot in the head while she was holding her baby. This article is a fairly good overview, though for some reason it does not include Mr. Horiuchi's name. [picks]

Billy Beck at No Treason Blog - Highway Robbery - another example of why reasonable people no longer respect the police. Two words: "Zero Tolerance". [notreasonblog]

As soon as it was clear, George swung left into the HOV lane and proceeded for as long as it took him to get around the stalled car, after which he returned to the lane for everybody else.

And that's when Officer Harris (badge number #9173) of the Georgia DOT got one step closer to his quota for the day. He wrote George for the HOV-lane violation, which will be another hundred bucks tapped in order to provide "services" in the state of Georgia. Like "no tolerance", for example. (The words out of Officer Harris' mouth.)

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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