September 12
"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it ... always." -- Mahatma Gandhi
From Quotes of the Day:
"Grown-ups never understand anything for themselves, and it is tiresome for children to be always and forever explaining things to them." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupery
From Devy Kidd's article below:
"As long as a hundred of us remain alive we will never be subject to tyrannical dominion because it is not for glory or riches or honors that we fight, but for freedom alone which no worthy man loses except with his life" -- The Declaration of Arbroath, 1320
From Chuck Muth's News & Views:
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants." -- Thomas Jefferson
From pournelle:
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes. And armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended. Its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war . . . and in the degeneracy of manners and morals, engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare." -- James Madison, April 20, 1795and:
"If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy." -- James Madison, while a United States Congressman
Ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant: Where they create desolation, they call it peace
From samizdata:
"God is on the side not of the heavy battalions, but of the best shots." -- Voltaire
Tom Tomorrow - One Year Later: What the President Has Learned Since 9-11 - bomb Iraq.
John Bergstrom's Attack Comics - John Paul II Meets with the American Bishops - cartoon commentary on recent problems in the Catholic church in America. Hehehehehehehehe.
russmo.com - George-ography - cartoon commentary on GW's logic in attacking Iraq. Hehehehe.
eGray is a parody site highlighting California Governor Gray Davis' selling of political favors. Hehe. [Chuck Muth's News & Views]
End the War on Freedom is the first result in Google searches for "end war" and "war freedom". Well, it was first yesterday. This morning, it's been passed in the "war freedom" search by www.defendamerica.mil.
Porter Anderson at CNN - World marks first moment of silence - the index page to CNN's coverage of the yesterday's 9/11 memorial. The title and cover story changed often yesterday. I sampled this title early in the day. I chose to show no news yesterday, sort of a bloggish moment of silence, so I'm linking to this today.
911 Attack - My Title. A Flash slide show of 9/11 images. 7 megs. I'm pretty sure I linked to this a year ago, but it's worth watching again. [wolfandtobin]
Thomas L. Knapp - In A Libertarian America ... - written on September 12, 2001. Still as relevant today.
I began receiving cautionary notes about this article before I even began to write it. Now, those notes said, is not the time to express any criticism of the government of the United States. Now is not the time to talk about what might have been, or even what might be. Now is only the time to stand behind your government in whatever it chooses to do. Now is the time to bury dissent. Now is the time for unity, wherever that may lead. Now is the time for duty.
It doesn't work that way, however. A position based on principle and fact doesn't change because it becomes inconvenient, or even dangerous, to express it. Change -- necessary change -- is achieved by pointing out the problem. The faint of heart cannot stomach this when it flies in the face of a juggernaut like that about to be unleashed on the world by a wounded nation. The apathetic don't care if it is expressed at any other time. There is no "good" time to say the things that people don't want to hear. But if ever there was a necessary time to tell them what they need to know, this is it.
...
The fact is that in a libertarian America, yesterday's attacks would not have happened. The fact is that in a libertarian America, yesterday's attacks couldn't have happened the way they did. To that extent, the libertarian ideal is a necessary component of the discussion that this nation will be engaging in for the foreseeable future.
Eric Raymond at Armed and Dangerous - One year later... - Mr. Raymond reprints his 9/11/2001 article and comments on it. The permanent location for this article is here, but that isn't working yet.
Perhaps it is too much to hope that we will respond to this shattering tragedy as well as the Israelis, who have a long history of preventing similar atrocities by encouraging their civilians to carry concealed weapons and to shoot back at criminals and terrorists. But it is in that policy of a distributed response to a distributed threat, with every single citizen taking personal responsibility for the defense of life and freedom, that our best hope for preventing recurrences of today's mass murders almost certainly lies.
If we learn that lesson, perhaps today's deaths will not have been in vain.
As I reread the above, it does not seem to me that we have yet learned our lesson. We have taken steps towards arming pilots, but not passengers. Tiger-team probes of airport security have shown that the rate at which weapons can be smuggled through remains 30% -- unchanged since before 9/11. A year later, therefore, the frisk searches of little old ladies and the no-sharp-edges prohibitions have bought us no security at all.
Jerry Pournelle - Wednesday, September 11, 2002 - a psalm and Jerry's take on the year since 9/11. [pournelle]
A year has gone by, and we have done more to ourselves than our enemies ever did to us on that day. We have gone far toward converting an unaware republic into an incompetent empire.
At the same time, we have done little to teach our enemies the lessons they should have learned. The architect of that disaster is very likely dead, the kidnappers in the Philippines are likely dead. The Battle Hymn has been sung. But we don't know who to fight or what to do with victory.
Dale Amon at Samizdata - An open letter to the Media - Wow! Well said! [samizdata]
Perry de Havilland at Samizdata - The real England speaks - photos of signs in London shop windows notifying customers that there would be a minute or two of silence at 1:46pm (8:46am New York time). Hundreds of comments.
I have just got back from lunch and what I saw on the King's Road in Chelsea, here in London, amazed me. There is no law requiring it, no government departments 'encouraging' it loudly, yet shop after shop are displaying signs saying words to the effects of "At 1:46 pm to day, we will be observing two minutes silence in remembrance of the atrocities on September 11th of last year in the United States." Others are expressing memorial sentiments, still others just displaying small American flags. No doubt these signs will all be gone by this evening, but they are there now.
Some signs are hand written by shop managers, others were clearly printed by a head office... but the signs are there and they come not from above, passed down from the salons of the chattering classes, but from below, from the true heart of England.
There is indeed an Anglosphere and it is very, very real.
Claire Wolfe at Sierra Times - Why It's More Important to Pet Your Dog Than Fight for Freedom - Claire gets all spiritual on us. Very nice. [sierra]
We think we can get freedom through action only. It's the American Way. The American Way has its virtues. But if we don't just stop, shut up, pet the dog, pick the berries, and sit, sit, sit and listen to the universe that lies hidden in our own hearts, and do it all really profoundly, with meaning, then we'll never achieve freedom.
Charley Reese - Oppose Bush's Power Grab - don't allow him to have his KGB, er... Department of Homeland Security. [lew]
Americans who value the Constitution should stand with Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va., and oppose George Bush's attempted power grab in conjunction with establishing a Department of Homeland Security.
The Bushies are trying to frame the debate as either protecting bureaucracy or providing security for Americans. In fact, the debate is about preventing an authoritarian president from sacrificing the Constitution in the name of providing security.
Let me remind you that those who prefer security to freedom will lose both.
...
It's odd that Mr. Bush, unable to face the truth that our own Middle East policy is responsible for Sept. 11, would claim that terrorists hate us because we are free. The greatest threat to American freedom today is not Osama bin Laden but George W. Bush, who, if he is even aware of its existence, seems to think the Constitution is just an antiquated piece of parchment that belongs in a museum.
OGRE IS BACK! And madder than ever! - Mad Ogre was off-line for 23 days due to AT&T messing up his DSL (and phone) connection. Welcome back, Ogre.
Alan Bock at Antiwar.com - Preventive or Preemptive War? - the world is accustomed to preemptive wars, attacking the enemy while he is massing his troops on your border, but before he has begun his attack. This is self defense against an agressor. What GW and company are proposing, however, is a preventative war, the final transition of the U.S. from republic to empire. IMHO, this is agression pure and simple, despicable to any civilized person. Iraq may be a long-range threat, but the only imminent threat to America is their preemptive strike against us, likely by terrorists, once it becomes clear that we intend to dethrone Sadam.
What the administration is discussing in terms of Iraq is not an imminent threat of attack on the United States -- which might justify a preemptive strike -- or even on any of Iraq's neighbors. What the administration wants to do is to attack Iraq to prevent or neutralize a potential future threat. That's very different from an imminent threat.
...
Let's be clear. To justify an attack on Iraq or any other country on the grounds that it is assembling weapons of mass destruction, the leaders of a country cannot be operating in a context of equally sovereign nations, the reigning myth of current international relations. The country in question would simply have to view itself as a world-straddling imperial power, whose mission is to keep lesser countries -- whether related to it by colonial ties or not -- in line.
Friends of Liberty - U.S. Senate Candidate Arrested on Firearms Charges (Colorado) - Rick Stanely is at it again. Arrested for carrying his .357 magnum revolver in a holster. He intends to fight it to the Supreme Court if necessary. Bravo! Thank you, Mr. Stanley. [kaba]
Rick Stanley, US Senate Candidate, Libertarian Party, was arrested in Thornton, Colorado on Saturday at around 1:30 PM, September 7th, 2002, at the City of Thornton Harvest Festival Celebration held in Community Park at 2141 E95th Ave. Stanley was arrested for violating a Thornton City ordinance, not allowing guns on a person in plain sight, in violation of State Law, the State Constitution, and the US Constitution.
Reuters via Yahoo News - Armed Roadblocks in London Target Gun Crime - since the English have been completely disarmed by their government, crime has exploded. Their response: papieren bitte. A response that would actually work: completely deregulate guns and drugs. [kaba]
P.J. O'Rourke at Forbes - Tina's Got A Gun - Mr. O'Rourke's wife, who is afraid of birds, decides to learn to shoot, and downs a Quail. [kaba]
Then one day Tina said, "I want to learn to shoot. I want to go bird hunting." Why? A more recently married person would have asked that aloud. But if I suddenly said, "I want to learn to empty the dishwasher. I want to get up in the middle of the night when the kids cry," Tina wouldn't check the medicine chest to see what I'd been taking until later. She'd say, "Great!"
I said, "Great!" But I was worried. Tina wanted to learn to shoot. I mentally reviewed my recent behavior. I was pretty sure she was using "shoot" as an intransitive verb. I didn't think I detected an elision of "you" at the end of the sentence.
Maybe Tina had been listening to me. It's always worrisome when a spouse does that. I'd been telling Tina that the way to get over her fear of birds was to go hunting. "Shoot at them," I advised, "and after you miss the little s.o.b.'s three or four times in a row, you won't be scared, you'll be angry." Did I really want an angry wife?
...
When Tina had rendered the clay pigeon a pretty much extinct species I asked her, "What did Greg tell you?"
"He told me to put my weight forward and quit thinking about it. He said, 'Lower your IQ to 50.' " No wonder men don't listen. My IQ has been down there since puberty, and if I put any more weight forward I'm going to have to give up on Brooks Brothers and get that flake sculptor, Christo, who draped the Pont Neuf in bedsheets, to wrap my gut as an art project.
CNN - Reno trails McBride; Sununu beats Smith - A story from yesterday before the Florida Governor primary results were in. The really bad news is that Bob Smith lost to John Sununu. Mr. Smith has been a stalwart gun rights champion. His absence will likely be felt, unfortunately, in continued onslought on our God-given right to defend our lives, our families, and our neighborhoods.
Devvy Kidd at NewWithViews.com - Do American's Have the Stomach for Freedom? - want to stop the constantly-growing infringement of your God-given right to keep and bear arms? Show up en masse at your state capitol. [trt-ny]
How many gun owners are in California? Two, three, four million? Probably more. You all belong to some fine gun organizations, NRA, GOA, Cal-Apra. Instead of just business as usual with membership drives, why don't you join together, a half million strong, and show up at the State Capitol and present a letter to the socialists in the legislature? Tell them you will no longer put up with their un-American stand on guns and law-abiding citizens will not "obey" any more unconstitutional junk gun laws.
It's your right to do this under the First Amendment. I told them we (women gun owners) will be right there with you and we'll be there for a week, day in and day out if necessary, until they get the message. Nothing else is going to get the message across, believe me. I've watched this process go on here in California for years and it's the same old thing on dozens of issues.
...
In 1996, while living in the Denver Metro area, I watched 650,000 people converge on downtown Denver to watch the team members of the Colorado Avalanche hold up their newly won Stanley Cup. 650,000 people - an ocean of people and they didn't need a stinking permit either. Can you imagine the fear factor that would ripple through Sacramento at the Capitol if suddenly 500,000 real Americans stood up for their God- given rights in such a way?
Only a complete and total act of defiance at this time in our nation's history is going to get the point across to the lawbreakers in Congress and the 50 state legislatures that the people have had enough.
AP via Newsday.com - Overview of Changes to Legal Rights - "Some of the fundamental changes to Americans' legal rights by the Bush administration and the USA Patriot Act following the terror attacks." Good summary of the growing fascist state. [trt-ny]
Libertarian Party Press Releases - Honor 9/11 victims by restoring American freedom, Libertarians say - want to honor those who died a year ago? Start by repealing the USA PATRIOT act. Then reform U.S. foreign policy.
"September 11 is a day for Americans to proclaim, 'We will never surrender,' " said Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party executive director. "We will never surrender to the terrorists who threaten our safety, nor will we surrender our fundamental liberties to the government."
Washington Post -
Bush Renews Pledge to Fight Terror 
- the text of GW's speech last
night at 9pm from Ellis Island. I turned it on, but was busy with
something else, so didn't pay much attention. I have to admit that he
has good speech writers, and he does a pretty good job of reading from
the teleprompter. If only his administration's actions matched his
words.
September the 11th, 2001 will always be a fixed point in the life of America. The loss of so many lives left us to examine our own. Each of us was reminded that we are here only for a time. And these counted days should be filled with things that last and matter: love for our families, love for our neighbors and for our country, gratitude for life and to the giver of life.
Sara Rimensnyder at Reason - Airport Horror Show - Back in August, Ms. Rimensnyder took a flight from LA to Austin. This is the story of one Austin marketing exec's take-charge method of prioritizing access to airport "security". [picks]
stevespages.com - Selected Software For Your Downloading Pleasure - ballistics tables & calculators and a variety of reloading manuals. [kaba]
Apple - iCal, "The desktop calendar -- redefined." Free. Requires Jaguar: Mac OS X version 10.2, which we don't have yet, so I haven't tried it. [wes]
