ZAP Rant
"What if they gave an election and nobody came?"and:
I don't expect to even breathe hard this Tuesday.
When I cook chili, I like the meat to have character of its own, that the habenero peppers will simply enhance. I keep hoping to get a pit bull that ate a cop.
From birdman:
Be who you are and say what you feel,and:
because those who mind don't matter
and those who matter don't mind.
-- Dr. Seuss
"It is a very vicious animal. When attacked, it defends itself." -- French saying
From The Federalist:
"When politicians promise to give you something, just remember that the only money they have is what they take from the people. If you want someone to pick your pockets and then give you a handout, there are plenty of politicians around who will do that for you. In fact, a lot of politicians have been around a long time just by using such tactics. Above all, never assume that political phrases actually mean what they say or imply. Rent control does not control rents, gun control does not control guns, and the Indian Child Welfare Act disregards the welfare of Indian children with unbelievable callousness." -- Thomas Sowell
John Bergstom's Attack Cartoons - Senator Wellstone's Third Term - cartoon commentary on the death of the senator from Minnesota. Hohohohohoho.
John Bergstom's Attack Cartoons - The Minnesota Voter - cartoon commentary on the new Minnesota senate candidate. Hehe.
Mark Fiore at The Village Voice - Ballistic Fingerprinting...for Politicians! - very well done animation with a despicable message. [kaba]
I got carried away on a mailing list last night and wrote the following:
I have not blindly accepted Mr. Smith's ideas. It took me a couple of years of reading and thinking to come to the place where I realize that his extreme view is the only thing with a chance of working.
There are no political solutions to any problem. Political solutions are compromises. Everybody loses. Any philosophy that allows any group of people, no matter how large, to dictate to another group of people, no matter how small, how they will live their lives, cannot work. Unanimous consent is the only thing that works. That's why I'm a firm believer in the free market. That's why I am a firm believer in the Zero Aggression Principle (ZAP): "No human being has the right -- under any circumstances -- to initiate force against another human being, nor to advocate or delegate its initiation." Any five year-old can tell you it's right. The ramifications are revolutionary.
That's why Neil's statement of the true meaning of the second amendment is correct. In order to deny that right, you have to initiate force. That's also why there can be no taxation. In order to collect it, you have to initiate force. That's why warrants are required for searches. In order to get one, you have to prove it likely that force has already been initiated and that stolen goods may be found in the searched location. And you should expect the owner to remain armed while the search is conducted. That's why there can be no victimless crime laws. No drug laws, no sex laws, no gambling laws. Nothing done by consenting adults that does not directly harm children or non-consenting adults, or their property, may be regulated in any way. (And I'm undecided on the need to distinguish children from adults in that sentence. The problem of exactly how and when to fully include children in society is a hard one. One part is easy, however. It is only loosely correlated with chronological age.)
How long do you think it will take me to establish this one simple principle, the ZAP, by political means? It ain't gonna happen. There are too many people addicted to living off of the fruits of other people's labor. There are too many people who think it's their business to enforce what they believe God has mandated in one or the other of His Holy Books. It is an educational endeavor. When enough people have realized the truth, the old regime will collapse under its own weight. God has created us with absolute free will. As I tell my son, no one can force you to do anything except fall down. The Wiccans got it right, "Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the law." The ZAP simply makes this work in a world populated by many wills.
The only purpose of government, if it indeed HAS any purpose, is to protect individual liberty. The opening of the Declaration of Independence says it pretty well, as long as you remember that "pursuit of happiness" means "property".
Enough rambling for one night.
Blessings.
-Bill
Ron Paul's Texas Straight Talk - Who Should Prosecute the Snipers? - the states, of course, both to de-federalize crime and because they can try it as a murder case whereas the feds can only try extortion.
Milan Simonich at The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Police scolded as Bush protester acquitted - this court got it right this time.
Charley Reese - Lincoln's Favorite Tune - "Dixie", of course. Too bad you can't play it today without the PC crowd crowing, "rascist".
True discrimination should, of course, be dealt with, but wearing a Confederate lapel pin or holding a gathering in an old cemetery for a memorial service has nothing to do with discrimination -- or with racism, for that matter. If Confederate symbols offend some people, so what. There are lots of things in our society today that I find offensive, but one's subjective feelings are not proper grounds for government intervention. Whatever happened to the good old American values of live and let live and mind your own business?
Vin Suprynowicz at Backwoods Home Magazine - If it's the law it's the law ... - Mr. Suprynowicz asked two local candidates for Attorney General whether they would enforce any law the legislature or the people passed. Both said that they would. Constitution be damned. Traitors!
Again, I found myself driven to ask, "Come on. What if a majority of voters OK'd a law that required all Jews to wear yellow Stars of David sewn on the outside of their clothing?"
"If it's the law it's the law," Mr. Child replied. "Whoever made these laws, if they're passed, you have to abide by them."
Are the gentlemen anti-Semites, who really want racial minorities to be "marked" for later round- up and removal, as practiced under Germany's Third Reich? I seriously doubt it. I think they merely wanted to demonstrate consistency in defending an initial wrong premise -- that a nation once proud of our tradition of breaking bad laws by throwing the tea in Boston harbor, or acquitting John Peter Zenger of libel, or by defying the Fugitive Slave Act, is now a land of dutiful little drones, enforcing and obeying any edict of the central state.
...
Nowadays, I'm considered a "dangerous radical" because I insist I can't find in the Second or 14th amendments any language that says "The right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed, except that any number of 'reasonable restrictions' can be enacted to make the soccer moms feel safe by preventing anyone from walking down the street with a bazooka."
Claire Wolfe at Backwoods Home Magazine - Squatter: Living in the woods like it was nobody's business - Claire tells the tale of a squatter who moved in close to her and explores the possibility of squatters acting as care-takers for the land on which they squat.
