"Tens of Thousands" in DC

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Sun, 19 Jan 2003 13:00:00 GMT

From birdman:

"The modern theory of the perpetuation of debt has drenched the earth with blood, and crushes its inhabitants under burdens ever accumulating. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks. . . will deprive the people of all property until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered. . . the issuing power should be taken from the banks, and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." -- Thomas Jefferson

When I was going to college, we occasionally gethered in the Laboratory for Computer Science and played a maze game on the PDP-10 and Imlac display devices. I wrote a version of it for the Symbolics Lisp machine in 1986, and I've seen a commercial version for the Macintosh. I started yesterday writing a version in Java. This is a first person shooter where you run around in a maze shooting at the other players. When you're shot, you reappear in a random place in the maze. The game keeps track of how many times you've shot another player and how many times you've been shot. The missiles you shoot are only twice as fast as you are, so if you see one coming, you can sometimes duck out of the way. The graphics are very simple line drawings, so it's easy to write the code. No telling how much time I'll find to work on it, but I'll tell you when it's done. It'll be multi-player peer-to-peer with one player's machine being the server. Lotsa fun.

Scarlet Pruitt at InfoWorld - Will new filters save us from spam? - maybe. [wes]

Denise Barnes and H.J. Brier at The Washington Times - No Iraqi war, thousands say in Mall protest - one co-organizer says they had 200,000 in DC yesterday. There were two arrests. [grabbe]

Tens of thousands of protesters endured subfreezing temperatures yesterday to demonstrate on the National Mall against the United States' impending war with Iraq.

...

Many chanted anti-war slogans and hoisted signs that read "No Blood for Oil" and "George Warmonger Bush" during the daylong demonstration organized by International ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism). After the rally on the Mall, the demonstrators marched to the Navy Yard in Southeast.

BBC News - Global protests against Iraq war - and the view from accross the pond. [grabbe]

A day of worldwide protests against a looming US-led war on Iraq has culminated in giant peace rallies in Washington, San Francisco and other US cities. More than 50,000 Americans converged on the National Mall in the centre of Washington, in one of the biggest protests since the build-up for war began.

The most popular chant was "No War For Oil". The crowds carried placards saying "Regime Change Starts at Home" and "Would Jesus Bomb Them?"

Chris Strohm at DC indymedia - Peace Movements Show Force in Streets of DC - the view from the street in DC.

A sea of people stretching more than one mile long and taking up four lanes of roadway marched through the nation's capitol Saturday in vocal and colorful opposition to the U.S. government's drive to war with Iraq.

Tens of thousands of people of diverse ages and ethnic backgrounds braved frigid weather to peacefully rally in front of Congress and march in the streets of Washignton, DC, to oppose war and to demand peace and justice. In the game of estimating crowd size, police said about 30,000 people participated while organizers put the number at 500,000. Many independent observers estimated about 200,000 people participated, which made it twice as large as the last anti-war rally in DC in October.

...

The event in DC was organized by the International ANSWER coaltion, which has gained a reputation for putting on very controlled and disciplined actions.

However, the march became a free-for-all when it reached its scheduled destination point -- the ritzy Washington Navy Yard in the southeast -- because the city government refused to allow organizers to set up a stage and sound system. Without a final rallying point, people continued marching in the street and headed back toward Congress, which has given the Bush administration near-unanimous support for attacking Iraq.

...

This all was apparently too much for the city to handle. Police suddenly appeared and established a police line at the intersection of M Street and First Street. The front of the march stopped cold against a wall of police cars and officers standing in unison. Some people demanded the police let them continue marching. The police stood firm, only allowing people to go down an alley to a side street.

Blake McGreevy at DC indymedia - 2000 Anarchists go on Rampage in San Francisco - Apparently, things weren't quite as peaceful on the left coast. An anti-capitalist group broke away from the peaceful A.N.S.W.E.R. rally and wreaked havoc. sf.indymedia.org has more.

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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